The best laptops, according to hackers
63 laptops were recommended on Hacker News between November 2025 and November 2026. We rank them by how many separate people recommend each one, and 22 earn the Hacker Approved badge.
Top picks
The three most recommended laptops with the badge. Each figure is 50 people. RecommendsCriticizes One comment
Fast enough for years
A light, silent, fanless laptop with long battery life and enough everyday performance for years, though it throttles under sustained heavy loads and base RAM and storage feel tight.
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Works well with Linux
Owners praise its light body, comfortable keyboard, trackpoint and strong Linux support; critics say battery life and heat are weak points.
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Still fast years after release
Still fast, efficient and long-lived years after release, many say, handling everyday and dev work. Common caveat: slowdowns with heavy browsing and 8GB memory.
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We may earn a commission. It never changes the order.
All 63 laptops, ranked
Select a column heading to sort. Approval share is recommenders out of everyone who gave an opinion; the tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs. Months counts the months, out of 13, in which someone recommended it.
| Rank | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Apple MacBook Pro | 928 | 688 | 57% | 13 | 5 yrs248 owners | — |
| 2 | Apple MacBook Neo | 707 | 355 | 66% | 9 | 1 mo8 owners | — |
| 3 | MacBook Air | 633 | 209 | 75% | 12 | 5 yrs130 owners | Approved |
| 4 | Apple MacBook | 499 | 348 | 59% | 12 | 9 yrs77 owners | — |
| 5 | Framework Laptop 12 | 83 | 52 | 61% | 9 | — | — |
| 6 | Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon | 77 | 37 | 68% | 12 | 8 yrs14 owners | Approved |
| 7 | Apple M1 MacBook | 64 | 21 | 75% | 12 | 5.3 yrs13 owners | Approved |
| 8 | Dell XPS | 45 | 69 | 39% | 11 | 6 yrs17 owners | — |
| 9 | Chuwi MiniBook X | 43 | 23 | 65% | 5 | 2 yrs6 owners | — |
| 10 | Lenovo ThinkPad T480 | 40 | 11 | 78% | 10 | — | Approved |
| 11 | Lenovo ThinkPad T14 | 39 | 16 | 71% | 10 | 1 yr3 owners | Approved |
| 12 | Dell laptop | 37 | 78 | 32% | 8 | 6.9 yrs12 owners | — |
| Tied 13 | Microsoft Surface Laptop | 33 | 26 | 56% | 8 | 4 yrs4 owners | — |
| Tied 13 | Microsoft Surface Laptop Ultra | 33 | 63 | 34% | 6 | — | — |
| Tied 13 | Nvidia RTX Spark | 33 | 37 | 47% | 3 | — | — |
| 16 | Dell XPS 13 | 32 | 24 | 57% | 10 | 6.5 yrs11 owners | — |
| 17 | MNT Reform | 31 | 8 | 79% | 6 | — | Approved |
| Tied 18 | Dell Latitude | 23 | 18 | 56% | 9 | 10 yrs4 owners | — |
| Tied 18 | Apple PowerBook G4 | 23 | 9 | 72% | 9 | — | Approved |
| Tied 20 | ThinkPad X220 | 20 | 3 | 87% | 8 | 14 yrs5 owners | Approved |
| Tied 20 | Apple iBook | 20 | 4 | 83% | 8 | 18 yrs3 owners | Approved |
| Tied 20 | Lenovo ThinkPad T14s | 20 | 17 | 54% | 6 | 2 yrs9 owners | — |
| Tied 23 | Lenovo ThinkPad T series | 19 | 11 | 63% | 7 | 10 yrs3 owners | — |
