Buying a New Laptop: 7 Important Factors to Consider

Are you ready to start the process of buying a new laptop? With so many devices available, and more coming out each month, it’s quite difficult to filter out what’s important, and what’s more-or-less a gimmick.

In this article, we’ll go through seven important factors you should consider when choosing your new laptop.

1. Size

One of the best features of a laptop is its ability to slip into a laptop bag and travel the world with you. If you are concerned with portability, you’re best bet is to look at laptops with a smaller screen size and thin, lightweight design. These types of laptops are often marketed as Ultrabooks, so look out for that word.

Or, more specifically, go for a device with a screen between 12 and 13.3 inches, and a weight of less that 1.5kg.

2. RAM

RAM (random access memory) is key to computer performance, especially if you do lots of multitasking on your laptop – e.g. edit photos, write word docs, and browse the web all at once. The more RAM you have, the faster your laptop will be able to access data, and the more applications you can run smoothly at any one time. 4GB of RAM is the minimum. If you use lots of high-power software, look for 8GB or more.

3. Screen Quality

If you’re like most of us, you’ll probably be staring into your laptop screen for hours everyday. So make sure you opt for a laptop with a screen that’s easy on the eyes. Glossier screens tend to reflect surrounding light, so keep that in mind. Also note that touch screen laptops will have a glossy screen, so weigh up the pros and cons.

Depending on how you will use your laptop, screen resolution will also be important. 1920×1080 is a full HD screen. This will give you great image quality and plenty of room to keep your windows in view.

Lastly, when it comes to exploring laptop screen options, it’s a good idea to head into a computer store and check them out in person. Tech specs don’t always give a clear idea of the actual user experience.

4. Battery Life

Again, if portability is important to you (even if that means transporting your laptop from your desk to your bed!), battery life is something worth considering. The reality of a laptop’s battery life is often quite different to what it says on the box. Variables such as screen brightness and the types of programs you run will affect how long the battery lasts.

Instead of focusing on the number of hours the manufacturer quotes, look at the rating of the battery in Watt-hours (Wh) or milliamp-hours (mAh). The bigger the number, the longer the battery will last.

5. CPU

Think of the CPU (central processing unit) as the heart of your laptop. When it comes to CPU, you can’t get much better than Intel’s Core-based range. New laptops will most likely contain Core i3, Core i5, or Core i7.

You will find Core i3 in entry-level laptops.

You will find Core i5 in the majority of mid-range laptops.

You will find Core i7 in higher-end laptops. While Core i7 offers the best performance, it can cause quite a bit of heat to emanate from the bottom of the device. Keep this in mind if you plan to use your laptop, well, on your lap.

6. Storage

Not only will you need to consider the amount of storage, but also the type of storage. Back in the day, hard disk drives were the favourite. With slimmer, lighter laptops in fashion, hard drives are not as popular. Instead, many laptop owners are opting for solid state drives, which are faster, quieter, and you guessed it, more expensive.

If you’re not sure whether you should go for a hard disk or solid state drive, you might find our blog post Hard Disk Drive vs Solid State Drive: What’s the Difference? a good place to start.

7. USB 3.0 Ports

USB 3.0 ports are a must-have on a new laptop if you want to plug in and use peripheral devices, such as external hard drives, mouse, and keyboards. Some new devices don’t include USB 3.0 ports, including the new Macbook Pros. Keep this in mind before you go ahead and purchase.

Need More Help? If you would like more help deciding which laptop to buy, or if your current machine needs laptop repair, don’t hesitate to give me a call. I can help you find the perfect machine for your needs and budget, as well as help you with everything from your new computer setup, to home network setup and your small business IT support needs. Call now on 1300 553 166 or fill out the form on this page.

How to Choose the Best Laptop Processor in 2022

At the heart of every laptop (or desktop) computer is a central processing unit (CPU), commonly called a processor or just, generically, a chip, that's responsible for nearly everything that goes on inside. The CPUs you'll find in current laptops are made by AMD, Intel, Apple, and Qualcomm. The options may seem endless and their names byzantine. But choosing one is easier than you think, once you know a few CPU ground rules.

This guide will help you decrypt the technical jargon that haunts every laptop specification sheet—from core count to gigahertz and from TDP to cache amounts—to help you pick the one that suits you best. With almost no exceptions, a laptop processor can't be changed or upgraded later as some desktops' can, so it's essential to make the right choice from the start. (Also see our guide to the best CPUs for desktops.)

