---
title: 'The Ultimate Laptop Buying Guide for 2026'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=L30S0WdRKQ4'
video_id: 'L30S0WdRKQ4'
date: 2026-08-03
duration_sec: 1093
---

# The Ultimate Laptop Buying Guide for 2026

> Source: [The Ultimate Laptop Buying Guide for 2026](https://youtube.com/watch?v=L30S0WdRKQ4)

## Summary

This video provides a comprehensive guide to buying a laptop in 2026, addressing the challenges of a confusing market, inflated prices, and misleading marketing. The creator shares practical advice on evaluating true prices, displays, processors, memory, storage, and GPUs, while also warning against common scams and the influence of sponsored reviews and AI recommendations.

### Key Points

- **Market Challenges** [00:01] — Finding a great laptop at a great price is difficult due to confusing products, sponsored reviews, and stores raising MSRP prices to simulate sales.
- **True Price Tracking** [00:43] — Use price trackers like bestlaptop.deals to see real price history and set alerts for genuine sales, avoiding fake discounts.
- **Display Myths** [01:23] — Screen size is not the only factor; resolution and brightness (in nits) are crucial. Aim for 400+ nits and ~200 PPI for crisp text.
- **Glossy vs Matte Panels** [02:28] — Glossy screens cause reflections in bright environments; matte or nano-texture displays reduce reflections but may look grainy. High brightness (500+ nits) helps with glossy panels.
- **OLED and MiniLED** [03:23] — OLEDs offer true blacks and vibrant colors; miniLEDs are also good. Tandem OLEDs are brighter with less ghosting. Budget laptops often have poor displays.
- **Processor Tiers** [04:32] — Processor names are confusing; the website groups them into poor, basic, good, and max tiers. Poor is for basic tasks, basic for students, good for demanding apps, max for high performance.
- **Battery Life Considerations** [06:26] — Powerful processors drain battery; Apple M-series, Intel Core Ultra Series 3, and Qualcomm Snapdragon X offer better balance. Qualcomm laptops run Windows on ARM, so app compatibility is a concern.
- **Memory Recommendations** [07:20] — 16GB is safe; 8GB is restrictive (Chrome slows after 24 tabs on Windows, 40 on Mac). 32GB is plenty for 99% of demanding work; more only for specific needs like local AI models.
- **Storage Guidance** [09:40] — 256GB is tight, 512GB is good for most, 1TB for creative work/gaming, 2TB max recommended. For more, use NAS or add a second SSD in gaming laptops.
- **GPU Power and Bottlenecks** [10:18] — GPU performance varies by power fed (e.g., RTX 5070 at 75W vs 115W). Avoid pairing top GPU with weak CPU; check for dual-channel memory (two sticks) to avoid bandwidth issues.
- **VRAM and Thermals** [13:35] — 8GB VRAM may limit high-res gaming; 12GB is better. Thermal throttling can prevent hitting GPU power limits, as seen with Asus Zephyrus G16.
- **Third-Party Seller Scams** [14:02] — Beware of third-party sellers on Amazon/Best Buy selling outdated hardware or older models at inflated prices. Check seller reputation and return policies.
- **AI and Sponsored Reviews** [15:37] — AI recommendations are biased by review volume and often suggest older laptops. Sponsored reviews may hide criticisms; trust sources that test laptops hands-on.
- **Avoid Financing** [17:14] — Buy now pay later schemes are debt traps; laptops depreciate quickly, so you may owe more than it's worth. Consider secondhand or older models instead.

### Conclusion

The key to buying a laptop in 2026 is to research thoroughly, prioritize specs like display quality, processor tier, memory, and GPU power, and avoid common pitfalls like third-party sellers and financing. Use trusted sources that test laptops hands-on and track real prices to get the best value.

