I second this, especially with the most recent Intel Ultra chips, they would be incredible. Hope we get them next year with 50 series GPUs and the super battery life the new Intel processors provide.
I used to own a MacBook Pro 2017 13”, with a dual core intel chip. At the time I was working on a large coding project at a company (internship). I saw that my Mac had done 2 hours of compile time in just 8 hours of work. Then I got the M1, it cut that down to around 35 minutes, about 4x as fast, and twice as efficient as well. Absolute game changer indeed, still use it today :D
When it comes to game changers, the Framework Laptop is certainly worth mentioning: Whilst the first Framework Laptop 13 was released in summer 2021, I finally decided to purchase one in late 2023 and received my Laptop 13 AMD Ryzen 7 in December. Framework's concept is awesome: Easy maintenance (such as cleaning out the dust once in a while) as well as the ability to repair (just think about replacing the battery after some time) and upgrade whatever component are easy to achieve. To open the chassis, you just need one tool, which they include. Framework provide plenty of manuals on their website, so any replacement is easy to accomplish. Choosing the DIY edition, you don't need to opt in when it comes to choose an OS. Just install your own, according to your preferences. You also don't need to purchase SSD and RAM, if you happen to have laying those around in a drawer already, or favor other brands and capacities than they offer. The individual configuration of connectors with the Framework expansion modules is highly welcome. Personally, I highly appreciate not having to run the cables criss-cross all over my physical desktop, because the connectors happen to be on the opposite side of where I actually need them to be. Love the Framework's design, which is somewhere the best of both worlds of MacBook Air and DELL XPS. Never ever before have I experienced that feeling of freedom and ownership like now with my Framework Laptop 13. I expect it will accompany me as my daily driver for the next decade. Lots of potential business customers also, they just need to realize Framework's advantages in comparison to certain other brands. Received my Laptop 13 AMD Ryzen 7 coincidentally on the same day ZORIN OS 17 was released. Installation was a walk in the park; everything (including Bluetooth and fingerprint reader) works out of the box. Current system life, meanwhile upgraded to ZORIN OS 17.2: 303 days.
Don't get me wrong, I love the concept behind Framework but will it really break through? Most people and companies I know prefer to buy a cheaper laptop and change it more often.
@@Kumoiwa Thanks for your reply. Those with a limited budget will always choose a suitable device - as I did in the past, too. With this purchase, I also took sustainability and longevity into account: I assume, Framework meanwhile got their feet safe and sound on the market, so this might not be only a vision. Just consider how they developed their components with consistent replaceability in their mind, such as hinges, additional expansion modules and, most recently, the new webcam and display: their concept seems to turn out futureproof. They might come up with a Snapdragon main board within two years. I might switch, and use the current AMD board as a file server or else. The external case for any Framework mainboard is already available, thanks to the cooperation with Cooler Master. The battery is going to have an external case quite soon as well, so my future file server is going to have its very own backup battery in case of a power outage. I am really looking forward to this - and, who knows what else is going to come?
@Kumoiwa i own one: if it ever breaks through it'll be a while. they're still really expensive for most people right now, but im glad they're successful enough to stick around so i can buy myself repair parts whenever i need them
Too expensive, customer support for RMA is HORRID, hardware is outdated. Sadly most FW buyers get sucked into this false pink fantasy world. They are fine laptops but just that. Fine.
@@Burbanana When it comes to pricing, I disagree. Might be too expensive for you. If you are satisfied with a plastic chassis and lid, and trash the thing after three years, the choice is yours to make. Since you apparently not a Framework customer, your assessment of their customer service is either hearsay or an assumption. Speaking for myself, current hardware suits my needs. And if it doesn't anymore one day, I am simply going to upgrade.
@@jonathanng138not to mention they created the modern laptop concept with their ThinkPad. I worked at IBM in 1992 when ThinkPad was a brand new product and it’s no exaggeration to say it set the gold standard on how a modern laptop should look and function. Apple revolutionised the concept again with the launch of the M1.
Recently I just bought the Macbook Air M1 at Walmart for $649, even though it's 4 years old, still a great portable to surf internet and do powerpoints/spreadsheets.
I have had a few laptops from this list. Dell XPS 13 was the one I really enjoyed at college, with stellar battery time and more than capable processor for school purpose. Now I am using Lenovo T at work and Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition for private usage. My personal favorite is the XPS Gen 2 launched in 2005. A behemoth that had all the oomph you could possibly think of. The processor was "power efficient" and fast thanks to the Pentium M 770 and super powerful graphics card thanks to its GeForce 6800 Go Ultra. The only time in history where the graphics card on a laptop has been faster than the desktop counterpart.
Your coverage of the IdeaPad 5 a few years ago was a game changer for me. I had a cheap Toshiba laptop in 2015 when I started grad school and it was awful. When I had to write my preliminary candidacy exam, I finally pulled the trigger on a ThinkPad in 2017 as expensive as it was, it was well worth it for the productivity. I told myself I would never go back to a consumer laptop until you posted the video of the Ryzen 4000 IdeaPad 5 14 and how it got all the basics right for under $800. Then one year later you covered the IdeaPad 5 Pro 16 that took it one step further. The 5800H/1650 model was amazing for around $1000 but when I looked for it, it sold out so fast either due to popularity or supply issues during the chip shortage. But the next year, the 6800HS/3050 model came out and I bought it almost immediately for $1100 and it was and still is a fantastic budget/value work and creator laptop. Thank you so much for all the reviews and the no marketing bs attitude you have towards all your videos.
I've used the foldover tablet mode in both school and work. I usually have a desk. At school it's easier to take notes with a pen and screen (esp technical notes like with a new language or math) and at work I use the flip over pen mode to take notes between word documents or with ppts during client meetings. Again so much easier than typing and less loud.
@JustJoshTech also want to point out that they are especially useful in face to face client meetings even if those are more spare these days. It's awkward to have an entire table of people staring into their screens. A 2 in 1 with a stylus flat on the table is so much more conducive to eye contact and facilitation of slides. If you are sharing screen, notes on the document show you are really listening. This is an under-advertised use case. Too many laptops are reviewed on features and not usability scenarios.
bruh. this video gave me chills. amazing video. you are such an under rated channel. got your video when i wanted to research for vivobook s 14. a huge shoutout to your channel!
My list would include: LG P310 (crazy powerfull 13-inch from 2009), thinkpad T450s (powerbridge rocks) and HP ProBook 635 Aero G7/G8. And maybe Gigabyte Aero (with 1060) but in 14" flavor. The last one is the only one that I don't own, but had "hands on" expirience. Now i would probably go for Framework laptop.
Another important laptop is Dell Inspiron Gaming series. This was the first "Budget Gaming" category laptop. Before this the only gaming laptops were super expensive and flashy design. This thing sold like hot cakes and every other brand started to make their own budget gaming laptop too. Another laptop I was expecting was the Zephyrus G14. It was the first portable (14") gaming laptop with decent battery life. Making it an all rounder portable laptop
I would go one generation earlier on the ThinkPad, to the ThinkPad 380 series. There were drivers for Windows NT 4.0, so you could install and test a bunch of different software before you built the client’s server. It also ran Redhat and OS/2, the latter of which a few clients back in the day were still using for file and print services. You could even install Netware on it and stand up an IPX network. It felt like I was tearing down and rebuild that laptop every two weeks and it never so much as hiccuped. Great machine.
