Laptops are getting cheaper and more powerful. But what is the best laptop for 2025? If you’re looking to upgrade for the year ahead, the options are seemingly endless, with a baffling array of specs, stats and reviews to wade through. And note that these days it’s a minefield, whereby many product reviews are FAKE (e.g. negative ones by competitors or positive ones by the seller).
Fear not. In this blog I’ve done the leg work for you. I’ve picked out the best laptops to help you ‘excel at the office’ (or home), whether your budget is £500, £1,000, or £2,000. I explain the specs to look out for, give several Windows and Mac based laptops to choose from, and cover the pros and cons of each. If you’re bored, overwhelmed, or impatient, and just want to be pointed at the best available options, with the lowest risk of you wasting your money, you’re in the right place!
Note: Prices are accurate at time of publishing this blog.
Best 2025 Laptop for £1,000 Budget
£1,000 is about what most professionals budget for a new laptop. You can get a lot for this amount and buying right will ensure it will last you a good 6-10 years. Buying smart for longevity is not just good for your finances; given the exponential advance of technology, AI and such, you need computing power to deal with the growing complexity.
So let’s get to the best 2025 laptop for this budget…
#1: ASUS Zenbook 14 OLED – £955
Known for its incredible battery life (up to 18 hours) and vibrant OLED display, this laptop excels in portability and performance. It’s perfect for professionals needing a lightweight yet versatile machine for work and streaming. And it’s currently a bargain on Amazon for £955 (RRP £1,400), saving over £400.
Here’s the main specs and benefits explaining why I place this number 1:
- Price: For the overall spec, under £1000 is a good deal for this package.
- Trust: ASUS is a well-known and trusted Windows-based brand using quality components.
- Processing: Intel i9 is a high-spec processor, capable of handling demanding tasks (e.g. graphic design, gaming, multi-tasking). Note: Save over £200 by getting the almost-as-good i7 version.
- Speed: 16GB of DDR5 RAM will give you enough speed to handle most things and offers future-proofing too (don’t settle for less than 8GB now).
- Storage: With a 1TB SSD storage, there’s plenty of space to store all your pictures, files and media, with the speed of SSD (and it’s not the dodgy cheap SSD Chinese brands use; see ‘Trust’!).
- Battery: Up to 18 hours of use on a single charge is fantastic, basically over two full working days. This also suggests efficiency and advanced technology.
- Display: The bright, 14 inch vibrant OLED display with 2k resolution is plenty for most uses, business or fun. Touchscreen functionality will also enhance your workflow and the backlit keyboard will help you type in the evenings.
- Portability: At 1.4kg, it’s lightweight and good for professionals on the go.
- Durability: This laptop boasts ‘military grade’ durability, meaning it’s been tested to not break when dropped, in high/low temperatures, and other things traditionally harmful to laptops.
- Connectivity: There’s all the USB ports, HDMI, card reader, headphone jack, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and such you’ll need to connect your various devices and cables.
- Windows 11: Windows 11 is the latest Microsoft operating system, taking care of running your apps, storing files, and inbuilt security of your laptop.
Some users report a minor downside that the cooling fan can get noisy under heavy load. But this will be rare in general use and can be mitigated by ensuring it’s placed on a hard surface to maximise air flow. With an integrated graphics card, advanced gamers might want a laptop geared more for gaming instead.
Overall, this laptop is the whole package for a reasonable price. For numbers 2 and 3, I’ll be briefer with the specs and selling points, comparing them against this benchmark product.
#2: Dell Inspiron Plus – £999
Dell is a well-established computer hardware provider trusted by big public and private sector organisations alike. It has spent decades integrating well with the Windows software and Intel processors. This Dell Inspiron Plus is a robust option also great for professionals, with only slight differences to the ASUS Zenbook.
While the processor is the Intel Core 7, that’s still relatively high spec and conversely, you can get 32GB of RAM for your budget, making for even faster data-crunching. Multiple large and complex spreadsheets will be a doddle. Again, it has 1TB SSD storage, all the ports you need, over 2K screen resolution, and Windows 11 preinstalled. As a bonus, there’s a slightly better integrated graphics card, anti-glare screen coating and a fingerprint reader.
The downsides: Slightly heavier at 1.8KG, not touch screen, and a slightly less battery longevity.
So in summary, I prefer the ASUS for a Windows-based laptop. But this is also really good so take your pick, it’s a matter of personal preference and what suits your workflow. Some of the Samsungs and Microsoft Surface seem pretty good too, I’m just trying to shortlist it all to keep it simple for you.
#3: Apple 2024 MacBook Air – £1,129
This is a wildcard option for the Mac fans (or Mac curious) out there. I personally use both for various tasks and work I do. For example, I use MS Office stuff predominantly on my Windows laptop, while do creative design and image editing on the Mac. But for around £1,000, you can get a pretty decent model.
With Apple, you generally get less in terms of memory specifications for your money, but more in the sense of style, usability, longevity, and the ability to use a different universe of creative apps. And then there’s the added benefits of integration with your other stuff if you have an iPhone and/or iPad.
