These are the best laptops you can buy in May 2021: Dell XPS, ASUS ROG, HP Spectre, and more!
Apart from many tasks that one can achieve from a laptop, the best smartphones have gone way beyond. You can click amazing pictures and videos, binge watch your favorite TV shows, or even pay money without ever reaching for your wallet. But even to this date, most people continue to rely on laptops to get their work done faster and more efficiently. The initial days of the Covid-19 lockdown saw a decline in smartphone sales due to obvious reasons. However, at the same time, there was a huge demand for laptops as organizations scrambled to switch to a work from home setup.
There is a wide variety of laptops out there for almost every type of user. From gorgeous displays to long-lasting battery life, getting the right notebook is honestly not that difficult. Of course, you just need to look in the right place. It is best to assess all the factors before you go ahead and put your money down. Apart from choosing the right specs, you need to be mindful of the size and form factor. Of course, in the end, it all comes down to your needs and requirements. To make things easy, we have listed some of the best laptops that you should consider if you are planning to buy one in 2021. These are the best and top-of-the-line options in various segments.
Navigate this guide to the best laptops:
- Best overall laptop: Dell XPS 13 9310
- Best portable gaming laptop: ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14
- Best laptop for Mac users: Apple MacBook Pro 13 M1
- Best 17-inch Laptop: Dell XPS 17
- Best business laptop: Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon
- Best gaming laptop: ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15
- Best 2-in-1 laptop: HP Spectre x360 14
- Best laptop on a budget: Acer Swift 3
- Best convertible laptop: Microsoft Surface Pro 7
- Best Chromebook: Acer Spin 713
Best overall laptop: Dell XPS 13 9310
The XPS 13 has quintessentially been one of the most influential Windows laptops in the past few years. Known for offering a solid balance of style and performance, the all-new XPS 13 9310 model offers up to an 11th-gen Intel Core i7-1185G7 processor, 16GB 4267MHz of LRDDR4x memory, and 512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD. The sleek metal design complements the borderless display, which is also one of its highlight features. Speaking of which, Dell has been offering some of the best-looking displays on its XPS lineup. This one features a 13.4-inch 16:10 ratio screen, and you can opt for a 1200p or 2400p resolution. The port selection is limited to a couple of USB-C ports with Thunderbolt 4, a microSD card slot, and a headphone and mic combo jack. Dell claimed battery life of up to 14-hours on the full-HD+ model which sounds great for all-day workloads. It is also Intel Evo certified which means that it is specifically recommended by Intel to offer a premium experience to the end-user.
- The Dell XPS 13 is a highly recommended premium notebook that offers a solid balance of style and performance. It is also one of the best ultrabooks out there.
Best portable gaming laptop: ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14
Probably one of the most eye-catching notebooks of 2020, the Zephyrus G14 from ASUS is quite a versatile machine. It offered a fairly sleek 14-inch design and is also loaded with powerful CPU and GPU options to fulfill your gaming needs. The solid yet lightweight build, great battery life, and that unique dot-matrix display on the lid add up to what can be called the best everyday gaming laptop. Notably, ASUS is now offering the laptop with the updated AMD Ryzen 5000 series CPU and NVIDIA new GeForce RTX 3060 GPU. The laptop is also claimed to offer 12-13 hours of battery life which seems very impressive for a gaming laptop. The only gripe we have is that it does not come with a built-in webcam for your Zoom meetings.
- The ROG Zephyrus G14 has been one of the most praised laptops offering one of the most unique designs now available with the new AMD Ryzen 5000 CPU and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3000 series mobile GPU.
Best laptop for Mac users: Apple MacBook Pro 13 M1
Apple announced the new MacBook Pro 13 in November 2020 which was a part of its first wave of products running on its in-house chipset, the M1. Based on the 5nm node, the new M1 chipset has proven to be one of the biggest leaps for Apple in the computing world. It includes an 8-core CPU, a 16-core neural engine, and up to an 8-core GPU. Not only is the chipset offering better performance than the Intel processors, but it is also power efficient making the notebook last longer in terms of battery life. The new MacBook Pro 13 offers the exact same design as its Intel counterpart. The notebook is available with 8GB of RAM with 256GB SSD storage or 16GB RAM with 512GB SSD storage.
- The MacBook Pro 13 is now powered by Apple's own in-house chipset that is claimed to offer excellent performance at the same time offers great power efficiency.
Best 17-inch laptop: Dell XPS 17
Dell reintroduced a 17-inch XPS laptop in the first half of 2020, almost 10-year after we saw the last model. Offering all of the best features that we have seen on the recent XPS lineup, the XPS 17 simply enlarges the package. It is available with up to a 10th-gen Intel Core-i9 processor and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 GPU making it an apt device for creative professionals and casual gamers. Additionally, you can expect the premium XPS styling, including the super-slim bezels, which reduces the laptop’s overall footprint down to a 15-inch notebook. This notebook is also a serious competitor if you are looking for a solid Windows alternative to the MacBook Pro 16.
- Bringing the best of the XPS lineup, the XPS 17 is the best 17-inch laptop that offers the footprint of a 15-inch machine. It comes with an excellent display and a premium design that you cannot ignore.
Best business laptop: Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon
The ThinkPad series is a no-brainer if you are looking for a solid business notebook. The X1 Carbon primarily witnessed under-the-hood upgrades in 2020, but that doesn’t make it any less of a recommendation. The 10th-Gen Intel vPro CPUs deliver only a slight performance boost compared to the previous generation. But if your business notebook is 3-4 years old, then the ThinkPad X1 Carbon is a wise choice. The laptop offers an ultraslim design that is highly durable, one of the best keyboards in its class, and good display options. We would also recommend looking at the HP Elite Dragonfly if you are willing to stretch your budget as HP charges quite a bit for the notebook.
