The range of the best Windows laptops is impressive, from Qualcomm powerers who refuse to die to dual placement shocking and subtle gaming stations. (We dare say that some of them will even attract the most dedicated Apple MacBook disciples.) There is no shortage of options for users who need new laptops for everyday productivity, creativity, or entertainment. This is good or bad.
To help you pick your next PC from a crowded Windows Market, we break the best laptop into this separate guide for the best guide Windows Machines for 2025. All of these laptops have been thoroughly hand-tested by members of Mashable Team for performance, build quality and battery life, and we stick to its value, or at least think they are worth hunting.
Laptop specifications explain: Insane Guide to the Internal Content of Computers
Our first choice
As of May 2025, Mashable’s favorite Windows laptop is 13.8-inch Microsoft Surface Laptop 7an elegant workhorse powered by the impressive Snapdragon X Elite processor. It has plenty of features to handle demanding workloads, advanced design, interesting AI capabilities, and the best battery life in all the laptops we’ve reviewed. Even the latest M4 MacBook can’t keep up.
Almost available with Snapdragon charm Choose at a lower price HP Omnibook X 14the best mid-range window laptop. It doesn’t have much of a big view, but it’s very efficient and comes with a great keyboard. It also has the same AI tools as Surface Laptop 7.
The best laptops of 2025, tested by our experts
Those with closer budgets should investigate Lenovo Yoga 7 14 (Gen 9): Stable performance, a wide variety of ports, and a versatile 2-in-1 design make it our favorite cheap window laptop for everyday tasks. It stripped us of our previous draft pick, the Microsoft Surface Laptop GO 3, a very super solid spec that is too dated for 2025 buyers. (Microsoft just announced a new compact surface laptop designed to compete with Apple’s MacBook Air, which starts at under $1,000 and we’re looking forward to turning on soon.)
If you buy convertible prices on all prices, Lenovo Yoga 9i 14 (Gen 9) It’s our overall best 2-in-2 laptop, earning reviewers acclaim for its gorgeous 2.8k Ole touchscreen, Chili (despite heat) CPU, and a clear Bowers & Wilkins Soundbar. For twisting on mixed shapes, we also highly recommend using 2024 Asus Zenbook Duoa beautiful dual screen.
We also have other options for professional users – Alienware M16 R2 It’s the best gaming laptop we’ve tested so far, too Acer Swift X 14 is our Windows laptop for photo editing and video editing.
Keep reading Mashable’s in-depth guide to the best Windows laptops of 2025. FYI: We list the pricing and specifications of the test unit, which may not apply to the basic model of every laptop.
What is on the deck
Our team has several Windows laptops on hand for testing, including two AI-Ready gaming laptops:
What we’ve tested recently (this has no layoffs)
I’ve tested it recently Dell XPS 13 (9350)a 13-inch Lunar Lake Copilot+ PC with anti-reflective tandem OLED touch screen display. On top of that, it’s a gorgeous laptop: The showcase is one of the best laptops I’ve ever seen, and its edge-to-edge design gives it a super premium, minimalist look. It also lasted over 13 hours in our battery life tests, which is great when you consider a transmit power display.
However, the XPS 13 makes use of painful ways more beautiful than practicality. That said, its zero-main keyboard feels cramped, the glass touchpad often performs poorly, and the port selection is terrible. (Only two Thunderbolt 4/USB-C ports- IMO is too small.)
If the cost of XPS 13 is not high, these may be forgiven. My test unit has a solid mid-range Intel Core Ultra 256V CPU, 16GB of RAM and only 512GB of storage for $1,849.99. If you don’t have an OLED showcase upgrade, you can reduce it to $1,199.99, which feels more reasonable, but at the same time, this is one of my favorite things. I have an overall rating of 3.8/5 for it.
Earlier this year, I tested it HP Omnibook Ultra Flip 14with awesome manufacturing quality, 15 hours of battery life, and a beautiful design including a 3K OLED touch screen, with excellent manufacturing quality with excellent manufacturing quality. It’s a knockout round, but its weird port position and Geekbench 6 multi-core score in the middle prevent it from winning the Mashable Choice Award. (I rated it 4.4/5 – so close!)
To give more context to the latter point, my $1,899.99 test unit has an Intel Core Ultra 258V processor with 32GB of RAM and 2TB of storage. (This is a brand new upper-end CPU.) It scores slightly higher than the Geekbench 6 benchmark in our Geekbench 6 benchmark 15-inch M2 Apple MacBook Air Starting in 2023, it is much worse than its predecessor, last year HP Specter X360 14a mid-range Intel Core Series 1 CPU with tested. I want to get more charm from omnibooks.
I do think that the Omnibook Ultra Flip 14 is a decent splurge on future guardians, but it’s all not enough to be one of our top picks. Stick with the Yoga 9i 14 if you’re looking for the best hybrid laptop, or look for the X360 14 on the Ghost X360 14, if you want to stay in the HP family – it offers about the same performance and audio quality as the Omnibook model costs about the same price.