Thinkpad 700c. First computer with a color TFT active-matrix display. We went from 18:1 contrast and 50 nits on a TN display to 100:1 contrast and 150 nits with bright colorful 256-bit color. Mind blowing. And mind-blowingly expensive ($4350), 1992. The flagship of the Thinkpad 380 series.
The clamshell laptop had a replaceable wifi card under the keyboard. It was one of the first consumer laptops to have one and it worked great with Apple's "airport" base station. Using that in my dorm room in 1999 made most laptop users jeolous.
i'm an apple fan, so i agree with your top apple picks. apple's decisions were polarising between 2016-2022, but their hardware was always on point (screen, speakers, build quality etc.) they just had to reverse a few bad decisions and add their own chipset and that was it. also, macbook air original should have been included as it technically started the whole ultrabook revolution. if Air wasn't a mac, it would've been called an ultrabook. intel redesigned their chips to fit thin machines, starting with the macbook air, then spanning the entire industry.
@@theinktician The first Air was a design marvel but not that functional. The Vaio Z had an amazing design, was super powerful for its time and super portable...almost 10 years before!!!!
Great vid. Of all the Windows and MacOs laptops I've owned over the last 20 years, my pick goes to the 2023 Gigabyte Aero 16. It really is a mobile powerhouse with the build quality of a Macbook, but also includes the flexibilty of being able to enjoy the benefits of Windows (i.e. gaming, software compatibility, etc.).
Shout-out to the titanium PowerBook G4. It had fragile hinges, the paint could scratch, and the covered ports were an odd decision... but you felt like an absolute baller if you took one out of your bag. An amazing display and profile for the time, brisk performance, and battery life that was surprisingly good when many smaller, slower laptops struggled to last half as long. Also, I'm pleasantly delighted by the Surface Laptop 7. I got to use one for a few weeks and it felt like an absolute workhorse. Not the thinnest, and app compatibility is still an issue, but it's quick and lasts forever on battery.
I'm surprised the very first Asus G14 wasn't on this list. It managed to upset the gaming laptop market with an powerful yet affordable option that was built well.
The 2020 M1 MacBook Pro was to this day the biggest WOW effect I‘ve ever had in my tech life. Very much like in sci-fi movies when all the HQ people look at each other and say at the same time „how it is even possible“.
My wife has had 2 of those (the most expensive versions) and the OLED screen on the Dell XPS 7590 obliterates anything Apple except Tandem. The antireflective coating eliminated reflections 3x more than the new Asus Zenbook OLED and was better than the matte screen it replaced. Also, the soft feel keyboard is something that I disliked at the start but it's like having wood looking speakers versus plastic ones. Would you rather touch cold or warm metal or a soft surface? I was going to buy the Macbook Pro but the XPS's screen proved to be the best screen of all time so I made the right choice and I might have saved $1,500 as the Dell on a huge sale was $2,000. It's hard to look at anything after that even OLED TVs like the LG G4 and Sony A95L.
@@techsamurai11 XPS stopped making OLED, which by the way came as a very expensive option. Standard XPS displays are 60Hz 330nits so trash I returned my 15 eps the next day. Never dell again.
@@techsamurai11Seeing OLED against the MacBook screens isn’t that much of an obliteration. It’s a bit better but overall I never noticed that much. The MacBook screen can get so much brighter. There’s so ghosting Apple should fix but once they replace it with tandem OLED I’m not going to upgrade. Problem is I don’t see gaming computers get better without sounding like jet engines.
@@techsamurai11 Nothing beats the HP Sprectre x360 14in in terms of value. 3K OLED IntelArc sells at $790 openbox. I almost want to buy my whole family each to have one.
My favourite will always be the Macbook Pro 2011 (Late edition). One of the first laptops to have quad-core CPUs with a base 2.2-2.4Ghz, was upgradeable to 16GBs of RAM, it ran faster than my family desktop computer easily, had a fab LED display (I think) 750GBs of HDD, thunderbolt, firewire, fast charging and built like a brick, for 2011 it was a monster.
You are totally right with the ryzen 4,000 laptop CPUs! I bougt a Zenbook 14 with Ryzen 4700u, 16 Gb 4266Ram and it was much better than any of my previous laptops. I spilled cofee on it but was able to save it. Sure, the keyboard doesn't work any more, same as the speakers and it only turns on if its connected to power, but I still use it as my current desktop for the last year and its still fast enough for everything I do.
I have fond memories of my first gen Surface Book. I actually used the detachable screen feature to flip the screen around and use it to read documentation while I was coding on a second screen. Also, that hinge was very sturdy. Dropped the laptop a fewtimes directly onto the hinge, and it just shrugged it off. I do miss the days when Microsoft experimented with actually interesting ideas and wasn't just throwing AI at everything
the thinkpads especially the p50 trully was one of the best if not the best laptops of their days imo, durable and repairable with super long battery lives
A lot of winners on your list that I personally used. I had the 13" Surface Book and it was a premium device, and used it for years until I switched to the M series Apple laptops. I currently have the M3 MBP 14 and it's a beast.
We treid to buy a Dell 3D laptop in 1998, it was the Inspiron 7000 I think with ATI Mobility Rage Pro LT graphics, probably. IT HAD A SWAPPABLE 3D GRAPHICS CARD. After 20 days of trying to get all the drivers to work at the same time, we had to send it back, and we got an Inspiron 3700 instead.
The G16 also should be on the list, a powerful lightweight 16-inch windows laptop with a great 240htz OLED screen and great speakers. Combined with excellent port selection and small bezels, it's one of the best laptops ever made for both creators and gamers.
I'd like to mention the Huawei Matebook X Pro (2018). I remember every major tech website at the time calling it the best Windows laptop. Crazy thin bezels, awesome screen, and great performance.
This is Awesome. I have the number one Laptop 14 inch that Josh pointed out in the end of the video! It is 14 inch running M3 chip. And I loved all the other players in this video!
I think my favorite laptop or the one I'm nostalgic about was my G4 MacBook pro. I still grab my pixelbook go as well. My dad ran a pawn shop so when I was young all the first generation ones came through. I still remember lugging around a commodore. It was definitely not portable.
I think we should give a shout-out to the Acer Chromebook c720 series (2013-2018). I used to work at Google and their panopticon internal website would show you the status of all the chromebooks in the world (so they could know if there was a gigantic failure on some models and do something about it quickly during an OS rollout). Something like 85% of all the Chromebooks in the world were this one 11.3" computer. It ranged from IPS displays to regular TFT to touchscreen and from Celeron 2955U (real pentium, 2 cores 2 threads) cpus to i3-4005 cpus (2 cores 4 threads) with 2MB, 4MB, and a really, really comfortable shape that made it the computer that brough Chromebooks to life. I still have mine, running Linux, with a 256 GB flash drive upgrade. only mistake was onboard WiFi - not on a PCIe M2 card. It was an AMAZING laptop that never cost more than $300 !! (okay, maybe the i3-4005 model did, but none of the others did ...) A tiny powerhouse!
You'd be shocked how useful the Spectre x360 can be in convertible mode. I don't have to hold it while watching TV and surfing. Plus the inverted 4k screen becomes closer to 16-17 inches as it's closer and easier to touch. Also, the Dell 15 XPS 7590 had an Oled that hits 800 nits full white window (identical to the nit to the iPhone 13) with an antireflective screen that beat a matte screen it replaced. Probably the best laptop screen of all time.