First Up: Some Basic CPU Concepts

The CPU is responsible for the primary logic operations in the computer. It has a hand in everything: mouse clicks, the smoothness of streaming video, responding to your commands in games, encoding your family's home video, and more. It's the most important piece of hardware.

Before we get into specific CPU recommendations, let's build an understanding of what differentiates one from another by focusing on the central traits that all laptop processors have in common.

Processor Architecture: The Silicon Underpinnings

Every processor is based on an underlying design called an instruction-set architecture. This blueprint determines how the processor understands computer code. Since software operating systems and applications are written to work most efficiently—or sometimes only—on a certain architecture, this is probably the most important decision point for your next processor.

Broadly speaking, today's laptop processors use either the ARM or x86 architecture. The latter was created by Intel in 1978 and dominates the PC industry, with Intel and AMD battling for market-share supremacy. ARM-based chips, on the other hand, are produced by hundreds of different companies under license from the British firm ARM Limited, owned by Softbank. (For a while, it looked like Nvidia was on the path to acquire ARM from Softbank, but the chip maker has abandoned its efforts.)

Found in billions of devices from smartphones to supercomputers, ARM chips had been seen only in some Chromebooks and a very few Windows laptops (based on Qualcomm CPUs) until Apple switched from Intel to its own ARM-design M1 processors in late 2020. Apple's changeover is a leading reason that ARM chips are seeing wider acceptance as an alternative to x86 for mainstream computing. (See our Apple M1 chip explainer.)

An Apple ARM pioneer: Late 2020's MacBook Air M1 (Photo: Zlata Ivleva)

Your architecture choice is preordained if you're an Apple user, since all its laptops now use an M1 chip variant. But Microsoft Windows, Chrome OS, and many Linux operating systems are compatible with both ARM and x86. Based on our reviews of today's handful of Qualcomm-powered Windows systems like the Microsoft Surface Pro X tablet and the HP Elite Folio convertible, x86 remains our recommended architecture for Windows until more apps are written to run natively on ARM.

Microsoft's Surface Pro X, one of the rare ARM-based Windows PCs (Photo: Zlata Ivleva)

Apps written for x86 can operate on ARM chips through software emulation, but the translation layer slows performance compared to code written to run on ARM in the first place. Similarly, the occasional ARM CPUs (notably from MediaTek) seen in budget Chromebooks have proven much less peppy than the Intel and AMD processors in midrange and premium Chromebooks.

Core and Thread Count: Firing on All (CPU) Cylinders

Today's laptop CPUs are composed, in part, of two or more physical cores. A core is essentially a logic brain. All else being equal, more cores are better than fewer, although there's a ceiling to how many you can take advantage of in any given situation. A much simplified analogy is to the number of cylinders in a car engine.

For basic tasks like internet surfing, word processing, social media, and video streaming, a dual-core processor is today's bare minimum. (Indeed, you can't buy a single-core laptop today.) Multitaskers will be much better off with a quad- or six-core CPU, now found even in many budget notebooks. For gaming, video editing, and other processor-intensive applications, eight cores or more is ideal. These CPUs are typically found in larger notebooks, since they require extra cooling. (They also tend to be a higher tier of CPU; more about that stratification in a bit, when we talk about Intel and AMD chip specifics.)

Then there's the issue of thread count. We're not talking about linens and sheets here, but processing threads. A thread is essentially a task, or a portion of a task, for the computer to perform. Computers routinely juggle hundreds or thousands of them, though a processor can work on only so many threads simultaneously. That number equals its thread count, which is often double its core count.

A schematic of an eight-core Intel CPU (Image: Intel)

In olden days, CPU cores could process only one thread at a time, but today's processors frequently (but not always) have thread-doubling technology that allows one core to work on two threads simultaneously. An eight-core chip with this technology, for example, can handle 16 threads at a time. Intel calls this Hyper-Threading; the generic term is simultaneous multithreading (SMT).

At the minimum, look for a processor that can process four threads. Users working on heavy media creation and conversion tasks will want the ability to handle eight or more. Core count trumps thread count; all else being equal, an eight-core CPU without multithreading will generally outperform a quad-core processor with it. Of course, in the world of processors, all else is seldom equal; that's why so many varieties of chips exist. The next item, clock speed, is another key differentiator.