This 13.6 inch 2024 MacBook Air comes with a 512GB SSD storage capacity. This is slightly smaller, so you might need to buy a decent, Mac-compatible external hard drive to store or back up your files. And Apple notoriously provide fewer ports on the side to plug other things in, so beware of that. As shown below, there’s just 4 holes, one for the power lead, one for headphones, and two ‘Thunderbolt’ / USB 4 ports. This means you’ll likely need to buy an Apple USB convertor to increase compatibility with your stuff.
However, you can just feel the design and build quality on a Mac and they’re a pleasure to work with for creatives (like me!). It’s sleek, slim, only 1.2KG, and you can choose from five colours. This one has 16GB of ‘Unified Memory’, which is basically quicker than the equivalent of 16GB of RAM on other machines, and the advanced M3 processing chip, making heavy lifting light and start up quick.
The graphics are sharp on the Liquid Retina LED display, it has better built-in sound, a decent Full HD camera for video conferencing, and Touch ID for fingerprint access / password security. It also boasts an 18 hour battery life. While it’s not touchscreen like the ASUS, the Apple Trackpad is an innovative feature compared to touchpads on other laptops; it’s certainly something I enjoy.
Apple operating systems have historically been renowned for their enhanced security, albeit Windows has become better in recent years. I’d even argue neither Mac nor Windows needs you to buy third-party software like Norton or McAfee. It might look nice and feel reassuring, but the benefits are highly debatable for the costs and such software is itself a cause of slowing your computer down or errors encountered.
If you truly can’t push your budget past the £1,000 mark, then there’s the option of the 256GB storage version of this MacBook for £949. With that one though, you’ll need to buy an external hard drive if you deal with videos or pictures.
Best 2025 Laptop for Under £500
Since my previous laptop buyers guide, it’s amazing how stable prices are and yet you get more computing power for your money. So here’s my suggestion for the best laptop for those budget-conscious individuals needing a solid laptop for basic needs…
Dell Inspiron 15 – £479
If your max budget is £500, this Dell Inspiron 15 laptop is probably your best option. It balances performance, memory and functionality for professionals and students on a limited budget.
With 16GB RAM (DDR4 not DDR5, hence slight price difference) and the solid Intel i5 processor, you won’t be hampered by speed as you work on your documents, spreadsheets, or edit photos for example. 512GB of quality SSD storage is also quite generous. You’ll still get Windows 11 and most of the holes you’ll need to plug stuff in (note however it lacks a USB-C port).
The 15.6 inch screen size with full HD display resolution will also be appealing to those who like to work on bigger screens. I know I do when building dashboards in Excel! This comes with extra weight though at 1.8KG, while the battery life is shorter than those listed above.
Got £2,000? Then Here’s the Laptop for You!
If you’ve got a £2k budget for your laptop, you’re probably needing serious processing power for resource-intensive apps like 3D modelling, graphic design, lengthy video / audio editing, animation and such. If you don’t have this ambition, let me save you £1,000 and simply refer you back to the £1,000 options! You might choose to contribute to my self-funded work as a thank you!
But if you’ve got the need for such superwhizz systems, or just want something flashy and have the cash to splash, read on. Here’s the one on my Christmas wish list after much research, and which I’m happy to share with you…
MacBook Pro 2024 14.2 Inch – £2,149
If there was ever a machine to lust after, this is it. This MacBook Pro is a beautiful beast, boasting Apple’s latest M4 Pro chip, 24GB of its Unified Memory, and 1TB SSD drive, for superfast processing and storage. This high performance allows for multitasking even with otherwise resource-intensive software.
The battery life is advertised as up to 24 hours, 6 hours more than the best of the other laptops. And on the subject of longevity, you’ll get peace of mind from these powerhouses being built to last you at least a decade. It’s even advertised as ‘built for Apple Intelligence’, keeping you ahead of the curve for the AI processing needs no doubt coming in the future.
The Liquid Retina display just melts in your eyes. The in-built camera and speakers are more than decent enough to save you clogging up your workspace with accessories. And there’s more useful ports than offered with the MacBook Air if you do want to plug other stuff in.
Yes, I’m a fan, can you tell? Alas, one can only dream, as I’ve not figured out a successful way of monetizing this blog yet and Google won’t let me monetise my YouTube channel… ho-hum! Anyway, I do this in my spare time, so it’s not a disaster, I have a day job… I’ll just start saving now.
Oh and if you’re wondering about all your Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations, and Word documents: Don’t worry, it’s fine. The Mac OS is completely compatible with these popular Microsoft applications and have been for years. You don’t need to learn new software by using Apple’s variations on these (Numbers, Keynote, Pages). I switch between mine regularly and compatibility is never an issue.
If you are heavily Windows-centric and not interested in Apple, that’s fine too. Instead, check out this ASUS ProArt 16 inch laptop, with a big beautiful touchscreen 4K OLED display, 32GB RAM, 2TB storage, and a super graphics card. It’s available right now for £2,102 on Amazon.
I hope you’ve found these options helpful. Let me know your thoughts in the comments and what you went for in the end.
Kind Regards, Adrian
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