9 Best Windows Laptops (2026): WIRED-Tested Laptops to Buy

You’ll want to read our comprehensive guide on how to choose the right laptop, but for the basics, you’ll want to decide what category of laptop you need. Most people should buy a 13-inch or 14-inch laptop, and spending around $750-$1,000 is a good place to start. You should expect good battery life, a good screen, adequate performance for basic tasks, and a comfortable keyboard and touchpad from a laptop around this price. You should also expect at least 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. Anything more than that falls into premium territory where you are paying for higher specifications, more performance or additional features. If you want something with a discrete GPU for gaming or creative workflows, you’ll need to spend more than that.

A laptop like the Dell 14 Plus is the perfect example of what you can get when shopping in this price range. You can even find laptops with OLED panels with up to one terabyte of storage, depending on how good the discounts are. I would consider anything priced under $750 to be a cheap laptop, and so it will come with some significant compromises, especially with regard to the quality of the panel and touchpad. Luckily, even though laptops using the Qualcomm Snapdragon X chip often cost less than $750, they still get great battery life.

Here is a list of important specifications to consider:

CPU: For a thin and light laptop, I would recommend one of the Snapdragon X, X Plus, or X Elite chips. They get the best battery life and performance for laptops in their class. As an alternative, Intel Core Ultra 7 258V is also quite good. However, the next generation is coming soon, with all eyes on Intel’s Core Ultra Series 3 (also known as Panther Lake, which is trending right now and is really awesome) and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X2 chips.

GPU: So far, Intel’s Lunar Lake chips, such as the Core Ultra 7 258V, have the best integrated graphics. For differentiating options, you’ll want to pick up one of the latest Nvidia RTX 50-series GPUs, such as the RTX 5060. The biggest leap in performance is between the RTX 5070 and RTX 5070 Ti, which increases VRAM to 12GB.

RAM (or memory): Keep at least 16GB if you can. Since the introduction of the CoPilot+ designation, it has become the new standard. You can also find laptops up to $600 cheaper that have 16GB of memory. Gamers and content creators should upgrade to 32GB if possible, although ongoing memory shortages may make it more expensive in the near future.

storage: Similar to memory, many laptops have moved to 512GB as the new standard, and you’ll find many affordable laptops with 512GB as the base configuration. Where possible, upgrading to one or two terabytes will make your life much easier, especially since many laptops don’t offer expandable storage.

Display: Laptops are commonly classified by screen size, with 13-inch, 14-inch, and 16-inch being the most common. You’ll want to consider size, resolution, refresh rate, and panel type here.

Portability: Apart from display size, chassis thickness and weight are the primary factors here, determining how portable a laptop is for travel. Other dimensions are also important, but are mostly determined by screen size.

Port: Many laptops these days are limited to just USB-C and a headphone jack, with a few exceptions where USB-A or HDMI are included. Make sure your laptop has what you need, otherwise you’ll need a USB hub or laptop docking station to get more ports or increase external display support.