The Best Windows Laptops

Around the world, people have been using the Windows operating system for decades. Software developers, gamers, content creators, or casual users are familiar with a Windows interface. Finding the best windows laptop can be problematic due to the enormous choices on e-commerce platforms. Our team has selected eight laptops for review suitable for high-end gaming pros to college students doing thesis work. We will discuss each listed product’s display, CPU, GPU, built quality, and ergonomics. As a user, while reading our review, you might find the best laptop that deserves to be your everyday gadget. Laptops come in different configurations; some have rotatable screens that turn them into tablets, while others can only go to 180° for maximum durability. A laptop with a similar processor and motherboard could have different connectivity, and we will discuss these differences in detail for each product.

Manufacturers like Dell, Microsoft, Lenovo, and Asus have worked tremendously to make the best gaming laptop by fitting up-spec hardware of a desktop PC into a laptop for blazing speeds. Windows notebooks feature either an Intel or AMD processor. These CPU manufacturers have been rivals for decades, and currently, when it comes to multitasking plus gaming, the AMD Ryzen series has taken the lead. However, Intel has always taken the lead in the best laptop for college CPUs regarding stability and single-core task management. 7nm technology is used by AMD, while Intel stands firm with its 10nm lithography. Windows themselves manufacture the best 2 in 1 laptops, and we have featured a couple in our list. Microsoft has pushed its boundaries in developing its operating system, and the latest Windows, from 8.0 to 11, has focused on the touch-based interface.

Our top picks

Quick Shopping Tips:

One must know the important features and factors of the product before comparing it with another, so here is a mini list of the factors that you must note while selecting the right laptop.

Windows vs. Mac: Apple has its own unique set of processors and hardware architecture which is not compatible with the devices meant to be used on the Windows platform. High-end games are primarily developed using windows in mind. Although Apple’s Macintosh is known for its stable and swift operations, few applications support Apple laptops. If you are a gamer or a professional who prefers their options to be open, Windows is the best platform.

Dedicated vs. Integrated GPU: It’s been decades since integrated GPUs have been part of computer hardware, mainly within a motherboard. Then Intel and AMD included them within the processor. Both processor and motherboard manufacturers are ditching integrated graphics since most gamers require a dedicated GPU with its RAM and processor. Integrated GPU slows down the PC as it shares the processing power of CPU and storage from RAM. Therefore, dedicated GPUs should be your priority if you are a gamer.

Display: Color gamut, brightness, surface finish, resolution, light technology, refresh rate, and response time are all crucial specifications to look for in a windows laptop. Everything that your computer processes is finally turned into a meaningful output using a display monitor. Video and photo editors require a color gamut that covers at least 90% sRGB so that users can obtain the true colors of the image. For gamers, resolution and refresh rate are the most concerning specs that directly affect their performance.

Connectivity: As a regular daily user, you might come across connecting several peripheral devices on your laptop. As a businessman, you might use an HDMI or DP for presentations on projectors. Gamers would require the latest USB interface for a low latency mouse or keyboard. Some people need an optical drive for data transfer, while others use Bluetooth or WiFi. We will discuss aspects of connectivity and, as a buyer, make sure your daily use port is present on the laptop.

The Best Windows Laptops: First look

The Best Windows Laptops: In-depth Review

Dell XPS 13 has been around for quite some time, and the performance has never failed to impress us. Why do we have a 5th generation processor laptop on our list? When it comes to the best windows laptop with decent price/performance laptops, we will go to great lengths while coming up with out-of-the-box solutions like this laptop by the top company. We tested Adobe Premium Pro for video editing using this laptop, and its 5th Gen Intel Core i5-5200U processor handled the load with no stuttering or hanging. The laptop looks advanced with its slim metal body and carbon fiber top for the handrest. It has modern display features like high 3200x1800 QHD+ resolution with a touch screen facility.

When it comes to gaming, the 60Hz display is excellent for the laptop as its integrated Intel HD 5500 GPU takes games like GTA V to 60fps quickly. This item amongst the top windows laptops has WiFi 802.11a/g/n (2x2) for maximum connectivity and BT 4.1 for all your wireless peripherals devices. It comes with a media card reader and 2 USB 3.0 ports, out of which one can charge your external devices even when the laptop is powered off. It comes with a mini-display port and charges status LEDs on the side of the laptop so that you know when your battery is going to die on you. It has a backlit keyboard with a decent click and travel distance for a premium feel.