3 things that are overlooked in laptops are the following Screen Quality (Samsung's pre 2020 OLEDs rule that and now Tandem is the natural successor) Antireflective coating (it triples the brightness during the day) Palm rest feel (the material around the keyboard and what you come into contact with the most and apply pressure to) In those 3 categories, one laptop stands heads and shoulders above all the rest.
I feel, a lot of nice and innovative laptops were missed for example asus flow with the the external graphics, and frame work! These are innovative and awesome to use!!
M1 Macbook Air, definite TOP spot... Passive cooling, excellent performance for the time and power draw. The day it was anounced I started about switching from x86 and finally did it. The M1 Air and M1 Max (Mac Studio) were game changers, so silent, minimal power draw for the performance and work and perform fine even today in 2024.
I'm a bit surprised by that Gigabyte Aero 15 (2019). I recall at the time I was looking to buy a laptop for gaming and content creation, with money not being an issue, and the Razer Blade 15 Mercury White seemed by far to be the best of the bunch back then. It's still my daily driver today.
Macbook with M series has only one huge drawback. The arm based processor, this prevents it from universal adoption. It is best in programming (probably not for all programming language such as fortran), content creation (which is what all the reviewers care about) and regular staff. But it’s inability to run 32 bit softwares, lack of support for nearly all the scientific softwares still makes it a niche product. Computers used to be a tool for scientific programming and computation, macbook still doesn’t serve the scientific community. Linux or windows on x86 is the way to go.
For a Desktop replacement hard to beat the MSI Creator 16 with 32GB Ram and RTX graphics an i9 and 2TB storage, but make sure you are near power because along with a heavy brick PS, battery life is maybe and hour and a half max under serious use, LOL. I do love my Yoga 7x that I got based on one of your YTs, although it's use as a photo editor awaits the software developers to catch up with ARM64 Windows. My first portable computer was Compaq luggable.
MacBook Air deserves a spot on the list! Even as a software engineer, I've been using these since 2010. Sure a MacBook Pro is often more powerful, but fails at the power/weight ratio and the value/power ratio. In combination with a Linux desktop and remote ssh development, a MacBook Air shines!
Well can't do anything but agree with your number one, considering I'm watching your video from the very same laptop, and it's been phenomenal for the almost 3 years I have had it so far. Only issue is that the screen is marked with the keyboard and trackpad, but I travel a lot and the computer ends up pretty tightly packed in my bag quite often, this probably doesn't help. Can't be seen when the screen is turned on tho.
I bought an Ideapad 5 in 2019 based on Josh's review from back then. It had good performance, great thermals (compared to my old Thinkpad) a decent IPS screen and was great value for money. However these laptops had a major issue, and that was their terrible screen hinges. They were so bad that it's pretty much guaranteed they would go out on you sooner or later. I managed to fix mine with JB weld. It kept on working fine for another few months until it finally died due to - I think - a GPU issue, as the screen would just completely glitch out and the computer would freeze. Overall I liked the laptop, but due the build quality issues mentioned, I wouldn't pick it for a top 10.
I did my PhD in EE with a macbook unibody! You have no idea about the outrage and bullying I had to endure because of using a mac regardless of triple booting Windows, linux and mac os X. It could really run absolutely everything including video games because of x86 + dedicated GPU! Excellent machine. Who would imagine that fast forward I would have to switch away from macbooks because of compatibility issues with the ARM cpus, no dedicated-GPUs and inability to run almost anything I need for work and gaming ./facepalm I guess the difference between 2008 apple and 2024 is that 2008 apple was striving to survive and become the leader vs 2024 apple that is already top and only cares to squeeze every possible penny from its customers to further increase profits with iphone and mac lines...
Oh Josh! Just be honest and switch the Macbook Air and Pro 14's spots. It didnt solve the main issue with the Air, but created a new one with pric - and I know there will be tons of people asking about the Rog G14, but as great as it was, I think the Ideapad 5 had a SLIGHTLY bigger impact, due to timing and lasting power. People were recommending the same laptop a year later but other gaming laptops caught up to the G14 the next year - and the 2021 version of the G14 ended up being as good if not better so idk where you go with it
I think the dell xps 13 is the best laptop I had. My mom still using my 9 year old xps 13, and works great. Currently have the MacBook Air 15 M2 which is wow for battery life, but did not feel as game changing as when I got the xps 13. Surprised Sony Vaio don’t get mentioned, their s series, p series and sz series were very good. I kept upgrading as they kept innovating, so I kept saying wow.
I really loved my first laptop - Dell XPS M1530. In 2008 it was amazing. Beautiful 1080p IPS display, excellent build quality for the time, fingerprint sensor to login (the old swipe style ones), good processor and graphics card (albeit it often ran hot with fan noise). With a discount code, cashback and a sale I got it for only £550. It also had a dvd slot and a remote control which clicked into the laptop's side. I remember being in awe when I unpacked it. It still works today!
You should see the Dell XPS 7590 with its 4k 800 nit OLED and a really soft inside chassis with a carbon fiber look. A t first, I was upset that it didn't use metal like the MacBook Pro 16 but the inviting soft material puts it in a different category than the Macbook Pro and 5 years later, it's brand new.
My current favorite is my Zenbook 14 Oled with Ryzen 7530u, 16 Gb 4266 Ram and 2TB WD SN 850X. The amazing 3K OLED touchscreen is the best I've ever used. The laptop is vefy fast, lightweight, beautiful and has a great battery life.
I am typing this message on the grandchild of that machine, Zenbook S16 OLED with Ryzen AI 365. Get the 365 because of the power limits - its just as fast as the 370.
Showing my age here, but the Apple Powerbook G3 was a great laptop for its day. I did hours and hours of Photoshop on mine without ever having a hiccup. When I sold it after a few years I got for it than a brand new Dell laptop cost.
Justice for the Asus zephyrus g14 ! I feel like it started the new era of laptops where you get power in a small, well built laptop, at a reasonable price ! It was such an all rounder and truly put AMD on the map for mobile
From ones that Ive owned: The Asus Zenbook 13 Oles with 5800U. Its was soooo good. It IS so good im struggling to find something better now for a price of 1000€.
I currently using Lenovo Ideapad Slim 3 14", and Asus Vivobook Max X441M. I considered those as my personal fave for a few reasons reason 1. X441M, it's budget Laptop but it has just nice speakers. And it still has some legacy things like VGA, ODD. And it's the first time I use USB C laptop, although only 1 function 😅 2. Ideapad one, just like X441M, but with exception: It's more powerful, more compact, and it's first time I use anti glare Laptop 😅
Seriously expected to see the Surface Laptop 7 here with Snapdragon XElite onboard, also really impressive laptop that have to change future of Windows laptops (I understand that they just copied Mabooks, but they literally made a good think for future)
MacBook Pro 14 really seems like the best laptop out there. The price is pretty steep tho and I'm thinking if 18GB RAM on the Mac is comparable performance-wise to a similarly priced windows laptop with 32GB+RTX 4060..
@@cameronbosch1213 From what I understand, he enjoys the concept but not the execution. He suggests that unless you really like the idea, or simply want to support the company behind Framework, to choose a different laptop until it's executed better. I personally think he should've been a little fairer to the Framebook company, but we all know how picky Josh can be sometimes.
