I Test Laptops All Year Long. These Are the 12 That Make My Holiday Gift List

The Windows rival to the Apple MacBook Neo has arrived. The same price as Apple’s popular budget laptop, the new all-aluminum XPS 13 offers key advantages, notably a backlit keyboard, more storage in its base model, a 120Hz 1600p touch screen, and Wi-Fi 7 connectivity. It’s not the powerhouse you might expect from the XPS name, but it’s one of the most luxurious laptops at this price. For the "normies" or students in your life, this one’s a no-brainer.

Apple produced its first true budget MacBook by using an iPhone-first A18 Pro processor. The MacBook Neo has seen a $100 price increase since it launched earlier this year, but it’s still the cheapest MacBook to date. However, in true Apple fashion, the Neo looks and feels anything but cut-rate. It’s a snappy, colorful, full-metal laptop with quick, efficient everyday performance. It’s the ultimate gift for the Mac-curious person in your life.

This ARM-based Windows laptop is great for long stints on the go—it had a near-35-hour battery life in our rundown testing—so it's the perfect solution for the roving freelancer in your life. The HP OmniBook 5 14 is a sharp, fast laptop that can power your giftee through countless emails, article drafts, spreadsheet updates, and slide decks. Best of all (for you), it's aggressively priced.

The latest MacBook Air from Apple outpaces most comparable machines thanks to its M5 processor. It’s simply one of the most reliable laptops, long-lasting in terms of both battery life and durability. The Air's full-metal build never disappoints, and the machine performs well in a range of applications. If you gift this one to a first-year college student, they'll very likely still have it on graduation day.

For younger students, who are far more likely to damage their devices, consider a Chromebook. Dell makes some of the best Chromebooks for kids, with rugged builds that resist drops and liquid spills, and packing just enough performance for their school-issued apps. This 14-inch option is our current top Chromebook pick for the younger set, and it’s tailor-made for school work.

The Razer Blade 18 is a thin, 18-inch powerhouse gaming laptop that justifies its steep price—the reality of PC gaming at this level in 2026—with its blazing speeds and competitive battery life. No matter what kind of enthusiast PC gamer your loved one is, the Blade 18’s dual-mode display will serve their needs. For the hard-core PC gamer, it’s tough to beat this laptop.

If your loved one is just an everyday PC gamer, we suggest this OLED stunner from Lenovo. The Legion 5i features a colorful 15.1-inch screen, potent Nvidia RTX graphics, and an Intel Core i7 or i9 processor. The laptop also comes with the latest connections for wired or wireless online play. If you’re looking to hook someone up with a gaming laptop that’s a step above the budget class, this is the one.

Among desktop-replacement models, it doesn’t get much better than this big-screen laptop from Asus. It’s an ARM-based Snapdragon machine with a dazzling, high-resolution OLED screen, dominant multi-core processing, and more than 18 hours of battery life. It also doesn’t cost a relative fortune, especially on sale, so you can purchase that special someone one of the best roomy laptops of the year for less.

If you’re on a tighter budget, but your loved one still wants a laptop with a large display, Acer serves up the best budget 16-inch laptop of the year: the Aspire 16 AI. It’s aggressively priced for a laptop with a 120Hz display, a 1440p webcam, lots of ports, and lengthy battery life. Plus, the laptop’s Snapdragon X CPU proves competitive in its budget class. It's a surprisingly well-rounded system for its price.

Everyone has that one person in their life who has everything, but do they have a laptop with two screens? We didn't think so. Not only is the Zenbook Duo a trendy laptop, but this year’s model is the best twin-panel machine we’ve ever tested, with potent Intel Core Ultra Series 3 processing powering two 3K OLED touch screens. Plus, our rundown tests kicked back 30 hours of battery life.

While you don’t have to go with the topped-out M5 Max model we reviewed, video editors and 3D graphics pros will want at least M5 Pro-level performance, whereas photo editors can get away with base-level M-series processing. The MacBook Pros, historically, have proven reliable, so remember that the money you’re paying now should go further than most comparable PC systems.

On the PC side of the fence, Asus offers the inimitable ProArt P16 line. This year’s model delivers unrivaled content-creation performance with its AMD Ryzen AI 9 processor and powerful Nvidia graphics options. Naturally, it’s an OLED laptop with tip-top screen specs (120Hz refresh rate, 4K resolution), but it also distinguishes itself with a unique DialPad input mechanism embedded in the touchpad.