Qualcomm has updated its benchmark slides for the new Snapdragon C chip targeting laptops as inexpensive as $300. Nearly a week after the company originally revealed the Snapdragon C's specs and performance, it reached out asking Tom's Hardware (and presumably other publications) to replace a slide with Qualcomm's power efficiency benchmarks with an updated slide, which now includes two fewer results.

You can see the old slide and updated slide in the gallery above. The results are the same between them. However, the updated slide removes the idle apps and web browsing results. A Qualcomm representative says the change was made to "improve clarity and relevance," though the removal of the tests so long after the original announcement raises more questions than it answers. We've asked Qualcomm if there's any additional reason why it removed these results.

The company asked Tom's Hardware to replace our usage of the original slide with the updated version, though a retraction of published benchmarks carries a bit more weight than a simple update. It's unclear, at this point, why Qualcomm is making the change outside of the statement provided about improving clarity. The reason why really doesn't matter, however. Qualcomm made claims about the efficiency of Snapdragon C nearly a week ago, and now those claims have changed.

One thing you'll notice is that the two results that were removed use "ABL" in front of the test. We're not sure what this acronym is in reference to. Presumably, it's not the Advanced Business Language, a scripting language tailored for enterprise database applications. It could mean "all-day battery life" or something similar, which would make sense. We've asked Qualcomm what ABL is in reference to in its slides.

The benchmarks compare Intel's N250, a quad-core chip built on Intel 7 that operates at up to 3.8 GHz, against the Snapdragon C. Qualcomm's latest chip comes with eight Kryo CPU cores, which can boost up to 3 GHz on a single core, and up to 2 GHz across all cores. Even without the removed results, there are a few important notes about Qualcomm's testing.

First, Qualcomm didn't test on AC power, but rather compared the Snapdragon C to the Intel N250 on battery power. We expect to see how performance out of the Intel N250 with AC power compares to battery power (Snapdragon chips generally have a narrow window of performance across both AC and battery power). More relevant for the efficiency claims are the comparison platforms, however.

Qualcomm used a reference 16-inch device with Snapdragon C and compared it to an 11.6-inch Acer TravelMate with the Intel N250. The company says the N250 machine had "total power configured to match 16" screen." That presumably means Qualcomm is looking at total system power, though it's hard to say for sure. The benchmarks provided don't include concrete numbers or units, but vague comparisons to the N250.

Buying a gaming laptop is a great way to sidestep the exorbitant costs of RAM, SSDs, and GPUs that are plaguing the PC component market in 2026. Right now, Best Buy is selling a premium Lenovo gaming laptop with a massive discount as part of its 60th anniversary sale. Normally $4,249, a $1,350 discount gets you a 2.5K, 16-inch OLED laptop with Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD, and Nvidia RTX 5080 GPU.

● Grab this deal at Best Buy

This premium laptop combines a hefty mobile GPU for gaming with an impressive 240Hz, 2560 x 1600 screen, plenty of RAM for multitasking, lots of storage, and great networking and connectivity options. We absolutely loved it in our review and this $1,350 discount makes it all the more enticing.

This is a premium gaming laptop that scored well in our Tom's Hardware review. The display in particular is outstanding, as is the sleek aluminum design, customizable RGB lighting, and sharp webcam. As you can see below, the laptop performs extremely well in our display measurements testing thanks to that impressive OLED panel.

We actually tested the 5080, 32GB RAM, 275HX variant of this laptop, which means we can tell you exactly how the device performs when gaming. In our gaming benchmarks, the Legion Pro 7i pumps out 163 frames per second in Shadow of the Tom Raider at 1080p, or 101 frames per second at the laptop's native resolution of 2560 x 1600. We also clocked Crysis Remastered at Very High, running in the mid-90s, with the 16 VRAM pool and 175W power draw putting in plenty of work.

This is a laptop that will handle anything you throw at it, work or play. Other noteworthy features include 32GB of DDR5 6400 RAM, 1TB SSD, HDMI, USB-C, and USB-A ports, as well as a headphone jack, Wi-Fi 7, and Bluetooth 5.4. It also has an impressive 1440p webcam and scope for upgradeability thanks to its two M.2 drives. As per our review, this is an "outstanding" laptop that easily passes muster in terms of performance, while blowing us away with its OLED screen.

If you're looking for more savings, check out our Best PC Hardware deals for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals, Hard Drive Deals, Gaming Monitor Deals, Graphics Card Deals, Gaming Chair, Best Wi-Fi Routers, Best Motherboard, or CPU Deals pages.

Walmart isn't the first choice you think of for computers and components, but it, of course, does stock them and is guilty of being a bit of a sleeper when it comes to hosting some great tech deals if you can find them. One of the main deals I spot at Walmart is on their gaming laptop selections, and today, we have a $350 saving on a little 15-inch gaming powerhouse for under a grand. MSI's Cyborg 15 with RTX 5060 graphics is just $949. That's a pretty good price for an entire gaming laptop in the current economic climate, and at a price that many can afford.

● Check out this deal at Walmart

The Cyborg has a 15.6-inch 1080p display with a 144Hz refresh rate, more than ample resolution for a small screen. Images will appear crisp thanks to the pixel density on the 15.6-inch IPS panel. Powering the display is an Nvidia RTX 5060 laptop GPU with 8GB of VRAM, plenty of memory for 1080p gaming. Rounding out the rest of the internal specs for the MSI Cyborg is an 8-core Intel Core 5 210H CPU, 16 GB of DDR5-5600 RAM, and a 512 GB PCIe 4.0 SSD.

The Cyborg 15 has a distinct aesthetic, with a slate gray coloring to its outer shell and a somewhat symmetrical pattern on the keyboard, with some transparent plastic cutouts. There's 4-zone RGB lighting on the keyboard, a fingerprint reader, a webcam shutter, and a healthily large 55.2Wh battery.

Connectivity options include Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 for wireless networking, and an Ethernet port for a stronger cabled network. For your peripherals, there are fast USB ports that include USB-A and USB-C (DisplayPort and Power Delivery 3.0) ports, and an HDMI 2.1 (4k 60) port for hooking up to an external display.

The MSI Cyborg 15 in this deal is a 2026 model selling for just $949 at Walmart right now, making it one of the cheapest up-to-date RTX 5060 gaming laptops we've seen in a while, and a great counter to the ever-rising price barriers to jumping into PC gaming.

If you're looking for more savings, check out our Best PC Hardware deals for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals, Hard Drive Deals, Gaming Monitor Deals, Graphics Card Deals, Gaming Chair, Best Wi-Fi Routers, Best Motherboard, or CPU Deals pages.

We've been highlighting the benefits of going down the pre-built gaming PC and laptop route a lot recently, thanks to the ever-rising prices of PC components. Today is another example of a price cut on a ready-made gaming computer that might be the saviour of those looking to buy into PC gaming in the current climate. Hitting a new all-time low price at Amazon is the Acer Predator Helios Neo 18 AI, falling to $2,199.99. That's a saving of $600 from its most recent sale price of $2799.99, which we've confirmed via price comparison sites.

● Check out this deal at Amazon

The Acer Predator Helios Neo 18 AI features an Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX processor, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti laptop GPU with 12GB of fast GDDR7 VRAM, 32GB of RAM, and a 2TB PCIe Gen 4 SSD. These components power your gaming on the huge 18-inch IPS display with an insanely fast 240Hz refresh rate and 3ms overdrive response time.

The chassis of the Predator Helios Neo 18 AI is a mix of metal and plastic, with an abyssal black finish. There is room to upgrade parts in the future if RAM and SSDs don't become unaffordable, with two DDR5 RAM slots that support a maximum of 64GB and two M.2 slots. For that gamer aesthetic, there's plenty of bright RGB zones all over the laptop, so you can dial it up to 11 if you want to go for the full light show.

The RTX 5070 Ti is one of the more powerful laptop graphics chips, and although not comparable to a desktop version, it still has 12GB of VRAM and will be able to run games smoothly on the 18-inch 2560x1600 WQXGA+ screen. Being an Nvidia GPU, the laptop will be able to access Nvidia's DLSS software to increase or smooth out frame rates on more taxing titles. This is a large laptop at 18 inches, and quite expensive due to its size and amount of memory and storage used. So it's good to see it hit a new all-time low price at Amazon of $2,199.99.

If you're looking for more savings, check out our Best PC Hardware deals for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals, Hard Drive Deals, Gaming Monitor Deals, Graphics Card Deals, Gaming Chair, Best Wi-Fi Routers, Best Motherboard, or CPU Deals pages.

We all know that prices of memory, storage, and graphics cards have all shot up in price this year due to the insane AI-boom sucking up all the production resources, and the outlook for PC component upgrades is pretty grim, but luckily there are still a few ways to nab a gaming computer without emptying your bank account. Gigabyte's Aero X16 gaming laptop is down to $ 1,099.99 at Walmart, a $600 discount off the $1,699.99 list price. A gaming laptop or a pre-built gaming desktop is turning out to be the best value-for-money way to keep playing in the current climate.

● Check out this deal at Walmart

The Gigabyte Aero X16 features an AMD Ryzen AI 7 350, an 8-core, 16-thread processor that can boost up to 5 GHz, paired with an Nvidia RTX 5060 with 8GB of VRAM, 16GB of DDR5 RAM, and a 1TB PCIe Gen 4.0 SSD for storage.

The Aero X16 laptop sports a 16-inch IPS screen with a resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels, offering 100% sRGB color gamut coverage and up to 400 nits of brightness. The IPS panel supports a refresh rate of 165Hz with a 3ms gray-to-gray response time for a smooth gaming experience.

There's no unified soldered RAM or storage in this laptop either. There are dual memory and M.2 slots for upgrades, so that when the prices of RAM or SSDs hopefully subside a little, you can add some more capacity.

Other features of the Aero X16 include a single-zone RGB-backlit keyboard, a 1080p webcam with Windows Hello support, Wi-Fi 6E, and Bluetooth 5.2. For connectivity to peripherals and external displays, there are two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type A ports, a USB 4.0 Type-C port, a USB 2.0 Type-A port, and a 3.5mm headphone and mic combo jack, plus a network Ethernet port.

If you're looking for more savings, check out our Best PC Hardware deals for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals, Hard Drive Deals, Gaming Monitor Deals, Graphics Card Deals, Gaming Chair, Best Wi-Fi Routers, Best Motherboard, or CPU Deals pages.

We’re so used to testing cutting-edge, top-end laptops with high price tags that a decently equipped portable that isn’t priced around $2,000 can feel refreshing. And with price increases happening seemingly everywhere, the average laptop buyer probably feels the same.

Enter Acer’s Swift Go 16 AI, a 16-inch portable with an IPS touchscreen, a premium-ish metal shell, AMD Ryzen AI 7 445 processor, and 16GB of RAM paired with 1TB of storage, plus a 7-inch (diagonal) touchpad. It won’t break any performance ground, but it was a solid deal when it was on sale for $799. At its current MSRP price of $1,149, it’s a lot harder to argue for – especially when the silver-shelled Intel-based model (which halves the storage to 512GB but ups the screen tech to OLED) was on sale for just $699 at Best Buy when I wrote this.

Design of the Acer Swift Go 16 AI (Gorgon Point)

The design of Acer’s Swift Go 16 AI packs more positives than negatives, but it is still a mixed bag. Perhaps due to its size, it feels lighter than its 3.53-pound weight, and its aluminum shell (black with zig-zagging slim lines on the lid) puts it head and shoulders above budget offerings. It’s also fairly svelte for a big-screen laptop, at 14 x 9.9 x 0.63 inches.

Port selection is also good, with a pair of USB-C ports, a USB-A port, and HDMI on the left edge.

The right edge houses a Kensington lock slot, another USB-A port, a headset jack, and a microSD card slot.

Also here is the charging indicator light, which is an odd choice since the charging ports are on the other side of the laptop. After plugging the laptop into the charger on my test bench, I had to lean across the laptop just to see if it was charging.

The hinge also lets the screen recline all the way down to 180 degrees, although doing this makes viewing angle issues pretty apparent, as you lose most of the visible brightness.

The metal shell also has more than a little flex, both on the lid and the keyboard, though I noticed it more on the lid every time I closed the laptop. The lid also developed smudges that I couldn’t wipe away, even with a damp cloth and some elbow grease, during my time with it – and for a good chunk of that time it was just sitting untouched on my coffee table. Note, though, that the smudges are a lot less visible when the laptop isn’t sitting under photography lights.

Acer Swift Go 16 AI (the SFG16-A71T-R5UY) Specifications

A warning about magnetic watch bands

Before jumping into the test results, a quick note about a unique (at least to me) issue I had when using the laptop: About half the time when I moved my hands toward the keyboard to type or launch a program, the screen would briefly dim, and then I would be kicked out to the Windows 11 login screen. This eventually happened so frequently that I thought the laptop had some sort of electrical defect, and asked Acer about the problem.

However, as I was demonstrating the issue to a colleague in the office, he wondered aloud whether my watch band might be causing it. I hadn’t thought of that, as I’ve been testing laptops for well over a decade, much of that time while wearing a watch, and have never experienced this issue before. I’ve also had the current band for my Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 for about 14 months, during which time I’ve used countless laptops to a greater or lesser degree. But the band does have a magnetic clasp on the bottom, and sure enough, as soon as I took the band off, or even put it on my left wrist instead of my right, the issue where the screen went black and kicked me out to the login screen went away.

I tried replicating the issue with my watch band and several other laptops, but could not. So the Acer Swift Go 16 AI’s lid sensor does seem particularly sensitive to magnets (I was also able to replicate the issue on the Acer using other magnets and the magnetic band from someone else’s Apple Watch). But it’s a quirk that will mostly plague left-handed people who have magnetic watch clasps – or the odd people like me who wear their watch also on their right wrist.

Productivity Performance on the Acer Swift Go 16 AI

We tested Acer’s Swift Go 16 AI in its sole AMD-based Best Buy configuration, sporting a Ryzen AI 7 445 (Gorgon Point) CPU and integrated Radeon 840M graphics, as well as 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM and a 1TB SSD.

The Ryzen AI 7 445 is a mid-range chip in AMD’s refreshed lineup, with six cores, 12 threads, and an NPU capable of 50 TOPS for all your Copilot+ and other local AI needs.

Most of the systems we’ve looked at this year are pricier than the Acer, which could make the laptop look bad in our charts. But our comparison systems also cost more. There’s Apple’s 13-inch MacBook Air ($1,299) using a 10-core M5, followed by two 14-inch laptops: Dell’s XPS 14 ($2,199) leverages a Core Ultra X7 358H while Lenovo’s Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition ($1,629) uses a Core Ultra 7 355.

On Geekbench 6, the Swift 16 AI was able to hang with Dell’s XPS 14, falling a bit behind in single-core, but landing ahead on the multi-core portion of the test. But the Arm-based laptops from Apple and Lenovo both easily outpaced the x86 competition.

Things looked worse for the Acer laptop in our 25GB file transfer test. Despite the company calling the laptop’s storage out as being PCIe 4, the tested speed of 847.88 MBps is less than half that of the drives in the competing laptops. Still, the Acer drive is fast enough that you won’t likely notice the difference in most common tasks.

On Handbrake, the Acer managed to best the XPS 14 once again (thanks largely to its extra threads). But again, the Arm-based competition, and particularly Lenovo’s Qualcomm-based Yoga Slim 7x, destroys the Acer, converting our 4K video to 1080p in roughly a third of the time it took the Swift Go 16 AI.

The Swift Go 16 AI’s average transfer speed in our 25GB file transfer test was a slow (ish) 847.88 MBps. That’s less than half the speed of any of its laptop competition here, but these are also all pricier laptops. Faster would certainly be better, but the drive in the Acer is plenty fast enough for typical mainstream tasks.

To stress test the CPU in laptops, we run 10 loops of Cinebench 2026. The system started with a score of 2,315, ramped as high as 2487 by the fourth run, and held fairly steady, dropping back to 2468 on the penultimate run, before recovering and finishing at 2,480. During the test, the laptop’s Ryzen AI 7 445 CPU ran at an average frequency of 3.47 GHz.

Graphics on the Acer Swift Go 16 AI

The laptop’s 840M graphics are integrated. But thanks to being paired with an X86 CPU, they can certainly run more games than the Arm-based Apple and Lenovo laptop competition. But on paper, the competition has a clear edge.

In 3DMark Steel Nomad, the Acer Swift Go 16 AI turned in a score of 234, which is slightly less than half that of the Dell XPS 14 (with its four Xe3 cores) more than doubled that, while both the MacBook Air and Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x quadrupled the Swift Go’s showing. Again, though, keep in mind that the Acer, while not as powerful on the graphics front, will run more PC games than either the MacBook or Qualcomm-powered Lenovo.

Display on the Acer Swift Go 16 AI

Acer sells the Swift Go 16 AI with a single panel in the AMD-based configuration, a 1,920 x 1,200-resolution IPS panel with a 120 Hz refresh rate. The Intel-based version ups the ante with an OLED display, which sounds like an upgrade, but Best Buy lists that screen at just 250 nits. The IPS screen on our AMD model at least gets brighter than that.

When I watched the story trailer for Marvel’s Wolverine for the PS5, the dress Jean Gray wore in one scene was a vivid green, while the aura of her telekinesis popped in a hue somewhere between magenta and purple, while the often gore-speckled yellow of Logan’s suit looked a bit subdued. In general, colors looked good, and brightness was sufficient. But I did miss the inky blacks of the OLED screens on my Lenovo X9 laptop and my LG TV. That said, if this laptop panel was what I used for work every day, I don’t think I would have any serious complaints. It looks great unless you have something better to compare it to side-by-side.

Our display testing pegged the Acer’s screen at 336 nits, which edged out the Lenovo, but both the XPS 14 and Apple were significantly brighter. Still, the IPS Acer screen delivered more colors than the Dell or Apple laptops, with 121.8% of the sRGB gamut and 86.3% of the larger DCI-P3. In short, this is quite a good screen for a laptop that isn’t a flagship machine. It’s not the brightest of panels, and I did keep it mostly at 100% brightness while using it, it never once felt dimmer than I would have liked.

Keyboard and touchpad on the Acer Swift Go 16 AI

I found typing on the Acer Swift Go 16 AI to be largely fine, with no major complaints. The flat keys don’t offer the best feel or the most generous key travel. And the left and right arrow keys look comically large compared to their up / down counterparts.

The real oddity here is the inclusion of a squished number pad. There clearly isn’t room for anything larger, and I am sure those who find a number pad a necessity would rather have narrow numbers on the right side rather than no numbers. But the layout here makes the keyboard look and – to some extent – feel cramped. Considering this is a pretty large, 16-inch laptop, that’s a somewhat impressive design achievement.

The large, 7-inch touchpad is one of the Swift Go 16 AI’s stand-out features, and while nothing particularly ground-breaking, there are more features to cover than are typical in a laptop.

The touchpad isn’t haptic, but it is covered in Corning Gorilla Glass, and feels fairly premium. It worked well for basic and multi-finger gesture tasks during my time with it. And for tasks like media control and meetings, there are backlit touch buttons that appear when you, say, go to YouTube or launch Teams, letting you control media, volume, and switch to full-screen playback.

We’ve seen similar ideas from Acer and others. I’m not generally a fan of the general idea, but the touch features worked well enough to serve as controls while I watched YouTube. And Acer makes the buttons appear and disappear when you open compatible apps and websites, so it’s not something you have to think about much. You can also turn it off by hitting the X on the bottom-right corner of the touchpad when the lighting appears.

Audio on the Acer Swift Go 16 AI

The pair of downward-firing speakers on the Swift Go 16 AI are fine for meetings and casually watching video or listening to music at a desk, but don’t expect much in the way of bass or impressive volume. When I listened to my favorite test track, Buck-Tick’s “Muma - The Nightmare,” cranking the volume to 100% filled my home office space, but the sound was a little harsh at that volume. Dropping down to 80% or below resulted in better sound, but of course less volume.

If you’re the type that likes to fiddle with audio details, the DTS:X Ultra software is included. It lets you adjust the EQ and select from seven presets, but the Music setting was already enabled by default, so at least for listening, the Swift Go 16 AI’s speakers sound about as good as they can out of the box.

In short, the speakers are OK for basic audio tasks, and are easily loud enough for watching video clips. But if you want to enjoy your audio, especially at higher volumes, consider pairing a decent Bluetooth speaker.

Upgradability of the Acer Swift Go 16 AI

Getting inside Swift Go 16 AI isn’t difficult, provided you have a Torx screwdriver set. Remove ten screws (the ones on the front edge are shorter, so be sure to keep them separate), and you should be able to pry off the bottom. I found a small plastic spudger helpful for getting started, but once I worked a few clips free, the metal bottom lifted right off.

There’s little to do while you’re in there, though. You could swap the standard 2280 M.2 boot drive, or replace the MediaTek wireless card. But as is standard for anything that isn’t a gaming laptop / workstation or a Framework these days, the RAM is soldered down.

Battery life on the Acer Swift Go 16 AI

Unplugged longevity isn’t exactly a strong suit of this Acer, but it still manages a respectable 9.5 hours in our battery test, which consists of web browsing, running OpenGL tests, and streaming videos with the screen at 150 nits while connected to Wi-Fi. That was enough to beat the more powerful Lenovo by 46 minutes, but the Dell and Apple laptops did significantly better. Keep in mind, though, that the Acer has a larger, 16-inch screen than the competition here, which are 13- and 14-inchers, and there’s not much to complain about. Battery life is solid, just like many aspects of the Swift Go 16 AI.

Heat on the Acer Swift Go 16 AI

During our 10-loop Cinebench 2026 stress test, the Swift Go 16 AI’s surface temperatures remained relatively tepid for a slim laptop. We measured a peak of 87 degrees Celsius on the touchpad, 100.5 between the G and H keys, and 114 C on the underside, near the back center. Internally, the Ryzen AI 7 445’s average temperature was 66.9 C across all cores.

Webcam on the Acer Swift Go 16 AI

The webcam on the Swift Go AI is a step above mainstream options, at least on paper. It has an IR sensor for Windows Hello login, and Acer says the sensor supports IR and is capable of recording video up to 1800p at 30 FPS. The Camera app limited me to 2560 x 1600, which is still good for a mainstream laptop. Colors were generally accurate, and I did notice more detail in my beard than most 1080p models. But the camera still struggles with blown-out light from nearby windows.

Acer claims there is Temporal Noise Reduction at play here to keep pixels from looking grainy. Generally, I didn’t see any graininess, but the process also results in images and video that look soft when viewed at full size. In all, webcam performance feels like more than an afterthought, but isn’t the best I’ve seen. At this price, that’s perfectly fine.

Software on the Acer Swift Go 16 AI

There is a significant amount of adware and software bloat pre-baked into this Acer’s operating system. On the taskbar alone, you’ll find pins for Forge of Empires, Dropbox, and Booking.com. The start menu includes a couple more games: Elvenar and Amazing Block Blast, as well as WhatsApp, LinkedIn, and AcerSense. I also found ExpressVPN in the installed apps folder.

Oddly, AcerSense, the company’s own app for checking the status and health of the laptop’s various components, and changing power modes, wasn’t actually installed. When I clicked on it, a launcher started downloading. I would just delete it, like most of the cruft here. If you’re an absolute novice at recent versions of Windows, it might be a little helpful, but most of what it does and shows you is also available within Windows itself.

While I wouldn’t quite call this a serious excess of unnecessary and unhelpful software (in other words, I have seen worse), there is quite a lot here. When the laptop is on sale for hundreds off its MSRP, it feels like a necessary evil in these days of higher prices. But if you’re paying close to the $1,149 MSRP, you shouldn’t have to deal with this much bloat.

Acer Swift Go 16 AI Configurations

Acer sells AMD and Intel versions of the Swift Go 16 AI at Best Buy. Our black AMD-based model ships with a Ryzen AI 7 445 CPU, 16GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD. Its price ranged significantly from $799 to the $1,149 MSRP while I worked on this review. A higher-end AMD model ups the RAM to 32GB, the CPU to a Ryzen 9 465, for $1,499.

On the Intel side, there’s an Intel Core Ultra 5 version that halves the storage (512GB) but opts for an OLED screen with the same 1,920 x 1,200 resolution. That was selling for an enticing $699 ($300 off) as I wrote this. If you can get it at that price, this model is the clear bargain of the bunch. But a beefier Intel option with a Core Ultra 7 355 and 32GB of RAM at $1,169 ($1,549 MSRP) also isn’t bad if you need more power and memory.

