The best 15-inch laptops of 2024: Expert tested and reviewed

If you feel like a 13- or 14-inch laptop is a little too small, but you don’t want to carry around a big 16-inch, the “Goldilocks” size for you is a 15-inch laptop. This in-between size often gets overlooked for models with larger, flashier screens, but most folks consider it to be just right when compared to larger machines.

Also: The best OLED laptops of 2024: Expert tested and reviewed

For example, the MacBook M3 Max comes in a 15-inch version: Apple knows that it’s an ergonomic “just right” size that is both portable and spacious. We’ve tested dozens of laptops this year, but these devices stood out to our team and are particularly worth mentioning. If you’re looking for a new 15-inch laptop but don’t know where to start, these devices stand out above the crowd.

What’s the best 15-inch laptop right now?

Our pick for the overall best 15-inch laptop is the MacBook Air M3. In terms of versatility, performance, and portability, it’s hard to beat Apple’s super-thin laptop. I’ve included four additional use cases here, but the MacBook Air M3 is the most well-rounded and has some serious power under the hood. The M3 processor brings AI readiness with a 16-core NPU, while the resilient battery makes it a solid pick for the office, students, and creators alike.

However, we get that the MacBook Air isn’t for everyone, so we’ve included four other great 15-inch laptops on this list for some common use cases: best for the office, best budget, best for creators, and best for gaming.

The best 15-inch laptops of 2024

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Regarding performance, Apple’s 15-inch MacBook Air with the M3 processor is hard to beat. The MacBook Air is as portable as it is thin, and its combination of sleek form factor, substantial battery, and winning display make for the best overall 15-inch laptop of 2024.

The 15-inch MacBook Air is available in a host of different configurations, but with a maximum of 16GB unified memory and 512GB of SSD storage, it’s powerful enough for a variety of people, from creators to professionals to students to everyday browsers. The sheer adaptability of this laptop deserves to be called out as a laptop with the hardware to handle whatever you throw at it.

Review: M3 MacBook Air

The M3 chip’s 16-core neural engine future-proofs it with AI readiness, while the option to load it with up plenty of storage offers plenty of space to stick with you. The M3 Air’s 18 hours of battery life is also one of the best out there, especially in the class of 15-inch displays.

Apple MacBook Air M3 tech specs: CPU: 8-core CPU with 16-core Neural Engine | GPU: 10-core | RAM: 8GB, 16GB, or 24GB of unified memory with 10-core GPU | Storage: 512GB, 1TB, or 2TB storage | Display: LCD, 60Hz refresh rate, 500 nits max | Battery: Up to 18 hours | Weight: 3.3 lbs.

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The Dell XPS 15 is a well-rounded laptop and the most instantly recognizable of Dell’s flagship laptops. Its iconic slim-bezel design and brushed aluminum finish make for a sleek, stylish-looking laptop with a host of solid hardware under the hood to prove it’s more than just a pretty face.

This laptop is great for taking to the office, thanks to its gorgeous OLED display and a generous selection of ports, including three USB-C ports (two of which are Thunderbolt 4), an SD card slot, and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

Review: Dell XPS 15

Visually, this is one of the most sharp-looking, color-accurate displays I’ve seen on a laptop, and it’s a feature I’d recommend for potential buyers who do photo and video work. The solid processor ensures it can handle virtually any task you can throw at it, from graphical work to running through complex spreadsheets.

That being said, this laptop makes for a great entertainment machine after the workday ends. With its pairing of the top-firing speakers that flank the sides of the keyboard, the multimedia experience on the XPS 15 can be mesmerizing. It’s one of the few display-speaker pairings I’d rank alongside Apple’s 16-inch MacBook Pro.

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For just $300, the Acer Aspire Go 15 is an ideal laptop for budget-conscious consumers. Not everyone needs a powerful laptop with high-end hardware, especially if they have a desktop as their primary computer. And for a portable notebook built to cover the basics, it doesn’t get much more affordable than this.

This laptop has half the RAM and memory of the other Chromebook I typically recommend, the HP Dragonfly Pro, but it’s a third of the cost, making it a great bang-for-buck device or secondary laptop for use on the go.

Review: Acer Aspire Go 15

The Aspire Go is also very adaptable. The 15-inch screen provides enough room for working with spreadsheets and productivity software, and the keyboard features a number pad on the right side. Add a webcam, a good selection of ports, and a Kensington lock slot, and a laptop covering all your bases.

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The Asus Vivobook Pro 15 is the ideal laptop for graphic designers, as it offers all the features a creative professional needs. It performs quite well thanks to a combination of an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H processor and a Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 graphics card. This setup enables swift photo editing, video rendering, and web browsing. The Vivobook Pro 15 is anything but a slouch.

Another notable feature is the OLED display. Although it is capped at 1080p, the screen has received Pantone validation for accurate color representation, making it excellent for design work. It also incorporates blue reduction tech to prevent eye strain during long work days. Audio output is also great since the speakers support Dolby Atmos.