They need to have an impact on the industry and leave a mark. If they immediately found absurd success and forced all the manufacturers to make their laptops upgradeable theyd certainly make the list. But then again, the 1st two generations were Intel-only in the two generations where they were still playing catchup
@theinktician Oh they already did. The right to repair movement pushed Lenovo to release the latest T14, with two sticks of upgradable RAM and an upgradable SSD as well as an easily repairable keyboard (iFixit only gave it a 9 out of 10 because the Wi-Fi card was soldered).
I had the 2007 Macbook Pro and it was okay, but not particularity reliable. My next laptop was the Thinkpad X220 with a IPS screen and close in time, the Thinkpad was better in almost every way and surely belongs on this list. I now own a Thinkpad X1C 6th Gen (outstanding except for soldered memory) and an Asus Zenbook 14X (you helped w/this choice) and it's pretty good (great screen) but otherwise unimpressive. to me, the M1
To me, the 2022 Lenovo Legion 7i was the peak of Lenovo gaming laptops. It had great performance, a premium yet understated chassis, a great port selection, and a great keyboard and touchpad. Sadly, Lenovo killed it in 2023...
MBP14 is the best. I switched to the G14 only so I can game. It’s amazing in every way but the trackpad isn’t perfect like the MacBooks. Overall it’s the best modern Windows laptop I’ve used.
Hey Josh - I've watched and loved your reviews for years now, sticking around well after I chose my new one because of how fair, entertaining and informative you are! Just one point of criticism - I feel that the editing in your videos has been sub-par, very formulaic and almost powerpoint-esque. It might be an unfair comparison to put you against MKBHD or MrMobile, who clearly have massive teams and artists behind their production, but it does take away from the video a bit. For example, in this video, the inspiring music laid down throughout doesn't add anything in my opinion. You're telling a detailed story with ups and downs, and this big, long track with the same mood throughout clashes with it.
Ah noted re the audio. I feel our visual editing has improved but yes we are certainly have a long way to go to reach that level :( Hopefully with more subscribers and more community support we can get there
The only apple device that I am consistently jealous of and considering getting is the MacBook. To this day, no windows laptop matches all of the strengths of even the M1 Air. Some windows laptops have better performance, some have similar build quality (VERY few), some have similarly nice keyboards and trackpads, but none have all of those in one package.
With all due respect to Josh, it is not the rating of the best laptops. Non of them were breakthrough in design or brought new tech. Where are Toshiba tecras, portege and librettos, no great Vaio like GT1, C1 Picturebook, U series, Z series, T series. No japanese Ibms like pc220, 110, 700c butterfly, 770. No fujitsu, no HP onibook 300 and 800, no gateways,no mitsubishi pedion... Just mass market crap
@@JustJoshTech I see you as a strong expert who pays attention to the videos done. From 1980s there were some great designs that made the modern laptop. But none of them reviewed in your video about the greatest laptops of all time. (If it is called of all time, lets look for all time). Toshiba t1100, early Porteges and Librettos HP omnibooks, especially 300 and 800 IBM 700c, 770, 365 and ricoh made pc110, 220, project chandra Sony vaio N505, C1, GT1, U50, UX, X505, Z series Mitsubishi Pedion Fujitsu P series subnotebooks and tablets Casio cassiopeia fiva All of them were great breakthrough designs, first on the market to give the new vision for the future. P.s. sorry if i sounded rough
@@kudryavchik I had owned 3-4 Sony VAIOs over the years. Was sad to see Sony discontinue them. Also, always wanted a Toshiba Tecra or Portege but never pulled the trigger. Also, I think ASUS's first mainstream, relatively affordable gaming laptop (G70) should have gotten a mention.
@@4ft3rburn3r sony were great laptops, but only the ones which were made in Japan by sony themselves. The models where there was the sticker made in China were made by oem/odm contracts by quanta, compal and etc.Toshiba was great too. About the modern laptop - to be fair I wouldnt include any of them as the best, because all modern designs come from 90s and 2000s. For example modern hi end ultrabooks take their roots from mitsubishi pedion and sony vaio x505. Also, modern laptop is much much simpler to design and produce. In old days you had separate cpu, separate northbridge, separate southbridge, lots of controllers and etc. todays laptops are made like smartphones - almost everything is concentrated in SOC. The only task - to use high quality mosfets for chips power supply and not to be greedy on copper to get the heat out.
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👉 My Favorite Laptops: www.justjosh.tech/recommendations
I personally would have thought that the MacBook Pro 16, especially with that screen, would have been your number one.
you forget. asus proart p16=best workstation,creators with 12 core
I think the G14 line from ASUS deserve an honorable spot here. They managed to build a new compact gaming laptop with good hardware there.
I second this, especially with the most recent Intel Ultra chips, they would be incredible. Hope we get them next year with 50 series GPUs and the super battery life the new Intel processors provide.
2021 g14 still going strong to this day
Good hardware, price, performance, it was such a perfect device and shaped the industry imo
I wanted to say the same until I've seen your comment
Just another Blade copy
The entire computing industry is not same after 2020. M1 at 999 was actually a revolution...
I used to own a MacBook Pro 2017 13”, with a dual core intel chip. At the time I was working on a large coding project at a company (internship). I saw that my Mac had done 2 hours of compile time in just 8 hours of work.
Then I got the M1, it cut that down to around 35 minutes, about 4x as fast, and twice as efficient as well. Absolute game changer indeed, still use it today :D
It feels like the era of good laptops only started in 2020
Used Thinkpads:
"Let us introduce ourselves"
Honestly for how long Windows has been around, manufacturers didn't even try to build all around great laptops until recently
That’s because the M1 Air came out then
@@wlcrutchm1 air is pretty epic ngl
Cus everything was so shit back then, until RTX laptops, and Arm Laptops like the Macbooks and Surface laptops came to existence.
When it comes to game changers, the Framework Laptop is certainly worth mentioning:
Whilst the first Framework Laptop 13 was released in summer 2021, I finally decided to purchase one in late 2023 and received my Laptop 13 AMD Ryzen 7 in December.
Framework's concept is awesome:
Easy maintenance (such as cleaning out the dust once in a while) as well as the ability to repair (just think about replacing the battery after some time) and upgrade whatever component are easy to achieve. To open the chassis, you just need one tool, which they include. Framework provide plenty of manuals on their website, so any replacement is easy to accomplish.
Choosing the DIY edition, you don't need to opt in when it comes to choose an OS. Just install your own, according to your preferences. You also don't need to purchase SSD and RAM, if you happen to have laying those around in a drawer already, or favor other brands and capacities than they offer.
The individual configuration of connectors with the Framework expansion modules is highly welcome. Personally, I highly appreciate not having to run the cables criss-cross all over my physical desktop, because the connectors happen to be on the opposite side of where I actually need them to be.
Love the Framework's design, which is somewhere the best of both worlds of MacBook Air and DELL XPS. Never ever before have I experienced that feeling of freedom and ownership like now with my Framework Laptop 13. I expect it will accompany me as my daily driver for the next decade.
Lots of potential business customers also, they just need to realize Framework's advantages in comparison to certain other brands.
Received my Laptop 13 AMD Ryzen 7 coincidentally on the same day ZORIN OS 17 was released. Installation was a walk in the park; everything (including Bluetooth and fingerprint reader) works out of the box. Current system life, meanwhile upgraded to ZORIN OS 17.2: 303 days.
Don't get me wrong, I love the concept behind Framework but will it really break through? Most people and companies I know prefer to buy a cheaper laptop and change it more often.
@@Kumoiwa
Thanks for your reply. Those with a limited budget will always choose a suitable device - as I did in the past, too.
