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Apple’s latest MacBook Pro with M4 is down to its lowest price to date

The MacBook Pro 14 with M4 is one of our top laptop recommendations for students, and it’s currently $1,299 ($300 off), an all-time low price at Amazon and Best Buy. In our tests, Apple’s entry-level pro laptop was powerful enough to process high-resolution raw files in Adobe’s Lightroom Classic without slowing down. It also easily clears the system requirements to play last month’s port of Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate to MacOS. The laptop has a 14.2-inch high resolution (3024 x 1964) 120Hz Mini-LE

83% of US Adults Still Choose Laptops for Work and School Over Sleek Smartphones and Tablets, CNET Survey Finds

Upgrading to a new laptop can feel like a never-ending rabbit hole. Even when you know what you need, choosing the best features, specs and design within your budget can be a bit overwhelming, to say the least. Between back-to-school season and the holidays fast approaching, now's the time to shop around for a deal on a new laptop. But what are US adults looking for when upgrading their laptops, anyway? CNET's new laptop survey found that nearly half of US adults are upgrading for better speed

Alienware 16 Area-51 Review: If Only the Display Was as Fantastic as the Mechanical Keyboard

The new Area-51 laptop feels like Alienware in a way that its most recent gaming PCs like its mammoth Area-51 desktop have not. The gaming laptop is extra: extra glowy, extra clicky, and all too over the top. The bottom panel sports a massive window where you can peer directly at the fan components. The only way you’d catch a glimpse of the rotating fans and the tint of RGB is if you lift up your laptop as if you were looking for a quarter that rolled under your dresser. The Razer Blade 18 has a

Super-Affordable iPhone-powered MacBook Could Reportedly Launch This Year At $600

An affordable MacBook powered by the iPhone's A18 Pro chip could launch later this year for $600, according to a report from Taiwanese publication DigiTimes on Monday. The latest report corroborates a note by prominent industry analyst Ming-Chi Kuo from last month that said Apple was working on a new MacBook Air powered by that processor. A $600 price point would be a significant step for Apple's attempt to break into the affordable computing space. The report does give a range, however. While

This 16-inch Razer Blade look-a-like laptop is $1,300 at Best Buy

is an editor covering deals and gaming hardware that he thinks you’ll like. He joined in 2018. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Let’s be honest, Gigabyte. Your marketing for the Aero X16 is giving Razer Blade, from the colors and font of the spec slides to the thin design of the space gray laptop itself. While we haven’t tested out this model to see how it stacks up to Razer’s gaming machine, its price is certainly a lot more attractive. A

13 Best Back-to-School Laptop Deals for 2025

The laptop you bring to college is important. Not only is it the device you'll be using through some of the most formative years of your life, but it's also often the one that you'll take to your first job, too. The problem is that the internet is full of laptops that aren't worth the money, especially if you're scrolling through lists of laptops on Amazon or Best Buy. Good news! I've tested each of the following laptops myself and can wholeheartedly recommend them. More than that, I've been di

I answered the million-dollar question about buying laptops - here's the ultimate guide

Kyle Kucharski/ZDNET Choosing the right laptop can feel overwhelming -- even for someone like me who's lived and breathed laptops for years. You get all these options, configurations, and feature lists that it's impossible not to know up from down. So, to make things easier for you, I'll be breaking down laptops and their essentials using three broad usage categories: school, work, and gaming. Also: The best laptops you can buy: Expert tested Most laptops fall into one of these buckets, and w

I tried Lenovo's new rollable ThinkBook and can't go back to regular-sized screens

ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable ZDNET's key takeaways The ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 is available now, starting at $3,300. The 120Hz, OLED, portrait-style 16.7-inch display delivers an expansive workspace, supported by a haptic touchpad. It has limited I/O, has some visible creasing on the rollable display, and has a sky-high price. View now at Lenovo Lenovo unveiled its "rollable" laptop at CES two years ago as a wild proof of concept that turned heads, but left consumers skeptical. Well, the compan

How to buy a laptop for school, work, or gaming (and our top picks for each)

Kyle Kucharski/ZDNET Choosing the right laptop can feel overwhelming -- even for someone like me who's lived and breathed laptops for years. You get all these options, configurations, and feature lists that it's impossible not to know up from down. So, to make things easier for you, I'll be breaking down laptops and their essentials using three broad usage categories: school, work, and gaming. Also: The best laptops you can buy: Expert tested Most laptops fall into one of these buckets, and w

The best Windows laptops for 2025

If you’ve held on to an aging Windows laptop for too long, it’s now a great time to upgrade. With all the hype around AI PCs, computer makers are rushing to release new designs featuring efficient new chips from Intel and AMD. And thanks to Microsoft’s Copilot+ initiative, which launched last year, we’re finally seeing decent notebooks powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chips, which are leading to better battery life and lighter designs. Whether you need a premium ultraportable, a powerful gami

I was skeptical about big-screen laptops, but this Acer model is my new go-to for work