Bottom Line

If you’re after a larger-screen laptop that doesn’t feel like a budget machine, there’s a lot to like with the Swift Go 16 AI – especially when it’s on sale. The AMD-based model we tested delivered solid performance and a good IPS screen. The SSD is slower than its pricier competition, but it wasn’t so slow that you’re likely to notice during typical tasks.

There is also more bloatware than is typical in laptops around the $1,000 price point, but it’s easy enough to uninstall. Just keep an eye on the pricing, which swung significantly between $799, $999, and $1,049 in the weeks when I was working on this review. And don’t discount the silver Intel Core Ultra 5 322-based model, which drops the storage down to 512GB, but includes an OLED screen. That model dipped as low as $699 in recent weeks, but has now jumped back up to $999. Either model is worth considering, and both are great values when priced below $800.

If you’re looking for the absolute best performance in a gaming laptop, then you’ll likely want to consider a desktop replacement. If you’re in the market, the HyperX Omen Max 16 makes a strong case with a 16-inch form factor and a thick chassis that accommodates some beefy hardware.

Our review unit carries a sticker price of $4,699, packs a Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus processor, and includes an RTX 5090 GPU. It also tips the scales at 6.56 pounds, making it a more suitable companion for your desk than for lugging around while traveling.

Despite its imposing dimensions and beefy hardware, the Omen Max 16 doesn’t quite pass muster in performance against its slimmer competitors among the best gaming laptops.

Design of the HyperX Omen Max 16

“Solid, solid as a rock,” is the phrase that comes to mind when describing the Omen Max 16. The laptop feels like it was forged from a solid piece of granite, but in actuality, it’s aluminum. It’s also thick, measuring 1.13 inches at its thickest point (at the rear).

To my eyes, the Omen Max 16 is attractively designed with no outrageous styling gimmicks. The aluminum is coated in a matte black finish, and design flourishes (like the O16 printed vertically along the deck and the HyperX logo on the lid) are subdued and don't draw significant attention. There’s also a laser-etched grille that runs nearly the width of the chassis that sits above the keyboard.

The only thing that really clues you into the gaming nature of the laptop (other than its sheer size) is the per-key RGB lighting for the keyboard, and a single LED strip on the bottom front edge of the chassis that you can configure with the Omen software.

When it comes to external ports, the Omen Max 16 has a USB-A (10 Gbps) port, two Thunderbolt 4 ports, and a 3.5 mm audio jack on the left. On the right side of the chassis, you'll find another USB-A port. The back panel of the laptop is home to an HDMI 2.1 port, a 2.5 GbE port, and a proprietary power port (a 460W GaN power adapter is included).

The Omen Max 16 measures 14.04 x 10.59 x 1.03 inches and weighs 6.56 pounds. For comparison's sake, the Razer Blade 16 is 13.98 x 9.86 x 0.69 inches and weighs 4.71 pounds. The MSI Raider 16 HX comes in at 14.29 x 10.62 x 1.14 inches and weighs 5.73 pounds. The Alienware 16 Area-51 weighs 7.49 pounds and measures 14.37 x 11.41 x 1.12 inches.

HyperX Omen Max 16 Specifications

Gaming and Graphics on the HyperX Omen Max 16

The Omen Max 16 is equipped with an Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus processor, 32GB of RAM, and an RTX 5090 GPU (175W TGP). Given these specs and a sizable chassis to aid cooling (300W total system power), I was expecting strong numbers from the Omen 16 Max. Instead, the laptop was relegated to the back of the pack, except for one game benchmark: Far Cry 6.

My game of choice these days is Battlefield 6, running at native resolution in Overkill detail mode, with DLSS Quality and frame generation enabled. Using these settings, I was able to average between 100 and 110 frames per second.

For the competitive set, we have the Blade 16 (Core Ultra 9 386H at 25W, RTX 5090 at 175W TGP), MSI Raider 16 Max HX (Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus at 55W, RTX 5090 at 175W TGP), and the Alienware 16 Area-51 (Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus at 55W, RTX 5080 at 175W TGP). It should be noted that the Omen Max 16 uses slower DDR5-6400, whereas systems like the Blade 16 use faster LPDDR5X-9600.

We started our benchmarking spree with Shadow of the Tomb Raider (Highest setting), and here the Omen Max 16 achieved 171 FPS at 1080p, putting it in last place behind the Razer Blade 16 (182 FPS). At 1600p, it landed in a comfortable third place (114 FPS) behind the Alienware 16 Area-51.

Cyberpunk 2077 (Ray Tracing Ultra settings) wasn't a strong showing for the Omen Max 16, either. It brought up last place at 1080p (59 FPS) and 1600p (37 FPS).

Far Cry 6 (Ultra settings) was the lone bright spot for the Omen Max 16, as it garnered 144 FPS at 1080p and 125 FPS at 1600p, easily putting it in first place. Both of these results far outpaced the rest of the field, with the next closest competitor being the MSI Raider 16 Max HX at 119 FPS and 114 FPS, respectively.

Moving to the Red Dead Redemption 2 (Medium settings) benchmark, the Omen Max 16 again wound up in last place, hitting 93 FPS at 1080p and 65 FPS at 1600p. However, in this instance, the margin between the Omen Max 16 and The Blade 16 at 1080p was just 1 FPS.

The Omen Max 16 again had trouble during the Borderlands 3 (Badass settings) benchmark, falling well off the pace set by its three competitors. The laptop hit 146 FPS at 1080p, nearly 20 FPS off the pace of the third-place Alienware 16 Area-51. At 1600p, it mustered just 113 FPS.

Metro Exodus is our go-to benchmark for laptop stress testing. Our review unit averaged 141.62 FPS at 1080p across 15 loops using the RTX benchmark preset. The CPU performance cores averaged 4.91 GHz, and the efficiency cores averaged 3.95 GHz. The RTX 5090 GPU ran at 1.81 GHz.

Productivity Performance on HyperX Omen Max 16

With its Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus processor, 32GB of RAM, and 2TB PCIe 5.0 SSD, the Omen Max 16 fared better in the productivity tests than it did with gaming.

On Geekbench 6, the Omen Max 16 with the Core Ultra 9 290HX was able to muscle past the Blade 16 with its Core Ultra 9 386H on both the single-core (3,182) and multi-core (17,989) benchmarks. However, the Alienware 16 Area-51 and Raider 16 Max HX, which use the same Core Ultra 9 290HX processor, achieved much higher multi-core numbers (each surpassed 20,000).

The PCIe 5.0 SSD used in the Omen Max 16 performed quite well in our 25GB file transfer test, coming in second place at 2,439.22 MBps. The Alienware 16 Area-51 was a few ticks ahead at 2,738.90 MBps.

The soft performance of the Omen Max 16 continued with our Handbrake test, which involves transcoding a 4K video file to 1080p. Here the laptop performed the task in 2 minutes and 59 seconds. However, at least one other laptop with the same Core Ultra 9 290HX did the deed in less than two minutes.

Display on the HyperX Omen Max 16

The Omen Max 16 uses a 16-inch 2560 x 1600 OLED panel with a 240 Hz refresh rate. As is the case with most OLED displays that we test, this one had a glossy finish.

Instrumented testing on the OLED panel showed it excelling against the competition, covering 131.2 percent of the DCI-P3 color space and 185.2 percent of sRGB. Even better, the Omen Max 16 nudged past the Raider 16 Max HX to also take the crown for panel brightness (464.6 nits versus 455.6 nits).

OLED panels rarely disappoint, and I was more than impressed with the overall quality and brightness. The brightness was high enough that I was able to game while on my back porch during a partly cloudy day with minimal interference from reflections on the glossy panel.

I also viewed the first Avengers: Doomsday trailer using the display, and besides getting a tiny bit emotional while watching it, was delighted with the color reproduction, particularly in the short battle between Gambit and Shang-Chi, with flashes of purple playing cards and orange rings.

Keyboard and Touchpad on the HyperX Omen Max 16

The Omen Max 16 features a full-size RGB backlit keyboard (with per-key lighting) and NKRO anti-ghosting technology. RGB effects are customizable using HP's Omen app or directly from within Windows 11.

The keys felt quite springy when typing, and I found it incredibly comfortable to rest my fingers and click away. And while some keyboards audibly make their presence known as you type at a furious pace, the key actuation on the Omen Max 16 was whisper-quiet.

Turning my attention to the Keyhero.com typing test, I plugged away at 95 words per minute with 97% accuracy, which is definitely on the high side for me (I’m usually in the mid-80s realm).

Given the Omen Max 16 price tag of over $4,500, I was disappointed that HP didn’t go with a haptic touchpad. Instead, we get a top-hinged trackpad that is just OK. It gets the job done, but for this much money, I’d prefer to be able to click anywhere on the touchpad surface without hitting a dead zone. At least while gaming, you probably use a mouse or controller.

Audio on the HyperX Omen Max 16

Audio quality is another area where I think HP missed the mark. To beat a dead horse, but this is a laptop that retails for $4,699, and it only comes with stereo speakers. Would it have killed HP to add another pair of speakers in this tank of a chassis?

While the speakers had good overall volume levels, I felt the sound lacked some depth compared to similarly priced laptops with four (Raider 16 Max HX) or even six speakers (Blade 16). While I was more than happy listening to Keane’s “Fly to Me” from the album Hopes and Fears, I was disappointed in the sound while playing Battlefield 6.

When it came to gunfire, vehicle sounds, and background explosions while gaming, I wasn't impressed. I prefer throwing on a pair of the best gaming headsets, but there’s still no excuse to drop the ball at this price point.

Upgradeability of the HyperX Omen Max 16

Six screws need to be extracted to remove the bottom aluminum panel. While that was easy enough, it’s only half the battle. All of the serviceable components (save for the readily accessible battery) are underneath an extensive metal shield. That shield is held in place by roughly a dozen screws, making upgrades a bit tedious.

Once the shield is removed, you’ll find access to the M.2 slot for the Wi-Fi/Bluetooth module, two SO-DIMM slots (both of which were filled on our review unit), and an additional M.2 slot for a second SSD. Yet another metal shield covers the first M.2 SSD slot, although I didn’t go through the process of removing another dozen screws to uncover it.

Battery Life on the HyperX Omen Max 16

Despite its considerable girth, the Omen Max 16 is equipped with just an 83 WHr battery. For comparison, the thinner and lighter Blade 16 manages to squeeze in a 90 WHr battery.

The Omen Max 16 lasted 5 hours and 7 minutes on our battery test, which consists of web browsing, video streaming over Wi-Fi, and OpenGL testing with the screen brightness set at 150 nits. This was over three hours shorter than the Raider 16 Max HX, while the Blade 16 lasted over twice as long on a charge (12:46).

Heat on the HyperX Omen Max 16

During the Metro Exodus stress test, we measured the Omen Max 16's keyboard at 106 degrees Fahrenheit (F) between the G and H keys, while the touchpad was 84.9 F.

The hottest part of the laptop was near the rear center of the bottom of the chassis, which measured 114 F.

While running the Metro Exodus stress test, the CPU measured 87 degrees Celsius (C). Meanwhile, the RTX 5090 was cooler at 75 C.

Webcam on the HyperX Omen Max 16

Another area where it feels like HP skimped is with the webcam. Rather than going with a higher resolution unit, the Omen Max 16 features a bog-standard 1080p unit that looks about as good as one you’d find in a $1,000 entry-level gaming laptop.

The camera didn’t do particularly well with a nearby window where light was shining through, and there were a lot of noise artifacts in less-than-ideal light conditions. In addition, the camera didn’t really pick up fine details well, which is disappointing considering the price.

Software and Warranty on the HyperX Omen Max 16

Like many HP laptops, the HyperX Omen Max 16 comes loaded with additional software bloat that you can mostly ignore or simply delete. Scrolling down the list of “H” apps in the Start Menu, HP basically set up camp with no less than eight apps/shortcuts—everything from HP Documentation to HP Privacy Settings to HP TV+. In addition, you’ll find the usual third-party add-ons like McAfee and promotional links for Dropbox, Adobe, and Booking.com.

The only really useful preinstalled app is the Omen Gaming Hub. It gives you control over power modes, lets you see CPU/GPU/RAM utilization, and provides plenty of configuration options for the onboard RGB lighting.

The Omen Max 16 comes with a one-year manufacturer warranty.

HyperX Omen Max 16 Configurations

Our Omen Max 16 came configured with an Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus processor, 32GB of DDR5-6400 memory, a 2TB PCIe 5.0 SSD, RTX 5090 GPU, and a 16-inch 1600p 240 Hz OLED display. The MSRP on our review unit was a staggering $4,699.99.

There are also several less expensive options, with the cheapest being a $2,699 SKU with a Core Ultra 7 270HX processor, 32GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD, and an RTX 5080. For $3,099, you can swap the Core Ultra 7 270HX for an AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 475 and double the SSD capacity to 2TB.

Bottom Line

The HyperX Omen Max 16 represents a swing and a miss. When I first saw the enormity of the chassis, I was looking forward to some impressive gaming performance given the 55W processor and 175W RTX 5090 onboard. Instead, what I was left with was a $4,699 gaming laptop that lingered in last place for most of the gaming benchmarks, and often by a large margin. Even the Razer Blade 16 with its 25W processor managed to get the upper hand in most benchmarks.

But the gaming wasn’t the only disappointment. Given the price tag, I would have expected a better-equipped machine. Where’s the haptic trackpad, and why do we only get two speakers? And on a minor annoyance angle, while I appreciate the two M.2 slots for storage and replaceable memory, why do I need to remove another dozen screws just to access those components?

In the end, the Omen Max 16 could have been so much more. Quite frankly, it would make sense to spend the extra $200 and grab a Razer Blade 16. Not only is it thinner and lighter (by two pounds), but it offers double the battery life.

Given how much PC hardware prices have risen in recent months, an RTX 5070 Ti gaming laptop for under $2,000 is sure to grab our attention. Walmart has slashed $750.99 off this 16-inch Gigabyte Aorus Master gaming laptop, bringing the price down to just $1,999. Alongside the powerful Nvidia GPU is 32GB of DDR5 RAM, a 1TB SSD, and a 24-core Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX processor, along with a gorgeous 16-inch OLED display.

● Check out this deal at Walmart

There are two features that make this laptop a serious option for gamers, especially at this price, and it's the display and the GPU. The 16-inch OLED panel included here is a stunner, offering a top resolution of 2,560 x 1,600 for gaming, with an ultra-fast 240Hz refresh rate. It has a top brightness of 500 nits, with full 100% coverage of the DCI-P3 color space, meaning you'll see vibrant colors with true-to-life accuracy, with games and movies looking fantastic on this display.

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, meanwhile, won't be troubled to hit the high frame rates at this display's native 1600p resolution. This mobile GPU ships with 5,888 CUDA cores and 12GB of GDDR7 VRAM, along with a total TDP of 175W. At 1600p, expect to be able to play games with Ultra graphics presets enabled. This is an Nvidia Blackwell GPU, so you've also got DLSS 4 to fall back on, including multi-frame generation. If you use a second monitor with this laptop, that'll be a useful feature for the higher resolutions, with AI able to fill in the gaps to boost your frame rates.

This Gigabyte laptop also ships with an Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX CPU. It has 24 cores, eight of which are performance cores, which are best for gaming, along with 16 efficiency cores for multi-threaded work. You're also getting 32GB of DDR5 RAM in this laptop build, so no need to compromise there, along with a 1TB SSD for storage, which should be enough for a few big game installations.

Other specs include four 2W speakers with Dolby Atmos support, a three-zone RGB backlit keyboard, along with several USB-C and USB-A ports to choose from. It also includes Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 support for wireless connectivity.

The $1,999 sale price for this 16-inch Gigabyte Aorus Master OLED gaming laptop is an absolute steal in the current market and one that'll save you over $750. You'll struggle to find specs this powerful in a rival laptop at this price point so if you're looking for an upgrade, grab this deal fast before the price or stock runs out.

Pick up an Apple MacBook Pro 14 with M4 Pro chip and a hefty 48GB of RAM for $2,999, thanks to a nice $900 discount at Best Buy. This top-spec MacBook Pro may feature the older M4 Pro chip, but it still packs hefty memory, storage, and performance specs. If you need a laptop with ample RAM for your productivity applications, this deal could be of interest to you.

● Check out this deal at Best Buy

This 14-inch MacBook Pro uses the Apple M4 Pro chip with 14 cores for CPU tasks and 20 cores for GPU operations. This model comes stacked with 48GB of unified memory and a 2TB SSD. The screen on the MacBook Pro features a Liquid Retina XDR nano-texture display with up to 1600 nits peak brightness, one of the brightest and best-looking screens we had reviewed at the time of testing, helping to earn this M4 Pro laptop an Editor's Choice award in our review.

We tested the 14-inch MacBook Pro M4 in November, 2024. It was the first laptop we tested with Apple's M4 chip. The SKU of the laptop we tested was less powerful than the model we are featuring today, featuring only 16GB of RAM and 1TB of SSD storage compared to the 48GB and 2TB in this model.

Apple's M4 chip showed strong performance on benchmarks, easily competing with the competition in both single and multicore workloads. On Geekbench, the new Mac achieved a single-core score of 3,807 and a multi-core score of 15,114.

This particular model of the MacBook Pro 14 with M4 Pro does lean on the expensive side, even when discounted to $2,999, but that's because it is stacked with a massive amount of RAM and a larger SSD, which Apple does charge a premium for. As this is unified memory and soldered to the mobo, there is no upgrade path later down the line, so if you want a laptop with a larger amount of memory, then you need to choose the amount you want at the point of purchase.

The Lenovo LOQ Essentials 15 Gen 11 has the right idea to compete with the best budget gaming laptops: skip the flashy design extras and focus on the hardware that matters. Its RTX 5060 graphics, 144 Hz IPS display, solid keyboard, and generous internal upgrade options give budget-strapped gamers plenty to like on paper. The reality is that this configuration is compromised in the area that matters most: gaming performance. Its RTX 5060 is held back by a 65W power limit and the CPU is several generations old, allowing rival machines in the same price range to post stronger results. The LOQ is usable and practical, but at this price, it needs stronger performance to stand out.

Design of the Lenovo LOQ Essentials 15 Gen 11

Aptly named, the LOQ Essentials 15 embraces a no-frills design. Aside from LOQ branding on the lid, there’s little here meant to catch the eye, which is fitting for a laptop that’s intended to deliver performance at the lowest possible cost. Lenovo reserves premium materials and styling for its Legion gaming laptops.

Fortunately, the budget considerations are mostly aesthetic, as the LOQ’s plastic chassis feels solid and has the durability you’d expect for daily home or school use. Its 0.97-inch thick profile and 5.07-pound weight don’t make it a great traveling companion are in line with competing laptops like Acer's Nitro V 16S AI, Asus’ TUF Gaming F16, and MSI's Cyborg 15. The latter is the lightest in the group, at 4.36 pounds.

Lenovo’s port selection is practical: one USB-C port (10 Gbps), two USB-A ports (5 Gbps), an audio jack, Ethernet, and HDMI. You won't get truly high-speed ports like USB4/Thunderbolt 4 at this price. The Intel AX203 Wi-Fi 6 card is another example of this laptop's economical focus, though it shouldn't hold users back.

Lenovo LOQ Essentials 15 Gen 11 Specifications

Gaming and Graphics on the Lenovo LOQ Essentials 15 Gen 11

We evaluated the LOQ Essentials 15 Gen 11 with a Core i7-13650HX processor, RTX 5060 graphics (65W), and 16GB of single-channel DDR5-4800 RAM. The processor is several years old though still packs a punch, with six Performance cores.

Playing 007 First Light at 1080p with medium lighting settings, post effects on, and DLSS set to balanced, the LOQ produced playable frame rates, ranging from the mid-50s to low-70s FPS depending on the scene. The experience was never poor, but it lacked the fluidity I expected from a laptop carrying Nvidia's latest midrange GPU.

Our benchmark comparison lineup consists of Acer's Nitro V 16S AI (Ryzen 7 260, RTX 5060 85W, $1,299.99 when tested), Asus' TUF Gaming F16 (Core i7-14650HX, RTX 5050 115W, $1,199.99), and MSI's Cyborg 15 C13WE (Core i5-13420H, RTX 5050 70W, $1,219.99).

Overall, the LOQ’s results were disappointing. With a 65W power limit, its RTX 5060 simply doesn't deliver the level of performance buyers might expect from the badge. It was routinely outperformed by the TUF Gaming F16 using an RTX 5050, while Acer's higher-powered RTX 5060 laptop also finished comfortably ahead. The result is a gaming laptop that works well enough but struggles to justify its price when similarly priced alternatives make better use of comparable hardware.

In Shadow of the Tomb Raider at the Highest detail preset, the LOQ’s 88 FPS only outpaced the Cyborg (82 FPS), while the Asus (95 FPS) and Acer (98 FPS) both pulled ahead. This story repeated in Far Cry 6 – with 75 FPS, the LOQ trailed Acer (82 FPS) and Asus (90 FPS), though it was within a few FPS of those units in Red Dead Redemption 2. The LOQ’s only real victory was Cyberpunk 2077, where it achieved 38 FPS, with the Acer (32 FPS) trailing. The LOQ was one of two laptops tested with Forza Horizon 3, where it predictably had no trouble outgunning the Cyborg, 58 FPS to 51 FPS.

To stress-test gaming laptops, we run 15 loops of the Metro Exodus stress test at RTX settings to simulate half an hour of gaming. The LOQ demonstrated stable performance throughout the test, averaging 59.79 FPS without a variance of more than one FPS across runs. During the test, the Core i7-13650HX ran at an average frequency of 2.73 GHz while the RTX 5060 averaged 1,919 MHz.

Productivity Performance on the Lenovo LOQ Essentials 15 Gen 11

Our LOQ Essentials 15 Gen 11 is built around a Core i7-13650HX, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD.

Throughout our testing, the LOQ's outdated CPU struggled against the newer silicon in the competition, only consistently outpacing the Cyborg with its equally dated Core i5-13420H. In the multi-core portion of Geekbench, the LOQ's score of 11,300 was well behind the Ryzen 7 260-powered Acer (12,837) and couldn't touch the Core i7-14650HX-powered Asus (15,013). The Asus also dominated Handbrake, completing that test in 3 minutes and 33 seconds compared to the LOQ's 4:35.

The LOQ's average speed of 136 MBps in our 25GB file transfer is abnormal, but it also occurred on other drive benchmarks, though I never noticed any issues in loading games. The drive is a WD PC SN5000S using QLC.

Display on the Lenovo LOQ Essentials 15 Gen 11

Lenovo didn't cut too many corners with the LOQ's display. The 15.6-inch IPS panel pairs a smooth 144 Hz refresh rate with an anti-glare finish that minimizes reflections. While the 1920 x 1080 resolution isn't especially sharp by 2026 standards, it isn’t too hard for the RTX 5060 to drive in today’s games.

Watching X2: X-Men United and playing 007 First Light, the LOQ’s display stood out as one that’s better than typical budget laptop fare. Colors have enough punch to make game environments feel lively, and enough contrast to give darker scenes reasonable depth. Brightness is just adequate – the panel is best suited for indoor use and can't compete with the significantly brighter screen in Acer's Nitro V 16S AI. Still, for gaming, streaming, and everyday use, the LOQ's display is one of its better attributes.

Covering 86.1% of DCI-P3, the LOQ’s display proved more colorful than the Acer (77.4%) and effectively tied the others. Its 290-nit peak brightness was on par with the Asus (298 nits) and brighter than the MSI (233 nits) but not nearly as bright as the Acer (392 nits).

Keyboard and Touchpad on the Lenovo LOQ Essentials 15 Gen 11

Lenovo’s keyboard offers an ample 1.3 mm of travel for comfortable typing sessions. Its two-level white backlighting provides excellent visibility in low light. The number pad isn’t quite full-size but offers the expected layout. In MonkeyType, I reached 122 words per minute with 99% accuracy on the first try.

The touchpad is also well-designed, with a comfortably-sized surface and quiet physical clicks.

Audio on the Lenovo LOQ Essentials 15 Gen 11

The LOQ's twin 2W speakers produce acceptable sound for a laptop. Bass is lacking, but the sound is clear enough to pick out footsteps and shell cases dropping in games. Overall, the setup works for casual gaming.

The included Nahimic app is essential for sound quality – without it, the speakers are tinny and dull. The Music preset with bass and treble boost works well all around. The Smart preset also gets the job done; my ears didn't detect much of a difference versus the Music preset. The Movie preset's virtual surround adds a hollowness that I find unnatural.

Upgradeability of the Lenovo LOQ Essentials 15 Gen 11

Getting inside the LOQ is somewhat tricky. Removing the Philips-head screws is straightforward – they’re fortunately all the same size – but the bottom panel sits flush with the chassis edges, with no obvious entry points. I created one using my thumb to push in one of the rear chassis corners, which created a gap for my plastic pry tool.

