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Photograph: Christopher Null
Other Good Laptops to Consider
Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition (Copilot+ PC) for $1,300: The first Intel-based Copilot+ PC (7/10, WIRED Review) we tested is a winner on all fronts, boasting outstanding AI and graphics performance and some of the best battery life we’ve ever seen on Intel hardware. With its slightly oddball 15.3-inch screen, it hits its high points without breaking the bank, though the fan is loud and the system may weigh you down more than you’d like.
Asus Zenbook A14 for $1,000: This is one of the lightest laptops we’ve ever tested, thanks to Asus’ Ceraluminum material. The Zenbook A14 (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is also the first A-series laptop from the company, and it employs Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon X chipset, which is the weakest and supposedly the most affordable of the Snapdragon X series. While this laptop excels in build quality, portability, and sports excellent battery life, the chipset is lackluster, only suitable for average web browsing tasks, and it’s still priced a little too high for what you get.
Asus Zenbook 14 OLED (2024) for $909: We’ve been pleasantly surprised to see more lower-cost laptops that still incorporate some measure of artificial intelligence-focused performance tuning. The Asus Zenbook 14 OLED (7/10, WIRED Review), the latest in the company’s line of affordable, no-nonsense laptops, is under $1,000 and uses the new AMD Ryzen 7 CPU (model 8840HS). This is a small, portable machine (3.1 pounds and 19 mm thick), and it packs in plenty of ports despite the slim form. There are two USB-C ports (one of which is needed for charging), one full-size USB 3.2 port, a full-size HDMI output, and a microSD card reader. The keyboard has small arrow keys but is otherwise nice to type on.
Asus Vivobook S 14 OLED for $900: Not unlike the Zenbook 14 OLED, this 14-inch machine sports an OLED panel for a reasonable sub-$1,000 price. The Vivobook S 14 (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is powered by an Intel Core Ultra 9 Series 1 chipset with 16 GB of RAM and a 1-TB SSD. It can handle most daily tasks with no problem, though the screen could stand to get brighter. Battery life is OK, hitting up to 12 hours with average use. Unfortunately, the machine is a fingerprint magnet, so you’ll constantly be wiping it down. It has plenty of ports.
Photograph: Christopher Null
Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge for $1,450: Listen. I’m not saying you should buy a Copilot+ PC. These are laptops with a new designation from Microsoft, running Qualcomm Snapdragon chipsets, tuned for several new artificial intelligence features. If you decide you need one, Samsung’s Galaxy Book4 Edge (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is our king of the hill. Yes, it suffers from the same problems that impact most Snapdragon-powered Copilot+ PC hardware—middling graphics performance and compatibility issues—but these are largely overcome by the many other strengths of the device. For starters, it has some of the best overall performance of any Copilot+ PC laptop we’ve encountered to date, and the larger, 16-inch AMOLED screen even affords you room for a numeric keypad without making the keyboard feel cramped. At AI-driven tasks like Microsoft’s real-time Live Captions, the Galaxy Book4 Edge kept up with rapid-fire dialogue in ways other Copilot+ PC devices we’ve tested weren’t able to do. It also stayed cool and quiet while cranking out a battery life of 14 and a half hours while playing full-screen YouTube videos. It’s a bit pricier than the competition, but you can save some cash by opting for the smaller 14-inch model.
Dell XPS 14 and XPS 16 for $1,650+: Dell’s two XPS laptops of 2024 (7/10, WIRED Recommends) are aimed at Windows users with MacBook jealousy. The design, specs, and sizes line up perfectly with Apple’s offerings. The XPS 14 and 16 both have a gorgeous, sleek design, wonderfully bright and sharp OLED screens (with 120-Hz screen refresh rates), and are plenty speedy for everyday tasks. Unfortunately, when it comes to more intensive tasks like video editing, the MacBook’s benchmarks run circles around the XPS 14. The larger XPS 16, which uses the more powerful RTX 4070 graphics card, fared much better but costs more than a similarly powerful MacBook. The XPS 14 and 16 are both beautiful, well-designed machines. They’re plenty capable for most use cases, though heavy gamers and video editors will want to look elsewhere. They’re expensive for what you get, but if you don’t mind paying a premium for first-class build quality with clean, eye-catching design, then the XPS 14 and 16 are solid laptops.
Acer Chromebook Plus 515 for $399: This is a 15-inch Chromebook Plus model (8/10, WIRED Recommends) with the same internal components as the Lenovo we recommend above. The battery life for this one is a solid 8.5 hours of full-screen video playback time. The Acer offers an HDMI 1.4 output jack in place of the Lenovo’s microSD card slot, making this one a better choice if you frequently need to give presentations or otherwise use the HDMI port. There’s also the smaller Chromebook Plus 514 ($380) that’s equally great.
Samsung Galaxy Book4 Ultra for $3,000: There’s much to love here (7/10, WIRED Review), but that price. Ouch. You get what you pay for at least, with the new Intel Core Ultra 9 185H processor, the current top-of-the-line processor in Intel’s Core Ultra CPU lineup, along with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 graphics card. The 16-inch AMOLED 2,880 x 1,800 pixels touchscreen is magnificent to work on and performance blew everything else we’ve tested out of the water. But that price.
Acer Swift Go 14 for $1,000: This one is very similar to the Asus Zenbook 14 OLED, our top budget laptop. We found the Asus to be a little faster and have a much nicer build quality, but the Swift Go still offers outstanding performance, especially considering the price (7/10, WIRED Review). It also boasts an impressive 15-hour battery life. The downside is the speakers, which aren’t great, and overall the body feels a little plasticky. But this is the least expensive Intel Core Ultra laptop we’ve tested by a few dollars, so if the budget is tight, the Swift Go is worth considering.
Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x Copilot+ PC for $1,200: Lenovo’s svelte Slim 7x (7/10, WIRED Review) isn’t exciting, but it offers the best price-to-performance ratio of the many Copilot+ PCs we’ve tested. Battery life and performance are standouts, though the fan does tend to run loud.
Microsoft Surface Laptop (7th Edition, 2024) for $1,550: Want a Windows laptop straight from the horse’s mouth? Buy the 7th Edition Surface Laptop (7/10, WIRED Review). Performance is solid as is battery life, and you get a smooth 120-Hz display. It’s just way too pricey for what you get. Read our Best Surface Laptops guide for more.
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