Acer Swift 16 AI ZDNET's key takeaways The Acer Swift 16 AI is available now starting at $1,250. Its 16-inch OLED display, well-designed lightweight form, and marathon battery work together to create a laptop that feels more premium than its price would suggest. Its speakers, however, leave much to be desired, and it has its fair share of bloatware. $1,299 at Walmart $1,249.99 at Best Buy more buying choices Acer's Swift 16 AI is a thin and light laptop with a gorgeous OLED display, nice full

I switched to the Dell 14 Premium for two weeks, and it made my XPS laptop look bad

Dell 14 Premium ZDNET's key takeaways Dell's latest high-performance laptop is currently on sale starting at $1,500. It's superbly designed, with a sleek, modern build and powerful, but accessible, hardware. It runs warm, and requires power management from the user to get the most out of the battery. View now at Dell Dell's laptop rebrand may have resulted in some shuffling around of naming conventions, but the new Dell 14 Premium -- Dell's refreshed high-performance line of laptops -- looks

Coffee-shop pitch change helped founder unlock traction for laptop campers

Julia Vidal, co-founder of Badge, began with a simple problem: remote workers often roam the city searching for a workplace that won’t shoo them away. As coffee shops and cafés are increasingly adopting no-laptop policies, she envisioned a startup. What if partnered cafés allowed the reservation of a laptop spot, but just with a minimum spend, so everybody is happy? Basically, AirBnB, for café-based workspaces with proper WiFi. Quick prototype validates demand on the consumer side To test wh

The best laptop deals you can get right now

If you want a great laptop, you’re going to have to fork over a ton of money, right? Not necessarily. There are dozens of good laptops on the market at various price points. However, it can feel overwhelming to find the right one for your needs (some are better suited for, say, college students, whereas others are ideal for gamers). That’s why we’ve come up with this list of some of the best laptop deals available right now. In addition to the latest discounts, we’ll share each discounted model

I tested Dell's XPS successor, and it made my $3,000 Windows laptop look bad

Dell Premium 16 ZDNET's key takeaways The Dell Premium 16 starts at $1,800. This is a premium laptop capable of handling heavy workloads, especially graphic design, thanks to its top-notch hardware. However, it does share some of the same issues as its predecessor, like its tendency to run warm and power-hungry battery. View now at Dell I've been dying to get my hands on the new Dell Premium 16, mainly because it is a follow-up to the Dell XPS 16, a laptop that I reviewed back in early 2024 a

Best Cheap Laptop: Budget Computers for Every Use

There are a ton of models for less than $1,000 on the market at any given moment, and a large fraction of those are less than $500. As long as you manage your expectations regarding options and specs, you can still get quite a bit from a budget laptop model, including good battery life and a reasonably lightweight laptop body. (If you're replacing an old Windows laptop that's not up to running Windows anymore, consider turning it into a Chromebook.) Price If the statistics Intel and PC manufac

Screw Foldables: Lenovo’s Rollable Laptop Proves There Are Better Uses for Flexible Screens

With a buzz and a whirl, my laptop begins to unfurl. In less than six seconds after the press of a button, my petit 14-inch ThinkBook stands erect over my desk with a taller 16.7-inch display. There is literally nothing else like Lenovo’s ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable, and that’s partially why it costs a whopping $3,300. And you know what? There are few things cooler in laptop world than watching your screen expand from its original size. When you’re dropping a hefty chunk of change on a laptop

Screw Foldables: Lenovo’s Rollable ThinkBook Proves There Are Better Uses for Flexible Screens

With a buzz and a whirl, my laptop begins to unfurl. In less than six seconds after the press of a button, my petit 14-inch ThinkBook stands erect over my desk with a taller 16.7-inch display. There is literally nothing else like Lenovo’s ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable, and that’s partially why it costs a whopping $3,300. And you know what? There are few things cooler in laptop world than watching your screen expand from its original size. When you’re dropping a hefty chunk of change on a laptop

ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 – Lenovo’s rollable laptop

is a reviewer covering laptops and the occasional gadget. He spent over 15 years in the photography industry before joining The Verge as a deals writer in 2021. Part of me still can’t believe it, but Lenovo did the thing: it took a bonkers concept for a laptop with a rollable screen and built the tech into something you can actually own and use like a normal computer. Except, as conventional as the ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 can be, it’s far from a normal computer. It’s a $3,300 laptop with a screen

Lenovo’s rollable laptop is the coolest computer I’ve used all year

is a reviewer covering laptops and the occasional gadget. He spent over 15 years in the photography industry before joining The Verge as a deals writer in 2021. Part of me still can’t believe it, but Lenovo did the thing: it took a bonkers concept for a laptop with a rollable screen and built the tech into something you can actually own and use like a normal computer. Except, as conventional as the ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 can be, it’s far from a normal computer. It’s a $3,300 laptop with a screen