Review: Asus Vivobook Pro 15

To appeal to the creator demographic, the Vivobook has the DialPad functionality built into the trackpad. This function brings up a quick menu for toolkits found in creative software. It allows you to quickly change brushes or swap tools in Photoshop and offers pinch-and-click support for layer management, navigation, and media control. Additionally, the device houses a wide array of ports which include USB-C, USB-A, HDMI, and an SD card slot.

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MSI knocked it out of the park with its 2024 release: the Katana A15 AI. The device has nearly everything you could want in a gaming laptop. It performs well thanks to a combination of an AMD Ryzen 9-8945HS processor, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 graphics card, and 16GB of memory.

A setup like this can easily handle modern games that demand a lot from gaming computers. As the name suggests, it utilizes artificial intelligence to “accelerate work and play.” The official product page states the MSI AI Engine can automatically adjust hardware settings to best fit current workloads. To store those titles, you’ll have access to a 1TB SSD.

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A setup like this can generate a lot of heat, so to combat this, the Katana A15 AI houses the company’s Cooler Boost 5 cooling system. According to MSI, it has a feature called Share Pipe, which connects a heat pipe to both the processor and graphics card to maintain optimal temperatures.

Other standout features include Wi-Fi 6E for speedy wireless connectivity, DDR5 RAM enabling fast read/write speeds, and a wide selection of ports. You’ll also have access to an ethernet port, USB-C, and an HDMI input.

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Chromebooks are ideal for those who want an easy-to-use laptop with a thoughtful design for work tasks. Samsung’s Galaxy Chromebook Plus stands out by delivering a top-tier experience. It houses a 1080p AMOLED display with a maximum brightness of 400 nits. Users will enjoy sharp visuals and vibrant colors on the screen, enhancing workflows and multimedia.

It’s worth mentioning that this model lacks a touchscreen, which has allowed the tech giant to create its laptop with a lightweight form factor. The Galaxy Chromebook Plus only weighs 2.5 pounds and is 0.46 inches thick for easy carrying. Under the hood is an Intel Core 3 100U processor, 8GB of RAM, and 256 GB of storage — sufficient for ChromeOS and cloud-based workflows.

Review: Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus

The port selection is solid as it covers essential connectivity needs via USB-C and the headphone jack as well as more niche options such as the MicroSD Card Reader.

Because the laptop is a member of the Chromebook Plus series, Samsung’s device benefits from Google’s AI features, such as Help Me Write. The tool, as the name suggests, provides suggestions on topics you should write about or edit text on the fly. You’ll also find a new button on the keyboard called Quick Insert. Pressing it opens a “small menu that acts as a sort of mobile control panel… for commonly used actions”.

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The best 15-inch laptop in 2024 is the M3 Apple MacBook Air. Portable, powerful, and with a long-lasting battery, the MacBook Air M3 is a versatile workhorse you can throw in a bag and take anywhere you go. The M3’s 8-core CPU and 10-core GPU are armed to take on almost anything you throw at it, and the entire package weighs just 2.7 pounds.

That said, the M3 MacBook Air isn’t for everyone. Below is a list breaking down all of the most important aspects of the best 15-inch laptops.

Laptop	Starting cost	Processor/GPU	RAM/Storage	Weight (lbs)
Apple MacBook Air M3	$899	M3 8-core CPU with 16-core NPU	8GB up to 16GB, up to 512GB	3.3
Dell XPS 15	$1,359	13th Gen Intel Core i7-13620H	16GB-32GB, 1TB	4.21
Acer Aspire Go 15	$267	Intel Core i3-N305	8GB, 128GB	3.75
Asus Vivobook Pro 15	$849	Intel Core Ultra 7 155H	16GB, up to 1TB	4.19
MSI Katana A15 AI	$1,199	AMD Ryzen 9-8945HS	16GB, 1TB	4.96
Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus	$699	Intel Core 3 100U	8GB, 256GB	2.58

The best 15-inch laptop for you depends on what you want to get out of it. Laptops packed with powerful gaming hardware, like the MSI Katana A15 AI, come with some high-end specs, but the price is obviously high. In that case, it’s only worth paying for a gaming laptop if you intend to use it for serious gaming.

More well-rounded machines like the Dell XPS 15 or the MacBook Air M3 are better suited for users looking for a “jack of all trades” machine.

Choose this 15-inch laptop…	If you want…
Apple MacBook Air M3	An all-around strong 15″ laptop that can handle most use cases and is portable and future-proofed.
Dell XPS 15	A sleek laptop with the performance to back it up, something that works hard and plays hard.
Acer Aspire Go 15	A budget laptop that is capable enough for everyday tasks.
Asus Vivobook Pro 15	A laptop for creators with powerful photo and video editing capabilities.
MSI Katana A15 AI	A powerful laptop that delivers an immersive gaming experience few can replicate.
Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus	An easy-to-use Chromebook with access to Google AI features.

