Best Laptops and Tablets to Give as Holiday Gifts for 2024
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October 14, 2024Our experts have spent hundreds of hours researching the top laptops and tablets to give as holiday gifts. Whether it’s for gaming, content creation, entertainment or all of the above, these are our top picks.
Our experts have spent hundreds of hours researching the top laptops and tablets to give as holiday gifts. Whether it’s for gaming, content creation, entertainment or all of the above, these are our top picks.
Our expert, award-winning staff selects the products we cover and rigorously researches and tests our top picks. If you buy through our links, we may get a commission. Reviews ethics statement Apple’s latest MacBook Air is one of the best laptops you can buy, and it’s a great choice for someone who wants a machine that’s thin and light but doesn’t compromise on speed. With this model, Apple moved from its M2 silicon to M3 chips, and while the performance differences are modest, graphics performance did get a noticeable bump. You’ll also get faster Wi-Fi 6E support compared with its predecessor and the ability to run dual external displays. Available in two sizes: 13 and 15 inches. M3 MacBook Air 13 review.
HP packed a lot of value into the Aero 13: Eye-pleasing magnesium-aluminum chassis, strong processing performance, long battery life, a bright, colorful display and a weight of around 2 pounds (0.91 kilograms). Amazingly, with all that it offers, it has an affordable starting price. Read our HP Pavilion Aero 13 review.
Dell’s G15 has been a favorite budget gaming laptop for the past few years, along with the HP Victus line. It also comes in a 16-inch version, the G16. We tested both and were impressed with what each offers. If you’re looking for a gaming laptop bargain, the G15 is the way to go. But if you can afford to spend a couple hundred dollars more, the G16 is a better bet for longevity. Either way, you’ll get a good gaming laptop for the money, but we strongly recommend waiting for a sale. Read our Dell G15 and G16 Gaming Laptop review.
For under $300, Acer’s entry-level Aspire Go 14 holds its own against other budget models that cost twice as much or even more. That makes it a great inexpensive laptop to gift a kid or anyone who just needs to be able to browse the Internet and write a paper. Despite not being the latest and greatest iPad, the ninth-gen entry-level iPad is still our pick for gifting, and not just because it’s the least expensive. It improved a lot over its predecessor, doubling the base storage to 64GB, adding a faster A13 chip and better cameras (most importantly, a wider-angle higher-res front-facing Center Stage camera that tracks your face via digital pan and zoom). It still uses the first-gen Apple Pencil, which is fine for the money, and it’s still compatible with a range of keyboard cases. Read our Apple iPad 2021 review.
Google’s versatile, dockable Pixel Tablet doubles as a home hub and a speaker dock-enabled assistant, and its multitasking features work great. You’ll have to find your own stylus and keyboard options, but Google has otherwise served up a pretty great family iPad alternative for anyone in the Android ecosystem. A fast Google Tensor G2 processor, a good front camera for video chats and a crisp display, plus a clean Google Android software experience, make this one of our favorite Android options. Google’s offering the tablet for $100 less without the dock now, but that dock is one of our favorite parts of the tablet. The Lenovo Chromebook Duet 3 is an awesome little 11-inch ChromeOS tablet with a detachable keyboard and touchpad. Its small size and performance aren’t ideal for full-time use. The Chromebook Duet 3 is a good pick if you’re looking for an affordable ultraportable device to get some work done on the go, sketch or jot down notes in class or do simple stuff like email, web browsing, mobile or cloud gaming, reading and streaming video. Read our Lenovo Chromebook Duet 3 review.
Two items help make the Microsoft Surface Pro 11 our favorite 2-in-1 detachable laptop: Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Elite X processor and an excellent 13-inch OLED display. Together they give you a laptop-tablet hybrid with good performance, long battery life and a crisp 2.8K resolution screen. It’s the best Surface Pro we’ve seen in a while, but you still have to pay extra for a keyboard and stylus.
