The best laptops are money-no-object purposes: hugely powerful, impossibly slim objects of desire.
They’re the laptop you want, not necessarily the laptop you need or can afford. Best buy laptops, on the other hand, are the laptops you should buy, because they’re great value, perfect for a particular task, or suit the way you live and work.
That doesn’t mean they’re lacking. You’ll still get all the benefits of Intel, AMD and Apple’s latest processors, the years of work that have gone into the design of cases and screens to make them svelte, and the advances in fast solid-state storage that mean you’ll never be waiting for a hard drive to catch up with you.
Whichever laptop you choose, the ones on this list are unlikely to disappoint. They come with features that make them indispensable, such as 5G connectivity, or the ability to split into a tablet mode. They’re also well-specced, so you won’t be left waiting around, and many of them are competitively priced too.
So here are some of the best buy laptops out there today.
Apple MacBook Air M2
This is Apple’s cheapest laptop and in many ways the pinnacle of its design right now. Last year’s M1 model broke the mould, and the 2022 edition carries on right where it left off. The secret is in the new processors, which eschew the Intel chips of old for Apple’s own creations based on Arm designs - but which are so much more than the Arm CPU in your phone.
The M2 is an incremental improvement over the M1, but still manages to run without a fan, making it Apple’s smallest laptop. Not that you’ll notice there’s anything different - it’s just a lot quieter than the previous Intel models, especially when you work it hard.
Every app you could want, from web browsers to Microsoft Office to Photoshop, is available on Apple’s MacOS, and there are plenty of alternatives on the App Store too. Recent updates have strengthened the link between MacOS and the mobile iOS platform too, so iPhone users can pass web links back and forth, and use Continuity and Handoff to make the two devices work together. Sidecar even allows an iPad to be used as a second display for the Mac, and as a graphics tablet in conjunction with an Apple Pencil.
Apple laptops may look expensive, but they’re slender, powerful, and great to use, making them a definite best buy. The M1 version is also still available for a lower price.
Buy now £1179.00, Currys
Asus TUF Dash F15
Light, affordable, and powerful? Often it’s a case of choosing two out of three, but the Asus Dash 15 manages to squeeze them all in. It’s really a gaming laptop, but offers a fantastic experience to just about anyone. It’s also upgradable, which is not a feature you often see on recent laptops.
You get a choice of 11th-gen Intel processors that are backed with 8GB of RAM, though this can be upgraded to 32GB. There’s a decent graphics chip too, in the form of a choice of four Nvidia Geforce RTX 30-series chips. These aren’t just useful for gaming: if you’re into video editing, or even heavy photo editing, using the GPU to speed up applications like Premiere Pro, Lightroom or the Topaz suite can really accelerate your workflow. Otherwise, it will do a fantastic job of letting you shoot aliens in the likes of Halo.
The 15.6in display is a 1080p IPS panel with an anti-glare coating and adaptive sync, and you get plenty of storage in the form of an SSD up to 1TB, which can also be upgraded. Available for a very reasonable price, given the power of the components used, this is one of the best buy Windows laptops.
Buy now £569.00, Currys
Acer Swift 3
Aimed at students, the Swift 3 comes in five different configurations using Intel 11th-gen CPUs and integrated graphics that, while not as powerful for gaming as those of the Dash F15, can certainly hold their own in all other applications.
It’s a very light laptop that looks good in its matt-silver finish, especially as its keys are softly backlit in white, which makes using it much easier when you’re in a low-light environment. The machine is available with up to 16GB of RAM and 1TB of SSD storage, so it’s a good choice for all kinds of content-creation work, as well as general web browsing and media consumption.
The 14in 1080p screen is decent, but is capped off with a webcam and mic that are just barely adequate for the job of making you appear in video calls. That aside, it’s a quality laptop at a decent price-point, and will certainly serve very well as a homework machine.
Buy now £479.00, Currys
Lenovo IdeaPad Duet Chromebook
Chromebooks stand out from other laptops because the operating system they run is entirely based on Google’s Chrome web browser. This means you’re not going to be running too many desktop applications like you would on Windows or MacOS, but instead stick with web apps.
This isn’t the handicap it might seem. Not only has the Chromebook improved over the years so that it’s not as reliant on a constant internet connection as it once was, but the addition of Android apps and even some Linux (a free Windows alternative) applications into its repertoire means there’s really nothing it can’t do.