## Transcript

how to pick the perfect laptop in a year where finding a great laptop for a great price, it is horrendous. Manufacturers have flooded the market with confusing products and sponsored reviews. So, it's easy to just accidentally buy the wrong
laptop. What's worse is that prices have gone through the roof. Stores are also deliberately raising MSRP prices, so you think you're getting a great sale when you aren't. Well, the good news is you can still find great laptops at decent
prices, but you need to know what to look for. And hopefully, if I've done my job, by the end of this video, you will. We will be following this video up with a bunch of top 10 buying guides. In fact, we just launched our annual best
laptops for programmers. So, get subscribed with the notification bell on so you don't miss them. The first thing I need you to understand is a laptop's true price. On our website, bestlaptop.deals, deals. We have a price
tracker that tracks prices right across retailers. That way, you can just cut through the crap and see what a laptop is normally sold for. If it's not currently at its best price, you can set a price drop notification to catch it
when it goes on a real sale, not a fake one. Now, do not just walk into a retail your research. So, I'm glad you found this channel. Some of the best laptops are not even sold in stores. At the time of writing this video, two of the best
of writing this video, two of the best ones, Lenovo's ThinkPad X915, Dell's XPS 13, they're not on any store floor, at least not that I'm aware of. All right, when it comes to a laptop's display, one of the biggest myths is buying a larger
screen laptop means you'll be able to see more. The screen size does matter, but it's only one of three factors that really determines how much you can comfortably see on screen. Resolution and brightness, they are the other two.
The higher the resolution, the crisper small text is a brighter screen is also going to make it easier to see. In stores, a laptop screen, it may appear brighter than it is because the store's lighting is dim. Brightness, it's
measured in nits. Ideally, you'll want a screen with 400 nits or more. You'll also want one with a resolution of around 200 pixels per inch or higher. We actually specify both brightness in nits and PPI on our website. I've also put
some common examples on screen. Right now, just to reinforce what I'm saying, on our Framework 13 Pro, it has a smaller 13.5 in screen, but because of how good that screen is, I can essentially zoom out and see more than
on my much larger Omnibook 16. Next, be careful about glossy panels. I wrote this script on a yoga and I had to angle the screen down to avoid reflections. Reflections can happen if you're using your laptop in a bright environment like
I was when I wrote this in a coffee store. And when they do, they are annoying. This is another thing you may not notice in a retail store because the lights are dim. Lenovo's Yogas and Legions as well as ASUS's Zenbooks and
Viva Books, they have notoriously glossy screen. So, be careful of this. Be aware of this if you intend to use your laptop in a brighter environment. Now, some anti-reflective coatings like Apple's MacBooks. We actually test for this and
call it out in our individual reviews. In general, a high brightness screen, I'd say 500 nits or above, that will help you deal with reflections on a glossy panel. But if you do plan to use your laptop outside or in a very bright
environment, well, you'll want a matte panel or one with a nanoexture display. Those prevent more reflections, but there is a trade-off. Content looks a little grainy and less vibrant. Talking about vibrant screens, OLEDs are
they can display true blacks, just making content pop more. Same goes with miniledd panels like the ones in the MacBook Pros. The best displays are tandem OLEDs. They get brighter than regular OLEDs and they have less
ghosting issues than miniLEDDs. Now, on that note, one of the big areas that budget laptops just cheap out is their displays. Cheaper gaming laptops, they often have panels with poor color accuracy and ghosting issues. Under
$1,000, guys, that sort of thing, it is part of the course. But don't be tricked paying more for a gaming laptop with one of those displays. Both Dell's Alienware 15 and Aurora, they have this issue, as well as HP's Victus and Gigabytes Gaming
A16. On thinner light laptops, though, you also have to be careful of cheap displays like TN panels. They have awful viewing angles or they have bad colors. In a reverse of fate for Dell, their new XPS 13 has one of the best displays in a
sub $800 laptop. an Apple's MacBook Neo that I have right here that also has a really good display at its price point. Speaking of the XPS 13 and the Neo, picking a laptop with the right processor is one of the most important
to determine what you can do on your laptop and what you can't. It is also one of the biggest factors in how long your laptop will last on battery. Now, unfortunately, understanding a laptop's processor today, it is a nightmare.
There are way too many options and the product names, they don't tell you how they perform. Perfect example, in the old days, Core i7 processors were faster than Core i5. Simple. Today, a Core Ultra 7 could be slower than a Core
Ultra 5 if that Ultra 5 is from a higher tier like Intel's HX tier. Clear as mud. Anyway, I got good news. We've done the heavy lifting for you. On our website, we have simply grouped all laptop processors into four tiers. poor
performing basic good and max. Now poor performing processors like those in the MacBook Neo or the Dell XPS 13, they should only be purchased if you are on a tasks like browsing the web, office applications, and responding to emails.
Basic performing processes, they are a noticeable step up. They are snappier for those kind of tasks and they will give you more longevity out of your laptop. They're also good enough for most students. Now, good performing
