Best laptop 2021: 19 laptops for every budget

　　Huawei MateBook X Pro (2021)

　　A solid productivity laptop selector uk with stand-out looks

　　The Huawei MateBook X Pro (£1,488) is a remarkable ‘nearly’ device. In many ways, it gets a ton of things right, whether it’s up against the Dell XPS 13 or MacBook Air M1. The design and display are particular standouts. However, some performance and hardware decisions – as well as the constant looming spectre of lower-priced rivals from AMD – hold this laptop back from greatness.

　　If you are considering this laptop then you simply must go for the Emerald Green colour – over the more generic Space Grey. When this colour was introduced a couple of models ago, it turned heads and it's as stunning as ever. The colour – a rich dark green with a golden Huawei logo to top it off – wows in its own right but the way the green MateBook X Pro stands out amongst silver, black and grey while still looking stylish and high-end is hugely impressive. This laptop breaks from the norm and is immensely better for it.

　　This laptop’s looks only enhance when you open it up and power it on – with a gorgeous 3,000x2,000 resolution display and a sheet of glass that covers this panel from edge to edge. Unfortunately, the slim bezels leave no room for a webcam here – which is once again awkwardly positioned to pop up from the keyboard. The screen may not hit the OLED heights offered by the best movie-watching laptops on the market like the HP Spectre x360 14 but it more than competes on brightness and accuracy with the market-leading Dell XPS 13. As well as looking great, the resolution equates to a 3:2 aspect ratio, like the Microsoft Surface Laptop, making this a great machine for getting extra words on the display when writing essays, reading articles and other productivity tasks.

　　Productivity is exactly what this machine is for, and with the only UK model coming with an 11th Gen Intel Core i7 processor and 16GB RAM, it tackles this challenge with ease. You can run well beyond 10 browser tabs with ease and feel free to open music, office and video conferencing apps alongside with nary a worry. Don’t expect to venture beyond this into creative work, however. The Intel Iris Xe graphics onboard here do provide an assist by enabling some basic gaming capabilities – think Fortnite (on low settings) or Rocket League – and you can achieve some very light video editing too.

　　And, this is where Huawei may have shot itself in the foot. You can pick up the Huawei MateBook 14 – a less flashy machine – with a six or eight-core AMD H-series processor. This laptop offers performance capabilities that slightly bypass the MateBook X Pro 2021 in many areas but it costs between £700 and £950 cheaper. There are disadvantages like a less exciting design and display but the price difference is astonishing.

　　Elsewhere, Huawei’s flagship laptop solidly hits the tier of ultrabooks just below the Dell XPS 13 and MacBook Air M1 – sitting offerings from Razer, HP and LG. This is apparent with its speakers – almost achieving strong quality all around but the bass is fairly weak – and its keyboard – the keys respond well to a light touch but the feedback amounts to a low travel thunk and it can lead to some typing fatigue. The MateBook X Pro does beat many rivals on battery life, achieving over 10 hours and that’s despite donning the high resolution 3,000x2,000 display.

　　The Huawei MateBook X Pro 2021 is both an exciting and frustrating device – representing luxurious and eye-catching design along with a crisp display while also representing touch-to-justify value with only one high priced model on offer and a rival within its own brand (Huawei MateBook 14) looking like a smarter pick for most.

　　Pros: Gorgeous screen; green model is stunning; decent for productivity; impressive battery life

　　Cons: MateBook 14 offers better value; awkward webcam; underperforms against rivals; very shallow keyboard and trackpad

　　Price: £1,488 | Check price on Amazon | Huawei

　　Asus Chromebook Flip C434

　　Our favourite Chromebook is a genuine Windows replacement

　　With an aluminium shell, a bright, sharp 1080p touchscreen and a solid range of specifications, Asus' Chromebook Flip C434 (£450) looks and performs like a laptop twice the price. In fact, it's our pick for best Chromebook over Google's high-end Pixelbook.