- The ThinkPad is a popular name when it comes to business laptops. The 8th-gen ThinkPad X1 Carbon is pretty much the same as the last year's model but brings new innards for improved performance.
Best gaming laptop: ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15
We have a new powerful gaming laptop in town. The new ROG Zephyrus G15 is what you should be looking for if you want pure performance. Powered by the new AMD Ryzen 5000 mobile series CPUs, the new G15 now comes with a similar design approach as on the smaller 14-inch Zephyrus G14. It also comes with the option of NVIDIA’s new GeForce RTX 3070 and RTX 3080 graphics cards. The laptop also comes with a 15.6-inch WQHD (2560 x 1440-pixel) anti-glare display with a 165Hz refresh rate and 3ms response time. The display also offers 100% DCI-P3 coverage and is Pantone validated. To top it off, the notebook comes with a fairly large 90Whr battery at the same time maintaining a weight of under 2kgs.
- The new 2021 Zephyrus G15 brings an updated design similar to the G14 along with the latest AMD Ryzen 5000-series processor options.
Best 2-in-1 laptop: HP Spectre x360 14
One of the best looking 2-in-1 laptops, the new HP Spectre x360 14 sits between the 13-inch and 15-inch variants with a taller 3:2 display and the new Intel 11th-gen Tiger Lake processors. Overall the design is similar to the previous-gen models including the diamond-shaped rear corners and the accents around the edges. The new Spectre x360 14 comes in similar color options as well so you can choose between Nightfall Black, Poseidon Blue, or Natural Silver. The standard display comes with a full-HD resolution which comes with 400-nits of brightness or you can go for a 3K2K (3000 x 2000-pixels) OLED panel or even a 1,000-nit option that comes with a special anti-reflective technology that makes the screen difficult to read from the sides. As for the internals, the laptop is available in a base model that starts with the above-mentioned full-HD panel, a Core i5-1135G7 processor, 8GB of memory, and 256GB of storage with 16GB of Intel Optane. The top variant comes with the Intel Core i7-1165G7, 16GB RAM, 1TB storage with 32GB Intel Optane, and the OLED display, and if you opt for the anti-reflective display option, that also gets you 2TB of storage.
- The new HP Spectre X360 14 brings a taller display but continues to offer a premium design paired with the latest hardware and even options for OLED panel or one that goes up to 1000-nits.
Best laptop on a budget: Acer Swift 3
A lightweight yet powerful laptop, the Acer Swift 3 comes at an affordable price of under $700. It isn’t the most premium ultrabook, but it is certainly the best laptop that you can put your money on if you don’t want to go overboard with your budget. It comes with a 14-inch full-HD IPS display and is powered by the AMD Ryzen 7 4700U octa-core processor, 8GB LPDDR4 RAM and a 512GB NVMe SSD. The laptop also features a backlit keyboard, a fingerprint scanner, Wi-Fi 6, and Alexa voice assistant built-in. If you care about Thunderbolt, the Acer Swift 3 is also available with the new Intel 11th-gen Core-i7 CPU with a Thunderbolt 4 port and Intel EVO certification.
- The Acer Swift 3 is a reliable laptop at its budget. The notebook should offer you excellent performance thanks to the octa-core AMD Ryzen 7 CPU.
Best convertible laptop: Microsoft Surface Pro 7
Microsoft redefined the category of convertible laptops with the launch of the Surface tablet series even though it did take a few updates to become the best Windows tablet. The current-gen Surface Laptop Pro 7 is our recommendation if you need an ultraportable form factor with a detachable keyboard. The Surface Pro 7 is available with up to a 10th-gen Intel Core i7 processor, 16GB LPDDR4x RAM, and 1TB of SSD storage. It features a 12.3-inch PixelSense display with a resolution of 2,736 x 1,824, support for Wi-Fi 6, dual cameras (5MP front and 8MP rear), and 1.6W stereo speakers tuned by Dolby. The Surface Type keyboard is sold separately at an additional cost of $130.
- The Surface Pro 7 is an excellent Windows tablet that can easily turn into a lightweight laptop using the detachable Type Cover keyboard .
Best Chromebook: Acer Chromebook Spin 713
Chromebooks are usually the best option for school and college students since they are usually cheap. Not the Acer Spin 713 though. It is one of the most powerful, pricey, and best Chromebooks out there. Since it is expensive, it also comes with powerful 10th-gen Intel CPU options going all the way from Core i3 to a Core i7. It also comes with a 13.5-inch 2256×1504 touchscreen, a 128GB NVMe SSD, and 8GB of LPDDR4 RAM, making it the fastest one out there. The Acer Spin 713 is also Project Athena certified, which means that it has a seal of approval from Intel when it comes to performance and battery life.
- The Acer Chromebook Spin 713 is one of the most powerful Chromebooks you'll be able to pick up today. With beefy specs that rival that of budget gaming laptops, performance will never be an issue.
Before you go ahead with any of the above-recommended notebooks, we would like you to know that CES 2021 wrapped up back in January with a wide variety of new notebooks. These note laptops are slowly making their way to markets featuring the latest hardware from Intel, AMD, and NVIDIA. We will be updating this guide as new models and variants start hitting shelves so keep an eye out. But if you need a machine right this instant, these are our top picks for the best laptops that you can buy!
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