The best laptops of 2024 in Australia: Top options for all budgets and tasks

If you're in the market for a new laptop, TechRadar's best laptops Australia is the definitive summary of the absolute best options available. 

All devices on this list have been benchmarked and tested directly, to ensure you get consistent, first-hand picks of the best laptops in each category. 

Whether it's Apple's freshest M3-powered MacBook Air, the latest in the Dell XPS range, or one of the new budget-friendly 16-inch OLED laptops, we've painstakingly compared and contrasted each one in order to give you a rundown on the laptop with the best value.

We've taken into account Ultrabooks, gaming laptops, 2-in-1s, and every other shape and size that laptops come in these days – so don't worry if you're in it for work or play, we've got you covered.

For those that aren't sure what type of laptop would suit their needs best, jump down to the How to Choose section at the bottom of the page. 

Written by

Written by

Lindsay Handmer

Lindsay is a long-serving contributor to TechRadar, handling testing and reviews for a wide range of products. He especially loves to benchmark the latest laptops, but also can't resist testing power banks and all things charging related.

The quick list

Want to cut to the chase and find out what the best laptops are? Below, you’ll find a roundup of our choices, and you can jump to a more detailed review of every pick, along with our price comparison tool to help you find the best deals.

The best laptops in 2024

Below you'll find full write-ups for each of the best laptops in our list. We've tested each one extensively, so you can be sure that our recommendations can be trusted.

• Compare Australian prices on the latest laptops on Getprice

The best laptop overall

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Windows has plenty of faults as an operating system, but it's never been as smooth and fast as on the new Surface Laptop. From the outside it's a very normal looking laptop that might even be boring if not for the range of colours available. On the plus side, it uses a premium all-metal design that (finally!) favours robust repairability over being extra slim and light. 

But the real magic of the new Surface Laptop is inside, thanks to the Snapdragon X Plus and X Elite CPUs from Qualcomm. These new Arm CPUs match the best Apple silicon, giving excellent performance yet remaining efficient enough for truly all-day battery life. 

The Surface Laptop comes in two main variants – 13.8-inch, and 15-inch. The former can be bought with the slightly less powerful X Plus CPU, or the faster X Elite, whereas the 15-inch model only comes with the X Elite. Either size is available with up to 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD – the latter is user upgradeable. The 15-inch laptop has a 2496 x 1664 (201 PPI) display, while the 13.8-inch screen is 2304 x 1536 (201 PPI) – though both are IPS panels with a touchscreen, plus a high 400-nit brightness and excellent colour reproduction. 

Some Windows software does not yet have a native Arm version and is run using emulation. This can cause a mild reduction in performance (and compatibility issues in some cases), but isn't a particular problem for mainstream apps. In light loads such as playing video, the 66Wh battery in the 15-inch Surface Laptop lasts over 25 hours. Even in heavier workloads, it has no problems lasting 10 to 15 hours on battery. The 13.8-inch Surface laptop has a slightly smaller 54Wh battery but almost as long run times unplugged. 

The Surface Laptops have dual USB 4 Type-C ports that do video out and charging, plus a single USB-A connection. In a move we love, Microsoft has kept the magnetic Surface charging port (it also does data and video output), keeping your USB-C ports free and allowing the laptop to connect to existing accessories such as older Surface docks. 

The Surface Laptops are not the cheapest (though are already attracting the occasional discount), and the 13.8-inch model starts from AU$1,899 with 16GB of RAM, while the most expensive 32GB option is AU$3,399. The 15-inch model starts at AU$2,399 for 16GB RAM, and ranges up to AU$3,699 for the 32GB machine. 

Read the full review: Microsoft Surface Laptop 13.8-inch

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The best MacBook overall

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While not everyone wants a MacBook or to join the Apple ecosystem, there's no denying the M series CPUs are impressively good. While you do tend to pay a premium (especially in Australia), Apple laptops have high-end build quality and some of the best battery life going.