　　Aside from the plasticky trackpad - we'd prefer textured glass, to be perfectly honest - it's difficult to find fault with the Flip C434, so-called for its 360-degree hinge. There's no stylus to use it in touchscreen mode, though.

　　Otherwise, it's all rather pleasing. It's an Intel generation ahead - for now - of the Pixelbook and performance is very reliable, plus there's two USB-C ports, one full-size USB and a microSD slot, which is all very handy. The keyboard, too, is deep enough and responsive. Sure, you can't forget this is still a Chromebook but for browsing and productivity apps, this works nicely, plus there's Android apps or games too if you insist.

　　Pros: Well specced; aluminium body; cheaper than Pixelbook

　　Cons: Trackpad is plastic; no stylus (as on some rivals)

　　Price: From £450 | Check price on Amazon | Argos | Currys

　　Apple MacBook Pro (M1)

　　Great for battery life and sustained performance

　　The new MacBook Pro M1 (from £1,168) is a device that has some awkward market positioning – being trumped by its lower power, fanless and cheaper counterpart, the M1 MacBook Air (above), upon its reveal and also not being powerful enough to accommodate power users who currently use Intel-powered 16-inch MacBook Pros. However, for those that find the new 13-inch MacBook Pro does fit their needs, you won’t be disappointed.

　　Like the new Air, it’s the new M1 Apple Silicon chip that defines this device – offering blistering productivity performance and surprisingly good battery life. The MacBook Pro takes these features slightly further than its fanless equivalent though.

　　Sporting fans means that the Pro version can sustain high performance for longer, allowing you to push this laptop that bit more. There’s a battery life boost too, to give you that extra bit of encouragement to fork out the extra cash – up to 17 hours for the Pro compared to up to 15 hours on the Air. The slight upgrades are rounded out with a brighter screen and improved speakers. Neither are startling but this quartet of added features could be worth it for you.

　　For those looking beyond productivity, this device may stretch the credulity of the “Pro” label but it can tackle some basic graphical tasks with ease – especially in M1 optimised apps. Our testing in HandBrake saw the MacBook Pro finish in 85-90 per cent of the time the MacBook Air took, with this test finally seeing the fans springing into action.

　　A lack of graphical oomph will likely lead many to wait for an upgraded 16-inch model or rumoured 14-inch revamp but there are a couple of other reasons that provide pause for thought too. Despite the M1 revamp, the design does remain the same and even some software tweaks to the webcam don’t save its admittedly poor quality. The limited selection of ports – just two Thunderbolt 3 USB-C ports – won’t be enough for many too.

　　Nevertheless, the MacBook Pro represents the best Apple ultrabook you can get right now. You may not get the graphical horsepower of the 16-inch and, to many, it may feel like overkill compared to the new stellar M1 MacBook Air but, if you’re a productivity power user who wants immense battery life and stunning tasking performance, the Pro should be on your radar.

　　Pros: Speedy performance; remarkable battery life; rarely active fan

　　Cons: Webcam still not great; same old design

　　Price: From £1,168 | Check price on Amazon | John Lewis | Apple

　　Razer Book 13

　　A minimalist alternative to the Dell XPS

　　Razer announced its new productivity laptop without much fanfare, an interesting proposition but a departure from what its regular fans might be interested in. However, the Razer Book 13 (from £933) is undoubtedly worthy of praise – specifically for its modern and minimalist design.

　　With the new Razer productivity machine, you get all the performance you’d expect from an ultrabook in 2021 – providing a comparable experience to the Dell XPS 13, HP Spectre x360 13 and more. Delightfully, the Razer Book 13 also gets a 16:10 display, making for a screen that’s even better for day-to-day work and browsing the web. Like its Dell equivalent, the display pushes very close to the edge of the laptop – and it looks stunning.

　　The aspect ratio helps this refreshingly portable 13-inch device still provide ample room for working and multitasking. On top of performance and the display, productivity is greatly enhanced by one of the best keyboards we've used recently. The keyboard is clicky but, most notably, provides a decent amount of feedback that’s rarely felt on a laptop of this size. The trackpad is equally good, providing accurate and impactful clicks from corner to corner, even if it is a tad small.

