we often get asked Which laptop brand is the best to buy what a question some laptop brands are better than others but sometimes the answer is it depends on what’s important to you some Brands excel in design others excel in value so today I thought we’re going to have some fun and we’re going to rate each laptop brand on five categories how Innovative are their products how stylish do they look what is their overall quality of their laptops in terms of their build and the components used how good is their support and how competitive is their pricing we’re going to sum up the scores and at the end declare an overall winner now this is based on the 300 plus laptops that we’ve reviewed stating the obvious we haven’t reviewed every single laptop I’m sorry why I’m bringing this up though is that this is a general ranking based on what we’ve seen on average for a manufacturer in the last year or so if you’ve personally had a good or bad experience we want to hear about it definitely share it with a comment down below just keep in mind most manufacturers they do produce hundreds of thousands of laptops so it is unfortunately pretty easy for a couple of horror stories to just slip through therefore I’d only avoid a certain brand if there is a lot of bad experiences finally we aren’t going to rate a laptops reliability unfortunately we just don’t use the same laptop for long enough to be able to speak to that anyway with that said we’re going to start with the worst scoring Brands and work our way right up to the best unfortunately the first one is gigabyte in terms of innovation we really haven’t seen anything that Innovative from gigabyte in the last 5 years or so they just seem to be a very generic Follow the Leader brand the new AO x16 which is a thin and light performance laptop it looks mildly interesting so that’s why we’re going to give them a score of 2 out of five for Innovation not one in terms of design their laptops look really Bland and boring so one out of five overall quality of their laptops is pretty average too when as anyone said the keyboard on a gigabyte laptop or its speakers are topnotch so we’re going to give them a score of 2 out of five here when it comes to support this is one of those Brands where you have to ship the laptop off and just hope for the best so a score of one here looking at their overall value proposition many of their laptops do offer decent specs for the money but we’ve seen better so a score of three out of five for Value that gives gigabyte a total score of nine look I must say it’s a shame to see gigabytes so low here there was a day many years ago when the a15 laptop was one of the best in the industry I really hope they return to that former glory next up is MSI in in terms of innovation we do see them coming out quickly with new hardware and the Titan 18 featured four upgradeable Ram slots so we’re going to give them a score of 30 out5 for Innovation design from MSI is pretty bland with the exception of the new Titan North Smith AI that at least helps them get a score of 2 out of five quality is where MSI suffers here’s some examples the prestigious chassis feels decently built but they get crazy hot and often have high pitch fan noise the new Arrow Lake H version of The Prestige 16 is an absolute furnace I think it’s the hottest laptop we’ve ever tested they also have weird keyboard layouts in many of their laptops where the arrow keys are literally touching the page up and down keys this causes a lot of Mis presses then you have the katana which had the worst laptop screen of any budget gaming laptop we tested in 2024 you guys get the point two out of five for Quality support again a one just like gigabyte you have to send this laptop off and hope for the best in terms of value you’d think that MSI would offer a lot of value given their cheaper quality laptops but they don’t their prices just don’t fully reflect this so a score of three out of five for Value look all MSI laptops aren’t terrible they do have some gems for example The Prestige 13 with Luna lake is a really good laptop it’s one of Sierra and Gabby’s favorites it’s incredibly lightweight it has long battery life and a great screen but as a whole MSI needs to do better tying with MSI is LG they pretty much just have a range of gram laptops which are super thin and light for their screen sizes when these were launched they were very Innovative but now many manufacturers have caught up and even Eclipse them other manufacturers have come out with laptops that are just as light but significantly sturdier and Better Built therefore for Innovation LG is getting a score of two for design their laptops just look boring so a score of two quality is fine but as there isn’t anything outstanding about their laptops a score of three for support it’s the same situation as MSI gigabyte so a score of one value isn’t bad you often do see them for a pretty decent price so a score of three for a total score of 11 we have ACA they are probably the toughest brand to rank their gaming laptops are actually top 10 here their Predator Helio 16 won our best budget gaming laptop their Predator 18 won our best 18-in gaming laptop and their Predator 14 is one of my personal favorites but the consumer line it just drags down their brand so for Innovation we’re going to give them a slightly above average score