Best laptops with windows operating system: 2023 List

Naturally, you need a lot of CPU and GPU power when dealing with video, but you also need a good monitor to keep an eye on the small details. That's where the Asus ProArt Studiobook 16 OLED comes in. As you might guess from the name, it has a 16-inch OLED display, and we thought it looked absolutely stunning. It offers 4K resolution and exceptional colour gamut coverage, including 100% DCI-P3 and sRGB and 97% AdobeRGB.

With high-end AMD chipsets instead of the typical Intel CPU and NVIDIA GPU, it's also not a bulky one. The flexible trackpad, which can also be used as a drawing tablet, and the Asus Dial, which allows quick switching between tools and functions, are some nice little features that we liked when we evaluated it.

In our tests, the ProArt Studiobook 16 OLED performed smoothly in various artistic programmes such as Photoshop, Blender and Maya. In terms of games, it handled Cyberpunk 2077 competently.

Here are our top picks for the best Windows laptops currently available if money is no object. The Dell XPS 17 9710 is big and incredibly thin, packing a tonne of horsepower into its slim body. In fact, even for most design work, it's likely to be significantly overpowered, especially when it's at its highest specs. However, if you want anything for demanding 3D projects or 4K video with plenty of effects, it'll be more than capable.

For example, during our tests, it took less than three minutes to export 100 high-resolution photos from RAW to JPEG in Lightroom with very simple operations, and less than 17 seconds while maintaining the same RAW format. Similar results were observed when processing video, with a 4K video in HEVC (H.265) format requiring only 4 minutes 30 seconds, compared to 10 minutes 32 seconds in Premiere Pro.

As well as offering excellent speed, it's very well built and offers a ton of connectivity, including four Thunderbolt 4 ports and even an SD card slot. We love how easy it is to use and how fast and enjoyable the keyboard and trackpad are. The biggest downside is that the cooling system can be a bit noisy at full throttle.

If you're torn between buying the best Windows laptop and a tablet, a two-in-one laptop could be the ideal trade-off. You can flip the screen and use it as a tablet for pure simplicity, while still getting all the functionality you need from a standard laptop. And the HP Spectre x360 is the best choice for us right now.

It's a well-equipped laptop with a lot of CPU power, and while its Intel Iris Xe graphics don't have the sheer capability of a standalone Nvidia chipset, it can handle the majority of applications. There's plenty to enjoy about this tablet, including its 14-inch size, edge-to-edge anti-reflective Gorilla Glass and an accompanying stylus that makes drawing and sketching easy, making the Spectre x360 your best option right now.

If cost is your top priority, there aren't many good laptops more affordable than Dell's Inspiron 15 3000. There's not as much power as you might think; the most powerful option we could find is a Core i7 with 8GB of RAM, Intel UHD graphics and a 512GB SSD, and that's still cheaper than most of the other options in our comparison.

For most design jobs even the cheapest option will be woefully inadequate, but you should be able to get one for around $300 or £300, and it includes most of the essentials such as a webcam and microphone, three USB ports and HDMI, and a large 5.6-inch monitor.

When you're looking for the best Windows laptop to bring to school, you probably don't want to spend a bunch for top-end performance. Most likely, you'll need a laptop that can handle classes, run necessary Adobe software and be portable enough to take anywhere.

HP Pavilion 14 is ideal for this job. It can be customised to your specifications without breaking the bank, and at 14 inches, it's portable without being too small to be used comfortably for long periods of time. The touchscreen is also characterised by a decent number of connectors, including a USB-C port, two USB-A ports, HDMI and even a microSD card slot.

Let's be clear: the built-in webcam and microphone are a feature found on every single laptop, so it would be hard to find a laptop you can't use for Zoom. However, if you're looking for the best Windows laptop for Zoom, we recommend the Microsoft Surface Laptop 4.

It's a good-looking and powerful laptop with even the most basic specs, but the video conferencing features are what really set it apart. Thanks to the 720p f2.0 camera, you can shoot flawlessly even in dim light, and your voice sounds great, too, thanks to two far-field studio microphones. A set of Omnisonic speakers with Dolby Atmos complete the package and ensure you never miss a word spoken on the call.

Do you have too much money? Do you need absolutely every kind of performance? Now let us introduce the Razer Blade 17. As well as being an incredibly powerful workstation for the most demanding creative tasks, it goes without saying that it's the best Windows laptop for gaming.

In our tests using the 32GB model, it ran every piece of software we threw at it quickly, consistently, and smoothly. For example, we successfully tested running the laptop with as many Chrome tabs open as possible, while simultaneously streaming a Netflix show, listening to Spotify music, and running Blender on a different monitor.

In its most powerful version, it comes with a GeForce RTX 3080 Ti graphics card with 16 GB VRAM and a 14-core i9 CPU. However, the price for this luxury is high. Fortunately, the lower-spec models still offer a tonne of power that most users will struggle to fully utilise, as well as a beautiful display and naturally RGB-lit keys because this is a gaming laptop.