| Tied 23 | Google Pixelbook | 19 | 10 | 66% | 4 | 9 yrs5 owners | — |
| 25 | Lenovo ThinkPad X1 | 16 | 12 | 57% | 7 | 9 yrs3 owners | — |
| Tied 26 | Lenovo ThinkPad T420 | 14 | 2 | 88% | 9 | 15 yrs3 owners | Approved |
| Tied 26 | Lenovo ThinkPad T480s | 14 | 6 | 70% | 8 | — | Approved |
| Tied 26 | HP ZBook Ultra G1a | 14 | 3 | 82% | 7 | — | Approved |
| Tied 26 | Dell XPS 14 | 14 | 6 | 70% | 6 | — | Approved |
| Tied 30 | Tuxedo Laptop | 13 | 3 | 81% | 7 | — | Approved |
| Tied 30 | Lenovo ThinkPad X200 | 13 | 0 | 100% | 6 | 16.7 yrs4 owners | Approved |
| Tied 32 | HP ZBook | 12 | 2 | 86% | 9 | — | Approved |
| Tied 32 | Lenovo ThinkPad E14 | 12 | 6 | 67% | 5 | — | Approved |
| Tied 34 | ThinkPad X230 | 11 | 1 | 92% | 8 | — | Approved |
| Tied 34 | Lenovo ThinkPad X270 | 11 | 6 | 65% | 6 | — | — |
| Tied 34 | Lenovo ThinkPad X13s | 11 | 5 | 69% | 6 | — | Approved |
| Tied 37 | Lenovo ThinkPad P14s | 10 | 4 | 71% | 7 | 2 yrs4 owners | Approved |
| Tied 37 | Dell XPS 15 | 10 | 12 | 45% | 6 | 3.5 yrs7 owners | — |
| Tied 37 | Apple M5 Mac | 10 | 9 | 53% | 6 | — | — |
| Tied 37 | ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 | 10 | 4 | 71% | 6 | — | Approved |
| Tied 37 | LG Gram | 10 | 2 | 83% | 5 | 4 yrs3 owners | Approved |
| Tied 42 | Lenovo ThinkPad X13 | 9 | 4 | 69% | 8 | — | — |
| Tied 42 | Lenovo ThinkPad X series | 9 | 3 | 75% | 5 | — | — |
| Tied 42 | Apple M1 Pro laptop | 9 | 1 | 90% | 5 | — | — |
| Tied 42 | Lenovo ThinkPad X201 | 9 | 2 | 82% | 4 | — | — |
| Tied 46 | Lenovo ThinkPad P16s | 8 | 1 | 89% | 7 | — | — |
| Tied 46 | Lenovo ThinkPad T430 | 8 | 1 | 89% | 5 | — | — |
| Tied 48 | Lenovo Legion laptop | 7 | 4 | 64% | 6 | — | — |
| Tied 48 | Panasonic Toughbook | 7 | 0 | 100% | 6 | — | — |
| Tied 48 | Apple M3 MacBook | 7 | 3 | 70% | 6 | — | — |
| Tied 48 | Asus Zenbook | 7 | 2 | 78% | 4 | — | — |
| Tied 48 | ThinkPad T60 | 7 | 0 | 100% | 4 | — | — |
| Tied 53 | Lenovo ThinkPad T530 | 6 | 0 | 100% | 8 | — | — |
| Tied 53 | Lenovo ThinkPad T16 | 6 | 3 | 67% | 6 | — | — |
| Tied 53 | Lenovo IdeaPad | 6 | 8 | 43% | 4 | 3 yrs3 owners | — |
| Tied 53 | HP OmniBook 5 | 6 | 8 | 43% | 4 | — | — |
| Tied 53 | Lenovo ThinkPad T440p | 6 | 2 | 75% | 4 | — | — |
| Tied 58 | Asus Zenbook A16 | 5 | 1 | 83% | 5 | — | — |
| Tied 58 | Lenovo ThinkPad X9 | 5 | 3 | 63% | 4 | — | — |
| Tied 58 | Lenovo ThinkPad T470s | 5 | 1 | 83% | 4 | — | — |
| Tied 58 | ThinkPad X1 Extreme | 5 | 6 | 45% | 3 | — | — |
| Tied 58 | Lenovo ThinkPad T470p | 5 | 0 | 100% | 3 | — | — |
| Tied 58 | Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano | 5 | 2 | 71% | 2 | — | — |
How we rank
Rank is the number of separate people who recommend a product in a Hacker News comment over the past year. Someone who praises the same laptop in five threads counts once.
The badge goes to laptops that at least 10 people recommend, with recommenders outnumbering critics at least 2 to 1, recommended in at least 4 of the 13 months.
Rankings are never for sale. We may earn a commission when you buy through our links. It never changes the order.