I've tested over 59 laptops: this is the best laptop of 2024
Mashable's tech editor has reviewed well over 59 laptops, so she knows more than anyone which Windows laptop is the best one this year.
So what is the best laptop of 2024?
I've tested well over 59 laptops during my career as a tech reviewer. I've seen terrible laptops, mid laptops, and extraordinary machines that are worth every cent.
Not to toot my horn — OK, fine maybe I'm toot-tooting just a little bit here— I'm a beast when it comes to inspecting laptops.
I put laptops through the wringer with battery life testing (if it doesn't last at least 15 hours, I don't want it); I overwhelm the laptop with memory-taxing Google Chrome tabs to test performance; I scrutinize the durability of the chassis; I test the speakers to see if they're too quiet.
I run industry benchmarks from the likes of Geekbench and PCMark to determine how the review units — with hard numbers — compare to other equally priced rivals.
When it comes to reviewing laptops, I always ask myself one crucial question: "Would I buy this with my hard-earned money?" If the answer is no, there's no way I'm recommending it to you (unless, of course, it's still a great laptop, but would better suit another specific niche).
That being said, among the many laptops I've reviewed thus far, there's only one laptop that's truly the best laptop of 2024: the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7.
Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 is the best laptop of 2024: 3 reasons why
Stay with me here. In order for you to understand why the Surface Laptop 7 is best laptop of 2024, you'll need a little historical context. Because the Surface family wasn't always highly recommended as the best laptop line — until now.
A few years ago, I was smack-talking the Surface Laptop 5 when I reviewed it for a different publication. (The Surface Laptop 5 is technically the Surface Laptop 7's predecessor. There's a Surface Laptop 6, but only for business and not available in stores.) I always wanted Microsoft Surface laptops to win — but they just couldn't live up to my expectations.
It's not that Microsoft Surface laptops were awful per se — they just kept getting outperformed by cheaper, better competitors. So I couldn't, in good conscience, recommend them.
Now, if you were to tell me that, in 2024, I'd be recommending a Surface laptop, I'd say, "You're out of your mind!" But here I am, as a laptop expert, actually suggesting a Microsoft laptop to my readers. But you know what? I'm backing this up. I have proof that it's the best laptop of the year. Here are my three reasons:
1. Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 has the best battery life
When I tested the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 to see how long it could last on a single charge, it just. wouldn't. die.
To my surprise, the Surface Laptop 7 delivered a battery runtime of 22 hours and 50 minutes. That's nearly 23 hours! This is literally unheard of for Windows laptops these days.
This is the best battery runtime we've ever recorded at Mashable. Here are some of the other runtimes of our laptops:
15-inch M3 MacBook Air - 10 hours and 52 minutes
HP OmniBook X - 16 hours and 47 minutes
Lenovo Yoga 9 2-in-1 - 7 hours and 21 minutes
As you'll find out in the next section, the reason behind the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7's success with battery life is its new Qualcomm processor. (I'm sorry, but Intel just isn't cutting it anymore.)
Can you guess which chip was inside the Lenovo Yoga 9 2-in-1, which lasted only a measly 7 hours? It certainly wasn't a Qualcomm chip. (Spoiler alert: It was an Intel chip.)
2. Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 performance beats all of its rivals, including the MacBook
I don't want to bore you with too many details about chipsets, but they're crucial to bring up to help you understand why Microsoft Surface finally has positive reviews from testers after a few tumultuous years.
Long story short, Intel, the most popular chipset maker for Windows, was holding the Microsoft Surface series back from laptop nirvana. Even Apple stopped dealing with Intel a few years ago.
In 2020, Apple introduced its new in-house, custom ARM chips (i.e., M-series processors). After Apple debuted these chips in the M1 MacBook Air and M1 MacBook Pro four years ago, it never looked back. Why? They were a huge success, delivering unmatched battery life and performance. (Apple's current-gen MacBooks are now rocking M3 series chips and it's reportedly eyeing an M4 release soon).
Now, non-Apple vendors are finally hopping aboard the "Intel ain't it" train, too, thanks to Qualcomm, an Intel rival. Qualcomm announced it had a chipset, dubbed the Snapdragon X Elite processor, that is so good, it beats all M3-based MacBooks. Now, I was skeptical and I didn't believe it at first. But this new Snapdragon X Elite processor was packed inside the new Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 — and it blew its rivals out of the water.
With "Best performance mode" turned on in the Settings app, the Surface Laptop 7 notched an incredible multi-core score of 14,548 on Geekbench 6. For context, here are the multi-core scores of other laptops I've tested this year:
14-inch M3 MacBook Pro - 11,998
15-inch M3 MacBook Air - 12,057
And yes, I purposely highlighted Apple's M3 MacBooks here to prove a point (i.e., Qualcomm was right). This wasn't just a fluke either. The HP OmniBook X I reviewed this year, also packed with a Snapdragon X Elite chip, is almost as good as the Surface Laptop 7, but delivered a slightly lower multi-core score of 13,888.
3. Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 makes Windows fun again with AI
Remember when Windows used to be fun? As a kid (I'm now a Millennial adult for context), I used to mess around on Paint, play Microsoft 3D Pinball, and watch visualizers bounce along to the music I played on Windows Media Player.
Now, Microsoft has revitalized that excitement with a flurry of new AI features. From the new ChatGPT rival Copilot to AI additions that seduce you back to Paint (e.g., Cocreator), getting to play around with the AI on Windows has captivated me.
If Microsoft is using AI to seduce users away from Apple (though Apple Intelligence is officially landing on supported Mac systems very soon), it's working — at least for me.
The Surface Laptop 7's AI capabilities are possible thanks to the NPU, an AI accelerator packed inside the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite.
One flaw to watch out for
However, as a laptop reviewer, I know more than anyone that no machine is ever perfect. One flaw that I spotted with the Surface Laptop 7 is app incompatibility. It's something I discovered when I tried to install the Apple Music app. I typically have no issues with doing this on other Windows systems, but it looks like some developers haven't enabled Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite support for their apps yet.
The Surface Laptop 7 is not a gaming PC by any means (it lacks a discrete GPU that can handle intensive gaming), but I'll admit that you can get away with some light gaming on it. But keep in mind that some games, according to this list, may not run properly on the Surface Laptop 7.
Overall, though, the Surface Laptop 7 has never-ending battery life, engaging AI features, zippy performance, a sturdy, anti-fingerprint chassis, and more. How could it not be the best laptop of 2024?
The Surface Laptop 7 is $1,599 on Amazon.
