The M3 MacBook Air: an upgrade from the M2 model to a higher-performance high-resolution desktop computer with integrated graphics and Thunderbolt port
The MacBook Air is a great option for people looking for an everyday workhorse and slightly more than the M2 model. It has an attractive 13.6-inch LCD screen and a notch with a 1080p webcam. Meanwhile, the M3 will give you a nice boost in performance compared to the original M1. The single external display support with older chips is not as good as it could be, so you can upgrade to two external displays.
The gorgeous build of the Blade 18 gives it raw power and a huge 18-inch Mini LED display with a 300-Hz screen refresh rate and G-sync compatibility. It also packs Nvidia’s RTX 4070 graphics card and a Thunderbolt 5 port for faster data transfer speeds.
The Best Chromebook (7/10, WIRED Recommendations): A Surface Laptop with a Snapdragon X Elite Arm Processor and a 1TB SSD
This Chromebook (7/10, WIRED Recommends) holds the title of “Best Battery Life” in our guide to the Best Chromebooks. We got 10 to 11 hours of juice consistently. It does come with a few trade-offs. It doesn’t have the highest-end processor or a lot of storage so it struggles to keep up with certain tasks, for example keeping multiple tabs open at the same time. The display is not great and the 64 gigabyte storage is suffocating. But if all you care about is not having to constantly plug it into a charger or breaking the bank, it’s a solid choice—especially at this price.
At Amazon and Best Buy, you can get the Microsoft Surface Laptop for $1,399.99. Much like the Surface Pro, Microsoft’s latest Surface Laptop is sporting a Snapdragon X Elite Arm processor that offers excellent battery life and standby time. It’s got a 13.8-inch touchscreen and comes with 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD in this discounted configuration. It’s a great performer if you want a portable Windows laptop for everyday use that can last all day, though be sure to check if any creative apps you plan to use have Arm support or work fine in emulation. Read our review.
We think it’s a great laptop even though we haven’t put it in our guides. It’s not the highest-end gaming laptop out there, but it packs more than enough power to handle most games you can play on it. This version is more upgraded than the model we tested, with an Nvidia RTX 4050 GPU and a 144-Hz 1080p display.
Buying Your Laptop during Amazon Prime Day: A Comprehensive Review of Top 10 Laptops to Compute Your Laptop’s Core Intelligence Needs
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If you want to spend money wisely but also want a laptop, you’re in luck. Some of our favorite laptops are on sale during Amazon’s Prime Day deals on October 8 and 9. Not sure how to pick out which one is best for you? We have a complete guide to buying one, as well as guides to the Best Laptops, Best Cheap Laptops, Best MacBooks, and Best Chromebooks.
If you want a larger screen, you should choose 15-inch instead of 13-inch. The 15-inch also has much better speakers, but if you’re the type to always wear headphones, it quickly becomes less of an advantage.
The 14-inch M3 MacBook Pro with 8GB of RAM, and 512GB SSD is on sale for $1,299 ($300 off) at both Best Buy and Amazon. You can get more storage at the reduced price of $1,699 at Amazon. That may be a steep cost, but the extra RAM is worth it in the long run.
A 16-inch gaming laptop sporting a 1920 x 1200 display with 165Hz refresh, AMD Ryzen 7 7735HS processor, Radeon RX7700S GPU, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB SSD.
We haven’t tested the 2024 Asus TUF A16, but at $699.99 ($400 off) at Best Buy, it seems like a solid value for some midrange gaming needs. The TUF has a speedy 165Hz display with 1200p resolution that, while not the highest resolution for a 16-inch panel, shouldn’t be as demanding as running a QHD or 4K display. The graphics are powered by an allAMD setup with a Ryzen 7 chip. We tested it in the framework laptop 16 and it offered some fair benchmarking scores in various games. (That modular laptop’s issues were owed more to glitches and cooling issues than poor GPU performance.)
There is a Zenbook Duo laptop on sale for $1,201.74, which is around $298 off the regular price. Spec-wise, it’s got an Intel Core Ultra 7 processor, 16GB of RAM, and 1TB SSD. The dual 14-inch “OLED” Touchscreens with the stylus are by far its most unique qualities, as it allows you to bring a multi-screen desktop-like setup with you anywhere.
It may look a bit bonkers, but the Zenbook Duo allows for 19.8 inches of screen real estate in a package you can throw in your everyday bag and bring with you to the coffee shop. There is a power move. Read our review.
Asus’ dual-screen laptop has a pair of 14-inch OLED touchscreens, each with 2880 x 1800 resolution. The laptop can be propped up in dual screen mode with the kickstand if it’s not covered by the keyboard, and can be used without it if it is.
The 14-inch version of the book is on sale at Best Buy for $799.99 and the 16-inch version is on sale for just $1,2499.99. The two models have the same processor, 16gigabyte of RAM, and 512gigabyte of storage. It doesn’t have the outright best performance of the recent crop of Windows Copilot Plus PCs running Arm chips, but it’s definitely one of the prettiest to look at with its thin-and-light frame and excellent OLED screen. Plus, its power-sipping processor helps it last all day like a modern MacBook. Read our review.