Clock Speed: The CPU Stopwatch

Measured in megahertz (MHz) or more often gigahertz (GHz), a processor's clock speed is its operating frequency—a driver of how many instructions (basic operations) the processor can crunch through per second. Higher clock speed is generally better, though things get muddy when comparing clock speeds between different brands or even between chips within the same brand. That's because some CPUs are more efficient than others, able to process just as many instructions in a given slice of time despite operating at a lower clock speed. Still, clock speed can be telling when comparing chips within a single vendor's family line.

To complicate things further, today's processors typically have two advertised clock speeds: a base (minimum) clock and boost (maximum) clock, sometimes dubbed turbo speed since Intel refers to the duality as Turbo Boost technology. When handling light workloads, the CPU runs at its base clock, typically between 1GHz and 2GHz for laptop chips though sometimes higher depending on the processor's rated wattage. (More on that variable in a minute.) When more speed is needed, the CPU temporarily accelerates—often to 3.5GHz to 5GHz or so—until the task is done. Processors don't run at their boost clock all the time because they might overheat.

An Intel CPU manufacturing wafer (Image: Intel)

Some low-end laptop processors lack a boost clock altogether, limiting their performance under pressure. Laptop CPUs' boost clocks are often as high as their desktop counterparts', but usually not sustained for as long before ramping down due to power or thermal limitations. This concept is called "throttling," a safety measure built into the processor to keep it running within its rated specifications.

Watt's Up: Understanding Processor Power Ratings

Processor power ratings are good indicators of overall performance. Most laptop processors represent this as a single number, thermal design power (TDP), which is less of a measurement of power consumption than a guideline for computer designers; it’s the amount of thermal energy the cooling solution they pair with the processor must be able to dissipate for the processor to operate effectively not overheat).

Intel’s 12th Generation Alder Lake processors have switched up the terminology with the measure "Base Power," which is essentially the same as TDP. That said, to simplify laptop shopping, we’re going to rope TDP and Processor Base Power under one blanket term: processor power rating.

Laptop processor power ratings vary greatly, from just a few watts in ultra-compact laptops to 65 watts in top-shelf gaming rigs. There’s more to choosing a laptop CPU than its power rating, but the higher the wattage, the better the relative performance should be.

Most laptop CPUs are rated between 15 and 28 watts. They have a low enough thermal profile to work in slim notebook designs, yet sufficient power to reach desktop-like boost clocks for at least a short period. Notebooks with these chips almost always require active cooling—that is, the presence of one or two small onboard fans. Laptops with passive cooling—fanless designs, appealing because they're silent—are restricted to processors rated for just a few watts, fine for everyday tasks but ill-matched for demanding jobs such as video editing.

Most laptops have cooling vents on the bottom and sides. (Photo: Zlata Ivleva)

Both AMD and Intel put the letter "H" at the end of their model numbers for chips at the top of the mobile-CPU TDP roster, rated between 45 and 65 watts and found in gaming laptops, mobile workstations, and other desktop replacements. They're suited for the most demanding apps and most intense multitasking. (More about model numbers and letters later.)

High-performance laptops often have multiple cooling fans. (Photo: Charles Jefferies)

A very few outliers like the Alienware Area-51m gaming rig and some laptops from specialists like Eurocom actually use socketed desktop CPUs, cooled by multiple fans in a big, thick chassis. The only notebooks that may allow you to swap out their processors at a later date, they're extremely expensive specialty items that defy portability with huge, heavy AC adapters (or even pairs of them).

CPU Cache: You've Probably Got Enough

A processor's cache is a small memory pool, usually just a few megabytes, that is separate from the system's main memory (RAM). It helps the CPU manage its workflow by providing a lightning-fast way to retrieve data. More cache—often subdivided into Level 1 through Level 3 (L1 through L3) cache depending on its closeness to the core logic—means quicker performance, but you can safely ignore this spec; gone are the days when processors were sent out into the world with too little cache to perform effectively. We only mention it because you'll see it listed as you dig into processor specifications.

The GPU on the Chip: What Are Integrated Graphics?

Gaming laptops and mobile workstations depend on dedicated or discrete graphics processing units (GPUs) to accelerate 2D or 3D rendering, just as high-end desktops rely on AMD Radeon RX or Nvidia GeForce or RTX A Series/Quadro graphics cards inserted into motherboard PCI Express slots. Laptops made for everyday office productivity often don't need a separate GPU, and can handle drawing the onscreen display with what's known as an integrated graphics processor (IGP). An IGP is built into most of today's laptop-minded CPUs.

