Reviewed's best laptops, monitors, and gaming gear of 2026

As mentioned, Apple has had a big year, and a major contributor has been the goodwill it has built with its customers. The MacBook Neo, for example, isn't just another budget laptop—it's designed to go above and beyond for its price point, with a premium design, a high-quality keyboard, and more. These are things you don't usually find at that price. Dell, Lenovo, and HP all run competent support organizations, and Dell's ProSupport is good if you pay for it. The consumer tiers are where they slip, with phone trees, depot shipping, and machines mailed away for weeks.

What keeps Apple here is resale, since a 3-year-old MacBook Air still sells for real money. That long-term value matters, but so does the relative ease of getting help when something goes wrong. Apple has built an ownership experience that extends well beyond the laptop itself.

The most important laptop release of the year comes from Apple. That's not because of its ultra-high-performance MacBook Pro models. On the contrary, the most important laptop is at the lowest end of Apple's lineup. The MacBook Neo launched at $599 (its price has since risen to $699), immediately prompting Windows laptop makers to develop higher-quality models of their own. Anyone who wants a new MacBook but doesn't want to spend over $1,000 for a MacBook Air can instead go for a MacBook Neo, which offers everything you'd expect from macOS, including deep Apple ecosystem integration, plus a high-quality keyboard and touchpad, a solid display, and excellent performance for a laptop in this price range.

This is the new default laptop for anyone who doesn't need a high-performance machine and instead wants something to manage emails, browse the web, and do other productivity-focused tasks that don't need much horsepower. It should also serve as the new go-to for students who want something to use in class. And, of course, even those who don't like macOS will benefit from the Neo, because of how much it's pushed the rest of the industry to improve at this price point.

The Dell XPS 14 combines a sharp display, strong performance, and excellent battery life in a premium 14-inch design. The XPS 14 launched at $1,599.99 with a Core Ultra 5 325 and a 1,920 x 1,200 screen, and Dell has since raised that price amid rising memory costs. The tandem OLED build we tested adds a 2,880 x 1,800 touchscreen, a Core Ultra 7 358H, 32GB of RAM, and 1TB of storage, and it most recently listed at $2,879.99. Battery life is the real reason to consider it, though. The lower-resolution model can run well beyond a full workday and outlast most other Windows laptops.

That combination is what makes the XPS 14 such a standout Windows laptop. The OLED screen is excellent, performance is strong, and the battery life means you don't have to worry about the nearest outlet. It's a polished machine that gets the important things right.

The MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR display is a big upgrade for Apple's high-end laptop. The screen is the headline change. It's a tandem OLED panel with stunning brightness and rich colors, plus it's the first MacBook to get a touchscreen, which could be handy if you find touch displays useful. It's powered by Apple's impressive M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, comes with 24GB of RAM (up to 128GB on the top M5 Max), and has a lighter-weight build despite offering the same battery life as previous MacBook Pros. The only downside? It's pricey—the PROLED model starts at $2,899, and the cheaper entry point in the lineup is the $1,999 M6 MacBook Pro with a Liquid Retina XDR panel.

Dell's budget XPS matches the MacBook Neo on price and beats it on some of the details. It starts at $699.99 with an Intel Core i5 320, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage, or $999 with 16GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage. It weighs 2.2 pounds compared to the MacBook Neo's 2.7 pounds, and its keyboard is backlit. Battery life comfortably stretches through a full workday and then some, with a slight edge over the $699 Neo.

The 8GB model can stutter, and the integrated graphics stumble in games. The $999 version with 16GB of RAM is the more convincing package, though. It keeps the price low without giving up the portability, keyboard, and battery life that make this laptop so appealing. Video editing is still a stretch, but that's hardly surprising at this price.

The Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 is anything but subtle—it starts at $4,299.99 with a Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus, an RTX 5080 capped at 175W, and an 18-inch 4K Mini LED panel at 240Hz. The RTX 5090 config is $4,999.99 and runs at the same 175W. Asus says the display is the first to combine 4K, Mini LED, and 240Hz, and rates it at up to 1,600 nits, which is plenty bright. You can upgrade the RAM and storage without tools, to 128GB and 8TB, respectively.

The memory can ship single-channel, though, which is disappointing. Even so, the Scar 18 is an impressive showcase for mobile gaming hardware, pairing a huge, fast display with plenty of power and unusually easy access for upgrades.

