It may be a big-ticket item, but a laptop can make a great choice as a Christmas gift.
Tablets are often cheaper, but there’s something to be said for having an all-in-one device that runs full desktop software — not just apps — has a decent keyboard and a larger display, and can be used comfortably on your lap or desk.
The best laptops offer the performance and versatility to replace a desktop PC altogether, making them a great choice to become the new home PC.
If there’s a student on your holiday shopping list, a new MacBook Pro or Surface Book could be just what they need for a productivity boost to complete assignments in their bedroom, dorm, library or coffee shop.
This has been a big year for laptops: Apple (AAPL) unveiled an all-new MacBook, Microsoft (MSFT) became a laptop designer for the first time and Intel’s (INTC) new sixth-generation Core chips have led the way to slimmer design and longer battery life than ever.
To help you choose, we’ve put together a list of the five best laptops to buy as part of your 2015 holiday shopping.
The 5 Best Laptops: 13-Inch MacBook Pro With Retina Display
Apple released the crazy thin new MacBook in 2015 and the MacBook Air continues to be a best-seller.
If there’s a Mac fan in your house, think twice about those two, though. The MacBook is hobbled by a lack of ports (just one USB-C port that also happens to be the power port), while the MacBook Air’s display has been stuck at the same low resolution since 2010.
The 13-Inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display should hit the sweet spot, and remains one of the best laptops in its class.
Starting at $1299, the 13-inch MacBook Pro is thin (just 0.71-inches), offers a Retina display, Flash storage, a full array of ports, Apple’s new Force Touch trackpad and 10-hour battery life.
You can soup up the littlest MacBook Pro to the point of being a mobile workstation with a Core i7 CPU, 16GB of RAM and 1TB of Flash storage, but even the base configuration should provides years of solid computing.
The 5 Best Laptops: Dell XPS 13
Dell tends to be associated more with business-class PCs than trendsetters, but with the 2015 edition of the XPS 13, it hit all the right notes.
An “Infinity Display” with practically no bezels to ruin its edge-to edge view, combined with an aluminum and carbon fiber body let Dell stuff a 13.3-inch screen in a laptop the size of an 11-inch ultra compact.
A CES 2015 standout, Microsoft has been pushing the XPS 13 as part of its Windows 10 drive. You can pick up the Signature Edition of the XPS 13 — with a Core i5 CPU, 8GB of RAM, 256GB SSD, QHD+ touchscreen display and 15 hour battery life — for $1,299.
The 5 Best Laptops: HP (HPQ) Star Wars Special Edition Laptop
If Star Wars could help to save Lego, maybe it could also help to turn around Hewlett Packard’s (HPQ) PC business.
Especially with the next instalment in the Star Wars movie franchise hitting theaters a week before Christmas and hype reaching a fevered pitch.
If there’s a Star Wars fan in your home and they happen to need a PC, HP has a new release that kills two birds with one gift: The Star Wars Special Edition Laptop.
Starting at $699, this thing is completely decked out in Star Wars graphics (not just a skin thrown on) and its hard drive is loaded with Star Wars content, including digital comic books, movie stills, screensavers and trailers.
It also has red backlit keyboard — invoking “the Dark Side” — and Star Wars sound effects.
In terms of specifications, it’s not bad. The 15.6-inch display is Full HD, and it has B&O Play Audio, a Core i5 CPU, 6GB of RAM, a 1TB hard drive, DVD burner and Windows 10. You can upgrade it to a more robust CPU, add a dedicated Nvidia (NVDA) graphics card and boost the RAM for a more capable configuration.
The 5 Best Laptops: ASUS ROG G751 Gaming Laptop
Playing PC video games on a laptop is popular, but requires specialized hardware.
Today’s gaming requires a powerful CPU to run their intensive graphics, and most importantly, a discrete video card.
Further, immersing players in the gaming experience requires a big display and powerful sound. and a keyboard that is programmable for an edge with game-specific macros.
In short, even the best laptops for the average consumer fall flat when it comes to serious gaming.
The Asus Republic of Gaming G751 Gaming laptop definitely does not.
It’s a monster of a laptop, available with a 17.3-inch Full HD display, quad-core Core i7 CPU at 3.5 GHz,24GB of fast RAM and overclocked Nvidia GeForce GTX video card with 4GB of RAM. The built-in audio system includes a subwoofer.
Keeping all this hardware from overheating requires dual fan cooling and a hefty, 8.4 pound case.
But for gamers, it’s worth it. So is the $1,659-plus price tag …
The 5 Best Laptops: Microsoft (MSFT) Surface Book
Finally, Microsoft’s first entry into the PC space (as a manufacturer) with it’s own laptop, the Surface Book.
The Surface Book has been having a moment as one of the coolest laptops around. It’s getting the kind of attention that used to be reserved for Apple’s MacBook Air.
Microsoft bills it as “The Ultimate Laptop” and while there’s a certain amount of marketing speak in that title, the Surface Book is one of the best laptops of 2015 and definitely tops in terms of convertible 2-in-1 devices.
With a starting price of $1499, the Surface Book isn’t cheap.
However, it has more than the premium look of it’s thin, magnesium case going for it. The Surface Book also offers high-end specs and an excellent overall laptop experience, including a razor-sharp display, sixth-generation Intel Core CPUs and 12-hour battery life.
Thanks to its innovative Fulcrum hinge and the ability to easily separate the display completely from the base to use as a tablet, the Surface Book effectively covers off two devices — tablet and laptop — which also helps to justify that premium price tag.
As of this writing, Brad Moon did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
