There’s never been so much choice when it comes to buying a laptop, which is great news for us – but it also means that there are more machines to sift through before you find your perfect portable. Even if you’re a tech enthusiast, that still means a time-consuming search as you sort through dozens of potential purchases. That’s not ideal – which is why we’ve picked out the best laptops in every key category. Here's the best of what you can buy right now.
What's the best laptop selector UK in 2021?
The Dell XPS 13 Late 2020 (from £1,141) is the best laptop you can buy for most uses. The performance has been boosted with upgrades to the quality screen and the same slim, sturdy ergonomics.
View the Dell XPS 13 (Late 2020) from £1,141 on Amazon
Samsung's Galaxy Book Pro 360 (from £1,049) is our pick for the best 2-in-1 laptop around. It works great as a traditional laptop and in tablet mode, while also looking the part and offering top drawer productivity performance.
View the Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 360 from £1,049 on Amazon
If you want a premium laptop without it costing the earth, the best laptop under £700 is the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 (from £699). It feels like a top-quality ultrabook, offers a great range of ports and impressive keyboard as well as a remarkable AMD mobile processor.
View the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 from £699 on Amazon
WIRED Recommends is your definitive guide to the best technology. Every product featured has been properly tested by WIRED reviewers. Read our list of the best headphones for our favourite picks in every category.
Dell XPS 13 (Late 2020)
WIRED Recommends: Dell's XPS 13 is slim, light and capable
Weight 1.2kg (non-touch) 1.27kg (touch) | Size: 14.8mm thick | Battery life: 12 hours | Screen: 13.4-inch 1080p/4K | RAM: Up to 32GB | Storage: Up to 1TB | CPU: Up to 11th Gen Core i7 | OS: Windows 10 Home
The Dell XPS 13 (from £1,141) has set the standard for compact ultrabooks for several years now. Rivals are fast closing in while Dell’s flagship has stood fairly still. However, the XPS 13 still remains the best laptop you can buy right now.
The rival machine that's closing in on the XPS 13 the fastest is the Apple MacBook Air M1 (below), representing a leap in efficiency that leads to battery life and performance gains that will marvel many. What keeps Dell’s 13-inch ultrabook just ahead of Apple’s revamped MacBook is a rather sizeable gap when it comes to modern design. Alongside the gorgeous Razer Book 13 (below), the XPS 13 is one of the best looking laptops around.
In particular, it’s the near edge-to-edge 16:10 display that makes this laptop an eye-catcher. When you first open this diminutive laptop, you’ll be astonished by how much screen Dell has managed to pack in and, with the 4K version, the bright colours are absolutely knock out too.
As a productivity machine, the combination of a 16:10 display, portability and blazing fast basic tasking makes this a top pick for working at home. Whether you're browsing the web with upwards of 15-20 tabs and beyond, working in Office or watching videos, the XPS 13 doesn’t blink. A superb keyboard and trackpad pair exceptionally with the speedy internals, with a surprising amount of key feedback for such a slim device as well as a responsive trackpad. (Although if we're being picky, a slightly larger trackpad wouldn’t go amiss next time around.)
While Intel’s 11th gen processors are a step up from the last generation, you won’t notice a massive difference if you’re just using the XPS 13 as a productivity device, an area in which it already excelled. However, you will notice it with more graphics-intensive tasks. Previously, the XPS 13 could eke out some very light photo and video editing along with playing some low demand games like Fortnite and Apex Legends at minimal settings to get decent frame rates. The increase isn’t huge but you’ll feel less like you’re just about managing with these graphical tasks now, with the aforementioned games playable at around 1080p and upwards of 30fps on low graphics settings – rather than the bare minimum.
The Dell XPS 13 has occasionally been beaten on specific features but rarely topped when it comes to consistency. However, competitors are catching up and this Dell needs to start standing out more. While the XPS 13 design is premium and sleek in its own right, the lack of an all-metal design like the MacBook Air, Razer Book 13 and Surface Laptop 3 is leaving it wanting amongst these rivals that exude quality.
Then, there’s performance. With the majority of top-notch ultrabooks using Intel’s best mobile chips over recent years, this wasn’t much of a talking point – performance was pretty uniform. However, the efficiency gains of the new MacBook Air M1, bringing a fanless design and enhanced battery life, as well as the value offering of lower-priced AMD ultrabooks, like the Lenovo IdeaPad 5 and HP Envy 13, mean Dell’s time at the top could be in danger. With the XPS 13 getting slightly warmer than one would like in some scenarios, Dell certainly has gains to make here. Intel has its new Alder Lake chips coming this year, which could help Dell in this department, but the XPS 13 can’t afford to rest on its laurels for another year.
Nevertheless, the Dell XPS 13 offers the best combination around if you want a stylish productivity device that can dip into popular games and do some multimedia editing.
Pros: A productivity delight; impressive 16:10 display; good level of keyboard feedback; remarkably compact
Cons: Small range of ports; trackpad could be slightly bigger; sometimes get a bit warm
Price: From £1,141 | Check price on Amazon | John Lewis | Dell
Apple MacBook Air (M1)
The best MacBook and the best laptop for students
Weight 1.29kg | Size: 4.1-16mm thick | Battery life: 15 hours | Screen: 13.3-inch 2560x1600 | RAM: 8/16GB | Storage: Up to 2TB| CPU: M1 | OS: MacOS Big Sur
After years of using Intel’s processors on its MacBooks, including some rough recent times, Apple decided to replicate its iPhone model and make its own chips for Macs. The result is a new set of efficient yet speedy Macs, raising the bar for all laptop makers – and a new MacBook Air M1 (from £899) taking centre stage.