Upgrade prospects are excellent, with two DDR5 SODIMM slots and two SSD slots, one M.2 2280 and one M.2 2242. The 512GB SSD in our model is M.2 2242 format and installed in the M.2 2280 slot. The M.2 2230 wireless card and the battery are also replaceable.

Battery Life on the Lenovo LOQ Essentials 15 Gen 11

Our battery testing consists of web browsing, running OpenGL tests, and streaming videos with the screen at 150 nits while connected to Wi-Fi. The LOQ's runtime of 4 hours and 54 minutes is short even for a gaming laptop, with the Asus lasting about two hours longer. Acer's Nitro completely outclassed it, lasting 10 hours and 17 minutes.

Heat on the Lenovo LOQ Essentials 15 Gen 11

We measure laptop surface temperatures while running the Metro Exodus stress test. The LOQ's peak temperatures were 108 degrees Fahrenheit (F) between the G and H keys while the touchpad was 79 F. The highest temperature was 112 F on the bottom near the cooling fan exhaust. Internally, the Core i7-13650HX measured 70 degrees Celsius (C) while the RTX 5060 was 66 C.

The LOQ’s fan noise is noticeable while gaming, but is no louder than other entry-level gaming laptops I’ve tested. Its speakers are easily loud enough to be heard over the fans.

Webcam on the Lenovo LOQ Essentials 15 Gen 11

Lenovo's webcam is a basic 720p model with a soft focus. It handles lighting reasonably well – a lamp behind me wasn't blown out – but detail is lacking and there's considerable grain. There's no physical shutter, but you'll find an e-shutter switch on the right edge.

Software and Warranty on the Lenovo LOQ Essentials 15 Gen 11

The LOQ includes two main apps. Legion Space shows component readouts like CPU speed and temperature, plus power profile toggles between Performance, Quiet, Balanced, and Custom. The app can also auto-disable the Windows key and auto-close specified apps when games are launched, and prioritize network traffic to apps you specify. An aim assist feature puts a crosshair in the center of the screen. The app also provides access to the Lenovo community and can be a game library.

The Vantage app is familiar across Lenovo laptops for support services, troubleshooting utilities, and system updates. System settings include battery smart charging (limits charge to 80% to extend battery lifespan). The app also has a security advisor that verifies anti-virus and firewalls are active and tells you if a Wi-Fi network is safe. The app contains upsells for Lenovo’s identity protection, system recovery, and performance tuneup subscription services.

Lenovo backs the LOQ with a one-year warranty.

Lenovo LOQ Essentials 15 Gen 11 Configurations

We tested the LOQ equipped with a Core i7-13650HX processor, RTX 5060 graphics card, 16GB of DDR5-4800 single-channel RAM, and a 512GB SSD, retailing for $1,269.99 at Best Buy. It was not yet available directly from Lenovo at the time of this review.

An even more basic spec with a Core i5-13450HX and RTX 5050 is listed on Lenovo's site as "coming soon" but wasn’t at the time of publishing. All configurations include a 1920 x 1080 IPS display with a 144 Hz refresh rate and Windows 11 Home.

Bottom Line

Lenovo’s LOQ Essentials 15 Gen 11 is a reminder that spec sheets don’t tell the whole story. While it delivers an RTX 5060 and a 144 Hz display for a competitive price, its conservative GPU power limits and older platform leave it trailing rivals in real-world performance. Though it gets many fundamentals right -- its display, keyboard, and upgradeability are all solid – it’s ultimately a serviceable gaming laptop rather than a competitive one. At this price, Acer’s Nitro V 16S AI is a stronger value.

Update. 08/18/2026: Original poster Reddit_2049 reached out to explain that their laptop wasn't authentication locked by a third party. Rather, they found the BIOS was factory locked to prevent consumers from having full access to HP's advanced configuration tabs and many underlying settings. In a message to Tom's Hardware, Reddit_2049 goes on to explain that "the RSA-related patch was necessary because modifying the firmware caused HP's integrity/signature checks to reject the modified BIOS and show 'BIOS Corruption Detected.'"
Original story follows.

BIOS-locked laptops are sometimes sold at bargain prices due to the operational restrictions this kind of firmware security puts on the device. Can AI tools be used to bypass this security measure? The answer looks like a yes, as Reddit_2049 on the Claude AI subreddit recently shared the process that successfully unlocked their HP 15-dw1036ne.

A new owner of a BIOS-locked laptop will typically not be able to bypass a password or PIN at startup, nor be able to adjust any BIOS settings. It depends on what kind of lock has been implemented. There was a time when removing the CMOS could reset the BIOS and break these chains, but for a long time, laptop makers have had far stronger security.

The particular laptop model with a BIOS lock to bypass by the Redditor was the HP 15-dw1036ne, a 10th-gen Intel processor-packing laptop from the turn of the decade. This looks like a consumer laptop, so we reckon it will have had a power-on password set by the previous owner, which somehow didn’t get communicated to Reddit_2049 through the used/recycled electronics ownership chain. However, it isn’t explicitly stated what kind of BIOS lock faced the Redditor, so it could have been a BIOS admin lock. These locks aren’t as stringent or formidable as those possible with HP’s commercial laptops, which can even tie BIOS locks to the system TPM…

Back to the HP 15-dw1036ne unlock process, and it came with BIOS version F.68. The Redditor had access to a CH341A chip flasher and code disassembly tools, but said the system would throw up a ‘BIOS Corruption Detected’ message if any modification was detected. That’s a check that makes hacking it all the more difficult. This is where Claude Code stepped in.

Looking for previous examples and details of someone successfully unlocking this specific HP laptop’s BIOS was fruitless. So, Reddit_2049 asked Claude Code to pick through their backup BIOS dump and try to unlock it. Long story short, it worked.

Three levels of patches

The Redditor shared a few technical details about the three levels of patches that were required to unlock the BIOS. These include: finding the RSA-2048 DXE-FV signature check bypass, and 55 hidden setup fields, as well as revealing advanced BIOS configuration tabs. But most important to know is that Claude Code wrangled these bits and bytes, so Reddit_2049 now has a fully open BIOS on their HP laptop.

A Python script that completes the whole process on this particular HP laptop is shared at the bottom of the Reddit post. This will back up your current BIOS, implement all three patches, and leave your HP 15-dw1036ne unlocked.

Please be warned that this script might not work with your laptop, even if it's an HP, even if it’s a 15-dw1036ne, or even if there are other differences like board revision. However, this example shows that laptops with locked BIOS access/features and no specific known bypass method can now be fully unlocked thanks to AI.

I’ve used thousands of laptops over the years, between testing and trade shows, so it isn’t often that an issue pops up that I haven’t encountered before. But that’s exactly what happened recently while working with Acer’s Swift Go 16 AI (review coming soon). This unassuming mid-range portable packs AMD’s Gorgon Point silicon, alongside a large IPS screen and a roomy 7-inch touchpad – nothing groundbreaking, but a solid, svelte system with a metal shell and an affordable price (at least when it’s on sale).

But pretty quickly, when I started setting it up and photographing it, I noticed that the screen would often go black, briefly, when I tried typing, and I would then get kicked out to the Windows lock screen. Since I was using a local account with no password to type in, this was only a minor annoyance at first. But it kept happening – not every time I tried to use the laptop, but often enough that I pretty quickly decided that the review unit must be faulty. Eventually, I reached out to Acer to explain and show them the problem.

Company engineers thought it might be a software conflict, and suggested I reset the system, which I did, to no avail. The screen was still flashing black and kicking me out to the lock screen. In fact, after some experimenting, I could sometimes make the issue occur when I was barely even touching the touchpad. I discussed it with colleagues, sent them the same video I had sent to Acer, and became convinced it was some kind of strange electrical fault with the touchpad. I eventually got a second review unit of the laptop, but by that time I was onto other priorities, so it sat for a week or so, until I decided to at least bring the original “faulty” laptop back to the office so I could box it up and return it to Acer.

Before I boxed it up to send back to Acer for their evaluation, though, I decided to show another colleague, Tom’s Guide’s lab tester Arif Bacchus, in our New York office. He watched me demonstrate the problem for about ten seconds before casually suggesting, “I think it might be your watch.”

This hadn’t even occurred to me, but as soon as he said it, everything started to fall into place in my mind. I had been wearing my Galaxy Watch 7 this and every time I had the issue, because I wear my watch pretty much whenever it isn’t charging. And my watch band (which Amazon tells me I’ve had since May of last year) has a magnetic clasp on the bottom, which sits a few inches behind my right wrist when I’m wearing it. And as I moved my wrist across the lower-right edge of the laptop, the screen went black for a second, and I was once again kicked back to the Windows lock screen.

The touchpad was never the issue, and the laptop isn’t faulty – although it does have a lid sensor that is triggered by a magnet embedded in the upper-right bezel, which can also be triggered by most other magnets if they get close to the bottom-right of the deck. I was able to duplicate the issue with a fridge magnet, a magnetic Qi 2 accessory, and a borrowed Apple Watch, which also had a band with a magnetic clasp.

While perhaps not the greatest of design choices, this is, to be clear, an issue that probably won’t affect a large portion of people. To run into the problem I had with this laptop specifically, you’d need to have a magnetic watch band and either be left-handed or the odd right-hander like me who also likes wearing their watch on their right wrist.

I wasn’t able to replicate this issue on any of the four other laptops (Dell, Apple, Lenovo, and Framework models) around my desk area. And the issue must be quite rare as, again, I have been wearing this watch band every day for 14 months or so, at CES in Las Vegas and two Computexes in Taiwan, where I put my fingers on dozens of laptops, and have never encountered screens that dim or turn off as my hands land on the keyboard deck.

There are definitely other documented instances of this happening, though. Once I knew what to look for, it was easy to find a few (but not particularly a lot) of discussions about this and related issues, on Reddit, Apple, Dell, and Acer forums, and a Medium article about Chromebooks confusing Apple watches. Some older mentions also note that magnetic bracelets can cause the same issue (somewhat obviously).

Clearly, this isn’t a new problem, but it isn’t well known. It was confusing enough that I was convinced the laptop was faulty and asked for a replacement. If I owned this Acer, it probably would have led me to return it and deal with an RMA process, only to eventually get another laptop that, even more frustratingly, would have the same issue. And yes, the replacement Swift Go 16 AI that Acer sent was also fooled by my watch band.

So what do you do if you have a laptop with a lid sensor that is triggered by your watch band? Your options should be pretty obvious.

You could get a new, non-magnetic band. I do love the convenience and easy removal of my current band, but this is probably the simplest solution.

You could learn to love wearing your watch on your opposite arm. For most people, this might be tough, but I do switch up watch arms now and then when my right wrist gets irritated by the fact that I track nearly every waking and sleeping moment of my life with my smartwatch. And if you aren’t using your PC during most of your waking hours like me, switching your watch to your other arm or taking it off just while working or gaming might be easy enough.

Also, if you just bought a laptop that is triggered by your favorite watch band, and you don’t want to give that up, you could return the laptop for something else.

The good news is that it’s unlikely any other random model you choose will have the same problem. Perhaps this magnetic sensor issue is more common on Chromebooks (which I tend to avoid), but none of the dozens of other laptop models I’ve put my wrists on since May of 2025 have been triggered by my watch strap. So if you’re unlucky enough to be struck by the curious watch strap laptop curse once, it probably won’t happen with the next laptop you choose. Still, it’s always good to check out a laptop in a store, if you can, for this and several other reasons.

It can seem a little doom-and-gloom when shopping for computers in the current climate. Trying to find a laptop that has your desired hardware specifications and doesn't require selling your firstborn is getting harder and harder. Prices have been creeping up thanks to massive spikes in RAM and storage costs, with the AI boom sucking up all the manufacturing and stock resources. The future is uncertain, but what is currently available can sometimes be found with a decent discount. Best Buy is currently running a limited-time deal on Gigabyte's Aero X16 gaming laptop with RTX 5060 graphics, and asking $1,199. This is a quick $100 saving off the usual $1,299 asking price.

● Check out this deal at Best Buy

The Aero X16 is powered by a Ryzen AI 7 350 processor, which is based on AMD’s Zen 5 architecture. It has four Zen 5 cores and four Zen 5c cores, with a max boost of 5 GHz (3.5 GHz for the Zen 5c cores). Not only does it come with the powerful AMD processor, but it's also packing dedicated graphics processing power, with Nvidia's RTX 5060 laptop GPU with 8GB of GDDR7 VRAM. A solid combination for chomping through the latest games and giving respectable frame rates on sensible settings.

Another boon to this budget laptop deal is the inclusion of a healthy amount of memory. This model of the Aero X16 comes with 32GB of precious DDR5 RAM installed. This alone gives this deal an advantage, as upgrading memory capacity has now become an extremely expensive affair.

The laptop’s native resolution on the 16-inch IPS panel is 2560 x 1600px. A very crisp resolution for a small screen that offers tight pixel density. The display has a max refresh rate of 165 Hz, with a 3 ms gray-to-gray response time, and 100% sRGB color space coverage. The screen also outputs a reasonable 400 nits of brightness, so the games and media can be easily viewed in both darkened and overly light environments.

As for physical ports, the laptop features plenty of connectivity with three USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports, a USB-C port (USB4), an HDMI 2.1 port, a GbE port, and a 3.5 mm headphone jack. For wireless connectivity, there’s Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2.

We recently toured China-based Lenovo’s new production facilities here in the US. Lenovo is the number one player in the global PC market (by shipments), with products spanning consumer, business, and enterprise sectors. But while Lenovo is a Chinese-based company, it has a significant business presence in the United States. Its U.S. headquarters, which opened in 2005, is in Morrisville, NC, right in the heart of the Research Triangle Park. The company also opened its first PC manufacturing line, a short drive away in Whitsett, NC, shortly after.

This past Friday, Lenovo took the latest step in its efforts to expand its U.S. manufacturing presence with a symbolic ribbon-cutting for the expansion of manufacturing at its Whitsett facility. The company invested millions of dollars into the facility, doubling its footprint to 890,000 square feet. There are currently 400 line workers, with the capacity to expand that number to 1,000 in the near future.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand why Lenovo is making this investment, as it comes down to two words: artificial intelligence.

Lenovo in Whitsett

As Ashley Gorakhpurwalla, Executive VP and President for the Infrastructure Solutions Group, explained, for many of Lenovo’s customers, “AI is moving from the hype cycle now into the hero cycle.” With many of its customers looking to increase reliance on U.S.-produced hardware, an “infrastructure they can trust is going to be the catalyst for that.” So, it only made sense to tap into resources and the local community it has fostered over the past two decades

“Because behind every AI breakthrough, it's powerful, powerful infrastructure,” Gorakhpurwalla continued. “As technology becomes more advanced, I think that building high-quality infrastructure closer to our customers is becoming more important than ever.”

North Carolina might not always have been at the forefront of people’s minds when it comes to technological leadership, and it’s a question that Ben Massey, VP Supply Chain for Lenovo, has often fielded. “You know, people ask me all the time, how are you going to make that work in North Carolina?” Massey explained. “The way it's going to work is that we've got an arc from the Triangle to the Triad with thousands of engineers, thousands of manufacturing people in R&D who can work in supply chain, people who can all work together to bring this technology together with speed. Faster product development to mass production, shorter customer lead times, and greater end-to-end cost efficiency.”

Lenovo’s main U.S. R&D hub in Morrisville is just over an hour's drive away from the Whitsett facility along Interstate 40. In addition, the company can pull young talent from nearby universities like NC State, Duke, UNC-Chapel Hill, and Wake Forest, along with the state’s robust community college system.

Lenovo and its local contractors were able to take the facility from an empty warehouse to a fully functioning server production line in nine months. That included the necessary electricity capacity (up to 20 MW) from Duke Energy.

By the Numbers

I was given a full tour of the Whisett manufacturing facility (along with other members of the press, Lenovo dignitaries, and local lawmakers), from start to finish. It was an impressive operation; one that I wish I could express to you in photos. However, photos and videos were strictly forbidden due to the proprietary nature of the hardware and testing equipment, and to protect Lenovo's customers' privacy.

The kitting area, where the components like processors, memory, and storage are assembled, encompasses 26,000 square feet. There are 10 kitting lines, where workers currently assemble 200 racks per week, with the capability to double that number to 400. The 50 team members in this area process over 150,000 parts per day.

There are currently seven assembly lines, residing in a space roughly double the size of the kitting area (53,000 square feet). Lenovo has the capacity to produce 1,400 server nodes per day across 28 assembly stations (one server is produced every 60 seconds).

At full tilt, Lenovo says that it will have 1,000 operators running three shifts. However, there are currently around 380. Employees get roughly 1,000 hours of training, and they rotate throughout different phases of the building process to hone their skills.

After touring the kitting and assembly lines, we moved into the testing areas, where L10 testing takes place. There are 10 thermally controlled testing pods, with 16 test racks per pod. The room is chilled using massive Computer Room Air Handlers (CRAH), each with 1 MW of cooling capacity.

In addition, there are 30 Vertiv Liebert XDU direct liquid cooling units (expandable to 50), each with a capacity of up to 300 kW, to aid with testing finished packages for customers. Lenovo explained that Nvidia GB300 racks consume 140 kW, while Vera Rubin will consume 230 kW at peak load. For comparison, the average U.S. household consumes between 1 and 1.5 kW per day. That's a lot of power coming from a rack measuring 18 inches across and seven feet tall. Lenovo’s first taste of Vera Rubin is said to be making its way to the Whitsett facility by the end of August.

We also toured where the massive freshwater pipes enter the building to fuel the cooling operations, along with the utility room, where the impressive overhead electrical conduits feed power into the site from a nearby substation. Working with Duke Energy, Lenovo was able to go from temporary power at the site to full power within 7 months.

Closing Thoughts

I’m not a native to this state; however, I’ve lived in central NC for 40 of my 46 years on this earth. So it was rather impressive to see the Whitsett facility taking shape roughly 20 minutes from my childhood home. However, the sense of pride was also clouded by the realities of the times that we live in. The proliferation of AI in nearly every facet of our lives is the entire impetus behind the need to expand server manufacturing capacity for the homeland. Companies like Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, and others crave the computing hardware necessary to feed AI demands, which in turn is driving a wedge between big tech and local communities. From strains on local water supplies and power grids to the acquisition of land to build new data centers, we’re at a real crossroads where local communities, local governments, and big tech companies are each looking to have a say in how our future plays out.

When you use a laptop, you might assume that it will always perform the same, whether you use it while plugged in or unplugged. After all, these systems are designed to be used on the go. But for a long time, that hasn't been the case.

More recently, some silicon vendors have been boasting about closer parity in plugged and unplugged performance, offering you similar power whether you're working at your desk or anywhere else. To see the current state of this, we've taken samples of the latest laptop from each major CPU manufacturer: Intel, AMD, Qualcomm, and Apple, and run a few tests to see how they compare.

For the Windows systems, we used the balanced power profile, which was already the default on the majority of these laptops, while the MacBook Pro has an "automatic" power management profile out of the box.

Where we could, we went for top-end processors, including the Intel Core Ultra X9 388H, Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme, and Apple's M5 Max. In AMD's case, we had two Gorgon Point processors, a Ryzen AI 9 465 and a Ryzen AI 7 445. To see some generational gains, we also included an Intel Core Ultra 7 258V "Lunar Lake" chip.

We tested three ways: in Cinebench 2026 single-core and multi-core workloads, as well as using Handbrake, an open source video conversion tool, to transcode a 4K video to 1080p.

Note that we're not comparing the scores of the systems to each other. We're comparing the systems to themselves, to see how performance changes on the battery.

With those tests run, we can calculate percentage differences to see percentage changes. Notably, a number of systems actually increased performance ever so slightly on battery. This occurred the most on multi-threaded Cinebench, where the Zenbook A16 with Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme increased by 13.06%, while the ThinkPad X9 bumped up by 4.98%.

Qualcomm's chip was by far the most variable. While it dramatically increased in performance on battery for Cinebench nT, it dropped a similar amount for Handbrake.

But it was Apple and Intel that led the pack. While the Core Ultra X9 388H had the most consistent score on average, it did show 3% swings in multi-threaded Cinebench and on Handbrake. Apple's M5 Max results were the most consistent throughout, never swaying even a full percentage point on battery.

The least consistent system on battery power was the Acer Swift Go 16 AI, running on an AMD Ryzen AI 7 445. That system lost a ton of performance when unplugged from the wall, dropping as much as 56.25% performance off the wall. On average, benchmark scores were 50% lower on that system. On the HP OmniBook X Flip 14, Ryzen AI 9 465, it still dropped, but far less, losing an average of 5.45% performance on power based on these tests.

On the bright side, things are going in the right direction. Intel and Apple's most advanced systems give you very similar experiences on battery and power — at least in these tests. Snapdragon can, but sometimes it swings a bit. It's really AMD that needs to catch up in this regard. And we know that can be done. The Steam Deck, which was released in 2022, was specifically designed to have similar performance on and off the charger, and it uses a semi-custom AMD SoC. Its AMD-based opponents, however, still get better performance on a charge. You not only have to have your chip designed around battery and performance. You also need to make sure that the system around it is optimized for that.

The other side of this coin is efficiency. If you're able to perform heavy tasks on battery without losing performance, you're likely going to do it. That's especially the case if you do field work in creative or industrial fields. That means ensuring that your system can handle your workload long enough to get it done. But hey, there's always an external battery, right?

Start getting all your gear ready to head back to school or college, and power your way through new projects and assignments, or even the occasional movie, with this gorgeous laptop from Acer. For the same price as an Apple Neo, you can get your hands on the Acer Swift Go 16 AI laptop for just $699 while this discount lasts. Saving a cool $300 off the list price. Packing some great tech for the money, you get a complete laptop that houses the latest WiFi 7 wireless connectivity and even a touch-screen display.

● Check out this deal at Best Buy

The immediate standout feature of the Acer Swift Go 16 AI is the large 16-inch WUXGA (1920 x 1200) OLED touch-screen display that offers an amazing UX when browsing the internet or creating content and projects, and delivers a cinema‑grade experience thanks to the OLED panel offering a color gamut with 100% DCI‑P3, and an ultra‑fast 0.2ms gray-to-gray response time.

Packed inside the luxurious and thin metal chassis is an Intel Core Ultra 5 322 processor with Intel's AI Boost technology (Up to 46 NPU TOPS). This processor was only released this year, and already you're able to get a massive discount on this laptop. A humungous boon in this time of extortionate prices on computing tech. Also included is 16GB of fast LPDDR5X memory, Thunderbolt 4 for rapid data transfer and fast charging, and 512GB of SSD storage.

We reviewed the flagship version of the Acer Swift 16 with a more powerful CPU and more RAM, but the rest of the laptop shared the same qualities as this SKU that we have on a deal today. A premium-feeling laptop computer with a large haptic touchpad, decent battery life, a comfortable-to-use keyboard, and quiet cooling operation. The laptop also meets military-grade durability standards with its MIL‑STD 810H rating, so it should hopefully resist a few scraps and bumps during transit between classes.

As an added bonus, you get to enjoy two months of Xbox Game Pass Premium, as a two-month membership is included with a purchase of this laptop. That's a library of around 200 or so games that you can access. And although this isn't a gaming laptop with a dedicated graphics card, you can still use it to stream games from the Xbox cloud and play over the speedy WiFi 7 connection. Perfect for when you have some downtime.

Everyone loves previews of pre-release hardware that just happened to fall off the back of a truck — particularly when it's a piece of kit that's been lighting up news headlines. Fouquin, a TechPowerUp reader, "accidentally" stumbled upon a Microsoft Surface Laptop Ultra prototype that ensconces an Nvidia RTX Spark N1X SoC.

As a quick recap, the N1X is supposed to herald a generation of "AI laptops", meaning it's an alternative to the RTX Spark desktop, Mac Studio, Ryzen AI Max machines, and the Macbook Pro. This is due to the fact that they're all designs with large pools of unified memory and competent GPUs, making them suitable for non-datacenter AI work. The N1X packs 10 MediaTek-designed ARM CPU cores in a 5p5e configuration with multi-threading for 20 threads total, plus a GPU purportedly equivalent to a desktop RTX 4070 or a mobile RTX 5070. It can be wired up to 128 GB of LPDDR5X onboard in a unified pool, though the tested machine only has 24 GB.

Fouquin notes the limitations of their "review" and notes they're not an AI person, though they tried running the Phoronix AI test suite nonetheless. This yielded a mixed bag of results, as very few tests would reliably work, seemingly due to pre-production drivers. Some Vulkan tests did run properly, and the reported performance appears to be indeed in the ballpark of an RTX 4070, though there are two very important caveats.

