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Tom's Guide
a day ago
- Tom's Guide
I test laptops for a living — and these are my 3 favorite laptops of 2025 (so far)
I can't say that 2025 has been a particularly exceptional year for laptops, at least so far. That's not to say there haven't been new developments. After all, the first RTX 50-series notebooks are now available, offering a decent (if unremarkable) performance bump from previous generations. There are also a good number of Intel Lunar Lake laptops that finally give the best Windows laptops comparable battery life to the best MacBooks. I test and review laptops for a living, and these three have stood above the rest. Below, I'll detail what I like about each of these laptops and hope that this can help you if you're in the market for a new notebook, whether it's for work or fun. The MacBook Air 15-inch M4 is currently the main laptop I use at the office, so it instantly makes it on this list. But why this specific laptop instead of something that's either smaller or perhaps more powerful? This MacBook has everything I need to get work done as efficiently as possible. I have the 15-inch MacBook Air M4 connected to an external monitor, with the latter serving as my primary monitor. The MacBook Air M4 serves as my secondary display, which I specifically use to view and respond to Slack messages. Its large screen ensures I don't have to squint when reading messages from my colleagues. Thanks to the M4 chip inside, the Air M4 can easily handle my everyday workload, which often consists of 20 to 30 open tabs and the occasional YouTube video (or two) running in the background. And when I need to head into a meeting room, this laptop is light enough to easily carry around the office. The big screen also means I don't have to make a big compromise when I have to work with a single screen. When it comes to everyday work at the office, the 15-inch MacBook Air M4 fits all of my needs. Plus, it just looks nice sitting on my desk! The MacBook Air 15-inch M4 is one of the finest laptops out there, thanks to its gorgeous display, fast M4-driven performance, sharp 12MP camera and new Sky Blue color. The fact that it costs $100 less than the previous model makes it irresistible. However, those who own the M3 model don't need to upgrade. While they don't get as much attention, I'm a fan of Samsung's laptops due to their general lightweight design and OLED panel options. The last one I tested was the Samsung Galaxy Book 5 Pro, and it exemplifies everything I love about the company's laptop line. The main reason I like this notebook is its gorgeous 16-inch (2880 x 1800) OLED. This screen makes everything pop, so movies and shows look spectacular. It also gets pretty bright for both SDR and HDR content, meaning you won't miss a single detail in videos or on websites. While relatively large, this laptop's lightweight and thin design make it a great travel companion. I also like the generous port selection, which is something you don't always find on machines this thin. Inside, it packs a Lunar Lake chip that gives it plenty of power for everyday work and nearly 12 and a half hours of battery life, which is better than average for a Windows laptop. Even if Lunar Lake isn't as energy efficient as Snapdragon X Elite, Intel's CPU generally plays nicer with a broader range of apps and programs compared to Qualcomm chips. The Samsung Galaxy Book 5 Pro is a svelte laptop featuring a gorgeous 16-inch OLED display, fast Intel Lunar Lake performance and a spacious keyboard. Though its AI capabilities aren't anything special and it has too many superfluous Samsung apps, the Galaxy Book 5 Pro is still an overall excellent laptop for work and play. I initially had reservations about RTX 50-series gaming laptops since I felt the previous-gen RTX 40-series machines were still good enough for gaming. While that's still true, testing rigs like the HP Omen Max 16 and Alienware 16 Area-51 Gaming Laptop have made me an RTX 50-series believer. This is especially true with Alienware's incredible laptop. The Alienware 16 Area-51 has style and substance. Its Liquid Teal finish gives the laptop a dark iridescent sheen that shifts colors when you view it under different lighting. Combine that with the RGB lighting that mimics the motions of the aurora borealis, and you have a machine that looks like it was created by aliens! Though this Alienware laptop is big and bulky, there's no denying that it's one beautiful piece of kit. Then there's the incredible gaming performance. I got Doom: The Dark Ages to run at 120 fps with DLSS 4 off and 240 fps with DLSS 4 enabled. The latter's fps effectively matches the display's refresh rate. This laptop can even run the graphically demanding Cyberpunk 2077 at 70 fps with DLSS off and 240 fps with the frame-generating tech turned on. You can read my full Alienware 16 Area-51 review for more details (and gushing), but suffice it to say this is my favorite gaming laptop of 2025 right now. The Alienware 16 Area-51 gaming laptop makes a bold statement thanks to its (inter)stellar design, powerful RTX 50-series performance and vibrant 16-inch display. Though it demands a steep price and can be heavy to carry, this laptop delivers an out-of-this-world gaming experience.
