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2026 is off to a good start with some impressive laptops. From the industry-shaking MacBook Neo to the wild return of the XPS, a lot has happened in the first few months alone. With all these awesome new models, finding the best laptop for you can be tricky. Luckily, our experts tested some of the best laptops of the year, like the latest Lenovo ThinkPad and the light-as-air Asus Zenbook A14.

We reviewed spec sheets to evaluate memory and storage, build quality, portability, and value, while keeping an eye on how they actually perform in day-to-day use cases. Using industry-standard benchmarking programs, we test all laptops' performance, battery life, and display quality, and compared how they perform in the real world, not just a controlled environment on the sales floor.

Our pick for best laptop goes to the MacBook Air M5. Not because it's the fastest and most powerful (but it's no slouch in those categories) but because it's the quintessential laptop for everybody. The fifth generation of Apple's Silicon chips mark a maturation of the form factor, and improvements to its hardware (more base memory, faster storage) push it closer to the MacBook Pro.