First, this system and its drivers appear to be very buggy and unoptimized, particularly around power management. Fouquin says the system came with ancient 591.33 drivers from November 2025, eventually upgraded to 616.00 preview drivers with CUDA and Vulkan support. Apart from that, the tester found the machine's TDP spends and power plans behaving erratically, and none of the Phoronix CUDA tests produced results.

Second, head-to-head benchmarks are hard to come by, as RTX-series desktop cards have limited pools of VRAM compared to the 24 GB on the test machine. All told, there's a fair chance that final hardware might perform better, especially considering this pre-production machine displayed many outstanding issues with the LCD display, idle current draw, and that plugging it in or running it from battery didn't make any difference. Interestingly, despite the 616.00 drivers adding features, performance actually took a significant turn for the worse.

The Cinebench 2024 multi-threaded CPU test produced a result of 1386 points, trailing the 12-core Macbook M4 Pro, while Cinebench 2026 yielded 5771, a fair bit behind the Apple M4 Max. Fouquin did run some GPU tests, and the best results in 3DMark were with the older drivers. Port Royal showed 26-31 FPS on older drivers, while Nomad got 20-21 FPS. Meanwhile, Unigine Superposition actually improved with the 616.00 software, netting a maximum of 56-58 FPS.

Compared to desktop cards, those results would roughly match RTX 3060 or RTX 3060 Ti, once again underscoring the pre-release nature of the Nvidia drivers and related software. As if more illustration was needed, the Balanced power plan almost always produced the best results.

The story isn't much different in gaming, as Fouquin says that while most of their library of games ran fine, the performance was very sluggish, with multiple-second stutters and with GPU clock speed "bouncing all over the place." Helldivers 2 would outright crash the system, as did the GPGPU integer tests. Fouquoin believes these are all issues specific to this particular implementation of the N1X rather than a problem with the platform altogether. It's worth adding that presumably the games ran under the ARM emulation layer, which can introduce its own set of issues.

N1X chip and fixable warts aside, Fouquin actually liked the machine, remarking on the high build quality, the keyboard feel, touchpad input, and display quality. Given there were previous claims the machine would be serviceable, Fouquin put those to the test and opened it, finding that while that claim is technically true, "many snap-on thin aluminum sheet panels covering all the primary components (even encasing the SSD) means actually attempting to service the laptop will lead to much bending and/or breaking." Here's to hoping that this too is fixed before final release.

Following price hikes on the Mac and iPad due to the ongoing memory and storage crisis, Apple has announced a new leasing program, Apple Upgrade. The new offering will be "provided" by Klarna and available in Apple Stores in the U.S., as well as the Apple Store online and the Apple Store app.

There will be 24- and 36-month leasing options for the Mac and iPad, while the iPhone and Watch will have 12- and 24-month options.

Mac leases will start at $24.99 per month, which includes the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iMac, and Mac Studio. Apple's announcement leaves out its cheapest systems, the MacBook Neo and Mac Mini.

iPad leases start at $11.99 per month and include the iPad Mini, iPad Air, and iPad Pro, but not the base-level vanilla iPad.

It's a similar pattern for the Apple Watch, with leases starting at $11.99 but leaving out the Apple Watch SE 3. But the iPhone lineup (leases start at $17.99) doesn't have any exceptions, including the iPhone 17, 17e, and 17 Pro and Pro Max, and iPhone Air.

These are not purchases or loans. Customers can sign up for Klarna leases in-store or online (including a soft credit inquiry that doesn't affect your credit score). At the end of a lease, you can return your device and start a new lease to upgrade, purchase the device with a "one-time payment," or return the device and exit the lease entirely.

Unlike the iPhone Upgrade Program, Apple Upgrade leases don't include AppleCare, but Apple will let you buy a subscription. AppleCare also. saw some price hikes, likely because the components that are serviced under the extended service program are more expensive.

In fact, Apple Upgrade will replace the iPhone Upgrade Program in the United States, likely upsetting some diehard fans. Apple will allow those customers to lease a device through Klarna, buy the phone outright, or finance with monthly installments on their Apple Card. As always, there's carrier financing for phones.

If you want a Windows or Linux laptop that you can upgrade and repair, you should be looking at Framework. But to maintain that repairability, the company's build quality has always left something to be desired.

The Framework Laptop 13 Pro ($1,199 to start without SSD, RAM, or OS, $1,599 to start pre-built, approximately $3,272 as tested) is the company's attempt to shake that image, with a CNC aluminum chassis, a haptic touchpad, a high-resolution touchscreen, and other premium features that hadn't previously made it into Framework's repair-friendly laptops.

This design is far and away better than its existing chassis, but launching a laptop based on repairability when parts for it are extremely expensive puts the Laptop 13 Pro out of reach for many.

Design of the Framework Laptop 13 Pro

The Framework Laptop 13 Pro is a big step up in design from its predecessor, the original Framework Laptop 13. It has a new, blacked-out color scheme as opposed to Framework's go-to silver. But more importantly, it feels like a much more premium product.

The CNC-machined aluminum chassis has significantly less flex than the regular Framework laptop, which would sometimes bend with just one hand. That's not to say there's no bending, specifically around the display, but this is an improvement that made me feel far more confident having the laptop in my backpack.

The chassis has an almost velvety feel. I can't explain it, because this is solid aluminum, but it has some sort of coating that feels unique in my hands. The black color, however, is a fingerprint magnet.

With the laptop open, you'll find one area that doesn't feel as premium — the bezel, which is still plasticky and attached with magnets. It doesn't look or feel as premium as the rest of the system, and many other laptops have just a small portion below the screen, allowing for thinner borders, especially at the top.

This keyboard deck, too, feels more solid. There's a bit of give, sure, but the magnetic attachment and five Torx screws (more on that in upgradeability, below) feel a lot more like one consistent piece when assembled.

Our review unit came with the "graphite gray/black" keyboard, with distinct orange accents on the Framework keys (an extra $10). It looks really cool and should be the default, but there are also all-black options and one with lavender keys in place of the gray.

At 11.68 X 9.02 x 0.62 inches and 3.17 pounds, this system easily fits into my backpack. It's similar in size and thickness to a MacBook Pro (12.31 x 8.71 x 0.61 inches, 3.4 pounds with M5).

Upgradeability of the Framework Laptop 13 Pro

Framework's modularity continues on in the new design. In fact, if you wanted, you could build a Laptop 13 Pro around your old Framework mainboard, Ship of Theseus style (though some parts would need to be swapped simultaneously to accommodate the new battery's shape and size).

We reviewed a DIY Edition of the Laptop 13 Pro, which meant installing a Framework-supplied SSD and LPCAMM2 memory before getting started. The only tool you need is the Torx T5 screwdriver that comes in the box.

The SSD is a pretty standard install, but the memory, which is LPCAMM2, was a first for me. You have to be extremely careful with it, aligning the memory with a sensitive interposer (which also happens to be slightly under a ribbon cable connected to the screen. This got in the way for me a few times, but it's easy enough to get around. There's a memory cover that goes on top of the LPCAMM2, with three screws labeled in the order you should tighten them to firmly seat the module.

On AMD Ryzen AI 300 configurations, LPCAMM2 isn't available: you use standard SO-DIMMs.

From there, you need to attach the input cover using a ribbon cable (do take a minute to admire the underside of the haptic touchpad and its four piezo sensors), which then snaps into place on the chassis. The bezel snaps onto the bottom of the screen and also attaches with magnets.

From there, you flip the laptop over and tighten five captive Torx T5 screws. Pop in your expansion cards, lock the slots, and voila, you're ready to install an operating system.

On the Intel version we tested, there's nothing limiting where you place expansion cards. On models using AMD's Ryzen AI 300 chips, however, you'll want to be sure not to put USB Type-A ports in the rear slots, as they'll use more power than other cards.

If you buy a prebuilt version, the OS will come pre-loaded. Otherwise, you can largely reverse any of these steps at any time to make upgrades, including likely eventual mainboard improvements.

My main criticism is that LPCAMM2 is hard to get right now (harder, in general, than regular SO-DIMMs, which at least some enthusiasts might have around). You can get them from Framework, but this isn't a standard that you have a lot of options to buy from. In that way, the DIY version doesn't make a ton of sense, unless you really, really want to bring your own SSD.

Framework Laptop 13 Pro Specifications

Productivity Performance on the Framework Laptop 13 Pro

We tested the Framework Laptop 13 Pro in its most powerful configuration: with an Intel Core Ultra X9 388H and 64GB of RAM. Our system also had a roomy 2TB SSD. To best compare the system to other laptops in our benchmark database, we opted to run Windows 11.

On Geekbench 6, the Framework Laptop 13 Pro notched a single-core score of 2,952 and a multi-core score of 14,965. The single-core score was similar to the same X9 chip found in the Asus Zenbook Duo. But in multi-core, the Zenbook had a score that was 15.49% higher, likely due to cooling; Framework is cooling Intel's top mobile chip with a single fan. Apple's M5 MacBook Pro and Qualcomm's Snapdragon X2 Elite in the HP OmniBook Ultra 14 both scored higher on both tests.

The Framework Laptop and its WD Black SN7100 SSD were the fastest of the group in copying 25GB of files, with a speed of 2,800.33 MBps, followed most closely by the OmniBook at 2,620.91 MBps.

On Handbrake, the Framework transcoded a 4K video to 1080p in 4 minutes and 9 seconds, ahead of the Duo but behind both ARM-based laptops.

To stress test the system, we ran Cinebench 2026 ten times and monitored scores and CPU speeds. The scores were largely in the 3,800 and 3,900's, with a peak score of 3979.85 on run 6, before scores started dropping down slightly. In HWInfo, the CPU’s P cores averaged 3.16 GHz, while the E cores reached 2.75 GHz, and the low-power E cores measured at 2.61 GHz.

Graphics on the Framework Laptop 13 Pro

As we've seen in other Panther Lake laptops, the Intel Arc B390's Xe cores are no joke.

The 12 cores on the X9 388H enabled the Laptop 13 Pro to achieve a score of 1,362 on 3DMark’s Steel Nomad cross-platform benchmark. It lost only to the presumably better-cooled Zenbook Duo using the same chip.

Display on the Framework Laptop Pro 13

The Framework Laptop 13 Pro marks the company's first custom display, along with the first time its 13-inch laptop has had a touchscreen (touch was previously available on the Framework Laptop 12).

The 13.5-inch, 2880 x 1920 display (one of the few 3:2 screens on the market these days) offers a variable refresh rate between 30 and 120 Hz.

Most importantly, Framework's display is exceedingly bright. In the trailer for Avengers: Doomsday, an explosion in the X-Mansion and lightning coming from Thor's Stormbreaker axe were eye-popping.

The panel measured an astounding 709 nits on our light meter, handily surpassing the MacBook Pro's mini LED screen (558 nits) and the OLED panels on the Asus Zenbook Duo (456 nits) and HP OmniBook Ultra 14 (414 nits).

The Framework's display was largely on par with the MacBook's in terms of color volume, covering 114.3% of sRGB and 81% of the more challenging DCI-P3 color space. The MacBook was a fraction of a percent better. The bigger differences are in the benefits mini LED may bring against LCD, but the point remains that for Framework, this is an impressive display. If older Framework Laptop 13 owners take one upgrade from this system, it may well be the panel for the sake of the quality, even if they don't care about touch.

Keyboard and Touchpad on the Framework Laptop 13 Pro

The keyboard cover on the Framework Laptop 13 Pro is one large piece sitting on top of the components, just like previous designs. Here, the keyboard has white backlighting and 1.5 mm of key travel.

And unlike some laptops, you can feel all of that travel. As I breezed through the monkeytype.com typing test at 123 words per minute, I did note that the keys feel a bit stiffer than I'm used to on other laptops. A colleague I showed the laptop to liked the effect, though I think some people might hope the keys wear in a bit.

This laptop also marks the first time Framework has offered a haptic touchpad. This one uses four Piezo sensors to convert pressure into clicks.

On the one hand, it's a huge step up from the company's mechanical touchpads, which often felt cheap. I never had any issues with gestures or navigation. But I could sometimes see and feel the haptic touchpad flex in the keyboard deck, which could probably be fixed with a bit of extra reinforcement.

Audio on the Framework Laptop 13 Pro

The Framework Laptop 13 Pro uses a pair of 2W side-firing speakers, rather than the bottom-firing speakers on the original Framework Laptop 13 design. If you're using Windows 11, you get Dolby Atmos support (tough luck for now if you're a Linux user), including the Dolby Settings app.

Despite Framework's claims that they're louder, they're really best for personal listening. Alice Merton's "Ignorance is Bliss" only barely filled my living room. The vocals, guitars, and drums were distinguishable and sounded pretty good otherwise.

It's not uncommon for wristrests to vibrate while playing music, but on the Framework Laptop, that extended to the haptic touchpad, which would noticeably move under my finger while listening to music.

Battery Life on the Framework Laptop 13 Pro

Framework is debuting a larger, 74 WHr battery on the Laptop 13 Pro. Even when powering the Core Ultra X9 388H, the system was long-lasting. On our battery test, which browses websites, streams video, and runs light OpenGL tests with the screen at 150 nits, the Laptop 13 Pro ran for 15 hours and 55 minutes, beating other Windows-based competitors. Only the MacBook Pro surpassed that, at 18 hours and 14 minutes.

Heat on the Framework Laptop 13 Pro

As configured, the Framework Laptop 13 Pro can get a bit toasty. Again, the Core X9 388H is running under a single fan.

During our Cinebench 2026 stress test, the keyboard hit 110 degrees Fahrenheit, which did feel warm to the touch. The haptic trackpad measured 90 F, while the hottest spot on the bottom was 117 F.

Internally, the CPU measured an average of 90.1 degrees Celsius and reported throttling for much of the back of the test.

Webcam on the Framework Laptop 13 Pro

The 1080p webcam on the Framework Laptop 13 Pro is serviceable, but not the best.

While colors were accurate enough in video and photo testing, there was graininess in both well-lit and dark images.

Additionally, this laptop doesn't sport an infrared camera for Windows Hello. Your only option is the fingerprint reader.

Software and Warranty on the Framework Laptop 13 Pro

We tested the Framework Laptop 13 Pro with Windows 11, and it was blissfully free of bloatware. Framework's dedicated shortcut on the F12 key opens up a page on its website for guides for the system.

I would like to see an easy way to customize the keyboard. VIA's web app doesn't recognize the keyboard in my testing (previously, it has only recognized the 16-incher and its various input modules). I hope to see support for that soon. (At least the key tester function worked).

Framework sells the Laptop 13 Pro with a one-year warranty. An extended three-year warranty is available that varies based on configuration. Framework told Tom's Hardware that this is because the "cost of servicing the warranty scales with the cost of the system," so more expensive systems with pricier hardware have more costly extended service plans.

Framework Laptop 13 Pro Configurations

We tested the Framework Laptop 13 Pro in a DIY configuration that's $1,799 with an Intel Core Ultra X9 388H before adding in memory, storage, an operating system, or any of the extras like the expansion cards.

If you purchased all of our components from Framework, the system was approximately $3,272 when we started testing it. In the middle of testing, the price of the memory on the DIY systems nearly doubled from $849 to $1,600, making our configuration roughly $4,023. That's without an OS, as we installed our own copy of Windows.

That being said, this configuration is backordered, and Framework isn't taking further orders: "We are working with Intel and expect to get additional allocation of X9, but we don't have timing we can communicate on when it will be available for order," Framework said through a PR representative. It's also likely to see a price increase, as the company has already announced that its X7 and X9 chip prices are going up. It's very possible that by time you read this review, any number of components may have changed price.

The 2TB SSD was $505, while the keyboard was $10 (for the colors), as was the bezel ($10), though both of those aesthetic options can be had for free if you opt for black or a few other color options.

The cheapest DIY Edition, with an Intel Core Ultra Series 3, starts at $1,499. If you prefer AMD Ryzen AI 300 over Intel Core Ultra Series 3, that starts at $1,399 with a Ryzen AI 7 350.

On the prebuilt side, the cheapest Intel system (with the same Core Ultra 5 325, plus 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage) is $1,599 (up from $1,499 during pre-orders), while AMD versions begin at $2,299 (up from $2,099) with 1TB of storage and 32GB of memory.

Bottom Line

When Framework debuted the Laptop 13 Pro, it promised a "MacBook Pro for Linux users." I'm not sure I agree. The MacBook Pro has an air of utility, while the Framework Laptop Pro 13 is more playful. That alone makes it feel different.

This Framework is by far its best-built laptop, feeling more premium and rigid than ever before, along with a bright screen and a haptic touchpad. But there are some areas, like the bezels and expansion ports, that still show the gaps.

The new silicon is also faster and more efficient than we've seen. We've complained about battery life on some older Framework systems, but Panther Lake is efficient enough (along with a 74 WHr battery) to bring Framework in line — and ahead — of at least some premium Windows-based competitors.

Price and availability may scare off some customers. Erratic, expensive chip pricing is the norm these days, but most people don't see that firsthand. They only see the bottom line. But also, at this price, you could get an M5 Max MacBook Pro with 32GB of RAM, which would way outperform this system on multi-core and graphics performance.

There is room for improvement, especially in cooling. But the biggest issue Framework has here for its niche audience is the price of components, especially for the DIY edition. But if you happen to have parts lying around, there's no question that this design should usurp its old one as quickly as possible.

You can save $1,000 on a truly high-end gaming laptop that, for many, is way over the top for the average user in both hardware and price. But if you want the most powerful laptop gaming setup, or a portable desktop replacement, then this Lenovo Legion 9i gaming laptop from B&H Photo, priced at $5,799, is something you should check out. It's certainly not your average gaming laptop, as it comes with the top-tier halo components from Intel and Nvidia, and is absolutely massive at 18 inches.

● Check out this deal at B&H Photo

Gaming laptops have always been more expensive than desktop gaming PCs with comparable components, even with the comparable components not being as powerful as their desktop counterparts due to the size, power, and heat limitations of stuffing hardware components into a smaller laptop chassis.

This model of the Lenovo Legion 9i contains the most powerful laptop graphics card available, Nvidia's RTX 5090 with 24GB of GDDR7 VRAM, and Intel's Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus 24-core processor, plus a massive 64GB of DDR5 RAM (2 x 32) with four RAM slots available, able to support up to 192GB of total RAM. For storage, there is a 2TB SSD, with Windows 11 Home edition pre-installed.

The luxurious 18-inch display features a detailed 3840 x 2400 resolution with a 3ms gray-to-gray response time. The display can reach up to 240Hz at native resolution and up to 440Hz when set to an FHD resolution. The display uses an IPS panel with 520 nits of brightness and a color gamut of 100% DCI-P3

The Lenovo Legion 9i also uses the latest Thunderbolt 5, WiFi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, and 2.5GbE Ethernet. The keyboard is fully RGB backlit with chiclet-style keys. This is a very powerful gaming laptop that you can also use for some serious creative work and go hard on some smaller local LLM models if you want to dabble with some AI workloads.

It is a very expensive laptop, made more costly by the price of RAM and NAND in the current economy. Still, it's also $1,000 cheaper than the usual price, so if this kind of laptop is something you're interested in, then head to B&H Photo and check out the RTX 5090-powered Legion 9i available for $5,799.

If you're looking for more savings, check out our Best PC Hardware deals for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals, Hard Drive Deals, Gaming Monitor Deals, Graphics Card Deals, Gaming Chair, Best Wi-Fi Routers, Best Motherboard, or CPU Deals pages.

You can also join the Tom's Hardware deals Discord for up-to-the-minute hardware deals.

The best laptops must do more than look expensive; they need to justify their price with the right mix of design, performance, display quality, and daily usability. HP’s OmniBook X Flip 14 (starts at $1,399.99; $2,599.99 as tested) gets much of that formula right, with a sublime metal chassis, a choice of two refined colors, AMD Ryzen AI processors, and the convenience of a 2-in-1 design. It feels every bit like a high-end machine, with solid entertainment features and impressive build quality, but its high price, middling performance, and merely decent 1920 x 1200 OLED display keep it from fully standing out.

Design of the HP OmniBook X Flip 14

The OmniBook X Flip 14 is HP’s design at its best. The deep espresso finish gives the laptop a rich, almost executive character. (The other available color is atmospheric blue.) Its matte metal surfaces felt reassuringly solid in my hand. HP also claims a MIL-STD-810H durability rating.

At 12.32 x 8.6 x 0.57 inches, the OmniBook’s footprint is slightly larger than Dell's XPS 14, though the weight is essentially a wash: 3.09 pounds for HP versus 3 pounds flat for Dell. Lenovo’s Yoga Slim 7i is much lighter at 2.15 pounds, but HP is the only one offering a 2-in-1 form factor, with a 360-degree display hinge that lets it fold into a tablet. While its size and weight prevent it from being a good iPad replacement, the functionality can be handy in cramped places like an airplane seat where it might not be as comfortable to use it as a laptop.

The laptop offers just enough connectivity– two USB4 ports, one USB-A port (10 Gbps), HDMI 2.1, and an audio jack. The compact 65 W power adapter plugs into either USB4 port, conveniently split across both sides of the chassis. A Realtek 8922AE-VS networking card supports the latest Wi-Fi 7 standard.

HP OmniBook X Flip 14 Specifications

Productivity Performance on the HP OmniBook X Flip 14

We tested a high-end OmniBook X Flip 14 configuration featuring a Ryzen AI 9 465 processor, 32GB of RAM, and a 2TB PCIe Gen 4 SSD.

Our comparison systems include the 14-inch Apple MacBook Pro featuring the M5 processor (was $2,349 as tested, but is now $2,549), the Dell XPS 14 with a Core Ultra X7 358H ($2,199.99), and two Lenovo models: the Yoga Slim 7i ($1,629.99 with a Core Ultra 7 355) and the Yoga Slim 7x ($1,579 with a Snapdragon X2 Elite X2E-88-100). The OmniBook is the only 2-in-1 design in the group.

The OmniBook landed in the lower half of the pack. In Geekbench, where it scored 13,734 points in multi-core, and our Handbrake 4K-to-1080p video transcoding test, which it completed in 4 minutes and 56 seconds, it outpaced the Core Ultra 7 355-powered Yoga Slim 7i (11,555 points and 5:56), but it couldn't match the stronger Core Ultra X7 358H in the XPS 14 (16,927 points and 4:30). The MacBook Pro proved even more potent (17,926 points and 3:31) but it was outgunned by the Snapdragon-powered Yoga Slim 7x (20,563 points and 2:11).

The OmniBook's average speed in our 25GB file transfer test was 1,477.3 MBps, essentially tying the XPS 14 (1,419.76 MBps) but trailing the Yoga Slim 7i (1,659.21 MBps). The MacBook Pro (1,917.35 MBps) and Yoga Slim 7x (1,934.78 MBps) led.

Though it didn't top our charts, the OmniBook still offers performance a step above what many thin-and-light laptops offer and decent multitasking capability, with its 10-core/20-thread design.

To stress test productivity laptops, we run 10 loops of Cinebench 2026. The OmniBook started at 3,465 points and slowly descended to 3,070 points by the fifth iteration, then steadily recovered and completed the last run with 3,306 points. During the test, the Ryzen AI 9 465 CPU ran at an average frequency of 2.79 GHz.

Graphics Performance on the HP OmniBook X Flip 14

In 3DMark Steel Nomad, the OmniBook's Radeon 880M integrated graphics offered basic performance at best, outpacing the Intel Graphics in the Yoga Slim 7i (513 points), but coming nowhere near close to Adreno X2-90 GPU in the Yoga Slim 7x (1,115 points), MacBook Pro (1,122 points) or the Arc solution in Dell's XPS 14 (1,446 points), powered by the Core Ultra X7 358H.

Display on the HP OmniBook X Flip 14

The HP OmniBook X Flip 14 is available with three touch display options: a 1920 x 1200 IPS, a 1920 x 1200 OLED, or a sharper 2880 x 1800 OLED. Our unit came with the middle option, the 1920 x 1200 OLED. It’s unquestionably colorful – watching Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, Endor’s green forests looked lush, and OLED’s excellent contrast provided inky blackness in space scenes.

Brightness, however, is the weak point. Stormtrooper armor didn’t have the crisp white pop that it should, and blaster bolts and lightsabers looked a bit muted. HP rates this panel for just 300 nits, which is low even by OLED standards and feels out of place given the rest of the laptop’s excellent execution.

