Best laptops 2021 | Android Central

The best laptops help you switch seamlessly between productivity, creativity, and relaxation at a moment’s notice. These portables have the processing chops to handle demanding applications, but not the bulky designs that make them inconvenient to carry around. We’ve reviewed and ranked the best low-end, mid-range, and high-end laptops across all the major manufacturers and operating systems to help you decide which one hits the perfect balance between budget and performance.

Choosing the best laptops of 2021

You won’t find many gaming laptops, mobile workstations, or 17-inch behemoths on our list of the “best” laptops. It goes without saying that if you spend two or three thousand dollars on a machine, it’s going to outperform a Chromebook. We think that the best laptops work for professionals without outpricing students, performing well in their base configuration, and offering upgrades for power users.

That’s why four of our best Chromebooks picks also made our list of the best laptops. These devices might not win in a benchmark contest against an Ultrabook or Macbook. Still, they offer perks like a simplified operating system, excellent battery life, and hybrid laptop/tablet designs, all at a much lower starting price.

Even if you’d prefer a Windows device, we think versatility and portability is an important factor for most buyers. That’s why half of our picks have convertible or 2-in-1 form factors, and most of our picks weigh between 2 and 3.3 pounds and don’t measure above 14 inches.

We’ll highlight all of the usual and important specs like processors, graphics, and memory, but these often correlate pretty consistently with the price you’re willing to pay. The intangibles we’ll highlight here are those that will matter most to your day-to-day experience: the keyboard, trackpad, temperature and fan noise, color fidelity, internet connectivity, and so on. What you won’t find much of are laptops with upgradeable components besides storage or recommendations that you buy the 4K or OLED versions of laptops that burn through battery life much faster.

That being said, if you came here for the best of the best and just want our top recommendations with no fuss, choose the XPS 13 9310 for sheer quality of performance, stylish display, and functional features. Or, if Windows isn’t your OS of choice, the excellent Acer Chromebook Spin 713 should check most students’ and creatives’ boxes at a lower price, while the MacBook Air with M1 has surprisingly fast performance and all-day battery life at a mid-range price.

Bottom line: Each new generation of the XPS 13 only widens the gap between it and other laptops, and the latest 9310 gives you 11th Gen Intel processing, 91.5% screen-to-body ratio, Wi-Fi 6, improved integrated graphics, and more. As a result, it’s a mid-range option that can easily run productivity and editing software, and even non-demanding PC games, at a lower cost than most comparable machines — though the 4K and touchscreen options raise the price.

Processor: Up to 11th Gen i7-1165G7 | Graphics: Intel® Iris® Xe Graphics Shared | RAM: Up to 16GB 4267MHz LPDDR4x | Storage: 512GB–2TB M.2 PCIe NVMe | Display size: 13.4″ | Display resolution: FHD or UHD, 500 nits | Ports and slots: 2x Thunderbolt 4, 1x audio jack, 1x microSD | Weight: 2.8 lb | Convertible? 2-in-1 model available

Our colleagues at Windows Central had nothing but effusive praise for the Dell XPS 13 9310, which it called the “best 13-inch Ultrabook” on the market thanks to its beautiful bezel-less design, powerful Intel Xe graphics, attractive 16:10 display, and truly reliable battery life. Best of all, its new Tiger Lake CPUs handles productivity software like Excel 2.5x faster and video editing software 1.54x faster than the previous CPU generation, making it perfect for productivity.

Very few laptops come close to the quality that the XPS 13 offers, so your only real debate is whether to buy the newest model for the speed boost and other minor upgrades or choose the 10th Generation CPU option at a discount.

Our reviewers loved the older 2020 laptop on its own merits. The form factor received the most praise thanks to its tall 16:10 aspect ratio, razor-thin bezels, redesigned keyboard with large backlit keys, and good key travel. In the Geekbench 5.0 and PCMark 10 CPU benchmark tests, the XPS 13 beat other best laptop picks like the Surface Laptop 4 and Acer Swift 3. The 500 nits of brightness and excellent dual 2.5-watt speakers gave a one-two punch of stunning visuals and audio.

That said, there are perks to upgrading to the 9310. Specs-wise, the RAM speed jumps from 3733MHz to 4267MHz, and the SSD was swapped to the M.2 PCIe form factor. The DCI-P3 color gamut jumps to 90%, a useful improvement for photo and video editors that need color fidelity. If you have a Wi-Fi 6 router, only the 9310 can take full advantage of it. You’ll also upgrade your two ports to Thunderbolt 4.

Shoppers who game in their spare time will seriously want to consider the 9310 because its upgraded Intel Xe GPU proves that integrated graphics don’t have to be bad. According to leaked benchmarks, the Intel Xe wins a head-to-head showdown against the discrete 25W NVIDIA MX350 GPU, and can reportedly play current-gen titles like Borderlands 3 at 1080p, something the 9300 XPS 13 certainly can’t do. It’s not a gaming laptop by any stretch of the imagination, but it’ll let you enjoy new games without spending an extra grand for a well-specced gaming laptop.