of three out of five for example the Predator 14 it packs a ton of power into a 14.5 in chassis and it doesn’t melt under the heat on design not Asus strong suit their laptops look really basic the Swift Wii recently reviewed is probably their best looker but it just looks like they’ve copied Samsung’s Galaxy books check out how similar the sides of these laptops look so two for design quality of Asis consumer range is a two but the gaming range is superb and gets a four so we’re going to average it to a three support same as the other so far so are one value is actually pretty good with Asa the gaming laptops are a five for Value but the consumer range is more of a two so let’s give them an average score of four full value as you can see if ASA only had gaming laptops they would be further up our list razor blade laptops they are pretty special they pack a lot of highquality Hardware into a compact stunning looking chassis they also innovate in little ways that do make a difference for example their 14-in blade has upgradable memory which is pretty rare their new blade has Thunderbolt 5 ports so I’m going to give them a four out of five for Innovation now as mentioned blades are well known for looking unique and stunning so I’m going to give them top marks for design are five in terms of quality blades are very well built and packed with high quality components but I can’t give them a five for Quality their keyboards have been atrocious they feel very uncomfortable and low travel weird for a brand by the way that got famous for manufacturing keyboards anyway this is apparently going to be fixed with their new blade 16 but we haven’t got one in to test yet also their laptops they get very warm underload their aluminum chassis they conduct heat so I’m going to di them back to a score of four for Quality now with such a fantastic start You Must Be Wondering Why Razer isn’t higher on our list well the support is woeful I had to call razer’s call center on a number of occasions and it was awful I was told to update Intel drivers on an AMD laptop and when I pushed the rep he admitted he didn’t even use razor laptops and is an Apple user look this may have been just my rep but just like MSI gigabyte and the like one for support finally value clearly not raise a strong suit their laptops are extremely expensive and rarely go on big sales so a one for Value next we have a brand that used to be the leader for Windows laptops but have made quite a few missteps and have just Fallen a bit in out rankings I’m talking of course about Dell when it comes to Innovation I’m going to give them a two people could argue that their invisible trackpad in their XPS laptop’s palmrest is innovative same goes for the haptic function buttons but the issue with Dell’s Innovations are that they just make the experience of using their laptops worse where Dell does shine though is their design I’m going to give them full marks here of five their XPS range and their alien laptops just look stunning in terms of quality Dell does a decent job I would have given them a four out of five but they’ve been cheaping out on their displays in a lot of their laptops and display it’s a pretty core component plus their cheaper laptops they just feel pretty cheap so I’m going to bring them down to a score of three out of five support is excellent there is a reason Dell lovo and HP they just dominate the business laptop Market all of them offer an upgraded level of support where someone will literally they come to your house diagnose and if possible fix your laptop they do it right there in front of you I’ve had them do that for my one as a consumer buyer you can upgrade to one of these support plans I was going to give Dell HP and Lenovo top marks therefore for support but one manufacturer has a little trick up its sleeve so I’m going to talk about that one in a second and instead I’m going to give these manufacturers a score of four in terms of value a lot of their laptops are priced pretty crazy high like their XPS line now known as Dell premium and the alien wear line also very expensive ensive sometimes though you can find a good D deal but it isn’t very common so with that said I’m going to give them a score of two out of five for Value tying with Dell is Samsung Samsung laptops are reasonably Innovative they come out fast with new hardware and they are very thin with great screens plus they do have their own ecosystem so three out of five for Innovation design is where Samsung laptops just Excel they look really slick I’m going to give them a score of four out of five here in terms of quality though it’s a mixed bag the display and Chassis are great but their keyboards feel low travel and their trackpads feel really cheap with horrible Palm rejection particularly the giant one in their 16in Galaxy book so I’m going to give Samsung a score of three out of five for Quality support is a little improved based on them having some authorized physical locations that you can take your laptop into I’m going to therefore go with a score of 2 out of five for support as Samsung laptops often go on really big sales I’m going to award them a four out of five of value therefore Samsung gets a total rating of 16 completing our tie with Dell and Samsung is framework what a stunning achievement for such a new laptop manufacturer to appear so high