We'll dive deeper into integrated graphics performance a little later. For now, just know that while the latest processors can handle light or casual gaming—Intel especially has made considerable strides since the molasses-like graphics of its older CPUs—hardcore gamers will unquestionably want a laptop with a discrete GPU under the hood.

Which Way to Go: Intel or AMD?

With the basics covered, let's start on specific processor brands. This section will focus on the x86 processors available from AMD and Intel, since Apple's MacBooks have transitioned to the company's own ARM-based M1 chips.

AMD and Intel are fierce competitors for laptop CPU market share here in 2022. This was not the case during the 2010's, when Intel dominated the market with better-performing and more power-efficient processors, mostly relegating AMD to entry-level budget notebooks.

An AMD-based Asus ROG Zephyrus notebook, available in two colors (Photo: Zlata Ivleva)

The last few generations of AMD Ryzen mobile CPUs have made the former underdog a formidable competitor. Intel’s Alder Lake chips have recently taken the performance crown, at least in the desktop-replacement realm, though AMD’s Ryzen 6000 series does just fine, too. That said, Intel still enjoys the favor of some manufacturers and corporate IT managers, which can force your processor choice depending on the laptop. But we are seeing Ryzen options now even in stalwart business lines like some of Lenovo's ThinkPad families.

The ABCs of the Archrivals: Pentium, Core, Ryzen and More

AMD and Intel differentiate their laptop processors according to all of the basic concepts discussed earlier, but their top-level branding is most visible to casual shoppers. Here are their basic product lines by intended market.

Intel's mainstream laptop CPU brand is Core, while AMD's is Ryzen. They clash at every level—AMD's Ryzen 3 competes with Intel's Core i3, Ryzen 5 with Core i5, and Ryzen 7 and Ryzen 9 with Core i7 and Core i9.

Among laptops and Chromebooks retailing for just a few hundred dollars, AMD's Athlon chips vie with Intel's Celeron and Pentium lines. AMD has no direct alternative to Intel's Xeon for flagship mobile workstations, though its Ryzen 7 and Ryzen 9 can offer similar performance. Xeons are essentially Core i7 or Core i9 processors with extra features, designed to work with exotic error-correcting-code (ECC) memory and to guarantee smooth operation with specific professional applications for fields like engineering, architecture, and data science.

Most shoppers will find the middle members of the Core and Ryzen families offer the best mix of performance and value. The Ryzen 5 and Core i5 are particularly well-rounded. Supporting multithreading across the board in their latest generations, they are more powerful than the Ryzen 3 and Core i3 but cost less than the Ryzen 7 and Core i7. The latter will tempt power users and gamers, while users with cash to burn for whom media-rendering or number-crunching wait time means money can spring for a Core i9 or a Ryzen 9.

Laptop-Processor Generations and Codenames: You'll Need a Decoder Ring

Just as car companies go by model years, AMD and Intel differentiate their chips by generation, identified at the start of their part numbers. For example, Intel's Core i7-1065G7 and Core i5-1135G7 respectively belong to its 10th and 11th Generation families of mobile CPUs with integrated graphics. (Yes, there are exceptions, see "Special Intel Naming Conventions" below.) AMD indicates the generation after indicating the family or performance level (3, 5, 7, or 9): the Ryzen 7 5800H is a fifth-generation or Ryzen 5000 series chip.

Tech sites like PCMag also indulge in the codenames AMD and Intel use while chips are in development, such as "Tiger Lake" for Intel's 11th Gen Core processors and "Cezanne" for AMD's Ryzen 5000 series mobile chips. These inside-baseball terms are industry lingo more than consumer marketing terms, but they get used aplenty even after a chip is released. Confusingly, Intel has sometimes used multiple codenames within one generation (such as "Comet Lake" and "Ice Lake" for different subsets of its 10th Gen CPUs).

An Intel "Tiger Lake" CPU die (Image: Intel)

(Pro tip: Intel's ARK site(Opens in a new window) lets you drill down into processor generations and codenames. We often reference major Intel and AMD codenames before chips are released, and sometimes after; you can winnow our coverage by searching our site for a given codename.)