That said, the 2880 x 1800 OLED panel should solve that problem. HP rates it for 500 nits in SDR and 1,100 nits in HDR, and it also increases the refresh rate to 120 Hz – all the other panels are limited to 60 Hz. Since the 2880 x 1800 panel is only $80 more than the 1920 x 1200 version through HP’s online configurator, it looks like the display upgrade to get.

The OmniBook is also compatible with a digital MPP 2.0 pen, which we didn’t test, but HP offers as a $30 option.

Our charts confirm the OmniBook’s limited brightness, registering just 266 nits. The OLED-equipped XPS 14 and Yoga Slim 7x are considerably brighter, but none of them come close to the Yoga Slim 7i. The MacBook Pro proved the brightest, though it’s not an exact comparison since it uses a mini LED panel. Color-wise, however, the OmniBook topped the charts, with sRGB and DCI-P3 coverage just as high as the Yoga Slim 7x.

Keyboard and Touchpad on the HP OmniBook X Flip 14

The OmniBook has a keyboard that I can type on for long sessions without feeling fatigued. The keys offer just enough travel to feel engaging, with good cushioning at the bottom of the keystroke and a flex-free deck. Though key spacing is minimal, the angled edges of the keys provide a sense of separation.

On the MonkeyType test, I hit 120 words per minute with perfect accuracy, which is as quickly as I can go on any keyboard. White backlighting provides excellent visibility; toggling backlight brightness (F10) briefly brings up a handy menu to adjust backlight duration.

Layout-wise, the half-height up and down and full-size left and right aren’t intuitive, and dedicated home, end, page up, and page down keys are absent. The F1 key, which doubles as volume mute, offers a convenient orange LED indicator when the volume is off.

The touchpad is mechanical rather than haptic. Its nicely sized, matte surface offers seamless finger swiping – my fingers didn’t stutter or drag – and predictable clicking action.

Audio on the HP OmniBook X Flip 14

The OmniBook’s dual speakers provide decent audio for a laptop. While not loud – there’s just enough volume for movie watching in a quiet room – the setup sounds balanced and has audible bass. In Phil Collins’ “Don’t Lose My Number”, the drum hits had a satisfying sharpness and some punch at the low end. Vocal and instrument separation is good, with no hint of strain. The Chainsmokers’ “Summertime Friends” also sounded pleasant: crisp vocals, enough bass to satisfy, and an airy soundstage.

HP includes a DTS Headphone:X license (useful if you have supported headphones, which I don’t) and DTS:X decoder license via the DTS Sound Unbound app, though it doesn’t provide any equalizer controls. Confusingly, to get software EQ, you need to use the HP app, which provides music, movie, and voice presets and a graphic EQ. I found the Music preset sounded best and didn’t hear improvements while tweaking the EQ.

Upgradeability of the HP OmniBook X Flip 14

Four small Philips-head screws secure the OmniBook’s bottom panel, which are not all the same size – the fronts are shorter than the rears. I used a plastic trim tool to pop the clips securing the panel, starting along the rear edge and working my way around the edges.

Upgradeable components include the M.2 2280 SSD, M.2 2230 wireless card, and the battery. The memory is not upgradeable.

Battery Life on the HP OmniBook X Flip 14

The OmniBook X Flip 14 lasted a respectable 14 hours and 53 minutes in our battery test, which consists of web browsing, running OpenGL tests, and streaming videos with the screen at 150 nits while connected to Wi-Fi. It outlasted Dell’s XPS 14 (12:23) but it was almost two hours shy of the Yoga Slim 7i (16:38) and couldn’t catch the MacBook Pro (18:14) or Yoga Slim 7x (19:25). That said, the OmniBook’s numbers still make it perfectly practical for a full workday without a charger.

It’s notable that configurable models come equipped with a more powerful 70 Wh battery if they are also equipped with the 2880 x 1800 OLED panel. It's possible the higher-resolution display requires more power.

Heat on the HP OmniBook X Flip 14

During our 10-loop Cinebench 2026 stress test, the OmniBook's surface temperatures peaked at 79 degrees Fahrenheit on the touchpad, 109 F between the G and H keys, and 113 F on the underside. Internally, the Ryzen AI 9 465's average temperature was 69 degrees Celsius across all cores. The laptop felt borderline hot to the touch in certain places. Without the stress of a benchmarking run, the laptop felt lukewarm at most. Its cooling fans sound unnoticeable for general use and are quiet enough to be ignored under load.

Webcam on the HP OmniBook X Flip 14

HP’s 1080p webcam delivers a balanced picture. In my living room with overhead lighting, my face was properly exposed despite a bright window in the background, which wasn’t blown out. Some noise was evident in darker shadows, but the picture looked smooth and detailed. The detail is also good – I could make out writing on my chalkboard about a dozen feet away. The webcam also offers an IR sensor for Windows Hello sign-ins and a physical privacy shutter.

Software and Warranty on the HP OmniBook X Flip 14

The main app included on the OmniBook is the HP app, which provides software updates, battery smart charge settings, touchpad gesture control, diagnostics, a virtual support assistant, and support access. Audio equalizers are also available, though spatial settings are in the tandem DTS Sound Unbound app.

HP also includes its Omni+ app for secure password management, HP Smart for connecting printers, and HP TV+ to centralize streaming apps. A McAfee trial was also installed. These apps are not unique to the OmniBook, though, and don’t directly add value.

HP covers the OmniBook X 14 Flip with a one-year warranty.

HP OmniBook X 14 Flip Configurations

We tested the OmniBook X Flip 14 in a built-to-order configuration direct from HP with a Ryzen AI 9 465 processor, Radeon 880M integrated graphics, 2K OLED display, 32GB of RAM, 2TB SSD, and Windows 11 Pro. It retailed for $2,599.99 as of this writing, though a 13% off sale briefly appeared during the review period.

Models from HP start at $1,399.99 with a Ryzen AI 5 430/Radeon 840M, 2K IPS screen, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD. Customization options include Deep Espresso or Atmospheric Blue colors, several CPU choices – a Ryzen AI 7 445/Radeon 840M, Ryzen AI 7 450/Radeon 860M, and Ryzen AI 9 465/Radeon 880M. CPUs starting with the Ryzen AI 7 445 automatically upgrade to 32GB of memory. Storage choices range from 512GB to 2TB.

HP also sells a version of this laptop with Intel Core Ultra Series 3 internals, which aren’t priced too differently from the AMD models.

Bottom Line

The HP OmniBook X Flip 14 is a polished premium convertible with excellent build quality, comfortable inputs, and practical battery life, but its high price, middling performance, and underwhelming 2K OLED display make the value equation tricky.

Lenovo’s Yoga Slim 7i offers a superior screen for less money, while Dell’s XPS 14 delivers better performance if you’re willing to sacrifice some battery life. Still, HP remains worth considering if the 2-in-1 functionality is a priority, especially if you configure it with the sharper, brighter 2880 x 1800 OLED panel.

If you want the performance of Dell’s XPS family but don’t want to lay out the cash to step up to a slightly snazzier design and higher resolution display, the Dell 14S is a cheaper alternative. The 14S is Dell’s mainstream 14-inch laptop, starting at $1,269 compared to $1,589 for the XPS 14.

A nearly $300 difference is nothing to sneeze at in this economy, so we’ll take a look at the 14S and what it offers for a cost-sensitive audience. And with an as-tested price of $1,469, we’ll see whether it still represents good value compared to its more expensive sibling.

Design of the Dell 14S (2026)

Although the 14S is a lower-priced alternative to the XPS 14, it doesn't skimp on features or build quality. Like the trendier XPS 14, the 14S features an aluminum chassis finished in celestial blue on our review unit. The keyboard deck, lid, and bottom of the chassis feature a matte finish, while the edges of the chassis and lid are highly polished.

The only hint of cost-cutting to my eyes is the use of a plastic bezel around the screen. However, I wouldn’t have even noticed the material difference if Dell hadn’t explicitly pointed it out. Build quality is impeccable, with no flex in the chassis and no floppiness in the firm display hinge.

While the XPS 14 goes for a minimalist approach on the port front with just three Thunderbolt 4 ports, the 14S gives you a lot more variety. You’ll find an HDMI 2.1 port, a USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 port, and two Thunderbolt 4 ports on the left side of the chassis. On the opposite side, there’s another USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 port and a 3.5 mm jack. There’s really nothing to complain about here, and it’s nice to see that we have both USB-A and USB-C support for legacy and newer devices alike.

Our 14S review unit features a 1200p OLED touchscreen, weighs 3.28 pounds, and measures 12.35 x 8.82 x 0.61 inches. For comparison, the XPS 14 is 12.19 x 8.26 x 0.58 inches and weighs just 3 pounds. The Asus ZenBook A16 measures 13.92 x 9.54 x 0.65 inches and weighs 2.87 pounds, while the Apple MacBook Air (M5) weighs 2.7 pounds and measures 11.97 x 8.46 x 0.44 inches.

Dell 14S (2026) Specifications

Productivity Performance on the Dell 14S (2026)

The Dell 14S uses an Intel Core Ultra 7 355 processor, featuring 4 performance cores, 4 low-power efficient cores, and a maximum turbo frequency of 4.7 GHz. This is the same processor used in one of the XPS 14 models we tested. The Zenbook A16 uses a Snapdragon X2 Elite SoC, Qualcomm’s flagship Arm chip and an excellent all-around performer, while the MacBook Air uses Apple’s entry-level M5 Arm SoC.

Our review unit came equipped with 16GB of LPDDR5x-7467 memory and a 512GB PCIe 4.0 SSD. 512GB is rather small at this price point, considering most laptops we test come with a 1TB SSD as the baseline.

In the Geekbench synthetic CPU benchmark, the 14S's single-core performance closely mirrored that of the XPS 14 featuring the same CPU, with the former achieving a score of 2,704 versus 2,685 for the latter. However, there was a significant discrepancy between the two in the multi-core benchmark, with the 14S hitting 11,064 compared to 7,964 for the XPS 14. The Zenbook A16 proved to be an exceptional performer with its Snapdragon X2 Elite processor, with 3,807 and 22,733 on the single-core and multi-core benchmarks, respectively.

The 512GB SSD on the 14S was relegated to the back of the pack in our 25GB file transfer test, finishing at an average speed of 1,378.71 MBps. This was well behind the XPS 14 (1,730 MBps) and the chart-topping MacBook Air (1,924 MBps)

It was a similar story on our Handbrake test, in which we transcode a 4K video file to 1080p. Here, the 14S finished the test in 7 minutes and 22 seconds, nearly 40 seconds behind the XPS 14. However, the Zenbook A16 absolutely smoked all of the laptops in this test, finishing in just 2 minutes and 8 seconds.

During the Cinebench 2026 stress test, the 14S started at just over 1,600, before dipping to 1,465. It then recovered to a peak of 1,735 before settling in the 1,550 to 1,650 range for the rest of the runs.

The Ultra 7 355 P-cores averaged 2.61 GHz, while the low-power E-cores averaged 2.45 GHz.

Graphics on the Dell 14S (2026)

The Dell 14S uses integrated Intel Graphics with 4 Xe cores. On the 3DMark Steel Nomad test, the 14S achieved a score of 505, which was just below that of the XPS 14 (532).

However, the Zenbook A16 once again flexed its muscle with a score of 1,262, while the MacBook Air came in at 1,005, nearly double the result of the 14S.

Display on the Dell 14S (2026)

Our 14S review unit came optioned with a 1920 x 1200 (FHD+) 60 Hz OLED touchscreen. This is a step up from the base system and features an FHD IPS display.

The display was overall quite colorful, with vivid colors and inky blanks; something that I’ve come to appreciate with OLED displays. I watched a few movie trailers, including the most recent trailer for The Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brand New Day. The trailer for Spider-Man looked especially brilliant, with the suit's iconic red and blue and the seismic destruction left by Hulk's Thunderclap.

My one complaint about the display is that it wasn’t particularly bright. Dell specs the OLED panel at 300 nits, and our lab instruments measured an average of just 269 nits. The displays on all of its competitors broke the 400-nit mark, with the XPS 14 hitting 466 nits.

As for color performance, the display on the 14S reached 84.5 percent of the DCI-P3 space by volume and 119.3 percent of the sRGB space. Those numbers were right on top of the numbers we recorded for the other three laptops in this test, with just a few percentage points separating them.

Keyboard and Touchpad on the Dell 14S (2026)

The Dell 14S features an island-style backlit keyboard with springy keys and near-silent actuation. The exception to this rule was the spacebar, which seemed to bottom out easily and rewarded me with a grating “clank” every time I pressed it with my thumb.

With that said, I used Keyhero.com to measure my typing speed, which was 87 words per minute with 97 percent accuracy.

Unlike the XPS 14, the 14S doesn’t feature a haptic trackpad (after all, cost-cutting has to come from somewhere). Instead, it features a top-hinged trackpad, meaning that “clicks” performed near the top of the surface, above the hinge, don’t register. You’ll need to keep your thumb near the bottom of the touchpad, where your thumb should naturally rest anyway if you’re using proper hand positioning.

Audio on the Dell 14S (2026)

The 14S uses dual 2-watt speakers, which sound reasonable enough. They’re not particularly powerful or worthy of high praise. I played the City of Angels soundtrack, culminating with the four heavenly instrumental tracks performed by Gabriel Yared.

While the strings sounded quite good, the angelic vocals that come in about a third of the way through in An Angel Falls sounded dull and lifeless. This was especially disappointing as the voices dropped into the lower registers. However, this is me being nitpicky about audio using one of my favorite albums of all time; for typical productivity-related tasks, the speakers on the 14S will do just fine. I didn’t find any third-party software to fine-tune the speakers.

Upgradeability of the Dell 14S (2026)

There are six screws (two of which are captive) that hold the Dell 14S' bottom panel in place. Once the screws are removed, the whole panel lifts off from the back.

There are two upgradeable pieces of hardware inside our review unit (besides the battery, which can be replaced): there’s an M.2 PCIe Intel BE213 Wi-Fi 7 card and a Kioxia 2230 PCIe 4.0 512GB SSD. While our unit had a 2230 SSD, the M.2 slot can accommodate up to 2280 modules.

Battery Life on the Dell 14S (2026)

One of the remarkable accomplishments of the XPS 14 that we previously tested was its battery life. The 14S also delivers on that front, lasting 20 hours and 41 minutes on our battery test, consisting of browsing the web, streaming video, and running OpenGL tests at 150 nits of brightness. This was just one minute shy of the XPS 14’s performance. Also, keep in mind that the 14S has an OLED display; our previous XPS 14 review unit used a non-touch IPS panel, so a similarly equipped 14S would likely post even better battery numbers.

For comparison, the MacBook Air, which has long been one of the reigning champs of battery life, could only muster 15 hours and 28 minutes of runtime. And the Zenbook A16, which was a performance monster in our productivity tests, couldn’t quite hit 10 hours and 30 minutes.

Heat on the Dell 14S (2026)

While running our Cinebench 2026 stress test on the 14S, we measured external surface temperatures and processor temperatures via its internal sensors.

The Core 7 Ultra 355 hit 106 degrees Fahrenheit on the keyboard between the G and H keys, around 82 F on the touchpad, and 108 F on the hottest point on the bottom. The processor measured 88 degrees Celsius.

One thing to note is that while the XPS 14 has two system fans, the 14S has just one.

Webcam on the Dell 14S (2026)

Dell's 14S uses an entry-level acceptable 2MP camera. It is by no means as clear or crisp as the 8MP unit in the more expensive XPS 14, but we weren't expecting that given its positioning. Color was quite good on the webcam, but the images were neither sharp nor grain-free. There was a lot of noise in the images, and details were quickly lost, as my facial hair looked a bit "muddy."

The camera also struggled with the overhead LED lights in my home office, causing blooming effects that marred the images.

Like many laptops, the 14S also incorporates an IR sensor for Windows Hello facial recognition.

Software and Warranty on the Dell 14S (2026)

The 14S is relatively light on included bloatware. Dell Optimizer and Dell Support Assist are installed by default. The former lets you optimize settings for the display, battery, and thermal management. The latter allows you to scan your system for issues, update software/firmware, optimize your network connection, and obtain assistance from customer service.

There are also the usual Intel utilities for graphics and security; however, I didn’t see the app shortcuts typically featured in a fresh Windows 11 installation (e.g., Dropbox, LinkedIn).

The 14S comes with one year of what Dell calls Basic Onsite Service. You can optionally add Accidental Damage Service (covering drops, spills, and power surges) for $59/year (currently on promotion for $29/year).

Dell 14S (2026) Configurations

The 14S is available with four processors (Core Ultra 5 322, Core Ultra 7 355, Core Ultra X7 358H, and Core Ultra 9 386H), Intel Graphics or Arc Graphics, 16GB or 32GB of memory, 512GB or 1TB SSD, and a 14-inch 1200p IPS or OLED display (in touch or non-touch options). You can also choose between Celestial Blue and Frost Blue for the chassis color when ordering directly from Dell.com.

The base configuration with a Core Ultra 5 322 processor, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and a 14-inch non-touch IPS display costs $1,269.99. That is a very attractive entry point for the 14S, but options can quickly ratchet up the price. For example, a config with a Core Ultra 9 386H, Intel Graphics, 32GB of memory, a 512GB SSD, and a 14-inch touch OLED display retails for $2,019.99, while a Core Ultra X7 358H with Arc Graphics, 32GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD, and a 14-inch touch OLED display sells for $1,869.99. In the $1,800 to $2,000+ price range, you’d probably be better off going with an XPS 14.

Our review unit, featuring the Core Ultra 7 355, Intel Graphics, 16GB of RAM, 512GB SSD, and a 14-inch touch OLED display, landed about in the middle at $1,469.99.

Bottom Line

The Dell 14S attempts to mimic some of the perks of its flashier relative, the XPS 14, with a high-quality aluminum chassis, OLED display options, and stellar battery life (over 20 hours in our testing). It also adds in features you don’t get on the XPS 14, like an HDMI 2.1 port and USB-A ports.

However, you also give up a bit. You don’t get the quad speakers, 8MP webcam, Gorilla Glass screen cover, or the option for a 2.8K 120 Hz OLED touch screen.

If those features aren’t important to you, consider this: our 14S review unit retails for $1,469.99. An XPS 14 with the same processor, memory allotment, storage size, and a 14-inch 2.8K 120 Hz OLED display costs $2,249.99. That’s a nearly $800 upcharge. In the grand scheme of things, the 14S is definitely living up to its “mainstream” positioning in the Dell laptop family.

It's that time of year when you need to start thinking about prepping for starting a new semester or heading off to college. One of the handiest items to get a hold of is a competent laptop computer for doing lots of your coursework on. If that same laptop also happens to be able to play games, well, that's a big bonus. Shaving a massive $900 off the list price, HP's HyperX Omen 16 gaming laptop is now just $1,099.99. That's a superb price for a laptop that packs an RTX 5060 mobile GPU and a crisp 16-inch 2K display.

● Check out this deal at HP

The HyperX Omen 16 packs some seriously good components for the price tag, as finding a capable RTX 5060 gaming laptop for near $1000 is a rarity in today's computer market. Inside the chassis of this model of the Omen 16 is an AMD Ryzen 7 8745HX processor, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 laptop GPU with 8GB of dedicated GDDR7 VRAM, 16GB of RAM, and a small 512GB SSD. The display measures 16 inches diagonally and has a crisp 2K (1920 x 1200) resolution with a max refresh rate of 165Hz and a 3ms gray-to-gray response time. The IPS panel has a micro-edge display, anti-glare, low blue light emissions, a brightness of 400 nits, and 100% sRGB for the color gamut.

We haven't had the opportunity to review this particular model of the HyperX Omen 16, so we can't fully use our Omen 16 review as a fair comparison. Our review unit used the much more powerful RTX 5080 GPU and Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX CPU. The components that are included in this model, though, are very familiar, so we do have a good idea how they will run, and the chassis, screen, and features of the Omen 16 will overlap.

The RTX 5060 will be able to run games smoothly on the 16-inch 1920 x 1200 display, and will be able to make use of Nvidia's DLSS software to increase framerates for a smoother experience on more taxing titles.

So if you're looking for a competent laptop for heading back to school, you can't go far wrong with this $1,099 deal on the HyperX Omen 16 for both work and play.

If you're looking for more savings, check out our Best PC Hardware deals for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals, Hard Drive Deals, Gaming Monitor Deals, Graphics Card Deals, Gaming Chair, Best Wi-Fi Routers, Best Motherboard, or CPU Deals pages.

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Framework is adjusting the pricing for its upcoming Framework Laptop 13 Pro, the company announced in a blog post. The company says that its supplier of LPCAMM2 memory updated pricing to be "more than double" its existing inventory, while laptops and mainboards will see increases due to rises in prices for other components.

"We recently received a cost update from our LPCAMM2 supplier that goes far beyond anything we had predicted and anything we’re able to absorb without placing our ability to operate at real financial risk," wrote chief executive Nirav Patel. "Rather than the low-to-mid double digit [sic] percentage increase we had forecast from Q2 to Q3 on LPCAMM2 costs, we received prices that are more than double that of the prior inventory we had brought in."

LPCAMM2 memory is specifically in the Intel Core Ultra Series 3 version of the laptop, while models using AMD Ryzen AI 300 processors are sticking with SO-DIMMs.

But while Patel said the company has enough LPCAMM2 modules to fulfill existing pre-orders, their mix of 64GB, 32GB, and 16GB options doesn't match it exactly. Instead, the company is fulfilling as many orders of 64GB as it can before dropping down to 32GB at the original 32GB price. From there, it will drop certain 32GB to 16GB at that original price. Here's how Patel puts it:

"After evaluating a number of possible paths forward, we’re proceeding on the one that we believe minimizes the impact of this challenge. We have enough 64GB modules in inventory to cover pre-order batches through Batch 4 of laptops and Batch 7 of Mainboards. For orders beyond that configured with 64GB, we’ve updated the order configuration to use a 32GB module at the original 32GB module price. After that, we allocated the remaining 32GB modules to DIY Edition and Mainboard pre-orders configured with 32GB through Batch 4 of laptops and Batch 7 of Mainboards. For DIY Edition and Mainboard orders beyond that configured with 32GB, we’ve updated the order configuration to use a 16GB module at the original 16GB price. Note that because we don’t currently have a Core X7 Ultra pre-built configuration with 16GB of memory, we have not adjusted pre-built orders that originally contained 32GB. That is a configuration we plan to introduce later."

Framework will continue offering 16GB LPCAMM2 modules at $239, but said it will have to increase the cost once those modules run out. But the 32GB modules will now be $800 (they were previously $439), while the 64GB modules in pre-orders going forward will be an eye-watering $1,600, up from $849.

But that's not all. Framework is also raising the price of systems and mainboards in new orders. Patel wrote that X7 and X9 chips will be getting more expensive, as well as Windows license costs, and "increases in memory, storage, and other silicon costs for some of our Ryzen AI 300 Series configurations."

Patel wrote that Framework's supply chain experts have been able to bring down costs on some components, including 48GB DDR5 modules and SN850X 8TB and SN7100 1TB SSDs, while increasing costs of 16GB DDR5 modules and SN850X 1TB and SN7100 4TB drives. Patel says that pre-orders with components getting lower pricing will have their prices dropped if they're not yet fulfilled. If prices go up, Framework says it will still charge what you paid when you pre-ordered.

Patel and his team have been updating this blog, which showcases a very rocky ecosystem, more publicly than most other PC vendors.

Framework's website says that the first batch of pre-orders for the Laptop 13 Pro is set to ship in July. That gives the company a week to get these systems out the door.

If you're in the hunt for a back-to-school gaming laptop, then look no further than this excellent Gigabyte Woot deal. Right now at Amazon's outlet, you can save 33% off the list price and get a 16-inch laptop with an Nvidia RTX 5070 for just $1,399, one of the cheapest 5070 laptops around.

• Grab this deal at Woot

For that, you get Nvidia's punchy mobile RTX 5070 GPU, 32GB of RAM for gaming and multitasking, 1TB of storage, and a nifty 2560 x 1600 WQXGA display. Given the current prices of RAM and storage, getting a laptop of this spec at this price is pretty much unheard of these days. We actually covered the HX 350 version of this laptop at $1,389 earlier this month. This deal gets you a snappier HX 370 CPU for just $10 more.

We've actually reviewed the aforementioned 350 version of this laptop, where we praised the Aero's excellent productivity performance, good battery life, and scope for upgradeability. However, it was let down by its display and performance given the price. At the $1,399 discount, however, it becomes a much more enticing prospect. As you can see, it sails past rivals in our battery test, scoring nearly an hour longer usage compared to its next-closest rival.