The new M3 powered Air looks just like the M2 model – which is a good thing, as the design is simple but effective. The MacBook Air is well known for its battery life and our tests show it can last almost 14.5 hours between charges. Of course the Air has a few limitations, such as only a pair of USB4 TypeC ports (no Thunderbolt 4) and can only run one external monitor – two if the laptop lid is closed. The base spec of 8GB of RAM is also questionable (upgrading to 16GB costs an extra AU$300) and the lack of fan means the CPU tends to throttle if under prolonged load. 

The MacBook Air 13-inch (M3) starts at AU$1,799. This is slightly higher than the older M1 MacBook Air’s launch price of AU$1,599. but less than the M2 model's launch price of AU$1,899 in 2022. If you go all out and upgrade both the RAM to 24GB and the SSD to 2TB, the AU$1,799 price becomes a rather high AU$3,599.

Still, it's great to see launch prices for new models go down, rather than up. It's also worth noting that the M2 model is now sold by Apple for AU$1,599. Meaning if you want extra value for money, it's well worth taking a read of our M2 Macbook Air review.

Read the full review: Apple MacBook Air 13-inch (M3)

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The best gaming laptop

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The Lenovo Legion 5i has a long been a favoured gaming bang for buck laptop, and the latest 2024 (Gen 9) model continues the trend. Sure, it's not without a few minor annoyances, and you do need to buy it when (frequently) discounted rather than at RRP, if you want the best value.

The Legion 5i configuration tested (Core i7-14650HX / 32GB RAM) gives excellent gaming performance thanks to the RTX 4070 GPU paired up with a 16-inch, 1600p, 165Hz display. When not gaming, the 5i is also a very competent workstation and performs well on AC, USB-C or battery power. It doesn't last as long unplugged as expected (this should improve over time with updated drivers) and it's a shame no facial recognition webcam (or fingerprint reader) is included. 

The Legion 5i is also available in various hardware configurations, including more powerful i9 CPUs, and RTX 4050, 4060 and 4070 GPUs. The 16-inch IPS display has a 2560 x 1600 resolution, a 100% sRGB, 350nit brightness, and a 165Hz (G-Sync supporting) refresh rate. There's also a 500nit, 240Hz version of the display but it's harder to find in Australia.

Gaming performance is great (as expected!) – in large part thanks to the powerful cooling system that allows the GPU to sustain full output for longer without overheating. The RTX 4070-equipped 5i (as tested) can run games such as Cyberpunk 2077 at very smooth frame rates at the 1600p native resolution. The laptop is also a powerful option for those who need a productivity laptop for work or Uni, and while chunkier than many laptops, the 5i is still able to be carried day to day without too much trouble. 

The best pricing for the 5i is often direct from Lenovo Australia – but only when discounted. Typical discounts range from 30% to 40% off RRP. For example the i7, RTX 4070 variant of the 5i has been discounted under AU$2,700 (and the i9 variant under AU$2,799) while the RTX 4060 equipped 5i has been under AU$2,200. Other retailers often have different hardware configurations of the Legion 5i, but again they typically need a decent discount from RRP to be good value. 

Read the full Lenovo Legion 5i (Gen 9) review

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The best value laptop

Occasionally there is a major shift in technology that causes an entire overhaul of the types of laptops available for consumers… And in 2023 that means anyone buying a mid-range laptop can now get an impressive OLED screen without bumping up the price.

The Acer Swift Go 16 is the first out of the gate with a generous 16-inch 3K OLED panel that comes with a 120Hz refresh rate, a full DCI-P3 colour gamut and a 500 nit peak brightness. The range starts at just AU$1699 (or $1,599 on sale) for an i5-13500H Processor, 16GB RAM allocation and 512GB PCIe SSD. 

The model tested had an i7-13700H CPU, 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD for AU$1,999 (AU$1,799 on sale) and outpaced both the Macbook Air 13-inch (M2) and the Asus Zenbook S 13 in CPU benchmarks considerably. This supercharged device does unfortunately chew through its battery allocation in just 5.5 hours for both light work and 1080p movie playback, o you will have to be willing to carry your charger everywhere. If you can live with that however, this is an exceptional feature set for a device under $2K.