CNET
05-06-2025
- Business
- CNET
My Pick for Laptop Shoppers Seeking Tariff Relief: Acer's $700 Aspire 14 AI
CNET's key takeaways The Acer Aspire 14 AI is available for $700 at Costco (with the occasional spike to $750). The Intel Lunar Lake CPU offers good performance for the price and long battery life. The display and design won't wow you. Laptop prices are on the rise -- and the more they increase, the better Acer's Aspire 14 AI looks. When I reviewed it in April, it cost $700 at Costco and was the cheapest Copilot Plus PC I had reviewed. Fast forward two months and it still costs $700 at Costco and is still the cheapest Copilot Plus PC I've seen -- and a great value. Acer cuts the right corners to hit such a low price for the Aspire 14 AI, delivering a well-rounded laptop with modern components. This is no budget laptop with outdated parts. It features the latest Intel Core Ultra Series 2 processor (codenamed Lunar Lake) that serves up competitive application and AI performance along with great battery life and a design that doesn't look all that different from Acer's pricier Swift laptops. The Aspire 14 AI's no-frills but future-proofed package makes it one of the best budget laptops of 2025. My experience with the Acer Aspire 14 AI I'm still waiting for the killer AI app to make a laptop AI CPU a must but it's nice to know that when it arrives, you'll have a laptop that's built for it. Thanks to its Intel Core Ultra 5 CPU that has a neural processing unit (NPU) capable of 40 trillion operations per second (TOPS), the Aspire 14 AI hits the minimum requirement for Microsoft's Copilot Plus PC platform. Its AI processor can offload AI workloads -- constantly taking Windows Recall snapshots, blurring backgrounds for video calls and producing live translations -- to its NPU, keeping the CPU and GPU freed up for whatever primary task you're working on. Matt Elliott/CNET Future-proofing is always valuable in any laptop, especially so in a budget model where it's not always a given. (You need to be careful when shopping for a low-cost laptop because so many are older models with previous-generation components that are discounted in an attempt to clear out inventory for newer units.) In testing, the Aspire 14 AI hung with the more expensive Copilot Plus PCs I've tested. Its scores on our application, graphics and AI benchmarks weren't all that far off from those of its pricier competitors. Its integrated Intel GPU doesn't provide much in the way of 3D gaming but the same can be said for any Copilot Plus PC as I've yet to encounter one with dedicated graphics. With the Aspire 14 AI, you avoid the budget laptop trap of buying a machine with outdated or soon-to-be-outdated parts. And you also skip past the spectrer of the Creaky Plastic Monster. Many budget laptops have flimsy plastic enclosures but the Aspire 14 AI has aluminum top and bottom panels with only a plastic keyboard deck. And the keyboard deck feels rigid and doesn't bend or flex like the thinner plastic common to other budget models. It's a solidly constructed laptop and you'd have to look closely to tell it apart from one of Acer's mainstream Swift laptops. The specs CPU: Intel Core Ultra 5 226V Memory: 16GB LPDDR5-8533 Graphics: Intel Arc 130V Storage: 1TB SSD Display: 14-inch 1,920x1,200 touch IPS LCD Ports: 2 x USB-C Thunderbolt 4, 2 x USB-A USB 3.2 Gen 1, HDMI 2.1, combo audio Networking: Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 Weight: 3.05 pounds Battery life: 18 hr, 56 min Operating system: Microsoft Windows 11 Home CNET'S Buying Advice The best part of the Aspire 14 AI is getting a modern CPU that delivers the performance needed for the laptop to act as your primary machine and not just a cheap, underpowered second system. And the efficient Intel Core Ultra CPU also allows the Aspire 14 AI to run for almost 19 hours on a single charge while also offering a bit of future-proofing with its AI capabilities. The uninspired design and meh display are really the only items that scream "budget laptop." The rest of the package is more mainstream than budget, including the 16GB of RAM and the roomy 1TB SSD. You are usually looking at 8GB of RAM and either a 256GB or 512GB SSD when shopping for a $700 laptop. If you are willing to spend a bit more, I have a couple of other Copilot Plus PCs you should check out. The Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 is a winner for its slick and sturdy design and awesome haptic touchpad and the Asus Zenbook A14 boasts an ultralight yet rigid enclosure with a gorgeous OLED display. Plus, both offer even better battery life than the Aspire 14 AI.
