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2023 saw the launch of several interesting and crazy laptops. The MobileSyrup teams gets to go hands-on with and try out various different laptops throughout the year, and, while we don’t get to try every new laptop, we definitely test out some interesting ones.
A few housekeeping things before we get into it. First, we picked from among the laptops we actually used this year, which unfortunately means no Chromebooks were included in this selection. Second, we changed up our categories slightly this year: we have a top pick for Windows and macOS, along with a favourite-looking laptop and the weird laptop we liked the most.
With that in mind, here’s our list of the best laptops from the year.
Favourite Windows laptop: Lenovo ThinkPad Z13
Lenovo’s ThinkPad Z13 impressed me this year, offering some of the best build quality I’ve seen from the company in one of the most stylish designs ever offered. It’s got leather on the lid. Well, it’s vegan leather, but it still looks great with the bronze accents.
Couple that with solid performance from its Ryzen 7 Pro 6850U chip, okay battery life, and a wonderfully compact design, and this was easily the laptop I most enjoyed using this year.
Read the full review | Price: Unfortunately, the Z13 has been de-listed from Lenovo’s website in favour of the second-gen Z13. While we have not reviewed it, it doesn’t appear to be significantly different than the first-gen Z13. It starts at $2,029.30.
Favourite MacBook: 15-inch MacBook Air
MobileSyrup’s editor-in-chief Patrick O’Rourke was a big fan of Apple’s bigger MacBook Air. The laptop is basically identical to the 13-inch MacBook Air, just bigger — and that’s great. Thanks to the thin, light design of the Air series, the 15-inch model doesn’t feel big and hefty, but it still offers ample display space.
Other pros of the 15-inch Air are that it offers excellent battery life, a stellar design, and a great typing experience. Plus, the trackpad is even bigger thanks to the extra space afforded by the large chassis. Sure, it only has the M2 chip, but O’Rourke says the M3 doesn’t bring enough gains to justify stepping up to the MacBook Pro over the Air.
Read the full review | Price: Starts at $1,749
Favourite-looking laptop: LG Gram Style
While I generally like LG’s Gram series of laptops, I usually find them boring. Not so with the LG Gram Style, a new entrant to the line in 2023 that is hands-down my favourite-looking laptop of the year. It’s positively stunning with an iridescent coating and the seamless trackpad/palm rest below the keyboard.
Beyond good looks, the Gram Style manages to be a pretty good laptop, packing a huge display into a thin and light profile. As much as I liked the design, it had a few issues holding it back from being my favourite laptop of the year (but hey, there’s always next year).
Read the full review | Price: Starts at $2,199.99
Favourite weird laptop: Lenovo Yoga Book 9i
This year, the Yoga Book 9i was the clear choice for our ‘weirdest’ category. It’s the first dual-screen laptop I’ve ever used, and it was quite the experience. The Yoga Book 9i takes the typical clamshell laptop design and replaces the keyboard and trackpad with a second display. Instead, you can use a wireless keyboard for typing (or turn one of the displays into a touch keyboard, but that wasn’t great).
In my experience with it, having two screens was a huge boost to my productivity when I had somewhere solid to put the laptop, like on a desk. But when I wanted to use it on, you know, my lap, the whole operation kind of fell apart. I’ll be keeping an eye on this laptop series going forward to see how Lenovo improves it. Who knows, maybe in the future a dual-screen laptop will break out of ‘weirdest’ and land in the best laptop spot.
Read the full review | Price: $2,656
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