you're using demanding applications like photo or video editing, you're doing coding or anything like that. Same goes for people who want to play the latest AAA games. Anything less than a good performing processor will slow down a
discrete GPU if you're pairing it with a discrete GPU. Now, max performing processors are for people who want the most performance out of their laptop. projects. you want to play the latest AAA games at high settings and high
frame rates and anything like that. But keep the following in mind. If you go for a powerful laptop, most likely your battery life will be worse. If you want great battery life, well, look for a laptop with an Apple M series chip, an
Intel Core Ultra Series 31, or a Qualcomm Snapdragon X processor. Those are going to give you the best balance of performance and battery life. Now, a little note on Qualcomm powered laptops, office tasks, basic computing, they work
really well on those laptops. I own the Slim 7X, which I'll link below, and as I this very video on it. But be aware, Qualcomm laptops run a different version of Windows. Now, not all applications
work or work well on that version. You'll really want to ensure that your apps have a native Windows on ARM version. And if you don't know what apps probably avoid Qualcomm laptops, at least right now. Also, please keep in
mind, even though some creative apps do run natively on Qualcomm's hardware, those apps when run on Qualcomm's hardware will probably underperform other laptops that you could have bought at the price point. When it comes to
memory, 16 gig, it's the safe amount. 8 gig can be very restrictive and should really only be bought if you're sticking to light tasks or playing simple games. your laptop, you'll see slowdowns or apps just won't run. To test this, we
opened a lot of Chrome tabs on our 8 gig of RAM Dell XPS 13. After opening 24, we actually saw it slow down. You may be surprised to see that we were even able to open so many tabs. Well, memory is freed up by swapping unused tabs or
bringing them back in when you need them again. Most modern laptops have fast SSD, so this is a pretty quick operation, but eventually an 8 gig of RAM laptop, it will run out of steam like ours did. Stepping up to 16 gig
allowed us to hit 60 tabs before the laptop gave us slower loading times. Now, you may have heard some people say 8 gig of memory on a MacBook goes further than on a Windows laptop. We actually tested this and it is true. In
the case of our Chrome tab test, we hit 40 tabs on our 8 gig of RAM MacBook Neo before it started to show issues. But regardless of how well Mac OS handles 8 gig of RAM, some applications won't run on that little memory. As I said, guys,
16 gig is much safer and will allow you to run, you know, professional applications and modern games without issues. Whether you need more than 16 gig, that is situational and really depends on what you're running. For
example, exporting one of our videos on a 16 gig of RAM laptop versus 32, it made very little difference. You're talking a saving of 30 seconds over a 7 minute export. 24 gig of RAM, like in the higherend MacBook Pros, I think
that's ideal for most programmers. 32 gig of RAM, plenty for 99% of people doing, you know, demanding work on your laptop. Above that, it is a complete doing something very specific to make use of it. Running AI models locally
that are able to make use of system memory. That's a good example. As a don't know you need more memory, you probably don't. And in the current market, you absolutely do not want to be paying for more memory that you don't
need. Storage really depends once again on your specific needs. In general on your specific needs. In general though, 256 gig is tight, only viable if you don't play games or store a lot of photos on your laptop. 512 gig is good
enough for most people. 1 TB is really what I'd like to see most people doing creative work on their laptop or playing games. Games they use a lot of storage. Now 2 TB is the max that I'd recommend in a laptop and that's what I have in my
MacBook Pro 16 that I use to edit these videos. Above that, you should really be looking at alternative solutions like say a network attached storage. Or if you are a gamer, add a second drive yourself. Most gaming laptops you see,
they have a second SSD slot. All right. If you don't plan to do gaming or to skip this section. There's timestamps down below, but do not leave the video. After this, I am going to talk about common scams which will affect you. All
right, gamers and creators, you want to ensure that your laptop's GPU is powerful. That's the graphics processing unit that renders 3D scenes in games or encodes and decodes media footage in video editing. Some laptops only have
integrated GPUs. Others have dedicated ones from, say, Nvidia. Just like we classified CPUs on our website, we've done the heavy lifting for you. GPUs have been classified into poor, basic, good, and max. Poor performing GPUs are
really going to limit you to very light gaming. older titles like League of Legends. Basic GPUs will give you a great gaming experience in those simpler games, and they will allow you to at least try some of the latest AAA titles,
although you'll certainly have to dial down the settings. Basic GPUs, they'll also allow you to do some creative work, like photo or video editing, so long as your projects are simple. Good GPUs let
you fully appreciate the latest AAA games, and are capable of professional level creative work. Now, Max GPUs, they let you play those new AAA titles at high quality settings with high frame rates, and you can even tackle some more
complex creative projects. Now, if you are looking at a laptop with a dedicated GPU, there are a couple of ways that you could be tricked. The same GPU, it can perform completely differently in different laptops. The biggest culprit