As you can see from our gaming benchmarks, the Aero X16 can easily deliver over 100 fps in Shadow of the Tomb Raider at 1080p, or 64 fps at its native 2560 x 1600. It's not the most potent gaming laptop on the market by any means, but it's one of the best-value options given the sub-$1,400 price point on offer here.

Our productivity testing is based on AMD's Ryzen AI 7 350 processor. This 8-core CPU delivered decent Geekbench 6 scores, so expect the 12-core 370 in this model to offer better performance still and also give gaming a much-needed boost, with 24 threads and boost clocks of up to 5.1 GHz.

The other specs of this laptop, notably the 32GB of RAM and 1TB SSD, are also impressive. 32GB of DDR5 is worth nearly $400 these days, and that'll get you all the multitasking and performance you need for work and play. While this isn't an OLED laptop, the 2560 x 1600 display offers a refresh rate of up to 165Hz.

As the 'Aero' moniker suggests, the X16 is also thin and light. It measures just 0.65 inches in thickness and weighs 4.18 lbs, making it a very portable option. You'll also be pleased to know that the laptop can be upgraded in the future, with two SODIMM memory slots and two M.2 drive slots offering you headroom to add RAM or storage later in life.

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There's no denying how good the build quality and construction of Apple's MacBook Pro lineup are. They are what every other high-end laptop manufacturer tries to emulate, which lets Apple charge a very high price for the privilege of owning one. If you're looking for a high-performance laptop for coding, video production, or even some light LLM/AI tasks, then this deal on the 14-inch Apple MacBook Pro with M5 chip for $2,699 is worth a look. B&H Photo has slashed $400 off the $3,099 list price to bring it down to this price, and give you the chance to pick up a powerful laptop with 48GB of memory.

● Check out this deal at B&H Photo

This 14-inch MacBook Pro uses the latest M5 Pro chip, with a 15-core CPU and 16-core GPU with a Neural Accelerator in each core, delivering amazing processing power in a small package. This model sports a hefty 48GB of unified RAM, a 1TB SSD for storage, and a crisp 3024 x 1964-pixel Liquid Retina XDR display (1600 nits peak HDR brightness), with superb battery life (up to 24 hours).

Other features include a 12MP Center Stage camera with Desk View support, an in-house N1 networking chip that combines Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6, an SDXC Slot, Thunderbolt 5, and a MagSafe 3 connector.

We had the chance to review the MacBook Pro 14-Inch and found that the M5 chip delivers solid performance gains over its M4 predecessor. The SSD performance has greatly improved, and the rocking speaker system is still a cut above similar laptops from competitors. In our benchmark testing, the MacBook Pro's M5 CPU delivered between a 10 to 20% improvement over the prior generation's M4 chip in CPU performance.

If the price tag of $2,699 and 48GB of RAM are a little too high for your tastes, you can also pick up the same 14-inch MacBook Pro with M5 Pro chip, but with 24GB of RAM for $2,299, with the same hardware and features as our main deal.

If you're looking for more savings, check out our Best PC Hardware deals for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals, Hard Drive Deals, Gaming Monitor Deals, Graphics Card Deals, Gaming Chair, Best Wi-Fi Routers, Best Motherboard, or CPU Deals pages.

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If you're headed back to school or college later this summer, or you're embarking on new study endeavours for the first time, then you might well be in the market for a powerhouse laptop that can tackle work and play with ease. This excellent HP Omen Max laptop is currently $1,100 off at Best Buy, netting you an RTX 5070 Ti GPU, 24-core Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX CPU, 32GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD, all housed under a slick OLED display.

● Check out this deal at Best Buy

This laptop is not only fantastic for gaming, but the powerhouse Core Ultra 9 290HX is Intel's flagship laptop processor, with a massive 24 cores, including eight performance cores and 16 efficiency cores. That makes it great for all manner of productivity tasks, no matter what you're studying.

The HP Omen Max 16 laptop is a model we've reviewed, and we like its general premium feel thanks to its aluminum enclosure, good audio, and decent webcam. The headline here is that Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX CPU. This flagship Arrow Lake Refresh CPU features boost clocks of up to 5.5 GHz. Below is a selection of laptops we've tested running this CPU, and as you can see, it delivers very impressive Geekbench 6 scores.

That CPU is backed up by the punchy RTX 5070 Ti GPU. While it doesn't have the coveted 16GB of VRAM of the desktop variant, it does have 12GB, getting you more than the 8GB configurations you'll mind on the lower end of Nvidia's scale. This Blackwell GPU has 5,888 CUDA cores and should provide ample power at the laptop's native resolution of 2560 x 1600 at 240 Hz. That display is also really notable because it's an OLED panel, rather than IPS, offering much better contrast and response times for gaming and watching content.

Alongside the potent CPU and GPU combo, you get 32GB of DDR5 RAM and a 1TB SSD. The former is crucial for multitasking and gaming, while the latter should be fine to get you started with a few Steam games and your studies.

As always with the Omen Max, you get two USB-A ports, two Thunderbolt 4 with USB-C, a 3.5mm headphone jack, an Ethernet port, and HDMI 2.1.

If you'd like to compromise a little, you could get a 5080 version of this laptop for a little more. Priced at $2,949 ($1,070 off), this model comes with a slightly less potent Core Ultra 9 275HX (still 24 cores), a 2TB SSD, and the aforementioned 5080. That gives you more storage and a better GPU for $150 more.

If you're looking for more savings, check out our Best PC Hardware deals for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals, Hard Drive Deals, Gaming Monitor Deals, Graphics Card Deals, Gaming Chair, Best Wi-Fi Routers, Best Motherboard, or CPU Deals pages.

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AMD's latest CPU release is out in the wild and currently has exclusivity with Newegg. So if you want to get your hands on one, it's going to be from the Egg for now, at least. The AMD Ryzen 7 7700X3D was only recently announced at Computex 2026, slotting in between the 7600X3D and the 7800X3D in the product stack. But with a suggested retail price of $329, it's turning out not to be a great value for money compared with the prices of the existing 7600X3D and 7800X3D processors, that is, until the 7700X3D started appearing in Newegg's combo bundles. Today, you can pick up the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X3D along with the ASRock B650M Pro RS WiFi Micro ATX motherboard and 16GB of G.SKILL Flare X5 DDR5-6000 RAM for just $450 in this Newegg combo bundle.

● Check out this deal at Newegg

The 7700X3D has slightly lower boost clocks than its big brother, the 7800X3D, but it gives you the same eight Zen 4 cores and 104 MB of combined L2 and L3 cache. In this bundle, it works out as a much cheaper 7800X3D alternative, with only a slight drop in overall performance. When paired with the Micro ATX motherboard, this is a great start for a budget-oriented small-form-factor gaming PC.

You're saving a tidy $202.99 (31%) on the price of this combo bundle, thanks firstly to the $153.99 combo discount and then a further $49 when you use promo code PKC337 at checkout.

You can also pick up the new AMD Ryzen 7 7700X3D separately for just $279.99, as Newegg has slapped the same $49 discount on the individual CPU. Use promo code PKC337 at checkout to apply the discount.

In our review of the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X3D, we found the CPU to fit between the 7800X3D and 7600X3D, as expected. The 7700X3D shaves 200 MHz off the base clock and 500 MHz off the boost clock, but surprisingly performs closer to the 7600X3D, with only a 2% difference in average performance.

Just $450 for an AM5 7700X3D PC bundle that includes a competent gaming CPU, motherboard, and memory is good enough value, and the Micro ATX board means you could construct a small form factor build, or your own Steam Machine-type setup with superior parts. The big downside to this bundle is the single stick of RAM. It will, of course, still work, but you do take a slight performance hit from not using dual channels. However, you can always upgrade with an extra 16GB stick in future.

If you're looking for more savings, check out our Best PC Hardware deals for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals, Hard Drive Deals, Gaming Monitor Deals, Graphics Card Deals, Gaming Chair, Best Wi-Fi Routers, Best Motherboard, or CPU Deals pages.

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With the AI price crunch driving up the price of gaming laptops, good deals are harder and harder to find these days, but HP has just slashed $1,500 off this Omen Max 16-inch gaming laptop, getting you an AMD Ryzen 9 with an RTX 5080 for just $2,199. That's a 40% saving on the $3,699 MSRP.

● Check out this HP laptop deal

As you can imagine, the focus here is on the RTX 5080, a 16GB VRAM beast, which even in its mobile format will chew through any title at the 2,560 x 1,600 resolution the display offers. However, the rest of the specs are also noteworthy, including the 12-core AMD Ryzen 9 HX 375, 32GB of DDR5, and the 1TB SSD.

We haven't reviewed this exact spec of laptop, but we have tested the more potent RTX 5090 version of this model. As you can read in our HP Omen Max 16 laptop review, it's a little on the heavy side (5.99 lbs), but that's a trade-off for the premium look and feel of the aluminum enclosure. We also liked the excellent audio and sharp webcam.

Our testing data from other laptops shows the Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 chip easily bests Snapgradon's X Elite and Intel's Core 7 Ultra 258V in Geekbench 6 scores. With a 5.1 GHz max boost clock, 24MB L3 cache, and 12 cores, this is a solid processor.

As mentioned, the headline feature is the RTX 5080. With 16GB of VRAM and 7680 CUDA Cores, it will easily run any game at 1080p or the laptop's native resolution of 2,560 x 1,600. That display is a 16-inch WQXGA IPS panel (so no OLED, sadly), with a 3ms response time and 500 nits of brightness.

You also get the coveted 32GB of DDR5 5600 RAM, as well as a 1TB Gen 4 M.2 SSD, plenty of storage for your Steam library. Other features include Bluetooth 5.4 and Wi-FI 7, as well as battery fast charge, which gets you around 50% charge in just 30 minutes.

In terms of connectivity, the Omen Max features two USB-A ports, HDMI 2.1, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and two USB-C ports. There are also a further two M.2 SSD expansion slots, so you can open it up and increase your storage with a bit of DIY tinkering in future.

To put the value of this deal into perspective, HP is also currently selling an Intel Core Ultra 7 270HX Plus version of this laptop. Although the processor is a little better, you only get a 5070 Ti with 12GB of VRAM, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD, for $1,999. So for the extra $199, you're getting double the storage, double the RAM, and a 5080 instead of the 5070 Ti, which is a sizeable GPU performance jump.

If you're looking for more savings, check out our Best PC Hardware deals for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals, Hard Drive Deals, Gaming Monitor Deals, Graphics Card Deals, Gaming Chair, Best Wi-Fi Routers, Best Motherboard, or CPU Deals pages.

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Fancy a gaming laptop that's a little different? Something that can be used to play games, run small local LLMs, and even transform into a tablet for on-the-go use, then check out this hefty $900 saving on the Asus RoG Flow Z13 from Best Buy, now only $2099.99. The original $2,999.99 price tag is a lot to ask for, even with this laptop's exceptional amount of speedy RAM, but at the reduced price, it's a very attractive proposition.

● Check out this deal on Best Buy

The Asus RoG Flow Z13 sports a 13.4-inch display with a 16:10 WQXGA 180Hz IPS ROG Nebula display and Gorilla Glass protection, with a 2560 x 1600 pixel resolution. The display is also touchscreen-enabled, and one of the quirks of this particular gaming laptop is that it can switch from an ordinary laptop setup to a tablet orientation with a built-in kickstand.

The hardware inside consists of AMD's 16-core Ryzen AI Max+ 395 processor with integrated Radeon 8060S graphics, a hefty 64GB of 8000 MT/s LPDDR5X unified memory, and a 1TB SSD for storage. You will be able to happily game on high settings at 1080p, but may need to make some compromises at 1440p to keep the frame rate high.

The chassis of the Asus RoG Flow Z13 is constructed from a CNC'd aluminum block for a solid structure, with a lightweight stainless steel vapor chamber that efficiently dissipates heat while adding extra strength to the laptop. Liquid metal thermal material is used to keep the CPU cool under load and helps to keep the noise levels of the laptop to a minimum while playing the most demanding games or using AI applications and software.

Perfect for taking on the go, this convertible 2-in-1 Asus RoG Flow Z13 laptop is a good deal at $2099.99, especially considering the extortionate price of RAM in the current climate. 64GB is considered large for a laptop, although there is a 128GB version of this laptop; the price is a lot higher, and not good value for money.

If you're looking for more savings, check out our Best PC Hardware deals for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals, Hard Drive Deals, Gaming Monitor Deals, Graphics Card Deals, Gaming Chair, Best Wi-Fi Routers, Best Motherboard, or CPU Deals pages.

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The Razer Blade 16 has long been leading contender among the best gaming laptops, thanks in part to its careful component selection and strong style. In this case, our review unit comes equipped with an Intel Core Ultra 9 386H processor and a flagship RTX 5090 GPU.

While the chassis remains the same as the Razer Blade 16 that we tested a little over a year ago, the 25W processor in our new review unit enabled some impressive runtimes that eclipse the competition. You’ll have to pay a considerable sum for the luxury, but the Blade 16 makes as strong a case as a compelling premium gaming laptop.

Design of the Razer Blade 16

We were impressed with the design of last year's Blade 16, and luckily, Razer hasn’t altered the formula for this year’s model. You get the same matte-black chassis that measures just 0.69 inches at its thickest point (0.59 inches towards the front). Build quality remains excellent in true Razer fashion.

The overall design is minimalist, with a minimal amount of RGBs and no obvious ventilation slats along the sides for heat management. Instead, the clean design would look at home sitting on your desk while you're gaming with an Xbox controller, or sitting on your desk in a cubicle at work. The only bit of flash that you’ll find is the RGB Razer logo on the lid.

You’ll find thin bezels around the glossy 16-inch OLED display, below which you’ll find the full-size keyboard and a large trackpad. There’s also a small status LED at the front right of the chassis (just below the Intel Core Ultra sticker on the deck). It pulses white when the laptop is in standby mode.

There’s a healthy assortment of ports on the laptop, including three legacy USB 3.3 Gen 2 Type-A ports. There’s also one Thunderbolt 4 port, one Thunderbolt 5, an SD card reader (UHS-II), a full-size HDMI 2.1 port, and a 3.5 mm combo audio jack. There’s also a proprietary power port.

The Blade 16 measures 13.98 x 9.86 x 0.69 inches and weighs 4.71 pounds. For comparison, the MSI Raider 16 HX also packs an RTX 5090, but measures 14.29 x 10.62 x 1.14 inches and weighs over a pound more (5.73 pounds). The Alienware 16 Area-51 is heavier still at 7.49 pounds, with dimensions of 14.37 x 11.41 x 1.12 inches.

Razer Blade 16 Specifications

Gaming and Graphics on the Razer Blade 16

Our Blade 16 review unit is equipped with a Core Ultra 9 386H processor, which has 16 total cores (4 performance, 8 efficient) and a maximum performance turbo frequency of 4.9 GHz for the performance cores. There’s also 32GB of LPDDR5x memory and a GeForce RTX 5090 GPU (1,597 MHz boost clock, 175W max TGP).

This combo generally performed well across our gaming benchmark suite, with a few exceptions. While playing Battlefield 6 at native resolution in Overkill detail mode, with DLSS Quality and Frame Generation enabled, I was comfortably getting between 110 and 120 FPS, even with a lot of action happening on the screen.

For this review, the competitive set consists of last year's Blade 16 (Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 at 28W, RTX 5090 at 160W TGP), MSI Raider 16 Max HX (Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus at 55W, RTX 5090 at 175W TGP), and the Alienware 16 Area-51 (Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus at 55W, RTX 5080 at 175W TGP).

As usual, we start our gaming benchmarks with the Shadow of the Tomb Raider (Highest setting) benchmark, where the Blade 16 delivered 182 FPS at 1080p. Performance at 1600p scaled down to 133 FPS. The 2025 edition of the Blade 16 was 16 FPS behind at 1080, but at the resolution that most would play at, 1600p, the older model was nearly 30 FPS faster (162 FPS versus 133 FPS).

Cyberpunk 2077 (Ray Tracing Ultra settings), the laptops were pretty evenly matched, with most running between 65 and 70 FPS at 1080p and at around 40 FPS at 1600p. For the Razer Blade 16 specifically, it achieved 65 FPS at 1080p and 42 FPS at 1600p.

Far Cry 6 (Ultra settings) saw the Blade 16 running in third place ahead of its predecessor (106 FPS at 1080p, 108 FPS at 1600p). The Alienware 16 Area-51 and Raider 16 Max HX were a few FPS ahead at each resolution, but it was still a relatively close fight among the top three.

Red Dead Redemption 2 (Medium settings) proved challenging for the Blade 16, as it lagged behind with 94 FPS at 1080p and just 71 FPS at 1600p. For comparison, last year's model eclipsed those numbers at 121 FPS and 94 FPS, respectively. The 25W CPU simply couldn’t keep up with the 28W Ryzen and 55W Intel HX chips

However, the Blade 16 was back to its fighting form in the Borderlands 3 (Badass settings) benchmark, easily slipping into second place behind the Raider 16 Max HX with 175 FPS at 1080p and 126 FPS at 1600p.

Metro Exodus is still our preferred benchmark for gaming laptop stress testing. Our review unit averaged 133.39 FPS at 1080p across 15 loops using the RTX benchmark preset. The CPU performance cores averaged 3.96 GHz, and the efficiency cores averaged 3.5 GHz. The RTX 5090 GPU also ran at 1.95 GHz.

One item of note is that the two system fans are incredibly loud while gaming, which may force you to use a pair of the best gaming headsets to block out the added noise.

Productivity Performance on the Razer Blade 16

The Razer Blade 16 uses a 16-core Intel Core Ultra 9 386H processor, 32GB of memory, and a 2TB PCIe 4.0 SSD. With some of the competition sporting upwards of 8 additional cores, the Blade 16 didn’t really break through in the multi-threaded benchmarks.

The synthetic CPU benchmark Geekbench saw the Blade 16 lag slightly behind its predecessor in single-core (2,895 versus 2,922), but pull ahead in multi-core performance (16,971 versus 16,025). However, neither Blade system was a match for the Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus processors in the Alienware 16 Area-51 and Raider 16 Max HX; the latter of which pulled numbers of 3,231 and 20,656, respectively.

In our 25GB file transfer test, the Blade 16 took second place by the slightest of margins, hitting 1,735.09 MBps. However, this result was still 1,000 MBps behind the first-place Alienware 16 Area-51.

The multi-threaded performance shortfall crept up again in our Handbrake test, where we transcode a 4K video file to 1080p. The Blade 16 pulled up the rear in this group, even falling behind the Blade 16 with the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370. It took 3 minutes and 17 seconds to complete the task compared to just 1 minute and 51 seconds for the Raider 16 Max HX.

Display on the Razer Blade 16

As Tom's Hardware's resident monitor editor, I’m absolutely smitten with OLED panels. Thankfully, the OLED display on the Blade 16 doesn’t disappoint: it’s a 16-inch panel with a 2560 x 1600 resolution and a native refresh rate of 240 Hz.

We found that color volume was 90 percent for DCI-P3 and 127 percent for sRGB. Brightness levels were also fairly impressive, earning second place behind the Raider 16 Max HX at 408.2 nits.

Although the instrumented tests show some regression compared to last year’s Blade 16 in the sRGB and DCI-P3 color spaces, the display looks amazing in a vacuum. The gritty visuals while playing Battlefield 6 in Overkill mode were a delight to my eyes, with sunlight glinting through windows and concussive bomb blasts kicking up debris all around me.

Keyboard and Touchpad on the Razer Blade 16

The keyboard on the Blade 16 uses scissor switches with 1.5 mm of travel. The key presses are slightly clicky, and my fingers had no trouble getting used to typing on the keys.

I used my standard keyhero.com typing test and scored 89 words per minute with 97 percent accuracy, which is about par for the course for me.

The touchpad is absolutely massive, measuring 5.9 inches wide and 3.8 inches tall. It’s one of the largest trackpads you’ll find outside of Apple’s 16-inch MacBook Pros. What isn’t Apple-like is the insistence on using a mechanical linkage for trackpad actuation instead of the steadier, more consistent presses made possible by a haptic touchpad. For a laptop with a sticker price of nearly $5,000, I don’t think it’s too much to ask for some haptics here.

However, if you’re using this laptop primarily for gaming, you’ll likely be using one of the best gaming mice for your competitive sessions.

Audio on the Razer Blade 16

The six-speaker audio system on the Blade 16 is THX-optimized, and the audio quality is good, if not quite price-appropriate. While playing Battlefield 6, in-game dialog, explosions, gunfire, and vehicle noise generally sounded good, but the effects were competing with the turbine whine of the dual system fans. Cranking the volume to near-max levels helped drown out the fan noise, but at that point, I was experiencing a bit of aural overload, so I opted to put on a pair of headphones.

When the CPU and GPU weren’t heavily taxed, I was able to better enjoy the speakers, such as by playing Dave Matthews Band’s album Before These Crowded Streets for the 300th time. I cruised through the album with the volume set to a comfortable 50%, savoring the acoustic and bass guitars on “Dreaming Tree,” which always results in a relaxing frisson for me.

Similarly, I watched the Mel Gibson-helmed The Patriot to get into the mood for the Fourth of July, and reveled in the heavy dialogue, flintlock musket blasts, and cannon bursts.

You can make adjustments to the audio using the Razer Synapse software,

Upgradeability of the Razer Blade 16

Accessing the interior of the Blade 16 involves removing 10 Torx screws. Once all screws are removed, the bottom panel lifts off with minimal force. You’ll find the large 90 WHr battery at the bottom front of the chassis, and above are two M.2 slots that accept full-length 2280 SSDs.

The right slot was populated with a 2TB Lexar NM790 PCIe 4.0 SSD, while the left slot was empty, allowing for future upgrades. Also accessible is the PCIe Wi-Fi 7 network adapter (Intel BE213).

Battery Life on the Razer Blade 16

One thing to keep in mind is that the Blade 16 maintained competitive gaming performance among its peers, while its multi-threaded performance took a back seat. However, those compromises were fully redeemed in terms of battery life.

The Blade 16 uses a 90 WHr battery, which delivered shockingly long endurance (for a gaming laptop) in our battery test, consisting of web browsing, video streaming over Wi-Fi, and OpenGL testing with the screen brightness set at 150 nits. The system lasted a staggering 12:46, besting the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370-equipped Blade 16 by over 5 hours and the Alienware 16 Area-51 by over 9 hours. Even the Raider 16 Max HX was no match, falling short by over 4 hours.

That is a fantastic result for such a thin and light 16-inch gaming laptop, and it is a testament to the miserly energy consumption of the Panther Lake processor.

Heat on the Razer Blade 16

While running the Metro Exodus stress test, we measured the temperature of Blade 16's aluminum-alloy chassis in various spots. The keyboard measured 102 degrees Fahrenheit (F) between the G and H keys, while the touchpad was 92 F.

The hottest part of the laptop was near the rear center of the bottom of the chassis, where we measured 130 F. So it’s best to keep the laptop firmly planted on your desk while gaming, lest you roast your legs.

During the Metro Exodus stress test, the CPU measured 75.3 degrees Celsius (C). Meanwhile, the RTX 5090 came in at 87 C.

Webcam on the Razer Blade 16

Razer continues to use a run-of-the-mill 1080p webcam with an IR sensor for Windows Hello support. It’s by no means a class-leading webcam, but it’s perfectly usable for Zoom or Teams meetings.

I found the colors to be mostly adequate, but there was a little lightness in the detail in my facial features.

Software and Warranty on the Razer Blade 16

One of my favorite things about Razer laptops is that they aren’t loaded down with too much added software. On our Blade 16 review unit, Razer Chroma and Synapse were preloaded.

Synapse is an all-in-one utility that lets you adjust performance profiles, keyboard macros, audio presets, and more. Chroma, on the other hand, gives you full control over system RGBs, including the per-key keyboard effects.

Otherwise, you’ll find requisite utilities, like the Nvidia app and the usual Windows app shortcuts (we’re looking at you, LinkedIn) on the Start menu.

The Blade 16 comes backed by a one-year warranty for the system itself and a two-year warranty for the 90 WHr battery.

Razer Blade 16 Configurations

Our Blade 16 review unit came configured with a Core Ultra 9 386H processor, 32GB of LPDDR5X memory, a 2TB SSD, RTX 5090 laptop GPU, and a 16-inch, 240 Hz. 1600p display. The price as-configured is a whopping $4,899.99.

There are cheaper configurations available — if you retain the Core Ultra 9 386H and opt for an RTX 5070 Ti, 1TB SSD, and 32GB of memory, the price drops to $3,499.99. Going with RTX 5080 bumps (all other hardware staying the same) takes the price to $3,999.99.

