For every student working on a class project, creative professional making their next masterpiece or businessperson putting the finishing touches on an important presentation, there’s a laptop to match their needs and budget. However, many shoppers have brand affinities that might keep them from venturing beyond the rivers and the lakes that they’re used to. It’s the reason we see a certain brand of laptop occupying so many coffee shops.
But just how good is your favorite brand? The Laptop Mag staff put the top brands to the test every year, evaluating each brand and the laptops we’ve reviewed during a designated time period (May 15, 2019 to May 15, 2020). The brands and their eligible laptops are judged using several important criteria: Reviews, Design, Support & Warranty, Innovation and Value & Selection. The scores are tallied and a winner is determined.
This year finds Asus as our best brand. Throughout the year, the laptop OEM consistently produced systems that were equal parts powerful, beautiful and innovative. Plus, the company has a robust offering of laptops from Chromebooks to gaming systems. It’s only weak spot was its showing in the Tech Support Showdown, but even that wasn’t enough to keep the company from the top spot.
1. Asus (88/100) ---------- Laptop Battery for Asus
2. Dell (85/100) ---------- Laptop Battery for Dell
3. HP (82/100) ---------- Laptop Battery for HP
4. MSI (78/100) ---------- Laptop Battery for MSI
5. Lenovo (77/100) ---------- Laptop Battery for Lenovo
6. Acer (76/100) ---------- Laptop Battery for Acer
6. Razer (76/100) ---------- Laptop Battery for Razer
8. Samsung (75/100) ---------- Laptop Battery for Samsung
8. Alienware (75/100) ---------- Laptop Battery for Alienware
10. Apple (73/100) ---------- Laptop Battery for Apple
11. Microsoft (70/100) ---------- Laptop Battery for Microsoft
How we rate brands
Reviews (40 points): The most important aspect of any brand is the quality of its products. To determine a company's Reviews category score, we used the ratings we gave its laptops. We took the average laptop rating for each brand (Laptop Mag rates on a scale of 1 to 5), converted that average rating to a 40-point scale and then added a 0.75-point bonus for each Editors' Choice award.
Design (15 points): We absolutely will judge a notebook by its cover — and its sides, deck, bezel and base. Though no two notebooks look exactly the same, each brand has a design language that cuts across its product lines.
Tech Support and Warranty (20 points): When you buy a laptop, you want to know that the manufacturer is going to stand behind that machine and help you with technical problems. We base this category's score primarily on the ratings from our annual Tech Support Showdown, in which we go undercover and pose questions to all of the companies, using their phone, web and social channels. However, 2 out of the 20 points were awarded based on the quality of the company's standard warranty coverage.
Innovation (10 points): The laptop market is moving fast, and if you stand still, you'll get rolled over. For the Innovation category, we awarded points based on the brand's ability to move the market forward by implementing or developing new technologies, as well as by taking risks.
Value and Selection (15 points): How many different kinds of shoppers does the manufacturer address, and do the products provide good bang for your buck? For this category, we awarded points for offering a wide range of laptop types (budget, business, gaming, etc.) and for providing aggressive pricing.
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