As of November 2025, I think the 15-inch Apple MacBook Air (M4) is the best MacBook for most people. It's a sleek-as-ever notebook featuring impressive performance, open-lid support for two external displays, a great 12MP Center Stage camera, and an extremely reasonable starting price of $1,199 (making it $100 cheaper than its M3 predecessor ).

Welcome to ZDNET's Best of 2025 awards, our annual ceremony of the year's top-performing gadgets and gizmos, from 100-inch TVs to smart rings to AI chatbots that help you get more done. Over the last 12 months,

Our electronics writer has tested laptops for more than a decade, and he found the best Chromebook and Windows laptops under $500 to help you save money.

Experts recommended smartchoice laptops stand out because they balance everyday essentials with solid performance. Their processors handle multitasking across office apps, browser tabs and video streaming without slowdowns.

Kicking off our list is the Acer Aspire Go 15 Slim, a top-notch, budget-friendly laptop. For $300, you get a highly capable device that is perfect for everyday usage. It can handle lightweight workloads with ease. What's more, Acer's model is slim, has a decent webcam, and battery life of eight hours.

Gaming laptops keep leveling up, with new CPUs and GPUs boosting power and efficiency. With so many configs and form factors, let us help in choosing

Our laptops do so much more than just help us finish work or attend classes. They’re companions on long flights, tools for creativity, movie screens for late-night binges, and sometimes, lifelines in chaotic travel schedules.

While it's clearly an update to the company's first Oryon CPU-based solution for laptops, the Snapdragon X Elite – which I looked at against its key competitors, here – the latest iteration looks to change Windows laptops forever.