If perfection in Windows is what you seek, then Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio is a laptop designed specifically for Windows by the Windows developer Microsoft. It is the best Windows 11 laptop that works flawlessly with its 11th Gen Intel processor. It is meant to be highly portable with a 2-in-1 laptop design. The display on this laptop is fluid due to the high refresh rate of 120Hz across 200 PPI density on a 14.4" screen. It is meant for designers, developers, and casual gamers. Microsoft has incorporated a charger integrated with storage for Surface Slim Pen 2 so that the stylus is always charged up for work.

If you connect an external storage device to the laptop, it features the latest Thunderbolt 4 connectivity for high-speed data transfer capability. The integrated graphics Intel Iris Xe is not meant for hardcore gaming, but it can run all AAA games like CyberPunk 2077 and Resident Evil 3 at 30+fps 720p resolution. However, it can run GPU light games at HD+ resolution with ease on Windows laptops. The whole screen is 10-point multi-touch capable so that while gaming, pressing multiple points will not hinder your performance. It comes with Quad sound-firing speakers powered by Dolby Atmos for a decent sound experience, and connectivity is ensured via WiFi-6 and BT 5.1.

Being a member of the Republic of Gamers (ROG) means you get tons of unique features on your Asus device. It also represents gaming-dedicated powerful hardware. The balance of price and hardware on this specific Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 model is impressive. They included an AMD Ryzen 7 4800HS processor, which remains among the top processors for the best windows gaming laptop with 7nm technology. Asus has provided delicate touches to their device, like opening up the display resulting in a hinge to raise the base, thus allowing heat to be released effectively. Let’s have a deeper dive into the features of this product.

The display itself is a 60Hz 100% sRGB color gamut display that is excellent for 60fps gaming, considering that this has a GTX 1650 GPU built-in to the system. It comes pre-installed with a PCIe 3.0 based 512GB M.2 NVMe that allows the windows to boot from shutdown condition to login screen within 10-11secs. It is the best laptop for windows at 100+fps. It comes with four USB 3.1 ports in Type-C and Type-A configurations alongside an HDMI port. You can charge your phone and other wireless devices with the dedicated Type-C USB port. In short, this laptop is pretty much the best option available.

Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 is the second laptop manufactured by Microsoft dedicated to Windows OS on our list. Microsoft has showcased its operating systems capability in this laptop. Aesthetically the laptop has an elegant look that blends in with any tabletop. It is the best Windows laptop for productivity with its easy-to-handle and slim body with only 3.4lb weight. While carrying a 15" display, the laptop has a 15 “display with a 201 PPI 10-point touch-enabled pixel sense display compatible with the Surface Pen. It is excellent for entry-level artists who feel the urge to use a pen on a surface rather than a mouse.

Microsoft has added the AMD Ryzen 7 4980U processor with a bit of twist and uniqueness, including a product-specific AMD Radeon GPU. We couldn’t resist testing some games on this Windows laptop. We tested competitive games and AAA titles like Overwatch and The Witcher 3, but both games reached a 30+fps mark with a 1080p resolution. The WQXGA resolution screen does not run at 120 or 144Hz, so we can safely say that this is an entry-level gaming device or casual gaming device. It offers USB-C and a USB-A connection alongside a magnetic power connection making this device a bare minimum. Most users would find comfort in having fewer ports.

Dell XPS 17 9700 is a 10th generation Intel processor-powered laptop that can power through your application with its incredible 8 cores and 16 threads. Dell added a 3840x2400 UHD+ display to maximize pixel density and provide a slim bezel around the edge, which Dell calls InfinityEdge display. They have added a touch screen with an anti-reflective surface ideal for reading and writing. This item being the best big-screen windows laptop, has a 17" 60Hz display with a 500nits brightness suitable for working in a room with good lighting. Professionals can use the laptop for video editing as it has a 100% sRGB color gamut. Users can play the latest raytracing-enabled games with gorgeous lightning on this laptop.

We thought of adding some powerful beasts to our list of the best laptops for windows list, and this one of them is perfect indeed. It offers powerful connectivity options with 4 Thunderbolt 4 ports and a Media card reader slot. It is the most high-speed port on a laptop on our list. With its 16GB of RAM and dedicated NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 GPU, it’s a perfect machine for gaming. The decent gaming benchmark results for a 60Hz display make it a mid-range gaming laptop. At 1200p AAA, titles like Metro Exodus run at 60+fps, making the hardware beautifully compatible. No hardware is overshadowing other hardware, and minimum bottlenecks are ensured, thus leading to a better experience for the price.

Dell named their high-end gaming dedicated PCs something not from this earth due to their performance and durability. Alienware M15 R4 is one of those top-of-the-line products by the brand. Whether you are a Millenial or a Generation Z, Alienware is a brand name that you couldn’t have missed. This one of the series is surely the best premium windows gaming laptop that money can buy. We know that 1080p is still the most used resolution for gaming as per statistics presented by the Steam gaming platform. On a 15.6" screen, anything beyond 1080p would hardly benefit the human eye. It uses a 1920x1080 resolution display with 100% sRGB color gamut and a 3ms response time.