This new MacBook Air offers a silent, fanless experience that still manages to keep pace with previous iterations and key rivals. As a student or productivity laptop, the new M1 MacBook Air is an absolute dream, breezing through basic tasks like word processing and web browsing.
For more complex tasks like photo and video editing, the new Air isn’t as capable as its fan-equipped MacBook Pro equivalent or the 16-inch MacBook Pro. However, the results are still impressive. In apps such as Pixelmator Pro, the Air makes light work of basic photo editing and some light video editing is certainly a possibility.
One of the most remarkable aspects of the M1 MacBook Air is how it has managed to step up its performance game and ditch its fan while managing to significantly improve its battery life. Instead of the up to 12 hours of battery life touted on the previous Intel-powered MacBook Air, the new model has ramped things up to 18 hours. You’ll be able to manage a workday and keep on going into the next before a charge is required.
The new MacBook Air M1 sets the standard for future ultrabooks, but it isn’t perfect. Apple’s cheapest laptop keeps the same stylish, wedge design the line has had for several years, meaning the Air still lags behind many rivals, including the Dell XPS 13, when it comes to razor-thin bezels. The much-maligned MacBook webcam remains too. Apple touted improved image-processing this time around but it's not a marked improvement.
Pros: Packs a surprising punch; no fan means it stays quiet; much-improved battery
Cons: Same old design; (sorta) same old webcam
Price: From £899 | Check price on Amazon | John Lewis | Apple
Lenovo Yoga Slim 7
The best laptop under £700
Weight 1.4kg| Size: 14.9mm thick | Battery life: Up to 13 hours | Screen: 14-inch 1080p | RAM: Up to 16GB | Storage: Up to 512GB | CPU: Up to AMD Ryzen 4800U | OS: Windows 10 Home
The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 (from £699) is a remarkable laptop that will rightly have many questioning whether it’s necessary to spend over £1,000 on an ultrabook. It does lack some of the most premium features you can pick up on the Dell XPS 13, LG Gram 17 and other top-tier devices – but, for many, they’re an extra not a necessity.
Taking a look at the Yoga Slim 7 from the outside, it firmly matches the premium design of the best around. Pick it up and you get a quality metal body; you feel like you’re handling an expensive device. Open the lid and it fades away a tad, with the display being surrounded by some slightly out-of-date plastic bezels. However, the keyboard and trackpad look great – with the keyboard offering decent travel and the trackpad being accurate if a little small.
The Yoga Slim 7 is just a stunning laptop for offering great value in areas you may not expect. While the display isn’t OLED and has those less than ideal bezels, the screen quality itself is perfectly good at 1080p, even if it doesn’t get all the bright. Many laptop speakers, especially at prices below £1000, are also often neglected. Not here. The Lenovo stays accurate at higher volumes and offers a good amount of bass for such a small machine.
The crown jewel in this laptop’s value offering is the AMD mobile processor. When using for productivity tasks, this keeps up with the best ultrabooks around – with the ability to handle upwards of 15 tabs and multi-task with Office and streaming apps. The multi-core performance outshines the Intel equivalent on many top-end rivals, meaning you dabble that bit more in video and photo editing on this laptop – games still aren’t really an option though.
The only thing holding back this laptop is an outdated aspect ratio. Aspect ratios like 16:10, and the more extreme 3:2, let you see more words on the display – ideal for the productivity-centric world of ultrabooks.
Pros: Premium ultrabook at a more sensible price; impressive battery life; delightful keyboard; plenty of ports
Cons: Rather dull display; 16:9; no Thunderbolt 4
Price: From £699 | Check price on Amazon | Argos | Currys
Lenovo IdeaPad 5
The best budget laptop for under £600
Weight 1.4kg | Size: 19mm thick | Battery life: 10 hours | Screen: 14-inch 1080p | RAM: 8GB | Storage: 128GB SSD | CPU: AMD Ryzen 3 | OS: Windows 10 Home
While value for performance is a stand out trait here, with the AMD CPU, 8GB RAM and SSD storage combo that makes many tasks on this machine run like a dream, looks aren’t compromised. The Lenovo IdeaPad 5 (£550) doesn’t lag too far behind the high-quality designs of some top ultrabooks, the materials might not be as premium but Lenovo’s laptop is sleek nonetheless. The sleekness doesn’t mean you are saddled with a lacklustre keyboard either. The IdeaPad 5 keyboard does lack travel but it's quiet, accurate and won’t induce fatigue.
Productivity on the IdeaPad 5 is a breeze. If you’re a user who spends most of your time in Microsoft Office or browsing the web, you’ll notice little difference between this machine and what you’d get for upwards of £1000. In the graphics department, you’ll be able to carry out some very light photo and video editing while also being able to take on some casual games like Fortnite and Minecraft on low graphics settings.
The IdeaPad 5 oozes convenience too, with its relatively light 1.4kg and 19mm thickness making it an easy device to lug around. Ports help in this department as well, offering 2x USB 3 ports, an HDMI output, SD card slot and a single USB-C port (that can be used for charging too). A fingerprint reader and Wi-Fi 6 also makes this laptop one that’s set for the future. You won’t be bogged down in constantly charging the IdeaPad 5 either, with a 57Wh battery that can manage between 8-10 hours.
This laptop offers a lot for your money but, alas, it isn’t perfect. The display is where the IdeaPad 5 is left slightly wanting, with the 14-inch display not getting all that bright and colours being a tad washed out. Another minor niggle is how warm this device gets, it isn’t concerning but it’s slightly more than you’d want – thankfully, this doesn’t equate to overly loud fans.
Pros: Impressive performance; decent mic; pleasing and convenient design
Cons: Below average display; so-so trackpad
Price: £550 | Check price on Lenovo | Currys