The Duet is a 2-in-1, meaning the screen snaps off from the keyboard and can act as a tablet on its own, before being docked back so you can type as normal. It’s a remarkably futuristic-feeling way to interact with your computer, and this, along with the low price at which you can usually find one, makes the Duet a definite best buy.
Buy now £199.00, Currys
MSI Creator Z17
A larger screen than most means this is a bulkier laptop to carry with you, but many laptops never leave the house. If this is the case, having the extra screen space can be a definite advantage, especially if you use your laptop as a media player.
You’re not going to want to do that with the Z17, however. This large and beautiful machine is packed with power and aimed at professional content creators, digital artists and video editors. The screen has a higher resolution than many, and is touch-sensitive. The processor is faster, and it’s definitely a machine that’s gunning for Apple’s professional crown.
So that means it’s expensive. However, you do get what you pay for. The Intel i9 processor leaves others in the dust, especially in tasks like transcoding video. It can be equipped with 64GB of RAM, and an Nvidia graphics processor that pushes the 1440p screen hard. If it’s portable brute force you need, this is the laptop to provide it.
Buy now £2699.00, Amazon
Microsoft Surface Pro 8
A 2-in-1 laptop/tablet that runs Windows instead of ChromeOS, this could be the only computer you need in your home. Utterly versatile, and as at home streaming Netflix as it is chomping through calculations or editing video, the Surface Pro is definitely a best buy.
This is a premium machine, very nicely built and with a 13in screen that’s larger than any tablet. Pop off the screen and Windows adapts, becoming a more touch-friendly environment, before you clip it back onto the keyboard to resume typing.
The Surface Pro can be configured online with powerful Intel processors and plenty of RAM and storage, but don’t expect to be upgrading it once you’ve had it delivered. There’s also no low-end model, as even the cheapest Surface Pro sports an Intel i5 and 8GB of RAM. It is the Pro model, however, and there’s a cheaper Surface Go if that’s what you’re looking for.
Buy now £999.00, Microsoft
Samsung Galaxy Book Pro
Samsung may have had the Macbook Air in mind when it designed the Galaxy Book Pro, but even if it didn’t, it’s still produced one of the few machines that can rival Apple’s slender marvel.
It features the 11th-gen Intel processors we’ve come to expect, but can also have optional 5G connectivity, so you’ll never lose your network no matter how far from the Wi-Fi you wander. It can be configured with 16GB or RAM and 512GB of SSD storage. Despite this, the laptop is incredibly light, coming in at just over a kilogram.
The online configuration is a tricky process, with many combinations of features simply not available - you can’t, for example, have 5G and an i7 CPU at the same time - but with its choice of silver or ‘mystic navy’ shells, the Galaxy Book pro is certainly a looker. Its clean lines, excellent keyboard, and interoperability with other Samsung products such as smartphones make it a definite best buy, and the long battery life tops this off nicely.
Buy now £899.00, Argos
Huawei MateBook 16
The only laptop on this list to feature an AMD processor, the Matebook series is well-known for its mix of superb value and performance. The Ryzen 7 processor that beats at its heart has eight cores and 16 threads, and successfully takes Intel on at its own game. It even has a reasonable graphics processor built in.
It’s a good looking laptop even before you notice the screen, which has a 3:2 aspect ratio (taller than the more common 16:9) so it’s easier to view two documents side-by-side, and a 2.5K resolution that makes it sharper. This combination means it’s a brilliant machine for getting stuff done, and even a little light gaming too, though don’t expect the same results as you would with a discrete graphics processor. The screen is also noted for its high colour accuracy, something that will be important to photographers and designers.
The Matebook backs its hot processor with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of SSD storage, and while it does require a sophisticated cooling system to keep it in a state that you can actually put on your lap, this is a best buy laptop that few will regret owning.
Buy now £699.00, Currys
Verdict
Getting one of the best buy laptops isn’t a case of buying what’s cheap or what’s popular. If you take the time to analyse your needs, and find a machine that meets them, you’ll have a better computing experience, and perhaps spend less money too. There’s nothing more frustrating than trying to work every day with a tool that doesn’t, or can’t, do what we expect of it, but by taking a moment to think about what we want to achieve, we can find something that matches our expectations.