With this purchase, I also took sustainability and longevity into account:
I assume, Framework meanwhile got their feet safe and sound on the market, so this might not be only a vision.
Just consider how they developed their components with consistent replaceability in their mind, such as hinges, additional expansion modules and, most recently, the new webcam and display: their concept seems to turn out futureproof.
They might come up with a Snapdragon main board within two years. I might switch, and use the current AMD board as a file server or else. The external case for any Framework mainboard is already available, thanks to the cooperation with Cooler Master. The battery is going to have an external case quite soon as well, so my future file server is going to have its very own backup battery in case of a power outage.
I am really looking forward to this - and, who knows what else is going to come?
@Kumoiwa i own one: if it ever breaks through it'll be a while. they're still really expensive for most people right now, but im glad they're successful enough to stick around so i can buy myself repair parts whenever i need them
Too expensive, customer support for RMA is HORRID, hardware is outdated. Sadly most FW buyers get sucked into this false pink fantasy world. They are fine laptops but just that. Fine.
@@Burbanana
When it comes to pricing, I disagree. Might be too expensive for you. If you are satisfied with a plastic chassis and lid, and trash the thing after three years, the choice is yours to make.
Since you apparently not a Framework customer, your assessment of their customer service is either hearsay or an assumption.
Speaking for myself, current hardware suits my needs. And if it doesn't anymore one day, I am simply going to upgrade.
0:44 lol " A little company called IBM"
They were fucken huge back then
@@jonathanng138not to mention they created the modern laptop concept with their ThinkPad. I worked at IBM in 1992 when ThinkPad was a brand new product and it’s no exaggeration to say it set the gold standard on how a modern laptop should look and function. Apple revolutionised the concept again with the launch of the M1.
GTX1000 series was so power efficient it made gaming laptops make sense. I still use my Asus ROG GL502VM with a 1060.
Recently I just bought the Macbook Air M1 at Walmart for $649, even though it's 4 years old, still a great portable to surf internet and do powerpoints/spreadsheets.
G14 definitely deserves a spot on this list!
MacBook Pro 14 truly is the GOAT
Edit: it’s a shame people in the comments have to gravitate towards negativity and toxicity. Do better, be better.
Crippled by trash os and ugly notch
If it hadn’t that fucking notch
Trash OS and company, not yet fully working linux support.
the M! Air was greater. Maybe not better, but its legacy is way better, as is its price
I don't like the new black-backed keyboard of the Pros. Still prefer the silver MacBook Air.
Glad to see the M1 getting the recognition it deserves. Just don’t get the 8gb ram version. I had it and it was unbearably slow
Honorary mention: Sony VAIO VPC-EB1Z0E/B - 15-inch laptop with a Blu-ray drive, 1080p Full HD screen, and a great keyboard.
I loved my Sony VAIO until it got stolen. They stopped making it by then and I was pissed
I have had a few laptops from this list. Dell XPS 13 was the one I really enjoyed at college, with stellar battery time and more than capable processor for school purpose.
Now I am using Lenovo T at work and Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition for private usage.
My personal favorite is the XPS Gen 2 launched in 2005. A behemoth that had all the oomph you could possibly think of. The processor was "power efficient" and fast thanks to the Pentium M 770 and super powerful graphics card thanks to its GeForce 6800 Go Ultra. The only time in history where the graphics card on a laptop has been faster than the desktop counterpart.
Your coverage of the IdeaPad 5 a few years ago was a game changer for me. I had a cheap Toshiba laptop in 2015 when I started grad school and it was awful. When I had to write my preliminary candidacy exam, I finally pulled the trigger on a ThinkPad in 2017 as expensive as it was, it was well worth it for the productivity. I told myself I would never go back to a consumer laptop until you posted the video of the Ryzen 4000 IdeaPad 5 14 and how it got all the basics right for under $800. Then one year later you covered the IdeaPad 5 Pro 16 that took it one step further. The 5800H/1650 model was amazing for around $1000 but when I looked for it, it sold out so fast either due to popularity or supply issues during the chip shortage. But the next year, the 6800HS/3050 model came out and I bought it almost immediately for $1100 and it was and still is a fantastic budget/value work and creator laptop. Thank you so much for all the reviews and the no marketing bs attitude you have towards all your videos.
I've used the foldover tablet mode in both school and work. I usually have a desk. At school it's easier to take notes with a pen and screen (esp technical notes like with a new language or math) and at work I use the flip over pen mode to take notes between word documents or with ppts during client meetings. Again so much easier than typing and less loud.
Good point
@JustJoshTech also want to point out that they are especially useful in face to face client meetings even if those are more spare these days. It's awkward to have an entire table of people staring into their screens. A 2 in 1 with a stylus flat on the table is so much more conducive to eye contact and facilitation of slides. If you are sharing screen, notes on the document show you are really listening. This is an under-advertised use case. Too many laptops are reviewed on features and not usability scenarios.
bruh. this video gave me chills. amazing video. you are such an under rated channel. got your video when i wanted to research for vivobook s 14. a huge shoutout to your channel!
My list would include: LG P310 (crazy powerfull 13-inch from 2009), thinkpad T450s (powerbridge rocks) and HP ProBook 635 Aero G7/G8. And maybe Gigabyte Aero (with 1060) but in 14" flavor. The last one is the only one that I don't own, but had "hands on" expirience. Now i would probably go for Framework laptop.
i think Asus dual screen zenbook duo should have been mentioned as it is something new and innovative
It's even more gimmicky than 2 in 1 laptops
@@Kumoiwa some of us love gimmicks. I have a separate work laptop already and a cool phone. The gimmicks differentiate my personal laptop as a device
Another important laptop is Dell Inspiron Gaming series. This was the first "Budget Gaming" category laptop. Before this the only gaming laptops were super expensive and flashy design.
This thing sold like hot cakes and every other brand started to make their own budget gaming laptop too.
Another laptop I was expecting was the Zephyrus G14. It was the first portable (14") gaming laptop with decent battery life. Making it an all rounder portable laptop
I think the 2020 Zephyrus G14 deserves an honorable mention.
I would go one generation earlier on the ThinkPad, to the ThinkPad 380 series. There were drivers for Windows NT 4.0, so you could install and test a bunch of different software before you built the client’s server. It also ran Redhat and OS/2, the latter of which a few clients back in the day were still using for file and print services. You could even install Netware on it and stand up an IPX network. It felt like I was tearing down and rebuild that laptop every two weeks and it never so much as hiccuped. Great machine.
Thinkpad 700c. First computer with a color TFT active-matrix display. We went from 18:1 contrast and 50 nits on a TN display to 100:1 contrast and 150 nits with bright colorful 256-bit color. Mind blowing. And mind-blowingly expensive ($4350), 1992. The flagship of the Thinkpad 380 series.
@@systemBuilder Solid choice!!!
Watching from an Alienware 13 R3. Still working like a champ.
I am watching from AW 13 R1, still works like a champ, but without an OLED and 1060 :'( i'm envy bro
The clamshell laptop had a replaceable wifi card under the keyboard. It was one of the first consumer laptops to have one and it worked great with Apple's "airport" base station. Using that in my dorm room in 1999 made most laptop users jeolous.
i'm an apple fan, so i agree with your top apple picks. apple's decisions were polarising between 2016-2022, but their hardware was always on point (screen, speakers, build quality etc.) they just had to reverse a few bad decisions and add their own chipset and that was it.
also, macbook air original should have been included as it technically started the whole ultrabook revolution. if Air wasn't a mac, it would've been called an ultrabook. intel redesigned their chips to fit thin machines, starting with the macbook air, then spanning the entire industry.