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The most portable workstation

The latest models of the MacBook Pro 14 and 16-inch laptops come with new M3 Pro or M3 Max processors, which will bring reasonable upgrades to overall performance compared to the 2023 M2 Pro or Max models. That said, last years MacBook Pro can be the better buy, if you can manage to actually find one for sale.

The MacBook Pro range offers serious performance in an ultra portable package that uses the ever improving Apple M series CPUs to give solid performance for considerably less power than the competition. This means you can do demanding work on the go without having to rely on plugging in to get through a full work day.

The 16-inch model gets Thunderbolt 4 ports, and the M3 Pro version can support two external displays, while the M3 Max can support three. In comparison, the standard M3 powered 14-inch MacBook Pro has USB 4 / Thunderbolt 3 ports, and supports one external display.

As we have come to expect from Apple, the 16.2-inch 3456 x 2234 Liquid Retina XDR display is fantastic, and offers wide colour gamuts, a 120Hz refresh rate and 600 nit brightness (SDR content) or up to 1,000 nits sustained (1,600 nits peak) with HDR content.

The entry level 14-inch MacBook Pro starts at a reasonable AU$2,699, but that's with the M3 CPU (supporting one external display) and just 8GB of RAM. If you don't need more than one display, the 16GB M3 powered Pro is AU$3,299. For creative work we recommend the M3 Pro or M3 Max, which start at AU$3,499 and AU$5,599 respectively in the 14-inch form factor.

Jumping up to the 16-inch MacBook Pro, the minimum spec is the M3 Pro CPU with 18GB of RAM and a 512GB HDD, which costs AU$4,299. The MacBook Pro featuring the M3 Max CPU (which supports three displays) starts at AU$5,999 and comes with 36GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD. If you go all out and equip the 16-inch MacBook Pro with the maximum 128GB of RAM and 8TB of storage, it will set you back AU$11,699. 

For those already in the Apple ecosystem, the choice is likely easy and the MacBook Pro is well worth the premium price. But it's also an appealing option for those who need to do creative tasks (such as video editing) on the go using battery power, but also use the laptop as a workstation connected to external monitors. 

Read the full review: Apple MacBook Pro 16 (M3 Max)

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The best laptop for students

The original Surface Laptop Go was an impressive budget-conscious device and the Surface Laptop Go 2 has made some major improvements to make it even better. It keeps the 12.4-inch PixelSense display, and offers a similar compact and ultralight profile, but has updated the processor, keyboard and storage options. 

The new processor is 15-30 percent faster and the Gen 3 PCIe storage offers read and write speeds over 3000/1500 MB/s respectively. The device also offers a full work day battery lifespan, a fingerprint reader, and solid audio and web -conferencing capabilities.

While a lot of the best features remain the same, there’s also few major improvements to be found, including: the 11th Gen Intel processor that brings performance forward a generation. 

There’s no option for small eMMC storage this year, which means the entry model is more expensive, but it actually brings the cost of the middle offering down by AU$50 and you get a Gen 3 PCIe SSD with 3,000MB/s read and 1,600MB/s write speeds, which is much faster than the original Surface Laptop Go. 

This new processor offers between 15 and 30 percent performance improvement over the original Surface Laptop Go on general work tasks and is a more efficient chip overall. This means you’ll get an extra two hours of battery life from it when using general office tasks like those in the PCMark 10 Home Battery benchmark. With a total lifespan of 8 hours and 52 minutes you can safely leave your charger at home for a full work day. 

The updated 11th Gen chip also comes with Intel’s Iris Xe Graphics which offers over 2.5 times the GPU performance and means you could do a bit of light gaming on this device using low graphics settings at sub 1080p resolution. 

The overall keyboard feel has improved, making it hard to distinguish form more expensive Surface units and the dual studio microphones and HD camera have had some attention in this update too. It doesn’t have the infrared camera for Windows Hello facial recognition, but there is a fingerprint reader on both 8GB units that makes signing in still really fast. 