Knowing a CPU's generation and/or codename is helpful to determine when it was released and to locate specific performance data on it. The two rivals typically refresh their processors every 12 to 18 months. Unless there's some financial incentive to getting a laptop with an older chip, we advise buying the most recent generation to ensure you're getting the newest features and the most longevity from your purchase. There's more on chip lines in detail later in this guide, but here's a cheat sheet to the laptop-CPU codenames of the last five years:

Processor Power Ratings: It's All in the Name (Well, Sometimes)

As mentioned earlier, AMD and Intel subclassify their processors by power rating. The power rating is important since it determines a processor's clock speed and thus its performance. The rule is the higher the power rating, the higher the clock speeds, especially under sustained use.

Both chipmakers denote their highest-wattage highest-performing, most desktop-like laptop chips with an H suffix, such as the Core i7-12700H and Ryzen 7 6800H, denoting a power rating of 45 watts. AMD also offers an HX suffix and Intel an HK suffix for chips that can be run greater than 45 watts, which have overclocking features and are designed for extreme-performance gaming laptops and workstations.

The next rung down in power are AMD’s HS suffix (rated for 35 watts) and Intel’s P suffix (28 watts) chips, a niche that has only existed for the past few chip generations. (In fact, Intel’s P suffix chips are new for its 12th generation Core line.) These chips produce less heat than the H-suffix chips because of their lower power ratings, offering a middle ground between them and the lowest-power chips.

The chips with the lowest power ratings have a U suffix; they’re usually rated for 15 watts though they can be set lower. (AMD usually goes to down 10 watts, and Intel to 9 watts.) They have low base clocks (typically between 1GHz and 2GHz) and can maintain their high boost clocks only for short bursts; chips with higher power ratings, especially those with an H suffix, can maintain their boost clocks much longer. But for tasks that use CPU power in spurts (say, a few seconds), a U and an H suffix chip can perform similarly.

A rendering of an AMD Ryzen 4000 series laptop CPU (Image: AMD)

Intel’s 10th and 11th generation Core chips are exceptions (there’s always some, right?) to the U suffix chips, when it used a rather confusing G suffix plus a number indicating the integrated graphics performance level (higher being better, of course). The Core i7-1165G7 is one example; there was also the Core i3-1125G4.

Further complicating power ratings is that they aren’t set in stone; laptop makers can tweak a chip's power rating to suit their designs. For instance, an Intel "Tiger Lake" chip can be restricted to 12 watts and an AMD Ryzen 5000 U-series to 10 watts, though this is typically only done for ultra-compact and fanless laptops and tablets where heat output must be minimized.

Cores and Thread Count: Breaking It Out by Line

The core and thread counts of Intel and AMD CPUs vary by product line and TDP rating. Intel's Core i7, Core i9, and Xeon lines and AMD's Ryzen 7 and Ryzen 9 chips have the highest, while Intel's Celeron and Pentium and AMD's Athlon have the lowest. As the following table shows, some brands have models with different core counts; this can vary by generation as well. We've mapped it out for CPUs released from 2019 onward.

Core counts generally increase with power rating. Intel's U-series chips range up to 10 cores while AMD's go up to eight cores. Thread count varies, too; AMD’s Ryzen chips support multithreading across the board as did Intel’s for its 10th and 11th generation Core chips, though the 12th generation chips only have partial multithreading support. (More on that shortly.) Meanwhile, Intel’s Celerons and some earlier AMD Ryzen 3s do not support multithreading.

Introduced in 2022, Intel’s Alder Lake processors throw a wrench in generic core- and thread-count comparisons since they incorporate two different kinds of cores on the same processor, a chip design referred to as “big.LITTLE.” The heavy lifters are the Performance-cores, or P-cores, while Efficiency-cores (E-cores) handle less demanding background tasks. Only the P-cores support multithreading. Thus, the 14-core Core i7-12700H, comprising six P-cores and eight E-cores, is a 20-thread-capable chip.

Special Intel Naming Conventions

Intel occasionally introduces different naming conventions for new features or special silicon. Its "Lakefield" CPUs, such as the Core i5-L16G7 in the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold, forego the two-digit generation number after the brand identifier since they're a hybrid of different generations. Fortunately, Intel's most popular processors stick to its traditional naming scheme.