on our list and it’s warranted they’re the only one to get full marks for Innovation their laptops are completely upgradeable and they have swappable ports so you can pretty much design your own laptop but talking about their physical design their laptops they look very basic their colorful ports and Bessel just end up looking a bit hodgepodge so one out of five for design in terms of quality they do well enough but not remarkable their 13-in laptops are stuck with a single fan calling solution which is just suboptimal and it can lead to more heat and fan noise than comparable laptops their trackpads speakers and webcams could also do with work and their chassis just don’t F of the same high quality materials as others at their price point so two out of five for quality for support though framework just crushes it full marks with a score of five no need to call someone when you can just fix your laptop yourself they have easy to follow Guides Online and their customer service should you need to call in is supposedly excellent when it comes to Value look it’s questionable they are pretty pricey for what you get on the one hand their laptops look Bland and their overall quality just doesn’t match their price on the other hand their laptops are unique they are completely upgradeable and have excellent Linux support so it depends on what’s important to you I’m therefore going to give framework a score of three out of five for value for a total score of 16 all right now we’re in the home stretch with very strong m facturers if you are considering buying a laptop and you aren’t at least looking at HP you’re probably making a mistake they give you an incredible amount of value for your money in fact I’m going to start with that category as that’s the overarching theme with HP their laptops go on huge sales and every time that we compile a list of the best laptops HP takes a lot of spots their Omni book Ultra and Ultra flip can regularly be found for around $11,000 and they compete with laptops that cost $1,500 or even more the AR 13 at around $600 is pretty much decent at everything which is really rare at this price point so full marks are five for Value in terms of innovation though there really isn’t any from HP they make generic laptops some could argue though that they did adopt hatic trackpads pretty early but I’d counter that as their ones just don’t work that well many have Palm rejection issues actually HB has been putting ryzen’s N5 processors in their laptops pretty early on so I’m going to go with a score of 2 out of five for innovation in in terms of design again nothing special the onni book Ultra flip and transc n14 they do look okay but no one really buys an HP laptop for its looks so two out of five for design quality though is good with HP especially when you consider their value for example the Omni book Ultra that I just mentioned is one of the few laptops that can regularly be found for under $1,000 that comes with a powerful ryen 9 zen5 processor 32 gig of memory and has no massive cons so a score of four out of five for Quality support is again a very strong suit of HP just like d and Lenovo so four out of five tying with HP is Asus they have really stepped it up in the last couple of years they get a very high score for innovation of four out of five mainly because they get you hard weight in their laptops really fast they were the first with AMD streck’s Halo processor and the First with Intel’s Luna Lake in terms of design they’re a little above average some of their laptops they do look pretty cool like the Flo z13 and The Safaris G Series but others just look boring like the Vivo box so we’re going to give them a score of three out of five a design in terms of quality of device they do deliver for the price that they charge they do very well here take the zook line you can often find them for around $11,000 or less for that price you’re getting a decent OLED display a great processor a good quality chassis and everything just works pretty well it’s a really fair deal The Safaris G4S they can often be found for around $1,000 too and they have dedicated graphics and they have a really premium chassis that comes close to the macbook’s level of quality so four out of five for Quality all right support is not great just like gigabyte and MSI this is a situation where once again you have to send your laptop off and just hope for the best so we’re going to give them a score of one I need to acknowledge though that Asus has had a recent scandal with their support department several buyers reported that they were charged for damage that was not the reason they sent their products in Gamers Nexus does have a series on this which you can go check out we hope that Asus has taken this seriously and made steps to rectify they claim they have but we’ll have to wait to see in terms of value I think I’ve already hit on this Asus is definitely one of the brands that gives you a lot for your money especially when you buy one on sale which you should do because they are always on sale pretty much and their MSRP is not their real price the sales price is their real price the MSRP it’s only there so that you think you’re getting a good deal when it’s on sale four marks are five for value for Asus for a total of 17 next and tying with HP and Asus is Microsoft they actually make a darn