Best laptops of 2020
- Thulani M Nkosi
- Jul 24, 2020
- 3 min read
Here are our top-rated picks in ultraportables, two-in-ones, and laptops for creatives and gamers and even our favorite budget-friendly options.
If you're looking for the best of our top-rated laptops, you've come to the right place. Some of our top picks are here for battery life and performance, others for style and features, and a couple because they're just all-around good deals. Whether you're looking for something for work or entertainment, for home or travel, or a two-in-one or traditional clamshell, this list has them all. We've considered all of the details -- from processor performance and battery life to the quality of the laptop screen and keyboard -- and all from the best brands in the market.
If, however, you're looking for a specific style of laptop, here are our best gaming laptops, 15-inch laptops, two-in-ones and Chromebooks, as well as the best choices for college students, creatives and MacBook Pro alternatives for the Windows set. Plus, if you just want pure power or battery life, our rankings of battery life and performance are for you. Need to stay as low as possible on price? Check out our picks for budget laptops and budget gaming laptops.
We already had the XPS 13 as a top pick for anyone looking for great performance and battery life in the smallest chassis possible for a 13.3-inch screen size display. But for 2020 Dell made the laptop even smaller while making the screen larger and increasing performance for both CPU and graphics-intensive tasks. It's not a huge leap, but it's still the best in the category.
HP outdid itself on its latest ultraportable premium two-in-one. At first glance it might seem like little more than a processor update -- it's running on a great 10th-gen Intel CPU -- the latest x360 is significantly smaller than its predecessor without sacrificing usability. New features like an instant mic mute button join other privacy and security features like an IR camera and fingerprint reader and switch to disable its webcam. Plus, it's available with 4G LTE wireless so you can get your work done wherever and whenever you want.
Though HP and Dell have excellent premium two-in-one convertible laptops, they have small 13.3- and 13.4-inch displays. If you want a bit more room for your work or entertainment, the 14-inch C940 is a great choice. One of Intel's Project Athena laptops, the C940 is tuned to be more responsive and for longer battery life. Everything about it is fast
The Surface Pro continues to hit all the right notes if you're looking for a do-it-all Windows tablet that doubles as a Windows laptop. These powerful laptops feature 10th-gen Intel Core processors, fast Wi-Fi 6 wireless, and long-lasting battery life. It's also the first to feature an honest-to-goodness USB-C port
Asus wowed us when we first saw the B9450 at CES 2020 and again when we got to actually use it. Several novelties make the 14-inch ExpertBook B9450 stand out from a crowd of me-too business laptops, in addition to the yowza 16-plus-hour battery life as tested.
The best balance of speed and battery life
The combination of the MacBook Pro's hardware and MacOS extracts the maximum performance from the components while delivering class-leading battery life in a way Windows systems never seem to do, and the high-resolution display screen remains terrific. Plus, this model's keyboard uses scissor-style switches under the keycaps, rather than the much-derided butterfly-style switch. You pay for it, though
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