As mentioned above, several generations of late-model mainstream Intel processors (the 10th and 11th) ended with a G plus a number, with higher numbers indicating better-performing integrated graphics. (See the next section.) That trend changed with the 12th Generation Alder Lake Core processors, though, with Intel reverting to its traditional U and H suffixes (for ultralight and high-power chips) and adding the middle-child "P" series mentioned earlier.

Last, a few low-end Intel chips such as the Pentium Gold 7505 have no suffix, leaving you to look up their specs on Intel's site. C'est la vie.

Gauging Integrated Graphics Performance

As we said, most laptops other than gaming rigs and workstations rely on the integrated graphics built into the CPU. (Most systems with discrete GPUs can also switch to integrated graphics to save battery power when maximum 3D performance is not required, automatically making the switch without interrupting you.)

Until lately, most Intel mobile CPUs included what the company called UHD integrated graphics, sometimes accompanied by a performance rating such as UHD Graphics 600 or UHD Graphics 620. This silicon provided sufficient performance for desktop display connectivity, smooth onscreen animations, video streaming, and browser-based gaming, but fell far short of the oomph required for serious games, even for relatively undemanding titles such as Fortnite.

Intel's Iris Xe silicon outperforms the company's earlier integrated graphics. (Photo: John Burek)

But graphics solutions aren't just about gaming. They can also improve performance for photo and video editing and live streaming. AMD's and Intel's latest, better-performing integrated graphics are capable of all of that and even some gaming at a 720p or, for the latest cutting-edge solutions, a 1080p resolution. Intel's current IGPs are called Iris Xe and Iris Xe Max, the latter technically a discrete GPU; AMD uses the moniker AMD Radeon Graphics for its current integrated silicon.

The AMD Radeon Graphics in today's Ryzen chips perform much better than Intel UHD integrated graphics. Intel's answer to that challenge is Iris Xe, found in 12th Generation Core mobile chips, as well as 11th Generation Core chips with a G7 suffix. (Chips with a G4 suffix still use Intel UHD Graphics.) For an idea of how these various solutions perform in games, see our feature Can You Play Today's Biggest Games on Laptop Integrated Graphics?

A few notebooks boast Intel's dedicated Iris Xe Max graphics. (Photo: Tom Brant)

Business Considerations (Intel vPro and AMD Pro)

Home users can skip this section, but corporate buyers should know that the x86 duo offer remote management technologies—AMD Pro and Intel vPro—to help business IT personnel deploy and manage their computer fleets, including remote updates, repairs, and enhanced security features. The mixtures of services differ with each generation; check out the details at their websites.

AMD indicates whether a CPU has AMD Pro by simply including it in the product name, as with the Ryzen 7 Pro 5850U. Oddly, Intel is subtle about vPro support, leaving it out of product names though it's listed on specific CPU product pages accessible via the invaluable ARK online database.

Laptop CPU Overclocking: Is That a Thing?

Nearly all laptop CPUs are incapable of overclocking—that is, they don't let users crank their clock speeds beyond factory ratings as some gaming desktop processors do. Intel's rare mobile Core processors with a K suffix are exceptions.

The K means that the processor has unlocked multipliers, which can be used to modify the clock speed. (See our How to Overclock Your Intel CPU feature for desktop details; the process is much the same but with less thermal leeway on a laptop.) Intel's only recent K-series mobile processors are the Core i9-11980HK and the Core i9-12900HK; AMD just debuted an overclockable Ryzen 9 6980HX, but we haven't tried one yet.

An overclockable CPU requires a robust cooling system. (Photo: Zlata Ivleva)

Why not widely allow laptop CPU overclocking? The main reason is that laptops are built around strict thermal limitations. Increasing clock speed hikes power draw and generates more heat, which can cause overheating and instability or at least unwanted throttling. All told, laptop overclocking is a novelty found only on a few bleeding-edge gaming rigs with Intel K-series chips and ample cooling.

Summing It Up: Which Processor Should You Get?

The good news for consumers is that today, even despite well-publicized silicon shortages, is an excellent time to buy a laptop of any kind. Though an ultra-low-cost laptop might use a sluggish entry-level CPU, nearly all $500-and-up models will feature a responsive processor more than suited for everyday usage. There's no shortage of power on the gaming, content creator, and workstation side of things, either; Apple, AMD, and Intel all have competitive offerings. (One note: Check out our gaming laptop guide for much more on picking a processor and the complex interactions among the CPU, GPU, and gaming performance.)