Sony Vaios were the first ultrabooks, long before the Macbook air ever existed. The Utrabook brand was launched from Intel as a response to the Air.
You agree that they make the list, but be honest- the Air should have been #1.
@@theinktician The first Air was a design marvel but not that functional. The Vaio Z had an amazing design, was super powerful for its time and super portable...almost 10 years before!!!!
@@skipper63400 oh yeah forgot the Vaio. that was amazing product design. I guess Air wasn't the first, but it definitely popularised it.
Great vid. Of all the Windows and MacOs laptops I've owned over the last 20 years, my pick goes to the 2023 Gigabyte Aero 16. It really is a mobile powerhouse with the build quality of a Macbook, but also includes the flexibilty of being able to enjoy the benefits of Windows (i.e. gaming, software compatibility, etc.).
Shout-out to the titanium PowerBook G4. It had fragile hinges, the paint could scratch, and the covered ports were an odd decision... but you felt like an absolute baller if you took one out of your bag. An amazing display and profile for the time, brisk performance, and battery life that was surprisingly good when many smaller, slower laptops struggled to last half as long.
Also, I'm pleasantly delighted by the Surface Laptop 7. I got to use one for a few weeks and it felt like an absolute workhorse. Not the thinnest, and app compatibility is still an issue, but it's quick and lasts forever on battery.
I'm surprised the very first Asus G14 wasn't on this list. It managed to upset the gaming laptop market with an powerful yet affordable option that was built well.
Yeah I think I should have swapped the ideapads for it. The concept was similar re ryzen 4000
The 2020 M1 MacBook Pro was to this day the biggest WOW effect I‘ve ever had in my tech life. Very much like in sci-fi movies when all the HQ people look at each other and say at the same time „how it is even possible“.
My wife has had 2 of those (the most expensive versions) and the OLED screen on the Dell XPS 7590 obliterates anything Apple except Tandem. The antireflective coating eliminated reflections 3x more than the new Asus Zenbook OLED and was better than the matte screen it replaced. Also, the soft feel keyboard is something that I disliked at the start but it's like having wood looking speakers versus plastic ones. Would you rather touch cold or warm metal or a soft surface?
I was going to buy the Macbook Pro but the XPS's screen proved to be the best screen of all time so I made the right choice and I might have saved $1,500 as the Dell on a huge sale was $2,000. It's hard to look at anything after that even OLED TVs like the LG G4 and Sony A95L.
@@techsamurai11 XPS stopped making OLED, which by the way came as a very expensive option. Standard XPS displays are 60Hz 330nits so trash I returned my 15 eps the next day. Never dell again.
@@techsamurai11Seeing OLED against the MacBook screens isn’t that much of an obliteration. It’s a bit better but overall I never noticed that much. The MacBook screen can get so much brighter.
There’s so ghosting Apple should fix but once they replace it with tandem OLED I’m not going to upgrade.
Problem is I don’t see gaming computers get better without sounding like jet engines.
@@GlobalWave1 Generally speaking it's better but this is a 1,000 nit LED-like OLED so yeah it obliterates any display ever made but Tandem.
@@techsamurai11 Nothing beats the HP Sprectre x360 14in in terms of value. 3K OLED IntelArc sells at $790 openbox. I almost want to buy my whole family each to have one.
My favourite will always be the Macbook Pro 2011 (Late edition). One of the first laptops to have quad-core CPUs with a base 2.2-2.4Ghz, was upgradeable to 16GBs of RAM, it ran faster than my family desktop computer easily, had a fab LED display (I think) 750GBs of HDD, thunderbolt, firewire, fast charging and built like a brick, for 2011 it was a monster.
You are totally right with the ryzen 4,000 laptop CPUs!
I bougt a Zenbook 14 with Ryzen 4700u, 16 Gb 4266Ram and it was much better than any of my previous laptops.
I spilled cofee on it but was able to save it. Sure, the keyboard doesn't work any more, same as the speakers and it only turns on if its connected to power, but I still use it as my current desktop for the last year and its still fast enough for everything I do.
I have fond memories of my first gen Surface Book. I actually used the detachable screen feature to flip the screen around and use it to read documentation while I was coding on a second screen. Also, that hinge was very sturdy. Dropped the laptop a fewtimes directly onto the hinge, and it just shrugged it off. I do miss the days when Microsoft experimented with actually interesting ideas and wasn't just throwing AI at everything
the thinkpads especially the p50 trully was one of the best if not the best laptops of their days imo, durable and repairable with super long battery lives
A lot of winners on your list that I personally used. I had the 13" Surface Book and it was a premium device, and used it for years until I switched to the M series Apple laptops. I currently have the M3 MBP 14 and it's a beast.
This was a great watch! Amazing to see how far we've come.
We treid to buy a Dell 3D laptop in 1998, it was the Inspiron 7000 I think with ATI Mobility Rage Pro LT graphics, probably. IT HAD A SWAPPABLE 3D GRAPHICS CARD. After 20 days of trying to get all the drivers to work at the same time, we had to send it back, and we got an Inspiron 3700 instead.
This was such a fun video- I enjoyed it, thanks!
The G16 also should be on the list, a powerful lightweight 16-inch windows laptop with a great 240htz OLED screen and great speakers. Combined with excellent port selection and small bezels, it's one of the best laptops ever made for both creators and gamers.
I'd like to mention the Huawei Matebook X Pro (2018). I remember every major tech website at the time calling it the best Windows laptop. Crazy thin bezels, awesome screen, and great performance.
This is Awesome. I have the number one Laptop 14 inch that Josh pointed out in the end of the video! It is 14 inch running M3 chip. And I loved all the other players in this video!
I'm hooked by your channel since the Lenovo IdeaPad 5 (14") and (15"). That's the starting point.
Wow! Glad you've been with me for so long and seen the journey
I think my favorite laptop or the one I'm nostalgic about was my G4 MacBook pro. I still grab my pixelbook go as well. My dad ran a pawn shop so when I was young all the first generation ones came through. I still remember lugging around a commodore. It was definitely not portable.
I think we should give a shout-out to the Acer Chromebook c720 series (2013-2018). I used to work at Google and their panopticon internal website would show you the status of all the chromebooks in the world (so they could know if there was a gigantic failure on some models and do something about it quickly during an OS rollout). Something like 85% of all the Chromebooks in the world were this one 11.3" computer. It ranged from IPS displays to regular TFT to touchscreen and from Celeron 2955U (real pentium, 2 cores 2 threads) cpus to i3-4005 cpus (2 cores 4 threads) with 2MB, 4MB, and a really, really comfortable shape that made it the computer that brough Chromebooks to life. I still have mine, running Linux, with a 256 GB flash drive upgrade. only mistake was onboard WiFi - not on a PCIe M2 card. It was an AMAZING laptop that never cost more than $300 !! (okay, maybe the i3-4005 model did, but none of the others did ...) A tiny powerhouse!
You'd be shocked how useful the Spectre x360 can be in convertible mode. I don't have to hold it while watching TV and surfing. Plus the inverted 4k screen becomes closer to 16-17 inches as it's closer and easier to touch.
Also, the Dell 15 XPS 7590 had an Oled that hits 800 nits full white window (identical to the nit to the iPhone 13) with an antireflective screen that beat a matte screen it replaced. Probably the best laptop screen of all time.