The display is G-sync compatible with a 300 Hz refresh rate that is unparalleled to any laptop we have mentioned so far. It can run AAA titles like GTA V at 200+fps at 1080p resolution. Any hardware can use thermal throttle during gaming sessions. This Alienware laptop has a dedicated fan for ray tracing enabled RTX 3070 GPU and a powerful 8-core CPU to avoid such phenomena. It uses premium copper material as fins with dual inlet and outlet flow. Its backlit keyboard syncs with the laptop’s RGB lighting making it an aesthetical gaming laptop. Alienware fits all this hardware in a slim chassis weighing just around 2kg.

We couldn’t resist adding another ultraportable Microsoft product, Microsoft Surface Pro 8. It comes with an integrated GPU, but that’s for a very valid reason. It’s a 2 in 1 laptop that does not require a hinge connection to the keyboard. You can detach the keyboard to turn it into the best windows 11 2-in-1 laptop that requires no active cooling system for its operation. The laptop runs cool with its 8GB RAM and 256GB storage. This best laptop for windows is tailor-made for artists and college students. However, everyone can find the use for such portability in their daily life. Its two USB 4.0/Thunderbolt 4 allow external devices to connect with the highest possible bandwidth of 40Gbps.

Its 16hr battery life is an all-day single supercharging specification that keeps users away from the wall power long enough to work. The 267 PPI 120Hz display is one of its critical features for fluid windows accessibility. It is compatible with the latest stylus and has Xbox Game Pass Ultimate to access the latest 100+ games. This device has two cameras for video calls and conversations, one 5MP front-facing camera and a 10MP rear camera with FHD video recording capabilities. These specifications allow the laptop to utilize the Windows Hello face authentication system by allowing only you to access the laptop, thus providing ultimate security.

Lenovo is slowly gaining significant market shares in laptops due to its price/performance ratio. Lenovo Yoga 9i is an example of its value for money. It is the best 2-in-1 Windows laptop with an integrated Lenovo Pen, as its 15.6" 1920x1080 display is touch-enabled. The Yoga series has a 360° rotatable screen to turn it into a tablet configuration. It’s ideal for artists who like to draw on their tables. They have included a dedicated NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Ti graphics card for entry-level gaming, and this GPU can easily play AAA titles like Far Cry 5 at 60+fps 1080p resolution.

The display is HDR 400 500 nits with a glossy finish due to touch sensitivity. It comes with a soldered RAM of 16GB DDR4-2933 speed. If you are looking to replace the memory, users would require additional soldering techniques. It has the latest WiFi-6 and BT 5.0 for rapid internet connectivity like top Windows laptops. It has three USB ports, out of which Thunderbolt 3 port can be used as a data transfer port, power delivery, or DisplayPort 1.4. Dolby Atmos powers two woofers and two tweeters for high-end audio delivery. A 1TB SSD M.2 NVMe based allows massive storage, which is more than enough in this cloud storage era.

Final Words

Windows is undoubtedly the king of all operating systems, especially when it comes to gaming. All the engineering software, medical software, and productivity-related software are readily available alongside many open-source programs. A great deal of customization on Windows allows all the modern games mods and other capabilities that are not available on a Mac or Chromebook. Our list will help pick the best windows laptop suitable for college students, professionals, video editors, gamers, and artists. We have featured laptops with high-end dedicated GPUs and laptops with bare minimum integrated GPU as an everyday driver. When buying a laptop, you should consider what your usage will be. If you want a daily driver for taking notes and require portability, consider buying a 2-in-1 laptop. Lightweight, slim laptops are possible with mobile processors and integrated graphic chipsets. Ultraportable laptops are also passively cooled, so high-end gaming hardware is not possible in this kind of laptop.

Gamers require dedicated hardware that is capable of running games at higher framerates. Obtaining high framerates is not the only thing that will result in a smooth gaming experience. You will also require a display with a higher refresh rate than the framerates being pumped by the graphic card. We have included laptops capable of running mind-boggling 300 Hz refresh rates with a high-end RTX 2000 series GPU. The display is also G-sync capable, so there is a guarantee that all the screen refresh rate overlaps framerates, thus eliminating screen tearing. The storage device needs to be fast, preferably an M.2 NVMe drive, and a minimum of 8GB RAM is required for all new AAA titles. As a professional, you might need to look at the connectivity as there is not always a display port in laptops. We hope you find the right product after going through our review.

Frequently Asked Questions