If you're an Apple-laptop shopper, your choice is already made since the company started the switch to its in-house ARM chips in late 2020, unless you must stick with a legacy Intel MacBook for specific software reasons. At a minimum, M1 MacBooks are competitive with AMD- and Intel-based Windows laptops, and for specialized applications they can be even faster. The M1 Max-equipped 16-inch Apple MacBook Pro is the most amped-up laptop it offers.

Windows and Chrome OS laptop buyers face a much greater choice with CPUs from AMD and Intel and even a few ARM chips thrown into the mix. Chromebooks generally deliver a smooth computing experience with any processor, though we've found ARM chips a bit more sluggish than x86. If you go for an AMD Chromebook, opt for one of the recent Ryzen C Chromebook-specific chips rather than one of the aged A-series. Similarly, an Intel Core CPU will serve Chromebook users better than a Pentium or Celeron if you tend to keep many tabs open at once.

An Asus TUF gaming laptop with AMD Ryzen "Renoir" (Photo: Zlata Ivleva)

AMD's Ryzen and Intel's Core lines are the mainstays of today's Windows consumer and business market. They're highly competitive on features and low in power consumption, though AMD often wins in raw CPU performance for core- and thread-hungry programs like content creation apps.

Outside of specific usage scenarios and benchmarks, however, like-priced Intel and AMD laptops will offer similar user experiences for most jobs. Video streaming, office productivity, and other everyday tasks are well within the reach of almost any Intel or AMD CPU. Even gamers can choose either brand; Ryzen 7 and Core i7 chips are competitive (though the latter will be easier to find). All this gives you the freedom to focus on the laptop's design and features first and on the CPU second, though specific usage scenarios can dictate doing things the other way round.

Down and Dirty Specs: A Guide to the Very Latest Laptop CPUs

We haven't tested every laptop CPU on the market—likely no one outside of Intel or AMD has, and maybe not even them. But with our general advice behind us, let's wrap up with more specific laptop processor recommendations for various usage scenarios in the x86 aisle.

Beyond that general specification guide, you can get more granular with cheat sheets for the most common current-generation Intel and AMD laptop CPUs, along with their suggested usages and the kinds of systems in which you'll find them. These final two tables should be very helpful when shopping the latest-model laptops.

You'll still see plenty of notebooks on sale with last year's or earlier chip generations, so an exhaustive list would be impossibly unwieldly. But if you look at AMD's or Intel's older CPU families, it's usually easy to identify the parallel previous-gen versions of the chips listed below. You can safely assume in most cases that, if the core and thread count is the same, they'll offer slightly lesser performance than the latest parts, but fit in the same relative place in the company hierarchy. If the price is right, don't dismiss an almost-new CPU.

First, a look at the Intel lineup...

As you can see, the mainstream Intel processors are now dominated by the "Tiger Lake-U" line and the emerging "Alder Lake" U and P, though you'll still find equivalent 10th Gen "Ice Lake-U" and "Comet Lake-U" chips for sale. Don't ignore those if a laptop is a good buy. Intel released 45-watt, H-class 11th and 12th Gen processors for power-user notebooks in stages since mid-2021, but you'll still see some 10th Gen chips around.

And now for the up-to-the-moment AMD lineup...

As we said, you'll see these processors in fewer laptops overall. Only fanatic users need to worry about the differences between the company's "Lucienne" (Zen 2) and "Cezanne" (Zen 3) core architectures; there's a much bigger difference between AMD's U-series and H-series chips. The latter can get you an eight-core, 16-thread laptop that competes with some pretty robust desktop PCs.

Best of luck with your laptop hunt! As always, for nitty-gritty details, you can check out our endless stream of laptop reviews and list of our current favorites among overall, ultraportable, gaming, and workstation notebooks (with links to many reviews). Any given laptop's performance in our CPU benchmarks won't always reflect the results you'd get from the same chip in a different system—other factors like memory and thermals will come into play. But our detailed performance tests will get you close enough in your decision that you won't be able to tell the differences without a stopwatch. And you can leave that stuff to us.

Laptop buying guide: How to choose a laptop to suit you

When you’re looking for a laptop, sometimes you can have too much of a good thing: with so many different shapes, sizes and specifications to choose from, it can all seem a little overwhelming. The good news is that Stuff is here to help.

Rather than start wading through endless laptop listings online, the best way to choose a new machine is to ask yourself two questions. The first is: “What do I want to do with it?” And the second, just as important, is: “What might I want to do with it a year from now?”