Bottom Line

Overall, the Razer Blade 16 was a strong performer in our gaming benchmarks, which is the primary reason why most people would be willing to spend nearly $5,000 for this system. More importantly, the Panther Lake-based system delivered nearly 13 hours of non-gaming battery life, outrunning its closest competitor by over 4 hours. Combine those results with the beautiful display, attractive chassis, and under-the-radar design, and you have a winning combination.

However, there are some detractions; the lack of a haptic trackpad at this price point is annoying, and multi-threaded performance significantly lagged the competition. Also, the $4,900 asking price is high, although not completely out of line for a system with these specs. You can save roughly $900 by going with an RTX 5080 instead of the RTX 5090 that was in our system.

But if price isn’t an issue for you, it’s hard to argue with this compelling combination of gaming performance and battery life.

Lenovo has just updated its current-gen Legion 7a 16-inch gaming laptop with a new GPU config: the 12GB version of the RTX 5070 mobile. Previously, the laptop 5070 was limited to just 8GB of VRAM, but Nvidia recently overhauled it, splitting the 5070 SKU into two distinct variants. Lenovo is one of the first vendors to feature the 12GB 5070 in a retail device, but it doesn't come cheap — this new Legion 7a is listed for a whopping $3,375 on Best Buy right now.

For that money, you're getting a flagship Ryzen AI 9 HX 470 CPU, 32GB of LPDDR5X-8000 memory, and a 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD. Not to mention a gorgeous 2560 x 1600 OLED display with a 240 Hz refresh rate, solid build quality, and a plethora of cutting-edge I/O. This laptop is also the perfect recipient for the upgrade since its GPU topped out at a measly RTX 5060 before, making it less powerful than the last-gen Legion 7a devices.

Now, that RTX 5060 variant was almost $600 cheaper than this new 5070-equipped model, but it's actually expanded to a $1,000 delta right now because the 5060 SKU is on sale at the moment. When Nvidia first announced RTX 50-series laptops, it said RTX 5070 devices would start at $1,299; even if you consider the upgraded VRAM, you're paying just about double of what was initially promised to you.

In all seriousness, the Legion 7a is a premium gaming laptop with all the bells and whistles so it naturally commands a higher price, AI boom or not. The RTX 5070 in here is also rated at a 115W TGP instead of the 100W baseline Nvidia has set for the GPU. Regardless, you can still find cheaper laptops kitted with the new 12GB RTX 5070, such as Lenovo's own Legion 7i with a Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus processor.

The extra 4GB of VRAM in these devices, gained by swapping from 2GB GDDR7 modules to 3GB ones, should help improve performance in modern titles and AI workloads, especially where ray tracing is involved. Customers have already complained about Nvidia's insistence on packing 8GB video memory pools with various GPUs for years, and at this point, if you're buying a new GPU (or laptop) with that spec, you're killing any chances of future-proofing.

Asus’ ROG Strix Scar 18 (starting at $4,299.99) is an example of abundance in the world of gaming laptops, built around an 18-inch display and the latest flagship silicon: a Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus with Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 5090 in our test unit. This machine makes a loud first impression, from its stellar (albeit tricky to configure) mini-LED display to the unique scrolling marquee lighting on its lid. But at this price - $4,999.99 as tested – the Scar 18 must prove it can hold the line against Razer’s Blade 18 before it can claim a spot at the top.

Design of the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 (2026)

At 15.71 x 11.73 x 1.38 inches, the Scar 18 has the footprint of a cafeteria tray – this isn’t a laptop you’ll be getting out on a plane. And at 8.16 pounds, this is also one of the heaviest laptops on the market. But performance is the goal here, not portability. Razer’s Blade 18 (15.74 x 10.84 x 1.1 inches) is thinner and significantly lighter, at 7.06 pounds.

The vibrant Aura Sync lightbar around the base of the laptop also demands attention, as does the RGB-lit Republic of Gamers logo on the lid. Both are configurable with customizable lighting and patterns in the Armoury Crate app.

The lid also has a special feature called AniMe vision, a diagonally scrolling marquee of text via LEDs shining through holes in the lid backing. (This is extremely similar to the AniMe Matrix that debuted on the Zephyrus line years ago.) There are several preconfigured versions of the Republic of Gamers logo, and you can add your own text effects. Layered effects are possible and don’t always produce the desired effect — I had a “raining” effect enabled at the same time as my text, and the text was almost impossible to make out.

The bottom line is that the Scar 18 couldn’t do anything more to look like a gaming laptop – it is designed to be seen. Build-wise, it’s a solid machine, showing minimal flex no matter how I handled it. Only the lid is metal, with the rest of the construction thick plastic.

Connectivity is thoroughly modern: two Thunderbolt 5 (USB-C) and three USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 ports, HDMI 2.1, an audio combo jack, and 2.5 Gbps Ethernet. Internally, it offers Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 from an Intel BE200 networking card. The power connector is proprietary for the 450 W power brick.

Specifications

Gaming and Graphics on the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 (2026)

We tested the ROG Strix Scar 18 in flagship form, featuring a Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus processor, RTX 5090 graphics card (175 W maximum graphics power), and 32GB of RAM. This is top-of-the-line gaming technology, though with one misstep: single-channel RAM. This might affect its performance as we’re about to see. The Task Manager confirms that only one SO-DIMM slot was used.

I put the Scar 18 through its paces playing 007: First Light at 3840 x 2400 with all detail settings maxed out. At first, this proved too demanding – I saw 26 to 32 frames per second (FPS) in most scenes. Enabling DLSS more than doubled the frame rate – I saw around 70 FPS or better, and the game was supremely playable.

Our comparison lineup includes Alienware’s 16 Area-51 (RTX 5080), MSI’s Raider 16 Max HX (RTX 5090), and Razer’s Blade 18 (RTX 5090). All laptops use a Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus and have GPUs rated for 175 W like our Asus. Their native screen resolutions, however, are different: Alienware and MSI are 2560 x 1600 while Razer has a unique dual-model display supporting both 1920 x 1200 and 3840 x 2400.

The Scar 18 was competitive across the board at 1200p, typically a few FPS ahead of the Alienware but a few FPS behind the MSI and particularly the Razer.

Bumping the resolution to 4K, the Scar 18 trailed the Razer in most games – the delta was at or almost 10% in Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Far Cry 6, Cyberpunk 2077, and F1 23. (Red Dead Redemption 2 was the exception.) While those numbers won't make the difference between playability and unplayability, the price of these laptops makes it difficult to overlook.

Differences versus the Razer aside, the Scar 18 still demonstrates ample performance for gaming at 4K in most of the games we tested, though not all – it averaged only 21 FPS in Cyberpunk 2077 on ray tracing ultra, indicating that it won't be possible to play every game at maximum detail settings.

We stress test gaming laptops running 15 loops of the Metro Exodus stress test at RTX settings. During the test, the Scar 18 averaged 141 FPS with minimal variance between runs, starting at 141.5 FPS and finishing at 141.1 FPS. The Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus CPU averaged 4.59 GHz on its P-cores and 2.58 GHz on its E-cores while the RTX 5090 had an average boost clock of 1.98 GHz.

Productivity Performance on the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 (2026)

We tested the Scar 18 with a Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus CPU, 32GB of RAM, and a 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD. Not including a PCIe 5.0 drive seems like a missed opportunity at this price, though Razer does the same thing.

In Geekbench 6, the single-core numbers between these laptops were almost indistinguishable as we might expect given they all use the Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus, though the Scar 18’s multi-core score of 17,629 points significantly trailed the others, which all scored over 20,000 points.

The Scar 18 landed middle of the road in our 25GB file transfer test, averaging 2,042.69 MBps, putting it ahead of the MSI (1,357.93 MBps) and Razer (1,670.53 MBps) but behind the Alienware (2,738.9 MBps).

The Scar 18 also proved competitive in our 4K-to-1080p Handbrake transcoding test, completing it in two minutes and 11 seconds to lead the Alienware (2:24) but trail the MSI (1:51) and Razer (2:01).

Display on the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 (2026)

The Scar 18’s “Nebula” HDR display is its crowning feature. With a 3840 x 2400 (4K) resolution, mini-LED backlighting with 2,000 dimming zones, a 240 Hz refresh rate, and Nvidia G-Sync, this is quite advanced.

Tweaking is required to get this display to perform as intended, and it’s not simple. Out of the box, HDR is disabled, the refresh rate is capped at 120 Hz, and G-Sync is unavailable since Nvidia Optimus, which dynamically switches between the CPU’s integrated graphics and the RTX 5090, is enabled. To unlock maximum performance, the GPU must be put in “Ultimate” mode in Armoury Crate, which is effectively a MUX toggle that disables the integrated graphics. A restart is required for this to take effect. G-Sync, the 240 Hz refresh rate, and a special feature called “Extreme Low Motion Blur” (ELMB) then become available. The latter is aimed at esports players– it manipulates the pixels so that they turn off when switching colors, theoretically eliminating blur. (More on this in a moment.)

Those aren’t the only settings you’ll need to know about. You can toggle the mini-LED backlighting control between one zone, multi-zone balanced, or multi-zone strong. These settings produce very different images – one-zone provides the deepest contrast, multi-zone balanced is the dimmest but evens out the contrast to make dark scenes appear brighter, and multi-zone strong is the brightest and most vibrant. I stuck with the latter for nearly everything.

ELMB only works in one-zone mode without HDR. I tested it using the Blur Blusters UFO Test. It clearly made a difference – in the 240 fps scrollbar, the UFO looked crisp moving across the screen. Disabling ELMB caused it to become blurry, making it harder to see details. This feature can really matter for competitive esports.

But wait, there are even more settings! Armoury Crate includes many color modes through a feature called GameVisual — racing, scenery, RTS/RPG, fps, cinema, eyecare, vivid, and e-reading. On top of that, it also provides color temperature and gamut settings.

Then there’s the question of HDR. To get that working, it must first be enabled in the Windows Settings app. Back in Armoury Crate, you’ll find GameVisual, color temperature and gamut settings, Extreme Low Motion Blur, and mini-LED backlighting settings are no longer available. That’s the trade-off.

Complicating all this is that the settings I just mentioned are in different places in Armoury Crate. Some are in the display section, while others require going into the Devices section, selecting the Scar 18, and making changes there. It’s not straightforward, and those that simply use this laptop out of the box without tweaking won’t get the best visual experience.

After much experimentation, I played 007: First Light in GPU Ultimate mode, G-Sync enabled, a 240 Hz refresh rate, and True Color HDR enabled through Windows. The picture left little to the imagination – colors seemed to pop off the screen and the 4K resolution provided exquisite detail right down to the patches on Bond’s uniform. HDR effects from muzzle flashes and explosions were dazzling in dark environments.

When I watched Zootopia 2, I switched off HDR and used SDR multi-zone strong. Colors looked exquisite, and brightness was borderline excessive in a darker room. Bright objects like lamps almost seemed overexposed, but they weren’t – the display was simply that bright, and colors were so saturated that I found it hard to look away.

The Scar 18’s numbers are from its default out-of-the-box display settings. In color coverage, its 77.9% DCI-P3 coverage was last in the group – Alienware's OLED screen achieved 93.7% — but is still high enough to create vibrant-looking colors. Its 428.2-nit peak brightness was mid-pack, brighter than the Alienware's 368.6 nits but well back from Razer's 538 nits.

Also shown in our charts are the multi-zone strong settings, which produced 584.6 nits of brightness, with parts peaking at 625 nits. Enabling HDR, we measured an astounding 1,124 nits at 10%, 1,090 nits at 40%, and 943 nits at 100%. If you're looking for one of the brightest laptop displays around, the Scar 18 ranks high on the list.

Keyboard and Touchpad on the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 (2026)

The Scar 18’s keyboard is great for gaming – the keys require enough actuation force that resting your fingers on WASD or the arrow keys won’t produce accidental presses. Key travel is communicative in the sense your fingers know exactly when a key is at the top or bottom of the stroke. The bright RGB backlight is sharp and easy to see.

The keyboard is less ideal for productivity. The tactile feel is rather lifeless, though I still managed 126 words per minute with 99% accuracy in my usual MonkeyType run. Layout-wise, a two-thirds-size number pad on an 18-inch laptop is a miss – there’s plenty of space to make it full-size. Additionally, the arrow key cluster isn’t separated out, resulting in no right Ctrl key, and there are no dedicated Home, End, Page Up, or Page Down keys. Asus does, however, provide five dedicated macro keys, a rarity on any laptop. These are configurable in the Armoury Crate app.

Asus’ mechanical touchpad is excellent, with an expansive surface and a smooth but fingerprint-resistant surface coating. Its clicking action is quiet.

Audio on the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 (2026)

The Scar 18’s quad-speaker array delivers a decent, if not remarkable, audio experience. In 007: First Light, soft details like the footsteps of approaching enemies were easy to pinpoint, thanks to the expansive soundstage – there’s plenty of room to separate the speaker placement on a laptop this large. Bass is muted, though, resulting in explosions and gunfire that don’t stir up as much excitement as they could.

In Phil Collins’ “Don’t Lose My Number,” high hats on drum hits were sharp but missed low-end bump. Switching to the Chainsmokers’ “Summertime Friends,” I also noted the lack of bass, though the vocals were crisp. The overall sound signature is on the hollow side, but that can be sharpened up using the Atmos Detailed equalizer in the Dolby Access app. None of the equalizers made up for the lack of bass, though. Volume levels are also moderate – I found myself pushing at least 80% volume for most situations.

Upgradeability of the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 (2026)

Getting inside the Scar 18 couldn’t be easier – simply slide the latch below the palm rest, slide the entire bottom panel forward, and lift it away. You don't even need tools.

Upgrade possibilities include two M.2 slots, two SODIMM slots, and the battery.

Battery Life on the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 (2026)

Our battery test consists of web browsing, running OpenGL tests, and streaming videos with the screen at 150 nits while connected to Wi-Fi.

One minute shy of the five-hour mark, the Scar 18 demonstrates respectable battery life for an 18-inch gaming laptop. The Razer lasted half an hour longer (5:31) and the MSI Raider (8:34) clearly does a better job conserving power, but the Scar 18 did outperform the Alienware (3:33) by several hours.

Heat on the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 (2026)

We measure the surface temperatures of gaming laptops while running the Metro Exodus stress test. Peak temperatures were 91 degrees Fahrenheit on the keyboard between the G and H keys, 90 F on the touchpad, and 108 F on the underside near the cooling vents. Internally, the Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus averaged 66 Celsius while the RTX 5090 ran at 64 C.

The laptop’s fans are well-behaved for daily use. Though fan noise increases while gaming, I had no trouble hearing footsteps and distant conversations in 007: First Light using the built-in speakers.

Webcam on the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 (2026)

Asus’ FHD webcam has the minimum resolution expected on a modern laptop. The picture looks soft and washed out. Highlights aren’t handled that well – a window in the background appeared blown out – and I had trouble making out details on my face from just a few feet away. Gamers who value visual quality will want to invest in an external webcam.

Software and Warranty on the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 (2026)

Asus includes a useful software bundle, starting with the familiar Armoury Crate. This app provides component monitoring, a macro editor, game library, an exhaustive amount of display settings, and lighting settings via Aura Sync and AniMe Vision. Accessing some settings is unintuitive since you need to go to the Device section and select the laptop. There you can access Windows key and Touchpad toggles and several display settings, including panel overdrive (240 Hz refresh rate). Most settings can be saved in profiles.

The MyAsus app is more generic. In addition to diagnostics and system updates, it provides a battery care mode, microphone noise cancelation, and networking preferences that allow prioritizing traffic to games or other apps.†

The Scar 18 also works with Asus’ GlideX app to share content across devices, including phones and tablets.

Asus includes a standard one-year warranty.

Configurations

Asus offers two Scar 18 configurations with only the GPU different between them – model G835LWG-DB96 uses an RTX 5080 for $4,299.99 while our review model, G835LXG-DB96, steps up to the RTX 5090 for $4,999.99. All other components are the same: a Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus processor, 32GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD, and the 18-inch mini-LED display.

Pricing is slightly higher than Razer’s Blade 18 with the RTX 5080 – it was $4,099 at this writing. Razer runs $5,399 with the RTX 5090, but that price also includes a 2TB SSD.

Bottom Line

The Scar 18 is an undeniably impressive machine that goes all-in on visuals. Its mini-LED “Nebula” display looks breathtaking when properly configured, producing exceptional brightness. The AniMe scrolling marquee, dedicated macro keys, and easy serviceability also elevate its appeal.

However, when it comes to performance, the Scar 18’s single-channel RAM and lack of a PCIe 4.0 SSD are significant shortcomings on a $4,999.99 machine. Several of our gaming benchmarks and multi-core CPU performance showed meaningful dips against Razer’s Blade 18. Additionally, while its display is brilliant, the maze of settings required to unlock its potential means it doesn’t provide the best experience out of the box.

Overall, the Scar 18 is a formidable and visually stunning laptop with plenty of power and one of the best displays you’ll find in a laptop. It simply doesn’t perform consistently enough to displace the Blade 18 as our top recommendation among elite 18-inch gaming laptops.

Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 14 (starts at $2,032; $2,217.30 as tested) enters the laptop market with the poise of a veteran. This series has spent years at the top of the ultralight business stack and shows no sign of slowing down. Light and refined as ever with Intel’s “Panther Lake” silicon and equipped with a class-leading keyboard, OLED display, and enterprise-ready tech, it’s every bit the flagship it’s intended to be. That said, consumer models like Dell’s XPS 14 have also raised the bar, so whether the ThinkPad X1 Carbon’s refinements keep it ahead of the pack remains to be seen.

Design of the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 14

The ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 14 may have received a refresh, but its design principles remain unmistakable. Squared edges, matte black surfaces, and functional lines keep it faithful to the lineage that IBM established long ago. The webcam notch is the quickest visual cue that this is a current-generation model. Lenovo’s only real design flourish is the colorful X1 badge on the lid for this flagship; lesser ThinkPads simply have the brand name.

At just 2.15 pounds, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon feels unrealistically light, to the point that I wondered if the unit I received was hollow. Rest assured, there’s a real computer inside, and the build quality is excellent. The outsides are made mostly of lightweight magnesium, with precise fitment and a premium feel. True to the product name, carbon fiber is used, mainly in the lid cover and its internal frame. Rigidity is just average, though; the palm rest and surrounding deck feel solid, but the chassis flexes more than I expected. The lid, however, is impressively stiff, and the hinges are precisely tuned for one-handed opening.

Measuring 12.3 x 8.49 x 0.6 inches, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon has a similar footprint but is much lighter than the 3.4-pound Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch and the three-pound Dell XPS 14.

Port selection is decent for an ultraportable, with HDMI 2.1, two Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C), and a headphone jack on the left and another Thunderbolt 4 and a USB-A port on the right. Intel wireless networking provides Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4. Cellular WAN is available.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 14 Specifications

Productivity Performance on the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 14

We tested the ThinkPad X1 with a Core Ultra 7 355 processor, 32GB of RAM, and a 512GB PCIe 4.0 SSD. This “Panther Lake” processor features four Performance and four Low Power Efficiency (LPE).

For performance comparison, we included the Apple MacBook Pro (14-inch, 10-core M5; $2,349 as tested), Asus Zenbook Duo (Core Ultra X9 388H; $2,299.99), and the Dell XPS 14 (Core Ultra 7 355; $1,699.99). These are all premium systems that you might consider if you’re cross-shopping consumer models. The Apple and Asus use significantly stronger processors, though the ThinkPad X1 Carbon and the XPS 14 can be equipped with the Core Ultra X-series to compete in that tier if you're willing to spend even more.

On the cross-platform Geekbench 6 benchmark, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon’s single-core score of 2,635 points matched the XPS 14, an expected result considering they both use the Core Ultra 7 355, but the ThinkPad trounced it in multi-core, with 11,107 points to Dell’s 7,964. Neither machine proved a match for Apple’s M5, particularly in single-core. With both Apple and Asus scoring over 17,000 points in the multi-core portion, their processors are clearly in a different league.

The ThinkPad X1 Carbon finished our 4K-to-1080p video transcoding test in 6 minutes and 12 seconds, more than 30 seconds quicker than the XPS 14 but not competitive with the Asus (4:22) and MacBook Pro (3:31).

Last, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon completed our 25GB file transfer test with an average transfer rate of 1,256.31 MBps, well behind the Asus’ 1,531.3 MBps and not anywhere close to the MacBook Pro’s leading 1,917.35 MBps.

To stress test productivity laptops, we run 10 loops of Cinebench 2026. The ThinkPad X1 Carbon scored 2,581 points in the first loop and stayed within the 2,500-to-2,600-point range for the remaining loops, demonstrating stable performance. The P-cores ran at an average clock of 3.73 GHz while the LPE-cores ran at 3.46 GHz.

Graphics on the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 14

We run 3DMark Steel Nomad to gauge raw graphics horsepower. Scoring 596 points, the Intel Graphics inside the ThinkPad X1 Carbon are adequate for basic use but little else. The Arc B390 integrated chip in the Asus’ Core Ultra X9 proved far more robust, leading the group with 1,483 points, followed by the MacBook Pro with 1,122 points.

Display on the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 14

Our ThinkPad X1 Carbon uses the 2880 x 1800 OLED panel, an upgrade over the base 1920 x 1200 IPS screen. It produces memorable visuals no matter what you’re viewing. In Dune: Part One, I noted the brilliant white sands of the desert and the inky depths of space. Disney’s Zootopia showed its deep, vibrant color that kept me watching longer than I intended. The anti-glare surface does a commendable job of reducing glare. This panel doesn’t support touch, but you can option touch versions of both the 1920 x 1200 IPS and OLED panels.

The ThinkPad X1 Carbon’s numbers leave little doubt that it has an excellent display. Its color coverage – 82% of DCI-P3 and 115% of sRGB – were within a percentage point of the MacBook’s, just shy of Asus’ 87% and 123%, and ahead of the Dell’s 71% and 101%. Its 473-nit peak brightness is impressive considering it uses an OLED panel, which are often close to or just shy of 400 nits.

Keyboard and Touchpad on the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 14

The ThinkPad X1 Carbon maintains Lenovo's standard for excellent input devices. The keyboard feels more cushioned than my older ThinkPad X13 yet still provides plenty of key travel for engaging feedback – my fingers intuitively knew when I reached the top and bottom of the keystroke. Keystrokes sound slightly rubbery, with less clack than my older ThinkPad, but still pleasant. The keyboard deck is rock solid and doesn't flex. Highly visible white backlighting makes typing in the dark a breeze.

The layout is highly intuitive, with an inverted-T arrow cluster, dedicated Home/Page Up/Page Down/End/Delete keys, and a programmable F12 shortcut key. The power button at top right is also a fingerprint reader. Classic ThinkPad users will notice Lenovo switched to the mainstream left Ctrl and Fn key arrangement, but they can be swapped in the Vantage app.

The ThinkPad X1 Carbon touchpad that we tested is mechanical, but a haptic version is available as a no-cost option on customized models. The pad's top-hinged design works reliably and delivers a firm, satisfying click. The three buttons above the pad couple with the classic TrackPoint pointing solution in the middle of the keyboard. ThinkPads are the only laptops that have them anymore.

Audio on the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 14

I listened to my test audio tracks multiple times on the ThinkPad X1 Carbon since the speakers sounded that good – who would have thought a business laptop could so easily double for entertainment?

In William Black & Luka's "Bleed 4 U", I heard crisp vocals, well-separated instruments, and detailed, impactful bass -- this setup didn't skip a beat or distort in any way when the drops hit.

The Atmos Detailed preset in the Dolby Access app (its default setting) evened out the soundstage for a clearer tone. I switched to the Detailed preset to sharpen the drum hits and vocals in a vinyl rip of "Shattered Dreams" by Johnny Hates Jazz, which also didn't show any distortion even at maximum volume. The realistic volume limit is around 80%, after which the setup doesn't get audibly louder. This setup is easily loud enough for personal listening.

Upgradeability of the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 14

User-upgradeable components in the ThinkPad X1 Carbon are limited to its M.2 2280 SSD and battery pack; models with WAN can also have that module upgraded. Access through the bottom panel is straightforward – four captive Philips-head screws loosen it, then the clips need to be popped along the back edge, which were snugger than I thought. Lenovo maintains an excellent hardware maintenance manual and even provides a video walkthrough on YouTube.

Lenovo advertised a 9/10 iFixIt score, citing that the keyboard, daughter I/O board, and USB-C ports are also customer replaceable.

Battery Life on the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 14

The ThinkPad X1 Carbon lasted 13 minutes and 10 seconds in our battery test, which consists of web browsing, running OpenGL tests, and streaming videos with the screen at 150 nits while connected to Wi-Fi.

