We tested over 30 laptops in 2025. Here are the 12 best for every budget and use case.
What is the best laptop of 2025?
My answer ultimately boils down to your operating system preference: Windows or Mac?
As of December 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).
The best Windows laptop we've tested is the 13.8-inch Microsoft Surface Laptop 7, a sophisticated and snappy Copilot+ PC boasting a stellar battery life of nearly 23 hours. Note that Microsoft makes an Intel version that may appeal to users wary of Windows on ARM for app compatibility reasons, but it's a business-oriented model with a significant markup.
Why you might not want to wait until 2026 to buy a new laptop
Over the past 12 months, laptop prices have remained largely reasonable and stable despite a tumultuous economic climate. This spring's tariff-related price increases wound up being minimal, and we saw affected models go on sale frequently throughout the year. In one impressive anomaly, Apple managed to release faster-than-ever MacBook Airs that were $100 cheaper than their 2024 predecessors, and ever since they turned five months old, they've enjoyed regular $200 discounts at major retailers.
Unfortunately, 2026 is probably going to look a lot different. As Mashable's Alex Perry reports, the global surge of AI data centers has created huge demand for DDR5 RAM and SSDs. Laptop manufacturers who want to put those same components in their PCs are now facing a shortage, and experts say this could lead to significant laptop price hikes or more limited configuration options. (Read: We might be going back to the days of 8GB RAM in mid-range laptops. It's so over.)
AI isn't going away anytime soon, so as things currently stand, I think those due for an upgrade should strongly consider buying a new laptop within the next couple of months. Equip it with as much storage and memory as you can comfortably afford, too. Fortunately, good laptop deals are plentiful this time of year as retailers move to offload their stock of current-gen PCs ahead of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January, where most manufacturers unveil their latest models. Think of it as a last stand for value hunters.