The Alienware AW3926QW adds useful vertical screen space to the usual ultrawide format. At $1,099.99, you get a 39-inch display with 5,120 x 2,160 resolution and a tandem OLED panel with a 1500R curve—all running at 165Hz natively or 330Hz at 2,560 x 1,080. Dell's RGB-stripe subpixel layout also means text renders sharply, which matters if this monitor will spend as much time displaying documents as games.

The $1,799.99 LG 39GX950B-B gets brighter when much of the screen is displaying white, but it costs another $700. The Alienware already has the important parts covered. It's big, fast, and sharp enough to handle work during the day and games after it, without pushing the price into ridiculous territory.

The Audeze Maxwell 2 uses planar magnetic drivers, which can produce a crisper, more precise audio response than the drivers in most gaming headsets. The Maxwell 2 uses a flat 90mm diaphragm driven across its whole surface, so footsteps and gunfire separate more cleanly. It costs $329 for the PlayStation version or $349 for Xbox, and Audeze rates playback at more than 80 hours. The microphone is excellent too, with clear voice reproduction that makes it especially good for team chat.

The weight is the only downside. At 560g (about 1.2 pounds), it's heavier than most alternatives. But the sound quality and microphone are good enough to make up for that heft. The Maxwell 2 shows how much better a gaming headset can sound when the audio hardware is treated as more than an accessory.

The Keychron Q6 Ultra 8K combines a full-size aluminum design with wireless connectivity and low-latency performance. The $239.99 Q6 Ultra 8K does all three, polling at 8,000Hz over 2.4GHz or a cable. In other words, it reports keystrokes 8,000 times a second instead of the usual 1,000. Keychron rates the 4,000mAh battery at up to 660 hours with backlighting off, and the switches are hot-swappable, so you can replace them without soldering.

The full-size layout and number pad make it especially useful for work, while the fast wireless connection means you don't have to sacrifice responsiveness to get it. It's a rare keyboard that feels as well suited to a spreadsheet as it does to a game.

Logitech's $99.99 MK880 gives both the keyboard and mouse the same attention to comfort and build quality. The M850 L is Logitech's first mouse with a palm cushion under the heel of your hand, and both devices click and type quietly enough for an open office. Logitech rates the keyboard at up to three years on its batteries and the mouse at two years on a single AA battery. You can pair up to 3 devices over Bluetooth and switch between them with a button.

Comfort is the priority here, and Logitech has thought about it beyond adding a soft wrist rest. The palm cushion, quiet controls, and long battery life make the MK880 an unusually considerate bundle for people who spend all day at a computer.

Until recently, 4K OLED monitors this size often cost more than a capable computer—but that's finally starting to shift. The Alienware AW3226Q is $699.99 and uses the same RGB-stripe tandem OLED technology as the 39-inch Alienware above, so text stays sharp. HDR highlights have reasonable punch, and the display offers broad color coverage for creative work.

Refresh stops at 165Hz, which is perfectly respectable for most games but won't satisfy everyone. That doesn't take away from what Alienware has achieved here. This monitor brings OLED's contrast and color to a much more approachable price point, while remaining sharp and versatile enough for everyday work.

The Lenovo Yoga 9i avoids many of the compromises common to convertible laptops. Lenovo lists the Yoga 9i at $2,099.99 with a Core Ultra 7 355, 32GB of RAM, and a 14-inch 2,880 x 1,800 OLED touchscreen at 120Hz. The 70Wh battery comfortably lasts through a full day of mixed use, and the pen is in the box.

Samsung's $1,699.99 Galaxy Book5 Pro 360 is a bigger 16-inch convertible, but the Yoga's smaller size suits the 2-in-1 format well. It works as a laptop, a tablet, and a digital canvas without making the usual compromises to the display or battery life. That's what a good 2-in-1 should do.

Googlebooks debuted this year, and while there were some bumps in the release, Google is working hard to improve the experience. Either way, Chromebook users will likely feel right at home on a Googlebook. The HP Googlebook 14 pairs Google's platform with a high-quality OLED display and capable hardware. It runs a Snapdragon X Elite with 16GB of RAM and a 14-inch 2,880 x 1,800 OLED touchscreen at 120Hz. HP lists $1,199 as the entry point for the 256GB model, and the 512GB version is near $1,299. HP rates this model at up to 19 hours, though Google rates the entire Googlebook line at up to 14 hours, and real-world battery life will depend on how you use it.