We use a combination of methods to test laptops here at ZDNET. First, we acquire data from benchmarking software to analyze a system’s metrics under the hood, and compare those to advertised numbers. Then, we spend an extended amount of time with the laptop (usually a week or two) using it the same way a normal consumer would in order to analyze its portability, form factor, and how well the battery actually holds up, among others. For an extensive breakdown, check out our comprehensive laptop testing methodology.

Benchmarking: First, we run a series of tests to put the computer’s hardware through the wringer in order to see what it’s capable of. Cinebench is one of the most commonly-used hardware testing suites, which tests the laptop’s rendering performance on single and multiple CPU cores. PCMark 10 is another powerful program that covers a wide variety of tasks performed in the workplace, and there are many others that we use in tandem to gather as much data as we can. Some components we run tests on include:

Processor: The “brain” of the laptop, and one of the most important factors that determines performance. The four biggest manufacturers that make most of the CPUs found in laptops today are Intel, AMD, Qualcomm, and Apple (in their own machines only). This is tested in benchmarking software.

The display: The size of the display (measured diagonally from corner to corner) is also what dictates the laptop’s overall size, and play a big role in the laptop’s cost. Brightness is measured in “nits”, and color spectrums are tested in benchmarking software.

The graphics processor (GPU): Whether it’s integrated into the CPU or a dedicated graphics card, how well the machine handles graphics is a key factor when it comes to demanding visual tasks like video editing, rendering, and of course, gaming. We test the GPU with a combination of benchmarking software, gaming, and media playback.

Physical form factor: Finally, the laptop’s overall appearance and physical form factor encompasses its weight, thickness, how the keyboard and trackpad feel, and whether or not it has a display that can be folded back to form a tablet. We carry the laptop around for at least a week and note how well it commutes.

Battery testing: We test a unit’s battery in a few ways. A handful of benchmarking programs have their own battery testing components, but we also will just let the laptop run for as long as it can under a medium load. We ensure screensavers and hibernation mode are turned off, set the display’s brightness and audio at 50%, load up a livestream on YouTube in Chrome, and wait ’til the end.

The human element: As we mentioned earlier, metrics and system data is important, but numbers alone don’t give you the full picture. This is where we weave in our personal experience with the device and tap into the practical use cases that consumers actually care about.

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Ultimately, our goal is to break down the capabilities of each and every laptop we test into digestible terms that real people can find useful. There is a lot of noise and confusion when it comes to navigating the laptop and computer consumer market, so we hope to bring an intuitive element to the whole process by leveraging our team’s decades of experience.

All 15-inch laptops run the gamut from high-end gaming machines to budget devices, so it’s important to consider which of the most common factors you value most when picking out a new machine. First and foremost on the list, though, is to determine what exactly you want to get out of it.

Ideal use case: Consider what you actually envision doing with your new laptop. Are you a gamer? Is this a machine for work? Manufacturers go to great lengths to differentiate their products by highlighting a specific consumer demographic. Knowing how you’re going to use the laptop will go a long way into deciding which device is the best one for you.
Display: The Dell XPS 15 and the Asus Vivobook Pro 15 have the best displays with gorgeous OLED screens (though you can opt for less expensive ones).
Battery life: The best battery life on this list goes to M3 Apple MacBook Air, although the Acer Aspire Go 15 also has impressive battery life due to its relatively modest suite of hardware.
Portability: 15-inch laptops are a good middle ground between smaller, ultra-portable 13- and 14-inch machines (which tend to be thicker) and larger 16- and 17-inch laptops (which tend to be thinner). When looking at weight, the M3 MacBook Air is both the thinnest and the lightest on this list.
Price: The Acer Aspire Go 15 is the cheapest laptop on this list, at under $300. On the other end, the MSI Katana A15 AI is a pricey machine at $1,500. The other three laptops on the list are essentially around the same price.

You would think that one inch wouldn’t make all that much of a difference when it comes to the size of a laptop, but when you’re talking about motherboards, processors, and complex circuitry that are all fractions of a millimeter, an entire inch has a lot to do with design.

The reality is that “larger laptops” (16 inches and above) tend to be thinner, as there’s more surface area for their internal parts to occupy. Smaller laptops (14 inches and below) tend to be thicker, as their reduced size leaves less room for hardware. The happy medium in all this is the 15-inch laptop, which, when designed correctly, results in a thin and light laptop.

Also: The best laptops for college in 2024: Expert tested and reviewed

The M3 MacBook Air and Dell XPS 15 are perfect examples of thoughtful, expert designs that result in portable yet powerful computers.

While every computing platform has its loyal supporters, most people use a particular operating system because of key applications running on it, employer preferences, or budgetary constraints. Windows, which ranges from budget to premium, and Apple’s MacOS, which is exclusive to premium devices, cover a broad spectrum. Chrome OS is primarily limited to mid-range devices.

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All Windows devices listed here meet the requirements for Windows 11. If you purchase a device with Windows 10 installed, you can upgrade to Windows 11. Note that after October 14, 2025, Windows 10 support will end, and there will be no further security patches or feature updates.