Finally, an ultraportable Windows laptop I'd use at the office (even though it's for gamers)

MSI Stealth 16 AI ZDNET's key takeaways The MSI Stealth 16 AI is on sale at Best Buy for $2,030. It's a gaming laptop with powerful hardware and a vibrant OLED display that's ideal for both gaming and graphic design. However, like its predecessor, it has a hungry battery and runs hot. View now at Best Buy The 2025 MSI Stealth 16 is the latest entry in the tech company's sleek gaming laptop series. I'm pretty familiar with the Stealth line, having reviewed several models in the past. This vers

This ultraportable Asus laptop is my favorite MacBook Air alternative (and it's better in some ways)

Asus Zenbook A14 ZDNET's key takeaways The Asus Zenbook A14 with 16GB of memory is on sale at Best Buy for $599. It's a fantastic balance of innovation and value with an OLED display, competitive hardware, and a satisfying physical form. While its use case is clearly defined, the laptop has its limits when it comes to high-end performance. View now at Best Buy The Asus Zenbook A14 is on sale for $599 at Best Buy for the 16GB model. That's a $400 discount on one of the best laptops we've teste

Microsoft Needs to Make Affordable 5G Surface Laptops a Reality

Microsoft didn’t launch its 2025 lineup of Surface devices with a 5G option. Instead, it waited a few months for interest to die down enough to release its business-end version with a starting price nearly twice that of the one built for the average joe. It shows that if users want a laptop that can connect to the internet without relying on spotty public or Starbucks Wi-Fi, they need to pay through the nose. Hopefully Microsoft’s new tech will get cheaper later, though only if laptop makers rec

Best Laptops We've Tested (August 2025)

There are a ton of laptops on the market at any given moment and almost all of those models are available in multiple configurations to match your performance and budget needs. If you're feeling overwhelmed with options when looking for a new laptop, it's understandable. To help simplify things for you, here are the main things you should consider when you start looking. Price The search for a new laptop for most people starts with price. If the statistics that chipmaker Intel and PC manufactu

Finally, a sleek gaming laptop I can take to the office (without sacrificing power)

MSI Stealth 16 AI ZDNET's key takeaways The MSI Stealth 16 AI is on sale at Best Buy for $2,030. It's a gaming laptop with powerful hardware and a vibrant OLED display that's ideal for both gaming and graphic design. However, like its predecessor, it has a hungry battery and runs hot View now at Best Buy The 2025 MSI Stealth 16 is the latest entry in the tech company's sleek gaming laptop series. I'm pretty familiar with the Stealth line, having reviewed several models in the past. This versi

This $599 Windows laptop is the back-to-school deal I most recommend right now

Asus Zenbook A14 ZDNET's key takeaways The Asus Zenbook A14 with 16GB of memory is on sale at Best Buy for $599. It's a fantastic balance of innovation and value with an OLED display, competitive hardware, and a satisfying physical form. While its use case is clearly defined, the laptop has its limits when it comes to high-end performance. View now at Best Buy The Asus Zenbook A14 is on sale for $599 at Best Buy for the 16GB model. That's a $400 discount on one of the best laptops we've teste

11 Best Laptops for College Students (2025), Including Tablets and 2-in-1s

All our guidelines for choosing a laptop also apply to a device for college, including evaluating the quality of the display and chassis, along with ensuring that the laptop is fast enough for your work. Get something with at least 16 GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage and you'll be happy. There are a couple of important things to consider specific to college. Portability and battery life are paramount. Regardless of your budget, you want something that will last throughout the day and won't weigh

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The best laptop cooling pads of 2025: Expert tested

A great laptop doesn't need to cost a fortune, and the same goes for the accessories that keep it running smoothly. If you're looking to maintain your computer's performance during intense workloads or long gaming sessions, a cooling pad can make all the difference. Heat can build up and slow down even the best laptops. The best laptop cooling pads on the market deliver excellent airflow and have a smart design without the premium price tag. With so many solid options available, it can be diffi

This $599 Asus Zenbook OLED is seriously the best Windows laptop deal right now

Asus Zenbook A14 ZDNET's key takeaways The Asus Zenbook A14 with 16GB of memory is on sale at Best Buy for $599. It's a fantastic balance of innovation and value with an OLED display, competitive hardware, and a satisfying physical form. While its use case is clearly defined, the laptop has its limits when it comes to high-end performance. View now at Best Buy The Asus Zenbook A14 is on sale for $599 at Best Buy for the 16GB model. That's a $400 discount on one of the best laptops we've teste

How to trigger a command on Linux when power switches from AC to battery

After thinking about BusKill product that triggers a command once the USB cord disconnects, I have been thinking at a simple alternative. BusKill official project website When using a laptop connected to power most of the time, you may want it to power off once it gets disconnected, this can be really useful if you use it in a public area like a bar or a train. The idea is to protect the laptop if it gets stolen while in use and unlocked. Here is how to proceed on Linux, using a trigger on an