The $899 Acer Googlebook 14 matches the HP's 16GB of RAM and doubles its storage for $300 less, but HP's OLED screen helps justify the difference—it's a great-looking display. It's the kind of upgrade you notice every time you open the lid, and the rest of the hardware is strong enough to make Google's new platform feel properly premium.

Great battery life makes a major difference, especially if you work on a laptop all day. The HP OmniBook 3 16 lasts far longer than most laptops, including the longest-lasting MacBooks, and can get through multiple workdays away from a charger. It uses Qualcomm's entry-level Snapdragon X, a 16-inch 1,920 x 1,200 IPS screen, and a 68Wh battery. HP's starting price is $999.99.

The screen is less impressive than some others, especially for photo or video work, but for many, that won't matter—the endurance is remarkable, and it changes how you use the laptop. You can leave the charger at home without spending the day watching the battery percentage.

The Xbox Ally X20's bright 7.4-inch OLED display is its standout feature. It costs $1,299.99 with a Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme, 24GB of RAM, and a 1TB drive. Battery life is less impressive, though. Expect to reach for the charger after a few hours of gaming.

The processor is the same Z2 Extreme as before and can't keep pace with Intel's Arc G3 Extreme in games. Still, the display makes a strong case for the Ally X20. Games look rich and fluid, and the variable refresh rate helps keep motion looking smooth when performance fluctuates.

The MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ stands out for its gaming performance. The $1,799.99 Claw 8 EX AI+ runs Intel's Arc G3 Extreme, which delivers noticeably higher frame rates than the Ally X and Legion Go 2, even when you're gaming on battery power. It also has 32GB of RAM and an 8-inch 1,920 x 1,200 120Hz screen.

That screen is disappointing for the price. At $1,799, MSI still ships IPS, and the $1,349.99 Lenovo Legion Go 2 gave you OLED for $450 less at launch, before the same component-driven price hikes that hit everything else wiped out the gap. The Claw earns its award on performance, though. It pushes handheld gaming forward where it counts most, with enough power to make demanding games feel less compromised away from a desk.

The $1,299 Asus ROG Swift OLED PG32UCDM3 is a 32-inch 4K monitor built for high-end gaming. The PG32UCDM3 uses a fourth-generation tandem QD-OLED panel with a semi-glossy BlackShield coating, running at 240Hz with DisplayPort 2.1 at full 80Gbps, plus 90W of power delivery over USB-C. Asus rates peak HDR brightness at 1,000 nits with DisplayHDR True Black 500 and 99% DCI-P3 coverage.

That's a real step above the 165Hz Alienware AW3226Q at $699.99. The higher refresh rate, faster connection, and excellent panel make this one of the most complete gaming monitors on the market. It's expensive, but the hardware largely backs up the price.

The Insta360 Link 2C Pro uses a 1/1.3-inch sensor, which Insta360 says gives it 2.23 times the light-gathering area of the cheaper Link 2. That larger sensor helps keep the video cleaner in a dim room. It shoots 4K at 30fps, has an 84-degree diagonal field of view, and pairs a directional mic with an omnidirectional one. It costs $199.99.

The catch is that the 2C Pro has no gimbal, so it reframes digitally rather than turning to follow you. That means it doesn't move around the room with you, but it also keeps the hardware simple. The larger sensor is the real achievement here, delivering cleaner video in the kinds of dim rooms where many webcams fall apart.

Apple's Mac mini remains a strong compact desktop, even with its higher starting price. The $899 model runs an M6 with a 12-core CPU, 16GB of memory, and a 256GB SSD in a 5-inch square weighing 1.5 pounds. The M6 is the first Apple chip built on a 2-nanometer process, and the base machine now drives three external displays, with Wi-Fi 7 and 2.5Gb Ethernet standard, whereas the previous model had Wi-Fi 6E and a gigabit port configurable to 10Gb.

Storage starts at 256GB, and you can't upgrade it later, which is frustrating. Even so, the Mac mini packs a remarkable amount of computer into a tiny, quiet box. The improved connectivity and support for three displays make it even more useful without disturbing the compact design.

