Need a new laptop but haven’t quite kept up with all the latest product releases? Well, we’ve got you covered – this guide profiles our top 10 picks on the market today in a variety of categories, from basic home use to work on the go to pro-level gaming.

For Summer 2021, nearly every one of our top 10 picks is new, which goes to show how truly dynamic the laptop market is right now. That’s in part due to a massive competition between Intel and AMD, each vying for dominance in the laptop processor market like never before. Translation: consumers win with every new CPU released! And that’s why you need this guide – so you don’t get stuck with last year’s also-ran!!!

There truly is a great laptop for everyone on this list, but that doesn’t mean everyone needs the same thing. That’s why we have budget choices for families and students, ultra-light choices for serious travelers, and of course, gaming laptops, all of which are equipped with Nvidia’s latest RTX 3000-series GPUs. Anything less would be a mistake!

Now, let’s make something very clear: we’ve drawn a firm line on minimum specs to make sure our readers enjoy their new laptops for years to come. In short, while there are plenty of Windows laptops being peddled by the biggest manufacturers with 4GB of RAM or a mechanical hard drive, they’re complete junk, period. Don’t touch them. You will have a bad user experience, and we don’t want that to happen! The one exception we make in terms of the RAM limit is for Chromebooks, which work fine on 4GB given their simpler operating system.

As noted, Intel and AMD are now competing hard for the attention of laptop buyers, and we’ve incorporated the best from both companies in our selections. Notably, Intel has had to work overtime to keep up with a resurgent AMD, releasing multiple laptop CPU lines in quick succession. Today, you should focus on buying Intel’s 11th-Gen Core chips, which are far superior to any of the 10th-Gen chips that debuted in 2020. Things are really changing that fast! AMD’s best options come from the 5000 series, and within a few short months, AMD has scored a huge number of design wins, i.e., you can actually find its Ryzen 5000 series CPUs in laptops available right now!

As always, to help support continued development of this guide, please use the Amazon and Newegg links we provide. Our Amazon links will will auto-convert for readers in Canada, the UK, and parts of the EU, with automatic substitutions made where necessary based on regional variations.