You missed the Matebook X Pro. Stunning asthetics and screen!
3 things that are overlooked in laptops are the following
Screen Quality (Samsung's pre 2020 OLEDs rule that and now Tandem is the natural successor)
Antireflective coating (it triples the brightness during the day)
Palm rest feel (the material around the keyboard and what you come into contact with the most and apply pressure to)
In those 3 categories, one laptop stands heads and shoulders above all the rest.
Thinkpads?
It's good to put things into perspective from time to time.
Love this video! would love to see more vintage laptop vids.
I got the Legion Slim 7 cuz of u and it’s my first laptop ever ! I like my laptop
I feel, a lot of nice and innovative laptops were missed for example asus flow with the the external graphics, and frame work! These are innovative and awesome to use!!
M1 Macbook Air, definite TOP spot... Passive cooling, excellent performance for the time and power draw. The day it was anounced I started about switching from x86 and finally did it. The M1 Air and M1 Max (Mac Studio) were game changers, so silent, minimal power draw for the performance and work and perform fine even today in 2024.
I'm a bit surprised by that Gigabyte Aero 15 (2019). I recall at the time I was looking to buy a laptop for gaming and content creation, with money not being an issue, and the Razer Blade 15 Mercury White seemed by far to be the best of the bunch back then. It's still my daily driver today.
I'm still rocking the gen2 surface laptop. Hasn't skipped a beat ever.
My top 3 (Not in any order):
M1 MacBook Pro
Surface Pro 4
ThinkPad T490
Macbook with M series has only one huge drawback. The arm based processor, this prevents it from universal adoption. It is best in programming (probably not for all programming language such as fortran), content creation (which is what all the reviewers care about) and regular staff. But it’s inability to run 32 bit softwares, lack of support for nearly all the scientific softwares still makes it a niche product. Computers used to be a tool for scientific programming and computation, macbook still doesn’t serve the scientific community. Linux or windows on x86 is the way to go.
For a Desktop replacement hard to beat the MSI Creator 16 with 32GB Ram and RTX graphics an i9 and 2TB storage, but make sure you are near power because along with a heavy brick PS, battery life is maybe and hour and a half max under serious use, LOL. I do love my Yoga 7x that I got based on one of your YTs, although it's use as a photo editor awaits the software developers to catch up with ARM64 Windows. My first portable computer was Compaq luggable.
m1 pro 14inch was my first macbook, the build quality is top compared with all the windows "premium" laptops that i tried in the past
I would love a review of the new thinkpad t14s gen 6 with the new AMD ryzen AI to see how much it has improved battery life and performance.
MacBook Air deserves a spot on the list! Even as a software engineer, I've been using these since 2010. Sure a MacBook Pro is often more powerful, but fails at the power/weight ratio and the value/power ratio. In combination with a Linux desktop and remote ssh development, a MacBook Air shines!
It is on the list!
But good add re use case
@@JustJoshTech I suppose it was. In its new incarnation anyhow:)
Well can't do anything but agree with your number one, considering I'm watching your video from the very same laptop, and it's been phenomenal for the almost 3 years I have had it so far.
Only issue is that the screen is marked with the keyboard and trackpad, but I travel a lot and the computer ends up pretty tightly packed in my bag quite often, this probably doesn't help. Can't be seen when the screen is turned on tho.
I bought an Ideapad 5 in 2019 based on Josh's review from back then. It had good performance, great thermals (compared to my old Thinkpad) a decent IPS screen and was great value for money. However these laptops had a major issue, and that was their terrible screen hinges. They were so bad that it's pretty much guaranteed they would go out on you sooner or later. I managed to fix mine with JB weld. It kept on working fine for another few months until it finally died due to - I think - a GPU issue, as the screen would just completely glitch out and the computer would freeze. Overall I liked the laptop, but due the build quality issues mentioned, I wouldn't pick it for a top 10.
Same. Great prices (ours was $700) but the screen failed and I did something bad when I went to replace the very-rare toshiba Igzo screen.
I did my PhD in EE with a macbook unibody! You have no idea about the outrage and bullying I had to endure because of using a mac regardless of triple booting Windows, linux and mac os X. It could really run absolutely everything including video games because of x86 + dedicated GPU! Excellent machine. Who would imagine that fast forward I would have to switch away from macbooks because of compatibility issues with the ARM cpus, no dedicated-GPUs and inability to run almost anything I need for work and gaming ./facepalm I guess the difference between 2008 apple and 2024 is that 2008 apple was striving to survive and become the leader vs 2024 apple that is already top and only cares to squeeze every possible penny from its customers to further increase profits with iphone and mac lines...
Agree. It's Apple vs the world.
Oh Josh! Just be honest and switch the Macbook Air and Pro 14's spots. It didnt solve the main issue with the Air, but created a new one with pric - and I know there will be tons of people asking about the Rog G14, but as great as it was, I think the Ideapad 5 had a SLIGHTLY bigger impact, due to timing and lasting power. People were recommending the same laptop a year later but other gaming laptops caught up to the G14 the next year - and the 2021 version of the G14 ended up being as good if not better so idk where you go with it
I think the dell xps 13 is the best laptop I had. My mom still using my 9 year old xps 13, and works great. Currently have the MacBook Air 15 M2 which is wow for battery life, but did not feel as game changing as when I got the xps 13. Surprised Sony Vaio don’t get mentioned, their s series, p series and sz series were very good. I kept upgrading as they kept innovating, so I kept saying wow.
Agree, XPS are great.
I really loved my first laptop - Dell XPS M1530. In 2008 it was amazing. Beautiful 1080p IPS display, excellent build quality for the time, fingerprint sensor to login (the old swipe style ones), good processor and graphics card (albeit it often ran hot with fan noise). With a discount code, cashback and a sale I got it for only £550. It also had a dvd slot and a remote control which clicked into the laptop's side. I remember being in awe when I unpacked it. It still works today!
You should see the Dell XPS 7590 with its 4k 800 nit OLED and a really soft inside chassis with a carbon fiber look. A t first, I was upset that it didn't use metal like the MacBook Pro 16 but the inviting soft material puts it in a different category than the Macbook Pro and 5 years later, it's brand new.
For me it is the MacBook Air 13 M1. I feel like that is really the first laptop I’ve ever owned where I’ve genuinely liked every aspect of it
I love my MacBook Pro 14. One thing I don't quite like is the keyboard, which feels a bit cramped. Still wouldn't choose any other machine right now.
My current favorite is my Zenbook 14 Oled with Ryzen 7530u, 16 Gb 4266 Ram and 2TB WD SN 850X.
The amazing 3K OLED touchscreen is the best I've ever used. The laptop is vefy fast, lightweight, beautiful and has a great battery life.
I am typing this message on the grandchild of that machine, Zenbook S16 OLED with Ryzen AI 365. Get the 365 because of the power limits - its just as fast as the 370.
Showing my age here, but the Apple Powerbook G3 was a great laptop for its day. I did hours and hours of Photoshop on mine without ever having a hiccup. When I sold it after a few years I got for it than a brand new Dell laptop cost.
Can't remember the brand but my first laptop was a small laptop, maybe 10 or 12 inch LCD screen, 512kb memory, a 3.5 disk drive, and a modem.