Audio quality is really good, especially for a budget laptop, and the touchscreen 148 PPI display looks great for something that isn’t quite FullHD. The Surface Laptop Go 2 also comes with full Windows 11 Home, by default, which marks the first time a Go device has entirely ditched the Windows S confined OS. A set of USB-C, USB-A, 3.5mm audio and Surface Connect Port interface options round out a pretty amazing offering for something a little over $1K. 

Read the full review: Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 2 

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The best 2-in-1

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Instead of offering a detachable tablet experience like the Surface Book, the Surface Laptop Studio has a screen that can fold into a drafting table shape to make it easy to draw on. The design (and title) is clearly borrowed from the company’s desktop all-in-one the Surface Studio and it works exceptionally well with the recently updated Surface Slim Pen 2.

The laptop has a recessed edge that we originally thought was to make the powerful 1.9cm device look a little less bulky in photos, but this unusual shadow line edge design actually creates an inverted shelf that can store the Slim Pen 2 and makes room for unimpeded thermal vents on either side. This does have the downside of constraining the space for ports so you’ll have to be content with a pair of Thunderbolt ports, the Surface Connect port and a 3.5mm audio jack. 

The 14.4-inch PixelSense display looks really impressive, even when sitting next to an OLED display. Sure it’s a little more glossy and doesn’t have the same depth in the blacks, but the 2400 x 1600 pixel touchscreen has a 1500 to 1 contrast ratio and a vibrant 201 PPI pixel density. It only just scrapes in to achieve 100 percent sRGB colour reproduction though, so you can’t really use it for colour grading work, even if it does look great. It’s also a 120Hz display that makes the already responsive Surface Slim Pen 2 seem even more silky, and opens up interesting gaming potential when you pair it with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050Ti. 

While the entry level Surface Laptop Studio comes with an Intel Core i5-11300H CPU and integrated Iris Xe Graphics, you can configure it with an Intel Core i7-11370H CPU and a Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050Ti GPU for AU$3,149. Both models come with 16GB of RAM and will be fine for a wide range of workloads, but the latter is going to have slightly more overhead for using design software. It’s not bad at gaming either, with the i7 unit we tested racking up 49fps averages on games like F1 2021 using Ultra 1080p settings.

Battery life isn’t amazing at seven hours and four minutes of PCMark 10 Work benchmarks, and a little over six hours of movie playback, but it’s not horrible for an ultraportable with a discrete GPU.

You’ll get a similar laptop experience from the Asus VivoBook Pro 15 OLED for AU$2,299 if you don’t mind a three hour battery life, but there’s not really anywhere else you can get this kind of touchscreen and drawing interface.

Read the full review: Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio review 

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The best OLED display laptop

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Dell’s XPS 13 has always been a leader in the ultra premium laptop market, but as the new Plus naming convention might give away, the new range of XPS 13 Plus devices are adding even more to the overall experience. Some of the update’s headline features include a notably more powerful Intel 12th generation CPU, an optional OLED touchscreen panel, an integrated glass touchpad palm rest and a neat capacitive touch bar.

The range starts at AU$2,599 and comes with a 13.4-inch Full HD display, a 12-core i5-1240P CPU, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD. The unit we tested came with a 400nit, 3.5K, OLED panel, an i7-1260P CPU, 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD with an RRP of AU$3,799, but it’s often on sale for around 20 percent less than that. 

The Dell XPS 13 Plus i7 scored between seven and 12 percent better than the Late 2020 MacBook Pro 13 (M1), which puts it within 3 percent of the MacBook Air M2. Graphically Intel’s Iris Xe isn’t as advanced as Apple’s integrated SSD so the Dell XPS 13 Plus was 36 percent behind the MacBook Air M2. 

Battery life also doesn’t look overly impressive next to Apple’s devices lasting just 6 hours and 6 minutes during 1080p movie playback, but it’s not too bad for a Windows Ultrabook. 