Though not a leading time – the Zenbook Duo lasted 14:23 with one screen active while the MacBook Pro went for 18:14 – it’s still an impressive showing considering it uses an OLED panel. Dell’s XPS 14 lasted an astounding 20:41, but that’s with the IPS screen; equipped with an OLED screen and more powerful processor, it lasted only 12:23 (not shown in the charts), and that’s with a 70 Wh battery whereas the ThinkPad X1 Carbon’s is rated for just 58 Wh.

Heat on the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 14

During our 10-loop Cinebench 2026 stress test, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon's surface temperatures peaked at 72 degrees Fahrenheit on the touchpad, 94 degrees between the G and H keys, and 106 degrees on the underside. Internally, the Core Ultra 7 355 averaged 91 degrees Celsius across all cores.

Webcam on the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 14

This ThinkPad's 1440p webcam produces an impressively sharp and well-lit picture. I could make out the wood grain on a door about 10 feet away and even the individual hairs on my cat who was looking over my shoulder. Bright lights, like windows and lamps, were properly exposed, and didn't cause my person to be underexposed. The webcam includes an IR sensor for facial recognition and the security of a sliding privacy shutter.

Software and Warranty on the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 14

Lenovo’s main app is Commercial Vantage, a hub for support access, system updates, and user settings. Those settings include battery smart charging, OLED power settings (taskbar, background, and display dimming), Fn/Ctrl key swap, F12 user shortcut key configuration, and keyboard backlighting brightness. Some settings have moved out of this app into Windows Settings, such as presence detection and display color temperature.

Vantage also provides access to the Aura Edition’s special Smart Modes: Working, Gaming, Creating, Entertainment, Meeting, and Learning. The system automatically switches between the modes depending on the user’s activity. These modes are a combination of settings, some of which are or aren’t enabled for a given mode: auto-prompt VPN (launches a configured VPN client), attention timer (a time limit where notifications are silenced, with a default of 30 minutes), distracting domains (automatically blocks popular social media sites), Wi-Fi fencing (only connects to wireless networks that you designate “safe”), Dolby Audio (sets the mode to Voice, Movie, Music, and so on), and microphone noise canceling mode and listening range. If you move between different environments, like an office to a crowded café, you could tweak the settings and get some usefulness out of this, though I wouldn’t consider it an essential selling point.

As for other apps, Lenovo Smart Share lets you share content from your phone, such as photos, and assists connecting Bluetooth devices.

The ThinkPad X1 Carbon comes with a one-year minimum warranty with mail-in service, though preconfigured models often include three years with onsite coverage. Coverage and service plans are available up to five years with accidental damage protection.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 14 Configurations

We tested a midrange ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 14 Aura Edition with a Core Ultra 7 355 processor, Intel Graphics, 32GB of memory, a 512GB SSD, and a non-touch OLED display, retailing for $2,217.30.

The starting model is $2,032 at this writing, though Lenovo’s frequent sales can change the price. CPU options begin with the Core Ultra 5 335 and top out with the vPro-enabled Core Ultra 7 365. Models with the Core Ultra X7 are also supposed to be available but I didn’t see them on Lenovo’s site at the time of writing. Memory is available in 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB configurations depending on the processor. The base 1920 x 1200 IPS display can be upgraded to a 2880 x 1800 OLED panel, with either panel available with touch, though only OLED offers a 120 Hz refresh rate. A privacy screen option only comes in 1920 x 1200 display.

Bottom Line

Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 14 delivers everything that a flagship ultraportable should. Its featherweight chassis, best-in-class keyboard, vibrant OLED display, and competent everyday performance make it an ideal fit for professionals or prosumers who take their work with them. It even doubles as a surprisingly capable entertainment machine thanks to its impressive speakers.

While consumer rivals like Dell’s XPS 14 offer similar performance, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon remains the productivity go-to because of its superior keyboard, broader port selection, and enterprise-ready options like vPro and WAN availability. For those willing to accept a thicker and heavier machine and use macOS, Apple’s 14-inch MacBook Pro remains the performance benchmark in this category.

Overall, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 14 remains an impeccable blend of portability, polish, and practicality, a mix that earns it a place among our recommendations.

Qualcomm has steadily iterated on its Arm SoC efforts in the Windows space and made further gains with the launch of the Snapdragon X platform.

Now we’re seeing a wave of new systems using Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X2 series of Arm processors, and the HP OmniBook Ultra is the latest to take a bow. Our review unit is powered by a new flagship Snapdragon X2 Elite (X2E-90-100) SoC, paired with a generous 64GB of memory and a capacious 2TB SSD, and features an all-new chassis design.

The OmniBook Ultra proved to be a top contender in performance benchmarks and is a great all-around system, but about that price…

Design of the HP OmniBook Ultra 14

Our OmniBook Ultra 14 review unit arrived with an entirely new design language compared to the Ryzen AI 9 HX 375-equipped system that I tested in 2024. This year’s design features a more angular look and is finished in a color that HP calls “Stone Blue.” The edges of the forged aluminum-alloy chassis are highly polished to a mirror-like finish. It has a decidedly more upscale appearance compared to its predecessor, although the overall quality feels the same (which is to say, excellent).

Upon opening the OmniBook Ultra, you’ll notice “OmniBook Ultra” printed vertically along the forward right palm rest of the keyboard deck. “OmniBook” is printed on the chassis, while the Ultra is actually engraved with the same polished finish as the chassis edges. A massive 5.4 x 3.4-inch trackpad sits at the center of the deck, while the keyboard is directly above, with the keys finished in dark “stone blue” plastic. One thing of note: the fingerprint reader integrated into the power button on the 2024 model is missing this time around.

The 14-inch display has tiny bezels on the left and right, and thicker ones along the top and bottom. The bottom bezel also features “HP” branding in the middle. The display is covered with a glossy glass, which does wonders for improving image vibrancy but tends to increase reflections.

I complained about the fussy USB-A port on the previous-generation OmniBook Ultra, which was partially covered by a spring-loaded door. This time, HP just ditched the USB-A port entirely and replaced it with another USB-C port. As a result, the new OmniBook Ultra has a single USB-C port and a 3.5 mm jack on its left side, and two USB-C ports on its right side. None of the ports support Thunderbolt, although they do feature USB Power Delivery 3.1, DisplayPort 1.4, and a 40 Gbps signaling rate.

The OmniBook Ultra measures 12.25 x 8.49 x 0.42 inches and weighs 2.81 pounds. The Asus Zenbook A16 is just a hair heavier at 2.87 pounds, while the 13-inch MacBook Air is a smidge lighter (2.7 pounds). The previous generation OmniBook Ultra tips the scales at 3.4 pounds.

HP OmniBook Ultra 14 Specifications

Productivity Performance on the HP OmniBook Ultra 14

The OmniBook Ultra is among the first laptops we’ve tested to use the new Snapdragon X2 Elite SoC (up to 5.0 GHz clock speed, 18 cores), with the first being the Asus Zenbook A16. As we learned in our review of the ZenBook A16, the Snapdragon X2 Elite is a strong performer, and it’s made even more potent by the inclusion of 64GB of LPDDR5x-9523 in our review unit, paired with a 2TB PCIe 5.0 SSD.

The Snapdragon X2 Elite also includes an integrated Hexagon NPU, which delivers up to 85 TOPS of compute performance.

The OmniBook Ultra made a strong showing in the Geekbench 6 CPU benchmark, securing a single-core score of 3,942, putting it in second behind the MacBook Air with its M5 SoC (4,168). The ZenBook A16 wasn’t far behind with 3,807. Looking at multi-core performance, the ZenBook A16 jumped up in the lead with 22,733 compared to 20,075 for the new OmniBook Ultra. The new OmniBook Ultra was also well ahead of the Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 model (2,846 single-core, 14,838 multi-core).

HP has opted for a PCIe 5.0 SSD on the OmniBook Ultra, and our review unit came in at a healthy 2TB of capacity. The laptop dominated our 25GB file transfer test, delivering 2,620.91 MBps compared to 1,924.84 MBps for the second-place MacBook Air.

The Snapdragon X2 Elite in the OmniBook Ultra again flexed its muscle in our Handbrake test, which involves transcoding a 4K video file to 1080p. Here, the OmniBook Ultra completed the task in 2 minutes and 11 seconds, putting it just three seconds behind the ZenBook A16. Both the AMD-equipped UltraBook Ultra and the MacBook Air took well over 4 minutes to complete transcoding.

We run Cinebench 2024 through ten loops to stress-test ultrabooks. The first run delivered the highest score at 1,099. The subsequent runs fell short of that high mark, settling between 920 and 950 towards the end of the test. The 12 Prime cores averaged 4.03 GHz, while the 6 Performance cores averaged 3.05 GHz.

Display on the HP OmniBook Ultra 14

HP is using a 14-inch 2880 x 1800 display on the OmniBook Ultra, and it, like many in this segment, is an OLED panel. The panel has a 120 Hz refresh rate and a glossy finish. However, with the brightness cranked to the max, stray reflections were hardly noticeable.

I used the OmniBook Ultra to watch about half an hour of Marvel’s Thunderbolts on Disney Plus, and spent a good chunk of time watching the San Antonio Spurs blow the biggest lead in an NBA championship series via Sling TV. In both instances, the display looked great with accurate colors and excellent contrast.

In our testing, the OmniBook Ultra covered 87% of DCI-P3 and 122%of sRGB, placing it at the top of the rankings among the assembled laptops. Maximum brightness measured crested 400 nits, specifically hitting 414 nits. While impressive for an OLED display, the ZenBook A16 (429.4 nits) and MacBook Air (458.8 nits) were brighter still.

The display on the OmniBook Ultra is multi-touch-capable, and I had no trouble navigating the Windows interface or using swiping gestures. However, reaching out to touch the screen isn't a natural movement for me, and it isn’t very ergonomic. I was perfectly fine using the humongous trackpad.

Keyboard and Touchpad on the HP OmniBook Ultra 14

The OmniBook's keyboard is full-size and backlit, and the lattice-free keys themselves felt good under my fingers. There’s no clickiness to the keys, and you’ll hear a gentle, low “thud” as you type along. There’s plenty of key travel, and I was comfortable typing on the keyboard for an extended period of time. My only complaint concerns the half-height up and down arrows squeezed between the full-size left and right arrows.

Using my trusty keyhero.com typing benchmark tool, I managed 87 words per minute with 97 percent accuracy. This was roughly equivalent to what I scored with the keyboard on the previous-generation model.

Complementing the keyboard is a haptic touchpad measuring a large 5.4 x 3.4 inches. It’s a haptic touchpad that provides a satisfying “click” no matter where you press on its surface. While some top-hinged touchpads require additional force to register a click as you move towards the top of the mousing surface, there are no such limitations on the OmniBook Ultra.

Audio on the HP OmniBook Ultra 14

The OmniBook Ultra 14 features quad downward-firing speakers on the underside near the front of the chassis. The speakers sounded excellent, with little to no distortion at higher volume levels (80% and higher), and were loud enough to fill my home office.

I played a wide variety of music, ranging from Steve Wonder’s keyboard-heavy and soft vocals on Superwoman from 1972 to the ear-splitting screaming and electric guitars of Linkin Park’s Lying from You, from the band's early 2000’s sophomore album.

Interestingly, no sound utilities are installed by default to tune the speakers further.

Upgradeability of the HP OmniBook Ultra 14

Hopping inside the OmniBook Ultra is incredibly easy – there are only four screws to remove from the bottom panel, which is at least half as many as you’ll typically find on a thin laptop.

Once the bottom panel is removed, there’s not much that’s replaceable. The battery is at least easily accessible, with four screws securing it and one cable connecting it to the motherboard. You also have access to the PCIe 5.0 SSD, which sits beneath a heat shield. That’s about it when it comes to upgrades for the OmniBook Ultra.

Battery Life on the HP OmniBook Ultra 14

Our OmniBook Ultra 14 review unit came powered by a 70 WHr battery, which is topped off using a 65-watt GaN USB-C charger. Our battery life test includes web browsing, video streaming, and WebGL tests, with the display set to 150 nits.

We were able to extract 13 hours and 27 minutes out of the OmniBook Ultra, exceeding the runtime of the ZenBook A16 with the same Snapdragon X2 Elite chip by 3 hours. It also outlasted its predecessor by over half an hour. The only laptop that stood in its way was the MacBook Air, which lasted an impressive 15 hours and 28 minutes.

Heat on the HP OmniBook Ultra 14

Heat output on the OmniBook Ultra was measured while running our Cinebench 2024 stress test. The keyboard measured around 95 degrees Fahrenheit between the G and H keys, while the hottest part of the laptop was the bottom rear near the exhaust vents, at 118 F.

The touchpad stayed cool to the touch at 77 degrees, the ambient temperature in the room at the time.

While we usually mention CPU temperatures in this section, HWInfo, in its current iteration, does not provide the specific values we need for reporting.

Webcam on the HP OmniBook Ultra 14

HP has included a 5MP webcam on the OmniBook Ultra, which has IR capabilities to support Windows Hello biometric authentication. Like the previous generation, the image quality was decent, but not segment-leading.

My face and shirt looked slightly blurry, and my skin tones were "off." This performance would be passable for a laptop costing in the $1,000 to $1,500 range. But for a laptop with an MSRP of nearly $2,900, it's a tough pill to swallow. The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition I recently tested, with an MSRP of $1,700, had a far better onboard webcam.

Software and Warranty on the HP OmniBook Ultra 14

HP loads plenty of its own utilities on the OmniBook Ultra, which seems a bit excessive. There’s an HP app that provides limited system information and access to HP’s online store to purchase accessories. There’s also HP Documentation, HP Energy Star (lets you purchase Energy Star-compliant appliances… why?), HP Privacy Settings, HP System Event Utility, and HP TV+. Finally, there’s Find My HP by Absolute, which allows you to track/locate, remote lock, and remote wipe your laptop.

And of course, there’s also the usual Windows bloat in the form of app links to Booking.com, Dropbox, and various other services. And we can’t forget McAfee, which is always an instant delete when I set up a new PC for friends and family.

The OmniBook Ultra comes with a 1-year manufacturer's warranty.

HP OmniBook Ultra 14 Configurations

There are several prebuilt versions of the OmniBook Ultra with Snapdragon X2 Series chips, the cheapest starting at $1,249.99. It features a Snapdragon X2 Plus processor, a 512GB PCIe 5.0 SSD, 16GB of RAM, and a 14-inch 1920 x 1200 OLED display.

The next prebuilt system comes with a Snapdragon X2 Elite processor, 32GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD, and a 2880 x 1800, 120 Hz OLED display for $2,399. For an extra $300, you get the same specs with a 2TB SSD.

Finally, our review configuration can only be obtained through the “Customize and Buy” option, which gives you a wide pricing range to play with. It has the Snapdragon X2 Elite processor, 64GB of RAM, a 2TB SSD, and a 2880 x 1800 OLED display, priced at $2,879.99.

Bottom Line

HP has built a solid foundation with the OmniBook Ultra and the Snapdragon X2 Elite SoC. Our review unit came fully loaded, with 64GB of memory and a capacious 2TB SSD. The ultrabook excelled in our productivity benchmarks, including a stellar run on our storage test. In addition, its battery endurance was only topped by the 13-inch MacBook Air. The laptop also has a beautiful 120 Hz 3K OLED panel and comes standard with a Wi-Fi 7 radio.

On the other hand, the biggest knock against our particular unit is the price: nearly $2,900 is a tough pill to swallow for an ultrabook, primarily due to its lofty memory and storage configurations. However, if you go light on options, you can dramatically lower that price. If you go light on the options, you can opt for a Snapdragon X2 Elite chip, 32GB of RAM, 512GB SSD, and a 3K OLED display for $1,719.99, or add a 1TB SSD for an additional $120.

At that price, the OmniBook Ultra makes a lot more sense and would help us overlook the lack of Thunderbolt ports and the so-so webcam.

Gaming laptops are harder and harder to find at good prices thanks to the ongoing AI component crisis, but this HP Omen Max discount in honor of July 4 is pretty excellent. Right now at HP, you can save $1,300 on this Omen Max 16-inch beast with an RTX 5080, Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX, 32GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD.

● Check out this HP laptop deal

The headline spec on this laptop is the RTX 5080 GPU. Even though it's only the mobile version, it still packs 16GB of VRAM and 7,680 CUDA cores, which should make light work of pretty much every title at the 2560 x 1600 resolution you'll be playing.

While we haven't reviewed this exact spec, the Omen Max 16 with RTX 5090 scored well in our HP Omen Max 16 laptop review. It is a little on the heavy side, but the aluminum enclosure gives it a premium look and feel. As you can see from our Geekbench testing, productivity performance beats out rivals with the same CPU in both single- and multi-core testing. That CPU is Intel's Core Ultra 9 275HX, a capable 24-core processor with 8 performance cores and boost clocks of up to 5.4GHz.

The display here is IPS rather than OLED, but you'll still get up to 240Hz refresh rates and 500 nits of brightness.

Other noteworthy features include 32GB of RAM, which is becoming increasingly rare in this economy due to the impact of AI on PC components. The 1TB SSD is Gen 4, so it should be plenty quick enough for gaming and workloads. You also get speedy Ethernet and Wi-Fi 7, as well as two USB-A ports, HDMI 2.1, and a 3.5 mm headphone jack.

For your troubles, you'll also get a copy of the new LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight, a nice addition to any Steam library. As mentioned, this 34% discount is part of HP's July 4th sale, so there's no guarantee as to how long this deal will last. If you're interested, act sooner rather than later.

If you're looking for more savings, check out our Best PC Hardware deals for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals, Hard Drive Deals, Gaming Monitor Deals, Graphics Card Deals, Gaming Chair, Best Wi-Fi Routers, Best Motherboard, or CPU Deals pages.

With no new GPUs or major mobile CPU platform launches surrounding the show, the laptop announcements at Computex this year fell into two disparate categories, appealing to users with very different budgets. There were devices trying to compete with the MacBook Neo, like Dell’s attractive XPS 13 ($599 to start, with a limited-time student discount) and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon C platform, which promises laptops as low as $300 (we saw it in person in the as-yet-unpriced Acer Aspire Go 15). Both of those, like Apple’s competing Neo, will start with just 8GB of RAM (actually, Acer says “up to 8GB”), thanks to the ongoing AI-driven memory crisis.

On the opposite end of the Computex laptop spectrum, there was, of course, Nvidia’s long-anticipated Windows-on-Arm announcement: RTX Spark Superchip for laptops (formerly N1X), which pairs a 20-core Arm CPU with 6,144 CUDA cores. And since Nvidia and its partners (both laptop makers and Microsoft) are pitching RTX Spark as the agentic computing platform of the future, Spark laptops get all the RAM that portable, local AI PCs could ask for – up to 128GB of LPDDR5X.

The specs sound impressive, but let’s just say I am curious to see how Microsoft and Nvidia’s partnership will implement local agents into Windows 11 in the coming months, and how much useful and intuitive functionality will exist specifically for RTX Spark laptops by the time they actually launch. It’s not like Microsoft has the best track record when it comes to Copilot features, both in Windows and elsewhere. At Build, Microsoft focused on running OpenClaw in Windows with execution containers that create boundaries, such as certain files or programs.

And while we don’t yet know pricing for the RTX Spark laptops, with similarly configured DGX Spark desktops selling for close to $5,000, it’s a safe bet that high-end RTX Spark laptops are going to be well out of the price range of most consumers – although lesser versions based on N1 silicon (and with far less RAM) may slip below the $2,000 mark. While gaming performance on top-end Spark laptops is expected to be roughly similar to an RTX 5070, I suspect pricing will make the platform a tough sell for those primarily interested in gaming, just as it is for AMD’s Strix Halo – and AMD’s x86 silicon doesn’t have the gaming complications that Spark’s Arm CPU will have to navigate.

So it feels like AI developers (and I suppose well-heeled AI tinkerers) will be the primary early adopters of RTX Spark laptops when they begin shipping (this fall, according to Nvidia). By then, we’ll also likely know more about both Qualcomm’s Snapdragon C SoC and Dell’s Intel Wildcat Lake-powered XPS 13 (including how much it will cost to configure it above the baseline 8GB of RAM or with a Panther Lake processor). But as limiting and backward-looking as an 8GB laptop may be in 2026, so far I find these more traditional, more affordable laptops more interesting than RTX Spark – in part because while I don’t know exactly how they will perform, I do know generally what I will and won’t be able to do with them when they arrive.

And given how expensive seemingly everything is these days, it’s nice to see a few companies focused on making things look and feel nice while remaining relatively affordable. It may have taken a big push from Apple and its MacBook Neo. But if Windows wants to remain relevant as a platform, it needs both forward-looking options like RTX Spark and affordable options that still look and feel great, like Dell’s XPS 13. I just wish the latter could happen with more RAM than the laptop I bought in early 2019.

Microsoft is further shrinking its Surface lineup of flagship Windows devices. According to a report from Windows Central, citing "sources that are familiar with Microsoft's hardware roadmap," the company is no longer manufacturing its budget-focused Surface Go 4 and Surface Laptop Go 3, and doesn't plan to follow them up with new devices.

Over the last few years, Microsoft has discontinued many of its most interesting designs, including the powerhouse Surface Laptop Studio, the Surface Studio desktop, Surface Headphones and Earbuds, the Surface Book, and the Surface Duo smartphone. The entire line has been simplified down to the Surface Pro and Surface Laptop, with the Surface Laptop Ultra coming later this year with Nvidia's RTX Spark. (Microsoft's RTX Spark Dev Box is also Surface-branded, but isn't consumer-facing).

But the Surface Pro and Surface Laptop each come in more sizes than ever. The Surface Pro comes in 12- and 13-inch sizes. That 12-incher, starting at $849 with Snapdragon X Plus, could arguably be a replacement for the Surface Go, except that it's far more expensive than the Surface Go 4 was priced at $579. On the Laptop side, there are 13-, 13.8-, and 15-inch systems, with the smallest using the same chip at $949.99 that could be considered the entry-level option.

It's possible that you may find these systems in stock at some retailers, but they're hard to find. The Surface Go 4's last iteration was only ever part of Microsoft's Surface for Business line and was seemingly popular with commercial customers that needed a device for fieldwork.

Microsoft didn't immediately return Tom's Hardware's request for comment. A representative pointed Windows Central to Microsoft's Surface website, which doesn't list either the Surface Go or Surface Laptop Go, but just a simplified lineup of the Surface Laptop, Surface Pro, and upcoming Surface Laptop Ultra and the Dev Box.

Windows Central's sources suggested that the decision to end these device lines was made prior to memory price hikes due to component shortages. Either way, with just two main device lines, Surface, which used to be a playground for form factors under former head Panos Panay, has been extremely simplified and far less experimental —if you could call it that at all.

With ongoing inflation in PC component prices, investing in a gaming laptop can be a wise choice to avoid the rising cost of building a desktop PC from scratch. Additionally, it is portable, allowing you to game, work, or study anywhere without sacrificing much on performance. A standout laptop deal we've spotted is the Gigabyte Aero X16, now available for its lowest-ever price of $1,099.99 at Best Buy. The laptop is originally priced at $1,399.99, so you save $300.

• Check out this deal on Best Buy

The Gigabyte Aero X16 features an AMD Ryzen AI 7 350, an 8-core, 16-thread processor that can boost up to 5 GHz, paired with 32GB of DDR5 RAM and a 1TB PCIe Gen 4.0 SSD for storage. One can upgrade the RAM up to 64GB, and there is a secondary M.2 slot to add more storage. For graphics, the laptop comes with an Nvidia RTX 5060 with 8GB of VRAM. The laptop sports a 16-inch IPS screen with a resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels, offering 100% sRGB color gamut coverage and up to 400 nits of brightness. It also supports refresh rates of up to 165 Hz and a 3 ms response time for a fast, responsive visual experience.

The laptop also comes with a single-zone RGB-backlit keyboard, a 1080p webcam with Windows Hello support, and built-in Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2. I/O options include two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type A ports, a USB 4.0 Type-C port, a USB 2.0 Type-A port, a 3.5mm headphone and mic combo jack, and an Ethernet port. There’s also built-in Wi-Fi 6E along with Bluetooth 5.2. The battery has a capacity of 76 Wh, and the charging brick is rated at 150W.

Overall, the Gigabyte Aero X16 is a well-rounded gaming laptop that balances performance, modern features, and upgrade potential, making it a compelling choice at its current discounted price of $1,099.99. Do note that the deal is only valid until June 29, so you'd better hurry before stocks run out.

If you're looking for more savings, check out our Best PC Hardware deals for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals, Hard Drive Deals, Gaming Monitor Deals, Graphics Card Deals, gaming chair, or CPU Deals pages.