　　What prevents the Razer Book 13 from reaching greatness with its freshman iteration is how it is cooled. The Razer Book 13 gets surprisingly warm on its underside, even without pushing its performance capabilities, and the fans also seem to get going far earlier than you’d expect.

　　Nevertheless, this laptop is a stunning first try from Razer and it’s the best-looking ultrabook you can buy right now. The second version of this laptop could very well reach the top of this list; that's how much we like it.

　　Pros: Best-in-class design; remarkable thin bezels; comfortable keyboard

　　Cons: Can get a bit warm; awkward key placement

　　Price: From £933 | Check price on Amazon | eBuyer | Razer

　　How much should I spend on a laptop?

　　Given the massive variety of laptops on offer today and the wide range of prices, there’s no one answer to this. A key question you should ask yourself is: what will I use this laptop for? The answer will then determine your price bracket.

　　If browsing the web with only a tab or two open or just working in a document while doing nothing else is more your speed, you can expect to pay between £150 and £400 depending on the quality of hardware you’d like.

　　If you think your workload is a step up from that, upwards of 5 browser tabs and you like running a Spotify or a Netflix while working or browsing, your price range will be between £300 and £800.

　　Above that, you’re looking at ultrabooks which offer the ability to multi-task across 3 or 4 programs and can run upwards of 15-20 browser tabs – along with stylish hardware and the ability for some light gaming and creative work. These set you back between £800 and £1,800.

　　You might require a laptop with a powerful graphics card if you want to play the latest games or are a creative professional. There’s a ton of options in this category alone, with some costing as low as £600 and others soaring above £2,000. For this category, check out our best gaming laptops guide.

　　AMD or Intel - what processor should I go for?

　　In short, don’t rule out either processor manufacturer. AMD has had a blistering couple of years, often competing with Intel on performance while offering a lower price – particularly when it comes to budget laptops and reasonably-priced gaming laptops. AMD has also pushed Intel on high-end performance when it comes to the very top gaming laptops as well as enabling innovative 14-inch devices like the Razer Blade 14 and Asus ROG Zephyrus G14.

　　Nevertheless, Intel still pips AMD in some areas when it comes to truly boundary-pushing performance while it's also more widely used across laptop manufacturers – though this is steadily changing.

　　To attempt to provide a short answer once again, you’ll often find tremendous value for money with AMD but the right machine for you could be an Intel and it shouldn’t be ignored.

　　How much RAM should I get in 2021?

　　For most people, 8GB RAM is the sweet spot – it’ll either give you the ability to multi-task on a productivity machine or provide enough headroom for some AAA gaming, with the caveat it needs to be combined with an appropriate processor and graphics card.

　　If you have some intense productivity needs, spend a lot of time gaming with a mid to high-end graphics card or simply want to future proof your device, it’s worth going for 16GB RAM. Then, you could potentially look beyond – 32GB and above – if you’re pushing boundaries with intense creative loads like professional video editing or at the very high-end of portable gaming.

　　At the other end of the scale, if you’re a productivity user who doesn’t need to multi-task all that much, you can get by on 4GB RAM – especially if you opt for a Chromebook.

　　How much battery life should I get in 2021?

　　Battery life varies greatly depending on the size of your laptop and how powerful it is along with a whole host of other factors. For most people, you should look to pick up a laptop that’s touted as offering no less than 7 hours battery life. This is a bare minimum and reflects an industry quite focused on offering improved battery life. Most laptops will offer upwards of 9 and you should get one of these if you can.

　　A battery life above 7 hours should be expected for most productivity-focused laptops and, even, gaming laptops when using for regular tasks. Gaming will drain batteries much faster and power is also limited when not plugged into a wall outlet. Further, if you are paying more than £800 for a laptop, with the options on offer, you should aim to get above 11 hours as this can certainly be found on a number of devices.

Best laptop 2021: 19 laptops for every budget | WIRED UK

Leave a Reply Cancel reply