The Gen 4 PCIe is as fast as any we’ve seen, capping out at 7,000MB/s Read and 5,000MB/s write speeds, and the quad speaker array is generous and compliments the capable screen in media playback. With a choice of Platinum or Graphite colouring, a HD webcam, a Windows Hello IR cam and dual microphone array, there really aren’t too many things wrong with the XPS 13 Plus.

Check out our Dell promo codes to get the best deal on your next purchase.

Read the full review: Dell XPS 13 Plus

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The best gaming ultrabook

The Razer Blade 14 has long been one of the best ultraportable gaming laptops around, but a close partnership with AMD and Nvidia in 2023 means the latest device is even more powerful than you might expect. 

AMD has made it its business to go after the Apple M2 Pro and Max processors with the Ryzen 9 7940HS CPU. The 7940HS has a traditional 8-core 16-thread structure that uses high-frequency 4.0-5.2GHz cores and combines with a lower 35-54 Watt power draw, significantly under what you'd usually see in a gaming laptop, to make a chip that is more efficient, while maintaining certain performance levels. 

This means the Blade 14 can outpace a MacBook Pro (M2 Max) in Cinebench R23 image rendering benchmarks and it doubles the performance of the 13th Gen Intel U series processors we’ve tested in some CPU performance. The Blade 14 still is paired with discrete Nvidia Graphics to provide impressive gaming performance of between 60 and 100+ frames per second on modern games in 1080p Ultra. 

The two processors combine to mean battery life is only 5-8 hours, but you will get a 14-inch 2560 x 1600 pixel, 240Hz display that is well balanced for gaming and work thanks to a 500 nit brightness and DCI-P3 professional-video colour.

The new range of AMD chips offer an on-board AI processor that has the potential to be a really useful feature moving forward, but for now there’s only really a couple of handy features like improved Photoshop auto-removal and blurring the background of online meetings. 

For anyone keen on gaming this unit offers more than double the graphical performance of the MacBook Pro 14 with an M2 Max processor, but you’ll lose out considerably on battery life and the creative benefits of Apple’s Unified Memory. Still that’s a trade off many will be willing to make.

Read the full review: Razer Blade 14 (2023)

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The best dual-screen laptop

One of the best touchscreen laptops – and naturally, among the best 2-in-1 laptops – we’ve tested in 2024 (so far), the Yoga Book 9i is an incredible dual-screen laptop that actually uses the second screen well. The Yoga Book 9i sees you through your productivity and multitasking in a seamless and time-saving way without the extra weight. It’s also a capable piece of kit with cutting-edge mobile components powering it – but it also comes with a very high price.

We completely fell in love with the Yoga Book 9i when we reviewed it, and you'd hard-pressed to find a dual-screen setup that’s as seamless or as versatile as this one. Lenovo has designed the Yoga Book 9i not only to give you that extra bit of screen real estate but also to offer several different modes. You can mount it on its included stand so that the screens are either stacked one on top of the other or side by side like a book – and you can use it as a normal laptop as well.

The Intel Core Ultra 7 155U CPU that’s powering the Lenovo Yoga Book 9i is specifically designed for ultra-thin portables. That means it's certainly powerful enough for most day-to-day tasks, but as it has been built to keep cool and not drain the battery too fast (more on that below), it's best used for general productivity and lighter creative workloads, rather than intensive video editing or gaming. In our tests we found the Yoga Book 9i to perform extremely well when photo editing in particular, and the dual OLED screens looked brilliant.

Despite the efficient processor, the Lenovo Yoga Book 9i lasted a 6 hours and 45 minutes in our tests. Considering that unlike most laptops, it's powering two OLED screens, that's understandable but still lower than we'd like.

There's no getting away from it: this is an expensive laptop. It starts at a hefty AU$4,499, but keep in mind that Lenovo offers frequent large discounts, so if it's not already on sale, wait a little while and it will cost more like AU$2,999. The design, quality of the dual screens and versatility of this laptop goes some way to justifying the price, but if you're not going to use the second screen, look elsewhere.