The CyberPowerPC Gamer Xtreme MA-01 avoids the limited upgradability common to many prebuilt PCs. The MA-01 starts around $1,322 configured with a Core Ultra 5 225F and a Radeon RX 6500 XT, but the build worth buying is $2,299.99 at Best Buy, with a 24-core Core Ultra 7 270K Plus, an RTX 5070, 32GB of DDR5, a 2TB SSD, and an 850W power supply. It's also a strong productivity machine, with plenty of CPU performance for demanding work alongside gaming.

The glass case takes standard ATX parts, so you can replace the GPU and cooling later. That gives the MA-01 a longer useful life than prebuilts designed around proprietary components. It's powerful out of the box, and it doesn't lock you into that original configuration forever.

The Razer Viper V4 Pro reduces weight while increasing battery life. The Viper V4 Pro starts at $159.99, weighs 49g (about 1.7 ounces), and Razer rates it at up to 180 hours of wireless play. The Focus Pro 50K Gen-3 sensor is rated to 50,000 DPI, a number nobody needs, but the 8,000Hz wireless polling is what matters in a firefight. Razer also moved the scroll wheel and main switches to optical, which removes the double-click failure that eventually kills most mice.

The $179.99 Logitech G Pro X2 Superstrike adds haptic clicks, but Razer's improvements feel more fundamental. The low weight, long battery life, and optical controls address both performance and longevity. It's a thoughtful upgrade rather than a simple sensor bump.

The Wooting 80HE+ uses Hall effect switches, which measure how far a key travels rather than only whether it's pressed. The $199.99 80HE+ uses Lekker Tikken Medium switches with adjustable actuation from 0.1mm to 4mm and Rapid Trigger, which resets a key the instant you release it. Polling runs at 8,000Hz, so input latency is 0.125ms.

There's no wireless option or number pad at this 80% size. Those omissions are easy to understand given the keyboard's focus on gaming, though. The adjustable switches and fast response make a real difference to how precisely you can control each keypress, and that's enough to set the 80HE+ apart.

The Acer Nitro V 16S AI focuses on gaming performance while keeping the price relatively accessible. The ANV16S-I51 pairs an Intel Core Ultra 7 355 with an 8GB RTX 5060, 16GB of DDR5, and a 16-inch 1,920 x 1,200 IPS panel at 180Hz. Acer hasn't published a firm U.S. list price for this exact configuration, so treat the number at checkout as the one that matters. The near-identical AMD version sells for $1,299.99 and offers enough battery life to handle a full day away from your desk.

The Nitro gets the overall balance right. The fast screen and respectable battery life make it useful beyond gaming, which isn't something every budget gaming laptop can claim.

The HP OmniBook 5 14 combines strong battery life with a portable design and an OLED display. The Snapdragon version of HP's OmniBook 5 14 comes with 16GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD, and a 14-inch 1,920 x 1,200 OLED, and Best Buy lists it at $1,049.99. Battery life is excellent, easily stretching through a full day of classes and well into the next.

The screen is the catch. It's rated at 300 nits, so it's dim, and the USB-C ports top out at 10Gbps. Those limitations aside, the OmniBook 5 14 covers the student essentials well. It's portable, has a colorful OLED, and won't need to spend half the day attached to a classroom outlet.

Samsung's Portable SSD P9 uses USB4 to deliver much faster transfer speeds than earlier portable drives. Samsung rates the P9 at 4,000 MB/s reads and 3,800 MB/s writes, roughly double what the T9 manages, and it can reach those speeds over a compatible USB4 connection. The 2TB model lists at $649.99, roughly 32 cents a gigabyte.

The speed appears only over a USB4 or Thunderbolt 4 port, and most laptops still ship with USB-C at 10Gbps, where the drive falls back to a fraction of its rating. With the right connection, though, the P9 can cut the time spent moving large files. It brings a meaningful speed increase to portable storage rather than another small bump on a spec sheet.

The Ugreen Revodok Maxidok 17-in-1 includes a built-in drive bay alongside its selection of ports. The Maxidok 17-in-1 lists at $499.99 and features Thunderbolt 5 at up to 120 Gbps, an M.2 NVMe slot that supports up to 8 TB, six USB ports at 10 Gbps, 2.5Gb Ethernet, and 140W of passthrough charging. The rear port selection could be better, though, especially if you want to keep several high-speed accessories connected permanently.

The CalDigit TS5 Plus spreads 20 ports across its shell at a similar price, but Ugreen's internal SSD slot makes its dock especially versatile. It can expand your storage, connect your accessories, and charge your laptop with a single device. That's a useful twist on the usual desktop dock.