So for example, if you’re sure you’re only going to use a laptop for surfing on the sofa, doing a bit of online shopping and staying

on top of your social media, you don’t need a state-of-the-art ultra-portable ultra-light piece of precision engineering. And conversely, if you fancy having a go at video editing – or might do soon – then a really cheap option isn’t going to do the job.

Ahead over heels

Price is important, of course, but thinking long-term is a good idea because laptops are really not designed to be opened up and upgraded – so opting for a cheap laptop with very small storage means you might have to shell out for an external drive; or going for a too-small screen might be a corner you’ll later regret cutting. So if you can spend a bit of time thinking about the apps you want to use (or games you want to play), where you’re going to be using them and what features are most important to you, you’ll find that narrows down your search considerably.

And if the perfect laptop is just a little bit too expensive, don’t despair: you can pick up older models for considerably less, and many manufacturers’ refurbished laptops are available on eBay in near-perfect condition for very low prices. Recent laptops are so powerful that a model from a few years ago will still have lots of life in it.

Apple MacOS

Apple makes MacBooks, some of the top laptops you can buy – and because it creates the hardware, the software (macOS) and the processors, these machines can deliver a level of refinement and integration between hardware and software – as well as work seamlessly with other Apple devices, plus iCloud services such as Apple Music, iCloud Drive and Apple TV+ – that rival manufacturers simply cannot provide. However, that comes at a cost: Apple makes premium products and that means it charges premium prices, with even its cheapest laptops costing considerably more than similarly powerful Windows machines. Yes, they are worth the money, but it is quite a lot of money.

Microsoft Windows

Windows 11 laptops are the choice of business users and gamers too: with a huge variety of options, from cheap and cheerful PCs to powerful workstations and laptops that can be twisted and folded into

all kinds of useful shapes, there’s a Windows option for every kind of user and for every budget. But some of the really cheap ones are underpowered and/or stingy with storage, and all that choice can be quite confusing when it comes to deciding which one to buy: do you want an Intel or an AMD processor? A Celeron or a Core i5? Don’t panic: if you do a little bit of research and check out reviews, it’s possible to configure the perfect PC.

Google Chrome OS

Chromebooks run Chrome OS, Google’s lean and speedy operating system based on the Chrome web browser. Although Chromebooks do have storage and can run apps locally, they’re really designed to be used with cloud-based apps such as Google Docs, Google Sheets, Gmail, YouTube and so on. Because Chrome is so lightweight it doesn’t need as much horsepower as Apple or Windows PCs, and because most of the heavy lifting is done by Google’s servers your Chromebook won’t slow down over time. There are some great high-spec Chromebooks but we prefer the more basic ones: they’re impressively speedy, portable and great value.

…or just a tablet?

Tablets aren’t laptops, we know. But many of the best tablets, such as Apple’s iPads and Samsung’s Galaxy Tabs, can become very laptop-like with the addition of the right keyboard. If you already have a high-quality tablet that’s a cheap way to upgrade to a laptop-type experience; and while even the most powerful tablets don’t multitask as well as proper computers (although they’re getting better and there are big changes coming to the iPad operating system this autumn), they’re great for working on the move. You can also use additional accessories such as an Apple Pencil for a more paper-like writing or drawing experience, and the battery life is often spectacular.

Laptop buying tips

Display quality

If you’re going to be spending a lot of time in front of your laptop’s screen, make sure it’s big enough, bright enough and crisp enough for the apps you want to use. The very cheapest laptops tend to have darker, less vivid displays, and for photography or writing you might regret compromising.

Storage and memory

While 64GB of storage might sound like a lot, some of us have photo libraries of four times that. Think about how much space you need now and what you might need in future: games, phone photos and video need lots of storage, and heavy-duty apps need plenty of memory.

Graphics

You don’t need a powerful graphics card for Facebook, Amazon and emailing. But if you plan to play games or edit video, you’ll want something a bit more hefty than the graphics systems in the most affordable laptops. Again, think long-term: if it’s just about adequate now, it might not be in a year.

Portability

Some laptops are more portable than others – and the more moving around you do, the more this matters. That 17in display might look brilliant, but you’ll struggle to open it in an economy airline seat; and that high-powered laptop will feel like a lump of lead after a few hours in a shoulder bag.