is the amount of power a manufacturer feeds to it. We've seen laptops with RTX 5070s fed 75 watts like in HP's Omen Transcend 14 and others feed that same Transcend 14 and others feed that same GPU 115. Big difference. The CPU also
matters a lot. Do not get a laptop that has a top tier GPU with a lower tier CPU. The CPU will be the bottleneck. Laptops like the Razer Blade 16 and Asus's Fris G16, they throttle their RTX 5080s and 5090s because their CPU can't
keep up. In fact, a mid-range laptop like HP Zomen 16 with a powerful HX CPU and a full wattage RTX 5060 will outperform many thin and light laptops with the same GPU or even a better one. Another big issue that could hold back
your gaming laptop is its configuration of system memory. Some gaming laptops have upgradeable memory and what we've found is that cheaper ones only include a single 8 gig or 16 gig stick. Not having two sticks of memory reduces
memory bandwidth and it will slow down your laptop. This is a common problem with cheap gaming laptops like those from say Nemo or Dell's Alienware 15. At least good manufacturers like Dell, they disclose this on their website. Now, if
you are gaming at high settings at high resolution, say 2560 x600, and you are not using upscaling GPUs with only 8 gig of VRAM, that may impact your performance. You'll need to dial down the settings. On paper, an RTX 5070 12
gig or a 5070 Ti that also has 12 gig, they may not look that much different to a 5070 with 8 gig of VRAM, but in reality, they are. So, on our website, we clearly list a GPU's VRAM. In the future, we're actually planning to add
the max power a manufacturer feeds to the GPU, too. But even then, a laptop may not be able to hit that GPU power limit because of its thermals. We recently found this with Asus's Zephris G16 with the RTX 5080. We do call this
out as cons in our individual review, and we do list those cons on our individual reviews there. So, definitely check them out. All right, I want to end up by talking about some common scams that you really need to avoid. Let's
start with third party sellers. Most online retailers like say Amazon, Best their sites to these third party sellers. At the same time, they've sponsor search results so that they come up first. Many of these laptops are
cheaply built. They use old outdated hardware. Worse still, these sellers market these laptops that say gamers or creators even though the hardware in them is simply not good enough for those tasks. It's very misleading. And I have
a video out exposing this which I will link down below. Please be super careful buying from Nemo, Chewy, Jumper, and Mole Race or any company like that. Another common issue with third party sellers is that they fail to mention
that the laptop they are selling is an older model. They then sell it for a similar price to the current one, just hoping that you'll be tricked. Take a look at this seller on Best Buy. They're selling last year's Yoga Pro for more
than Best Buy themselves are selling that exact same model. They're even trying to entice you with a free USB hub. And of course, third party sellers may not honor the same return policy as the store. Look, not all third party
sellers are bad, but proceed with caution. Check who is selling the laptop. Check if it's a current model, and pay particular attention to negative reviews. On best laptop. Deals, we almost entirely sell from trusted
retailers or the manufacturer themselves. Any third party seller that we allow are carefully vetted. We also clearly show you which year the laptop is from so you aren't tricked. And by the way, we don't allow anyone to
sponsor search results. The recommendations that we give you are based entirely on what is the best laptop for you. Now, on that note, you got to be extremely careful getting laptop advice from AI. AI results are
heavily influenced by how often a laptop has been positively reviewed. So AI tends to recommend older laptops with more reviews. AI also heavily weights traditional media who love reducing those loweffort listicles to get clicks.
Realistically, if AI gets garbage in, it spits garbage out. We have almost every laptop here. Our recommendations are current. They're based on actually using the laptop for the specific task that we are recommending them for. Plus, on our
website, our recommendations actually change dynamically based on a laptop's price. A mediocre laptop might end up being good if it's on a massive sale. Also, sponsorship of tech YouTubers, it seems to be on the rise, and some
YouTubers are hiding it with terms like partnered with. [snorts] Sure, some sponsors allow YouTubers to say a handful of critical points, but obviously if a review is sponsored, it's going to be positive and criticisms are
likely to be swept under the rug. Guys, let me be transparent about how we earn our money. We earn money if you buy a laptop that we recommend. Our incentive here is to find you the best laptop so that you're happy and you refer us to
all your friends and family. If we just pushed a specific laptop onto you because we're being paid, we wouldn't achieve that goal and our business it wouldn't be growing as fast as it is. And finally, but extremely importantly,
do not buy a laptop with financing. A lot of stores have now integrated Cler a firm and other buy now pay later schemes or credit cards. For many people, these are debt traps. A laptop is a fast appreciating asset. You can quickly find
that you owe more on your laptop than it is worth. Meaning, you cannot escape the debt by selling it. Buying a new laptop is a want, it is not a need. It is not a Coachella ticket. There are a ton of secondhand laptops or older ones that
are just cheaper and would really love a new home. All right, I didn't want this video to be too long, and I think it's already pretty long, so I'm done here. I to place links down below to my favorite laptops right now for different types of
users. But obviously for more specific recommendations, check out our website bestlaptop.dals. Till next time, go do something awesome with your day and I will catch you later.