good laptop they’re reason ably Innovative they wear a lead laptop with Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and they have some pretty cool things with their surface studio and their older surface books so I’m going to give them a score of three out of five for Innovation design is pretty good too especially their light blue colored surface it’s one of the prettiest laptops around so far out of five quality is definitely where surface laptops shine every part of these laptops is premium their trackpads keyboards display chassis so five out of five for Quality support is okay they do have some locations that you can take your laptop in to but if there is a serious issue it needs to be shipped off still so two out of five for support finally value they actually do offer good value in their consumer range the Snapdragon powered laptops tend to go on big sales but unfortunately the Intel Luna Lake versions which many people would prefer to buy are being sold via their business Channel and they are pretty pricey so I’m going to give them a score of three out of five for Value that means Microsoft finishers with a total score of 17 like HP and Asus finally drumroll plays we are down to our last two our runner up is Lenovo when it comes to Innovation they are right out there screens that expand vertically to give you more screen real estate webcams behind the display folding screen laptops look some of it works and some of it doesn’t but they really have their heart in the right place here so four out of five for innovation in terms of design there are some pretty Lenovo like the slim 7x but most look quite generic so three out of five a design when it comes to Quality Lenovo does do a reliably good job their laptops feel well built especially their thinkpads their laptops have great keyboards their new ThinkPad X9 even includes a phenomenal haptic trackpad and topnotch speakers so four out of five for Quality they only missed out on a five here because they do tend to skimp out on the little things like webcam and speakers plus they still have to replace the cheap mechanical trackpads in most of their laptops support like Dyan HP for Lenovo it’s excellent four out of five when it comes to Lenovo many of their laptops bring a lot of value to the table particularly when they go on sale take the slim 7x a fairly premium laptop yet it frequently can be had for $800 you can use our websites crazy deal section and price tracker to hunt for sales like those but lenovo’s non-sale price particularly for their highend laptops is just egregious so three out of five for value for a total score of 18 for Lenovo finally Apple in terms of innovation their laptops they aren’t really that Innovative but their chips are there is no denying it Apple M series of processors are Leaps and Bounds ahead of Qualcomm Intel and even amds so we’re going to give them a score of four out of five for innovation in terms of design sure Macs don’t look as amazing as XPS laptops or a razor blade but they really do look pretty good so a four for design quality everyone knows that this is where Apple laptops shine they are really well built and feel premium and they get a lot of the little things right their trackpads are Best in Class their port selection and speeds are pretty good their speakers and webcams also best in in class so are five for quality in terms of support they do decently they have a lot of stores with genius bars in them but if the issue is serious yep you have to send the laptop off so three out of five for support finally value this one was a tough one to grade on the one hand Max are expensive especially their upgrades and they often push you to upgrade then you a it now comes in at $1,000 and is $100 cheaper seems like good value but it’s not really it only has 256 gig of storage which is poultry at this price point so I’m tempted to give them a low value score but when you step back and just look at what you’re getting for the price that you’re paying for a Macbook and how long they last because of their quality their value it’s pretty decent particularly if you buy a stock configuration and don’t pay for expensive upgrades heck we are now seeing a lot of Windows laptop manufacturers charge more than Apple for crappier laptops so I’m going to give Apple a score of 3 out of five for Value that leads Apple to a score of 19 which puts them in the lead well that’s all I got for you big congratulations to Apple for taking this win but as you can see a lot of Manufacturers were pretty close together in our overall rankings one or two good or bad products and a manufacturer could just easily move up or down our list given this I really urge manufacturers to just slim down their range of laptops so that they can focus on producing better quality products not more just like apple has done with their MacBooks at the end of the day though manufacturers do have pretty unique pros and cons you really have to pick what’s right for you on that note note I’ve given you my rankings what’s yours let me know with a are looking for the perfect laptop you’ll find all our specific recommendations there for different use cases at different price points you’ll even find a helpful price tracker to ensure that you’re getting the best deal till next time go do something awesome with your day and I will catch you later