Read the full review: Lenovo Yoga Book 9i 

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How to choose the best laptop for you:

What are the best laptop brands? The best brands for laptops include Apple, Dell, Lenovo and HP, and they all have their strengths. For example, Apple make brilliantly-designed slim and light laptops, while Dell does a great range of high-end ultrabooks, as well as affordable devices and Chromebooks as well. Lenovo's well known for making solidly-built business laptops (and some great 2-in-1 laptops as well), and HP’s also been making some gorgeous laptops recently that are some of the best laptops in the world.

When it comes to gaming, the best laptop brands include Alienware, Asus and Acer.

How much RAM does a laptop need? RAM (Random Access Memory) is an important specification to look for in a laptop. You’ll want 4GB at the very least for a Windows laptop – though we’d actually recommend for many people to go for 8GB. That will ensure that the laptop runs well for years to come. Budget Chromebooks can get away with less RAM, such as 1GB or 2GB.

Battery life considerations Finally there’s battery life. This is likely to be one of the most important considerations you have when choosing what laptop to buy. The best laptops need to be able to let you work – and play – for hours on end without you having to scramble for a power adapter. Modern laptops are getting ever more power-efficient, which has led to longer battery lives. For a laptop to be included in our best laptops list, it needs to offer a battery life of five hours or more.

Which type of laptop is best for you?

General laptops: This broader category is dedicated to devices that focus more on practicality than style, portability or power. That’s not to say they can’t be fast, but you’ll typically find a non-Ultrabook clamshell laptop with an HD screen and spinning drive-based storage for less than AU$1,500, although the lines are blurring between the laptop and ultrabook markets, with the latter becoming more readily available at lower pricepoints.

Ultrabooks: Where you’ll find thin-and-light notebooks sporting SSD storage and display resolutions that exceed 1080p. Paired with powerful, albeit mobile-centric components and especially long battery life, the best Ultrabooks will cost a pretty penny – closer to AU$1,500 to AU$3,000.

2-in-1 laptops: Where notebooks that double as tablets are located – the best 2-in-1 laptops offer a versatility not typically found in more conventional laptops. Outfitted with both detachable and 360-degree rotating hinges, these hybrids are the most versatile way to experience Windows (or Chrome OS) on a touchscreen.

Chromebooks: Where you’ll find the best Chromebooks running Chrome OS. These do much of what Windows and macOS can in the browser, focused on cloud storage over local, while recently getting Android app support for touchscreen models. They generally cost less than AU$500.

Gaming laptops: Need a laptop to play games (almost) just like a shiny desktop PC can? Then you’ll want one of the best gaming laptops. These machines generally cost more than AU$2,000 and can quickly get into the AU$4 – 5,000 range for the beastlier models.

How we tested these laptops

How we test the best laptops

We know that buying a new laptop can be a huge investment, so every laptop in this list has been extensively tested by us. When we test laptops, we use them in our day-to-day lives to see how they perform. We look at their design, including how stylish they are, or if they are thin and light enough to carry around, and how comfortable they are to work on.

When it comes to performance, we use a mix of real-world tests and synthetic benchmarks to see how powerful (or not) these laptops are. This means using Windows 10 (or Chrome OS on Chromebooks and macOS on MacBooks) and running various apps and seeing how fast they load, noting down any problems.

These days, the webcam and microphone in a laptop is also incredibly important, so we take time to test out these as well. When it comes to gaming laptops, we’ll run more benchmark tests, as well as fire up games to play on them as well (it’s a hard job, isn’t it?)

Battery lives are also important, so we’ll keep track on how long we can use the laptop without needing to charge. We also run our own battery life benchmark that plays a looped 1080p movie until the battery dies. The PC Mark 10 battery life benchmark replicates real-world usage, such as web browsing and document creation. These tests give us an excellent idea of how long the batteries in these laptops last.

We then take everything we’ve learned about the laptop and compare it to its price, to see if it offers the best value to customers.

Latest Updates

September 2024
Updates to best overall, best MacBook, Best Gaming Laptop and more.