For many users, 15-inch laptops are the “Goldilocks” of sizes. The 14- and 13-inch sizes can have small displays you have to squint at, while 16-inch and above can be bulky and hard to squeeze into a bag. There is a huge selection of 15-inch laptops available, but their 16-inch cousins often overshadow them. Luckily, we’ve done hands-on testing with dozens of laptops in this category and compiled the best 15-inch laptops we’ve reviewed here.
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What’s the best 15-inch laptop right now?
Our pick for the best 15-inch laptop overall is the MacBook Air M3. Regarding versatility, performance, and portability, it’s hard to beat Apple’s 15-inch super thin laptop. I’ve included four additional specific use cases here, but the MacBook Air M3 is definitely the most well-rounded while also having a substantial degree of power. Apple’s M3 processor brings AI readiness with a 16-core NPU, and the resilient battery on this laptop makes it a solid pick for the office, students, and creators alike. And to top it off, its thin form factor seals the deal for ultimate portability.
However, I get that the MacBook Air isn’t for everyone, so I’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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Apple MacBook Air M3
Best 15-inch laptop overall
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 that has the hardware to handle whatever you can throw at it.
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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: 8-core CPU with 16-core Neural Engine | 8GB, 16GB, or 24GB of unified memory with 10-core GPU | 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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Dell XPS 15
Best 15-inch laptop for the office
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 is a great laptop to take to the office, with 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.
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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, after the workday is done, this laptop makes for a great entertainment machine. 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.
Dell XPS 15 tech specs: CPU: 13th Generation Intel Core i9-13900H | GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 | RAM: 16GB-32GB | Storage: 512GB, 1TB | Display: FHD+, 60Hz refresh rate, 500 nits | Battery: Up to 18 hours | Weight: 4.21 lbs.
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Acer Aspire Go 15
Best budget 15-inch laptop
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.
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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 you have a laptop that covers all your bases.
Dell XPS 15 tech specs: CPU: Intel Core i3-N305 | GPU: Intel UHD Integrated | RAM: 8GB | Storage: 128GB | Display: FHD, 60Hz refresh rate, 500 nits | Battery: Up to 12 hours | Weight: 3.75 lbs.
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Asus Vivobook Pro 15
Best 15-inch laptop for creators
Armed with an impressive arsenal of hardware, the Vivobook S 15 is a powerful laptop with a gorgeous OLED screen that creators will love. Its solid processor and video card combination means it can easily handle demanding tasks such as photo and video editing.
The Harmon Kardon audio drivers support Dolby Atmos, allowing for sound quality that isn’t too shabby for a laptop. High-resolution video looks great on the display as well.
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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.
HP Chromebook Plus x360 tech specs: CPU: Intel Core Ultra 7 155H | GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 | RAM: 16GB | Storage: 1TB | Display: FHD OLED, 60Hz refresh rate, 400 nits | Battery: Up to 8 hours | Weight: 4.19 lbs.
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Razer Blade 15
Best 15-inch gaming laptop
The Razer Blade 15 is either a creator laptop disguised as a gaming rig or a gaming rig you can also take to the office, depending on who you ask. The 15-inch version of Razer’s Blade laptop line was announced at CES 2023 and released soon after with a high price tag, which is true to form for Razer. Fortunately, the price has since dropped to accessible levels, which is excellent news as this is a crowd-pleasing gaming laptop that’s a lot of fun.
The laptop has an Intel Core i7-12700K processor, which can be overclocked to 5.0GHz for graphics-heavy games. The processor has a liquid cooling system to help keep it running at optimal temperatures, which is necessary for overclocking. The laptop also features 16GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD for storage, and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070Ti graphics card.
The 15.6-inch display is equally impressive, featuring a 360Hz refresh rate and a solid 1080p resolution. If you need many ways to connect peripherals, storage devices, and displays, the Razer Blade 15 has six USB ports (including Thunderbolt 4), HDMI 2.1, Bluetooth 5.2, and an SD card reader for quickly transferring photos from your camera to your laptop.
Razer Blade 15 tech specs: CPU: Intel Core i7-12700K | GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070Ti with 8GB | RAM: 16GB | Storage: 1TB | Display: FHD, 360Hz refresh rate, 400 nits | Battery: Up to 8 hours | Weight: 4.43 lbs.
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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.
|
Laptop |
Starting cost |
Processor/GPU |
RAM/Storage |
Weight (lbs) |
|
Apple MacBook Air M3 |
$1,299 |
M3 8-core CPU with 16-core NPU |
8GB up to 16GB, up to 512GB |
3.3 |
|
Dell XPS 15 |
$1,249 |
13th Gen Intel Core i9-13900H |
16GB-32GB, 1TB |
4.21 |
|
Razer Blade 15 |
$2,481 |
Intel Core i7-12700K |
16GB, 1TB |
4.43 |
|
Acer Aspire Go 15 |
$299 |
Intel Core i3-N305 |
8GB, 128GB |
3.75 |
|
Asus Vivobook Pro 15 |
$1,299 |
Intel Core Ultra 7 155H |
16GB, up to 1TB |
4.19 |
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 Razer Blade 15, come with some high-end hardware, but the price inevitably goes up. In that case, it’s only worth paying for a gaming laptop if you intend on using 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. |
|
Razer Blade 15 |
A powerful gaming laptop that pulls out all the stops. |
|
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. |
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 just $300. On the other end, the Razer Blade 15 is a pricey machine at nearly $2,500. The other three laptops on the list are essentially around the same price.
Our team of reviewers test dozens of laptops a year, but not everything we test makes it onto our site. When we test a laptop, we run a combination of industry-standard benchmarking software along with our own “typical” use cases that push the laptop to its limits to see what it’s capable of.
When it comes to benchmarking, we typically use Cinebench, a program that runs strenuous tasks on the computer’s processor and generates detailed metrics on its performance. We then verify these numbers against those provided by the manufacturers.
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Benchmarking is a great way to see detailed statistics, but it’s just as important to use a laptop the way a normal person would: fire up your browser, launch some media, and start multitasking.
Personally, I like to connect the laptop I’m testing to an external monitor and run two different desktops on each display. This alone can be somewhat demanding for lower-end machines. I then run a variety of productivity apps, open multiple tabs on the browser, and start working in a natural way.
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Some questions I keep in mind during testing include: Does the laptop feel sluggish? How long does it take for apps to open? How does it respond on battery power versus when it’s plugged in? Is there a dip in responsiveness to the trackpad or the keyboard? Extended use of a machine is best for the most accurate review, and I will use a test machine for at least a week before generating a final opinion.
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.
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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.
15-inch laptops are by no means uncommon, but there are perhaps more flashy flagship models that come with 16-inch displays. That said, quite a few alternative 15-inch machines deserve to be mentioned here, even though they didn’t earn a spot on the official list.