Justice for the Asus zephyrus g14 ! I feel like it started the new era of laptops where you get power in a small, well built laptop, at a reasonable price ! It was such an all rounder and truly put AMD on the map for mobile
Subscribed for the latest ThinkPad T series review
You are so so right mate. Here a future owner of a macbook pro 14
From ones that Ive owned: The Asus Zenbook 13 Oles with 5800U.
Its was soooo good. It IS so good im struggling to find something better now for a price of 1000€.
I liked my Toshiba laptop, it still works over 15yrs later (I did recently get a new battery for it). I'm sad Toshiba doesn't make laptops anymore.
There's Dynabook, which is the continuation of Toshiba, but under Sharp ownership.
I enjoyed this video. Nice walk down memory lane
What about the Sony Vaios? So many amazing models back at the time.
I still use my surface book 2 😅
I had an ThinkPad 61P in 2008 with an Full-HD display
I currently using Lenovo Ideapad Slim 3 14", and Asus Vivobook Max X441M. I considered those as my personal fave for a few reasons reason
1. X441M, it's budget Laptop but it has just nice speakers. And it still has some legacy things like VGA, ODD. And it's the first time I use USB C laptop, although only 1 function 😅
2. Ideapad one, just like X441M, but with exception: It's more powerful, more compact, and it's first time I use anti glare Laptop 😅
Any of these still worth buying apart from the MacBooks?
Seriously expected to see the Surface Laptop 7 here with Snapdragon XElite onboard, also really impressive laptop that have to change future of Windows laptops (I understand that they just copied Mabooks, but they literally made a good think for future)
MacBook Pro 14 really seems like the best laptop out there. The price is pretty steep tho and I'm thinking if 18GB RAM on the Mac is comparable performance-wise to a similarly priced windows laptop with 32GB+RTX 4060..
I am surprised there is no mention of Framework in this list.
Josh unreasonably hates them, so I'm not surprised he excluded them.
@@cameronbosch1213 From what I understand, he enjoys the concept but not the execution. He suggests that unless you really like the idea, or simply want to support the company behind Framework, to choose a different laptop until it's executed better.
I personally think he should've been a little fairer to the Framebook company, but we all know how picky Josh can be sometimes.
@ctrl_x1770 I agree. He should have been fairer, especially given Framework supports other OS officially, including Linux.
They need to have an impact on the industry and leave a mark. If they immediately found absurd success and forced all the manufacturers to make their laptops upgradeable theyd certainly make the list. But then again, the 1st two generations were Intel-only in the two generations where they were still playing catchup
@theinktician Oh they already did. The right to repair movement pushed Lenovo to release the latest T14, with two sticks of upgradable RAM and an upgradable SSD as well as an easily repairable keyboard (iFixit only gave it a 9 out of 10 because the Wi-Fi card was soldered).
I had the 2007 Macbook Pro and it was okay, but not particularity reliable. My next laptop was the Thinkpad X220 with a IPS screen and close in time, the Thinkpad was better in almost every way and surely belongs on this list. I now own a Thinkpad X1C 6th Gen (outstanding except for soldered memory) and an Asus Zenbook 14X (you helped w/this choice) and it's pretty good (great screen) but otherwise unimpressive. to me, the M1
honorable mention rn is the lenovo yoga pro 9i, probably the most versatile laptop rn, more versatile than mbp because gaming
To me, the 2022 Lenovo Legion 7i was the peak of Lenovo gaming laptops. It had great performance, a premium yet understated chassis, a great port selection, and a great keyboard and touchpad. Sadly, Lenovo killed it in 2023...
That was a great laptop
Please let's not praise the SB2 for thermals. Most models are struggling from serious throttling, even lower end i5s.
MBP14 is the best. I switched to the G14 only so I can game. It’s amazing in every way but the trackpad isn’t perfect like the MacBooks. Overall it’s the best modern Windows laptop I’ve used.
No Zephyrus G14, or the zenbook with two screens? Those two laptops are very important landmarks of where we are in my opinion
Hey Josh - I've watched and loved your reviews for years now, sticking around well after I chose my new one because of how fair, entertaining and informative you are!
Just one point of criticism - I feel that the editing in your videos has been sub-par, very formulaic and almost powerpoint-esque. It might be an unfair comparison to put you against MKBHD or MrMobile, who clearly have massive teams and artists behind their production, but it does take away from the video a bit. For example, in this video, the inspiring music laid down throughout doesn't add anything in my opinion. You're telling a detailed story with ups and downs, and this big, long track with the same mood throughout clashes with it.
Ah noted re the audio. I feel our visual editing has improved but yes we are certainly have a long way to go to reach that level :( Hopefully with more subscribers and more community support we can get there
An emotional video😂😂. Thank
You just forgot the Sony Z1XMP and its stunning design
The only apple device that I am consistently jealous of and considering getting is the MacBook. To this day, no windows laptop matches all of the strengths of even the M1 Air. Some windows laptops have better performance, some have similar build quality (VERY few), some have similarly nice keyboards and trackpads, but none have all of those in one package.
I think the first Asus G14 also deserved to be on yhe list...
I have an m1 pro 16 and it absolutely is the best laptop I have ever owned and arguely the best to exist.
2017 Google Pixelbook needed a mention!
Msi GT87 with 2 1080 Ti’s in sli or the acer predator with the curved screen were the peak in gaming laptops
You missed the HP Omen 15 the AMD Ryzen 4800 and Nvidia gtx 1660 ti that replaced aero!
With all due respect to Josh, it is not the rating of the best laptops. Non of them were breakthrough in design or brought new tech. Where are Toshiba tecras, portege and librettos, no great Vaio like GT1, C1 Picturebook, U series, Z series, T series. No japanese Ibms like pc220, 110, 700c butterfly, 770. No fujitsu, no HP onibook 300 and 800, no gateways,no mitsubishi pedion... Just mass market crap
Your comment is a helpful addition. Even though the tone sounds tough
@@JustJoshTech I see you as a strong expert who pays attention to the videos done. From 1980s there were some great designs that made the modern laptop. But none of them reviewed in your video about the greatest laptops of all time. (If it is called of all time, lets look for all time).
Toshiba t1100, early Porteges and Librettos
HP omnibooks, especially 300 and 800
IBM 700c, 770, 365 and ricoh made pc110, 220, project chandra
Sony vaio N505, C1, GT1, U50, UX, X505, Z series
Mitsubishi Pedion
Fujitsu P series subnotebooks and tablets
Casio cassiopeia fiva
All of them were great breakthrough designs, first on the market to give the new vision for the future.
P.s. sorry if i sounded rough
@@kudryavchik I had owned 3-4 Sony VAIOs over the years. Was sad to see Sony discontinue them. Also, always wanted a Toshiba Tecra or Portege but never pulled the trigger. Also, I think ASUS's first mainstream, relatively affordable gaming laptop (G70) should have gotten a mention.
@@4ft3rburn3r sony were great laptops, but only the ones which were made in Japan by sony themselves. The models where there was the sticker made in China were made by oem/odm contracts by quanta, compal and etc.Toshiba was great too. About the modern laptop - to be fair I wouldnt include any of them as the best, because all modern designs come from 90s and 2000s. For example modern hi end ultrabooks take their roots from mitsubishi pedion and sony vaio x505. Also, modern laptop is much much simpler to design and produce. In old days you had separate cpu, separate northbridge, separate southbridge, lots of controllers and etc. todays laptops are made like smartphones - almost everything is concentrated in SOC. The only task - to use high quality mosfets for chips power supply and not to be greedy on copper to get the heat out.
Love collectable tech!