The Best Laptop Buyer’s Guide – Spring 2021
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 Spring 2021, the laptop market is more dynamic than ever, with new models coming out at an incredible pace. And the main driver here is that Intel and AMD are vying for dominance in the laptop processor market like never before, which means 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.
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 4000 and 5000 series, but despite how great these chips are, laptop manufacturers are still being a bit slow to incorporate them into their product lines. Luckily we found a few great ones for your consideration!
As always, to help support continued development of this guide, please use the Amazon links we provide, which will auto-convert for readers in Canada, the UK, and parts of the EU, with automatic substitutions made where necessary based on regional variations.
Laptops – Spring 2021
Home/Small Office
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The Touchscreen Chromebook –HP Chromebook X360
$298The Guru’s TipChromebooks have taken on a huge new life as so many people find themselves (and their kids) at home. Chromebooks are truly the perfect tool for at-home learning. The one concern we have is that they’ve become so popular that no-name models often sell for more than much more powerful Windows-based PCs. That’s why we strongly recommend the HP x360, which is far and away the best Chromebook you can buy for a reasonable price. It has a feature that is simply critical from our point of view: a touchscreen. We simply can’t believe so many Chromebooks are sold without one given the OS they are running comes from a smartphone! Also onboard are an Intel Celeron N4000 processor, 4GB of RAM, and a 32GB solid-state drive. You even get full 360-degree flip functionality with this Chromebook, another reason it is head-and-shoulders above all the similarly-priced competition!Fun fact: Chrome OS is now the second most popular operating system in the world, behind Windows 10 and ahead of macOS!
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The Budget Laptop –ASUS F512JA-AS34 VivoBook 15
$380The Guru’s TipPowering this great family PC is the Intel Core i3-1005G1 dual-core processor with boost to 3.4GHz, which is more than powerful enough for any typical home computing task. Most importantly, unlike any other laptop under $400, it comes equipped with both a full 8GB of RAM (which we now consider the minimum for modern PCs), along with a 128GB solid-state drive (an SSD is another absolute requirement). It also features a big, high-resolution 15.6″ 1920 x 1080 display, and yet still comes in at a back-friendly 3.75 pounds. Wow, this is a serious winner!Note that this laptop ships with Windows 10 in "S" mode, which basically means you have to buy all your apps through the Microsoft Store. That restriction can luckily be bypassed in the system setting simply by switching to standard Windows 10 mode.
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The Home Office Laptop –HP 15-dy2021nr
$600The Guru’s TipIf you want the perfect work-from-home laptop at a great price, go with the HP 15. It packs in an Intel Core i5-1135G7 quad-core CPU, 8GB of RAM, a 256GB NVMe solid-state drive (NVMe means fast!), and a 15.6” 1080p screen. And graphics and video conferencing will be super-smooth thanks to the advanced next-gen Intel Xe graphics onboard.This model comes in at just 3.75lb, a far cry from the heavy bricks of old!
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The Convertible Ultralight –ASUS ZenBook Flip 13
$900The Guru’s TipIf you simply want the lightest, most versatile laptop you can buy for under $1000, you want the Zenbook Flip S from Asus. The Zenbook line is the gold standard for well-designed, well-priced ultra-lights. This model packs in a powerful Intel Core i5-1135G7 quad-core processor with Turbo Boost to 4.2GHz and Iris Xe graphics, a 13.3″ 1920×1080 OLED touchscreen, 8GB of DDR4 memory, and a 512GB PCIe-based solid-state drive. And it’s just 2.87lb despite offering a 360-degree hinge and full table functionality!This model also has a stylus pen included in the box!
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The Extreme Ultralight –LG Gram 14Z90P (2021)
$1500The Guru’s TipIf the Asus Zenbook is the gold standard for ultra-lights, the LG Gram is the gold standard for super-ultra lights, and it’s what we personally use here at TBG for our business travel! While the rest of the PC industry plods on with 2.5-3lb. laptops, LG has been blazing a trail with its Gram line of sub-1kg laptops. The latest LG Gram 14 offers a 14″ 1920 x 1200 screen for enhanced productivity versus standard 1080p screens, Intel’s next-gen Core i7-1165G7 quad-core CPU with Turbo up to 4.7GHz, and Intel’s latest Xe graphics chip. Also on board are 16GB of RAM, a 512GB NVMe solid-state drive, and an absolutely-massive 80Wh battery that provides a simply astounding 25.5 hours of battery life. All this and the Gram is just 2.2 pounds, which is mind-blowing given its awesome specs. Don’t think it’s worth paying more to drop nearly a half pound in weight versus competing laptops? You’ll think again once you tote this featherweight laptop on your shoulder during a day of traveling!A few other notable features that make the Gram the perfect travel companion: a backlit keyboard, a microSD card memory slot, a full-size HDMI port, two full-size USB 3.0 Type-A ports plus dual Thunderbolt 4 Type-C ports for truly next-gen connectivity options!
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The Premium Convertible –ASUS ZenBook Flip S Ultra
$1550The Guru’s TipDo you want it all? Then go for the Flip S Ultra! It gives you a gorgeous 13.3” 4K OLED touchscreen with 360-degree hinge, an Intel Core i7-1165G7 CPU with built-in Iris Xe graphics, 16GB RAM, a 1TB PCIe solid-state drive, dual Thunderbolt 4 ports, and Windows 10 Pro. Also included is a stylus pen and a numberpad built into the touchpad. And to make sure it stands out in a crowd, Asus has given this model a black finish with red copper diamond-cut edges!At just 0.55" thin and 2.87 pounds, this laptop is incredibly portable, and yet still offers up to 15 hours of battery life.
Gaming
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The Budget Gaming Laptop –Lenovo Legion 5
$1000 The Guru’s TipDon't be afraid of going with an AMD CPU - the 4800H absolutely decimates anything you would have found from Intel at this pricepoint last year!
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The Midrange Gaming Laptop –ASUS TUF506IV-AS76
$1200 The Guru’s TipThe 4800H processor is around 50% more powerful than the Core i7-10750H that laptops in this price range featured last year!
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The High-End Gaming Laptop –Gigabyte Aorus 15G XC-8US2430SH
$1800 The Guru’s TipThe 10870H is roughly on par with AMD's Ryzen 7 4800H. The Intel chip can pull ahead in lightly-threaded tasks, while the AMD chip is better for heavily-threaded content. Overall, the Intel chip is superior for gaming.
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The Ultimate Gaming Laptop –ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15 GA503QS
$2800 The Guru’s TipAll this and the laptop weight a mind-blowing 4.2 pounds. A few years ago this would have qualified it as a thin-and-light work laptop!
Home/Small Office
- The Touchscreen Chromebook – HP Chromebook X360 ($298)
- The Budget Laptop – ASUS F512JA-AS34 VivoBook 15 ($380)
- The Home Office Laptop – HP 15-dy2021nr ($600)
- The Convertible Ultralight – ASUS ZenBook Flip 13 ($900)
- The Extreme Ultralight – LG Gram 14Z90P (2021) ($1500)
- The Premium Convertible – ASUS ZenBook Flip S Ultra ($1550)