In a conversation with the Creative Bloq team last week, I was asked by my editor what my favourite laptop right now is. And I said, "I'll tell you in my next opinion piece!"
And then I thought about what the real answer would be, and the answer is...
I don't know.
The fact is, it may be harder now than ever to truthfully answer a question that requires such a simple response. And it's not because I can't find anything I like, as tends to happen when you're fully immersed in something for a long time. No, it's because there's too much to like. In fact, the world of laptops may be more exciting now than ever before. You can see the evidence in our guide of the best laptops around right now, in which we've had to be extremely selective, and still ended up with an incredible variety.
We're getting more powerful mainstream consumer laptops than ever, such as the M3-chipped MacBook Air (which we already have in for testing, and are very impressed with so far). We're getting sleeker, more-presentable-to-real-humans-outside-your-gaming-dungeon gaming laptops, such as the new Acer Predator Triton (which we're getting in for review real soon) and the ASUS Vivobook Pro, which effortlessly pulls double-duty as a workhorse and gaming rig.
And we're taking our first tangible steps into proper AI territory with the new 14th-gen AI-boosted Intel Core Ultra processors, which add an NPU to a Windows processor for the first time, finally delivering something approaching Apple-level power efficiency (and something that will evolve dramatically over the next few years).
AND. We're getting more innovative, more useful, and more varied laptops with every year that passes. Examples include the brilliant ASUS Zenbook Duo 14 OLED, with its two full-size screens, glasses-free 3D screens, such as the Acer Predator Helios SpatialLabs, an onslaught of brilliant OLED screens everywhere, now with true gaming-level refresh rates too, and so much more. Several manufacturers, including Lenovo and, again, the innovation leader among laptops, ASUS, have foldable laptops either out already or on the way.
We're even getting Chromebooks that can lift real creative weights now, with HP, Acer and ASUS all bringing out their own variants of the Chromebook Plus, which has better photo-editing tools than ever, and can even run (a slimmed-down version of) Photoshop, while remaining more affordable than Windows/MacOS rivals.
So I guess my favourite laptop doesn't exist right now, but if I could assemble one from everything on the market right now, it would be made up of the following elements:
Apple MacBook's UX
Apple may have felt 'safe' and even 'boring' to some in recent years, what with its extremely conservative updates to their existing range, without many true innovations. But one element they still lead by a country mile is the user interface and ergonomics of its OS. We saw in the MacBook Pro M3 and again in our hands-on experience with the new M3-powered MacBook Air that evolution beats revolution when it comes to the ease of navigating your everyday digital environment.
ASUS's OLED displays
ASUS went all-in on OLED displays long before any other laptop maker, and even before some of them even started introducing OLEDs to their range. If the name confuses you, OLED stands for Organic Light-Emitting Diodes. The "Organic" part of the name refers to the carbon film that is a part of the structure of OLED displays, which is not included in Mini-LED displays (like those you find on MacBooks, for example), and so far, no other laptop display tech comes close to the sharpness and vividness of the latest generation of OLEDs. ASUS, having bet the farm on those a few years ago, is now reaping the rewards, with a better application of those panels than any other laptop maker around. Just see our ASUS Zenbook 14 OLED review (or the Zenbook Duo, where you get TWO of those beauties) for proof. It's so good, it even made me like small laptops! Make it one of their touchscreens and I'll be so happy.
HP's tablet mode...
Almost every laptop brand has a 2-in-1 version of at least one of their popular models, but HP is the one that's really nailed it. They make some killer tablet/laptop hybrids that always impress us. My favourite is definitely the HP Envy x360. It's perfect for watching movies, and it's super portable at just 13 inches. That's not much bigger than an iPad Pro or Huawei MatePad, but it still has all the power and functionality of a full laptop.
...and Acer Predator's pure powerrrrrrrr
Last year's Acer Predator Helios is not for those scared of sharp angles, or indeed those suffering from chronic back pain. And it's not exactly quiet either. But man, does it make you feel like a god.
It doesn't pack the same objective performance figures as, say, the MacBook M3 Max or the ASUS ProArt Studiobook, but it filled me with delirious, 10-year-old-boy-seeing-a-monster-movie-for-the-first-time glee every time I fired it up in Turbo Mode, and its ridiculously loud fans kicked in, deafening any wildlife unfortunate enough to be in the vicinity.
Add to the above the NVIDIA RTX 4090 graphics card, Intel's 14th-gen 185H processor (the AI-boosted NPU will keep getting better) and a wireless keyboard/mouse setup from either Corsair (if you're Windows-focused) or Logitech (if you're a Mac fan), and I'd have the perfect setup... for now. In a year, though? Let's see if I have a clear-cut favourite then...