Neither laptop has legacy USB ports — you’ll need some USB-C adapters — and the 52 Whr battery remained unchanged between the 9300 and 9310, leaving you with adequate but unremarkable battery life. So whichever you get your hands on, there are very few downsides to an XPS 13.

Bottom line: Anyone who can find this model in stock has an absolute winner on their hands. The Acer Chromebook Spin 713 frequently sells out thanks to an affordable price matched with some of the most powerful specs you’ll find with a Chrome OS device. As our only Chromebook pick with an HDMI port, 3:2 ratio, and i7 Intel processor, it’s the best equipped for multi-display or multi-window productivity and for Stadia gaming.

Processor: Up to 10th Gen i7-10510U 1.80GHz | Graphics: Intel UHD Shared | RAM: 16GB DDR4 SDRAM | Storage: 128 GB SSD | Display size: 13.5″ | Display resolution: 2256×1504 | Ports and slots: 1x HDMI, 1x USB-C, 3x USB | Weight: 3.20 lb | Auto Update Expiration date: June 2028 | Convertible? Yes

Most Chromebooks fundamentally lack much processing power, offering wimpy Mediatek processors, subbing in eMMC storage for SSDs, and falling short of the usual 8GB memory standard. However, Acer flouted those industry standards when it built the powerful Spin 713, which we gave 5 stars in our review. Part of Intel’s Project Athena initiative to improve Chromebooks’ reliability and power, the Spin 713 is essentially a poster child for how to meet those goals.

For starters, the entry-level 713 gives you three options between the 10th Gen Intel i3, i5, and i7 that are all within a couple of hundred dollars in price, so upgrading to full power doesn’t make you spend more than you should. Even at the lowest tier, you get 8GB of memory that will help it handle as many Chrome tabs at once as you need; and again, moving up to 16GB won’t bankrupt you. Just note that all that extra processing power translates into a louder, warmer fan than most Chromebook users have to accept.

Best of all, in our weeks of testing, we found that even with brightness at max and making video calls, the battery life lasted us 6–8 hours. Most non-Chromebooks are lucky to hit that even when not using any intensive applications. While on the go, this laptop may be slightly heavier than other Chromebooks but needs that extra weight for its powerful components and strong battery to match.

Acer made room for an HDMI port, USB-C port, and three legacy USB ports, which outclasses most Chromebooks and Ultrabooks. While you’ll need a USB-C monitor for most Chromebooks, this laptop makes it far simpler to link up to any external monitor to add screen space for your work or charge your various accessories.

While virtually any Chromebook can handle Stadia since the bulk of the game rendering is handled via the cloud, the Spin 713 remains one of the few that won’t be overwhelmed by higher settings. And once Google succeeds in adding Steam support to its Chromebooks via Linux, the Spin 713 is far better equipped than our other Chromebook picks to play games past potato settings.

Why shouldn’t you pick the Acer Chromebook Spin 713? If you want a true 2-in-1 detachable, that’s lighter for in-bed tablet streaming, for one. For another, our reviewer did note that the audio doesn’t sound great when seated on your lap or bed, thanks to the downward-facing speakers. And it does have decently sized bezels compared to some of our other top picks. These are fairly minor concerns, but we have some alternatives below if you want a lighter device with an even better battery life.

Bottom line: You’ll rarely find this level of performance and quality in a 13-inch laptop at this price, let alone a 15-inch model. It has a fast AMD Ryzen processor, it’s lightweight for a 15-inch model, you get a touch display even at the cheapest configuration, and the battery life lasts 14 hours per charge. You can upgrade to the Spectre for better specs, but this will be more than enough quality for most.

Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 5700U (Up to 4.3GHz) | Graphics: Radeon RX Vega 8 | RAM: 8–16 GB | Storage: 256-512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD | Display size: 15.6″ | Display resolution: FHD, 400 nits | Ports and slots: USB-C 3.1 (Gen 2)
Two USB-A 3.1 (Gen 2)
HDMI 2.0
3.5mm audio
SD card reader | Weight: 4.1 lb | Convertible? Yes

We mostly kept our “best laptops” list confined to 13-inch models with solid performance that more people can afford. But we decided to include the HP Envy x360 15 as one of our top picks because it gives a larger display option that won’t cost you a couple grand. It’ll convert to a massive tablet in a pinch for casual streaming, but has some intense processing power for regular laptop use.

The two biggest selling points for this laptop are its AMD Ryzen 5700U chip with 16GB memory and its neverending battery life. With eight cores and 16 threads, the Ryzen can easily handle anything from tab-heavy browsing to media editing and streaming while the built-in fans stay mostly silent and the battery keeps chugging along. It’ll last you a full workday and well into the evening before it needs a recharge.

The display supports 100% sRGB, 76% AdobeRGB, and 79% DCI-P3 color…