You can likely trace the start of the small computer trend back to the original Mac mini, which debuted in 2005 with a simple pitch: What if desktop, but tiny?
Finding the perfect laptop without breaking the bank isn’t as hard as you might think. These days, the best cheap laptops still pack a lot of punch, offering great features without a premium price tag. Whether you need a laptop for work, school, streaming or just staying connected, there are plenty of affordable options that can handle your everyday needs. You don’t have to settle for outdated tech, either — many budget laptops now come with decent processors, long battery life and even sleek designs that won’t cramp your style.
If you want to back up valuable data from your PC, transfer videos to a Mac or offload a few games from your game console, a good external SSD can help. These tiny bricks may cost more than a traditional portable hard drive, but they’re noticeably faster, smaller and far more reliable in the long term. That said, determining the best external SSD for you isn’t as simple as picking the one that’s priced the lowest or packs the most space.
Despite all the inroads AMD has made in recent years with its Zen desktop CPUs, Intel has broadly managed to maintain one critical edge against its longtime rival: gaming performance. For those looking to eke every possible frame out of the latest AAA games, the company’s recent Core 5/7/9 often outperformed their AMD counterparts. Historically, however, that performance has come at the cost of power efficiency and thermals. Intel’s best 13th-genereation processors are absolute power-hungry beasts.
Truly good laptop deals can be few and far between, which is why you’d be remiss to sleep on an event like October Prime Day. While Amazon isn’t the first place we’d go to buy a laptop, particularly if you’re keen on speccing it out precisely as you need it to be, it can have solid, preconfigured models at good prices.
Amazon's October Prime Day sale kicked off today, bringing a wide range of discounts on gadgets and gear we recommend.
Choosing the best Windows laptop can be overwhelming with the wealth of options available.
ASUS's latest Zenbook S14, much like the Zenbook 14 OLED we reviewed last December, is a solid ultraportable with one major selling point: It's among the first laptops to use Intel's newest CPUs. In this case, it's the Core Ultra 7 258V, a processor that sits in the mid-range of the company's "Lunar Lake" lineup.
Lenovo has just revealed its latest lineup of laptops at IFA Berlin. The standouts seem to be Aura editions of the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 and Yoga Slim 7i.