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Digital Subscriptions > PC Pro > June 2026 > The A-List
  
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The A-List

The A-List

The best products on the market, as picked by our editors

PREMIUM LAPTOPS

Apple MacBook Pro

Class act from £1,599 from apple.com/uk

Now upgraded with M5 Pro and M5 Max options to go along with the M5 update last year, this versatile laptop – available in 14in and 16in form factors – can be configured to meet your demands. The M5 Pro is arguably the sweet spot, but whichever you choose you’re buying a powerful, creative, work-focused laptop.

REVIEW Issue 380, p52

BUSINESS LAPTOPS

Asus ExpertBook Ultra

Best exec laptop, £1,900 from asus.com

Asus takes full advantage of the Intel’s Core Ultra Series 3 to deliver the finest executive laptop we’ve tested: weighing under 1kg, it packs a glorious 14in tandem OLED screen, over 16 hours of battery of life and all the power you need. Spend more on the Core Ultra X7 258H version if you want 3D power too.

REVIEW Issue 379, p58

Apple MacBook Air M5

No design changes as the Air moves from M4 chips to M5, but if you want a premium laptop its all-round performance and 15-hour battery life make this a great choice. From £1,099 from apple.com

REVIEW Issue 380, p54

Dell XPS 14

Dell brings back the XPS name and mojo thanks in part to Intel’s Core Ultra Series 3 CPUs: choose the Ultra X7 358H for power, the Ultra 7 355 if you want battery life of more than 20 hours. From £1,599 from dell.co.uk

REVIEW Issue 379, p56

Samsung Galaxy Book6 Ultra

The price is jaw-dropping, but so is the performance. A stunning 16in OLED screen, Core Ultra X7 chip and RTX 5060 or 5070 graphics mean it lacks for nothing. From £2,999 from samsung.com

REVIEW Issue 379, p61

ALTERNATIVES

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13

The best executive laptop out there, with true all-day battery life even if you buy the 14in OLED version. At 1kg and with the latest components, it’s worth the price. From £1,875 exc VAT from lenovo.com

REVIEW Issue 370, p52

Dell Pro 13 Premium

A weight of just 1.1kg and 24-hour battery life, plus Intel’s 200V vPro series for easier remote management. Avoid the cheap screen option. From £1,452 exc VAT from dell.co.uk

REVIEW Issue 368, p46

HP OmniBook Ultra Flip

A top-quality 2-in-1 with a terrific 14in OLED panel, great build quality and superb battery life thanks to Intel’s latest generation Core Ultra 7 processors. From £1,699 from hp.com

REVIEW Issue 365, p46

CREATIVE & GAMING LAPTOPS

Lenovo Legion Pro 7i Gen 10

RTX 50 power from £2,800 from lenovo.com

A surprisingly elegant chassis considering the power within, even if it still weighs 2.7kg. In return you get a 16in OLED panel, Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX CPU and, in our test system’s case, and Nvidia RTX 5080 GPU. Lenovo simply doesn’t put a foot wrong.

REVIEW Issue 370, p75

EVERYDAY LAPTOPS

HP OmniBook 5 NGAI 14in

Copilot+ PC for £729 from currys.co.uk

Still one of the best-value laptops around, with an eight-core Snapdragon X1 chip speeding things along in general use – albeit not in games. At 12.6mm it’s extremely slim for a budget 14in laptop and its battery life is excellent too.

REVIEW Issue 375, p58

Razer Blade 14

Our pick of the 14in gaming laptops thanks to its quiet running, gorgeous design and brilliant OLED panel. And the RTX 5070 graphics makes sense at this size. RTX 5070, from £2,400 from razer.com

REVIEW Issue 372, p58

Asus ProArt P16 (2025)

Packing a RTX 5070, Ryzen AI 9 and brilliant 16in OLED panel into its slim, 1.9kg chassis, this is a fantastic choice for demanding creatives. £2,800 from asus.com

REVIEW Issue 371, p60

Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 (2025)

Don’t want to make any compromises? Choose this 18in monster, which weighs 3.3kg but extracts every drop from its components. RTX 5090, £4,700 from asus.com

REVIEW Issue 370, p71

Acer Aspire Vero 16

An eco-friendly laptop due its use of PCR plastics, but more to the point a well-built and powerful 16in laptop that should last for many years. £999 from currys.co.uk

REVIEW Issue 373, p60

HP OmniBook Ultra 14

If you have £999 to spend, consider the 16GB/512GB version of this cracking machine, with its aluminium chassis, 14in IPS panel and speedy Ryzen AI 365 CPU. From £999 from hp.com

REVIEW Issue 371, p87

Apple MacBook Neo

Its omissions may frustrate PC Pro buyers, but this is a great choice for undemanding users looking for a well-made, highly portable laptop. From £599 from apple.com

REVIEW Issue 380, p48

CHROMEBOOKS

Lenovo Chromebook Plus Gen 10

MediaTek AI power for £549 from lenovo.com

Simply the best Chromebook around thanks to a gorgeous 14in OLED screen and AI-enhanced skills courtesy of the MediaTek Kompanio Ultra 910 CPU. Add a well-built aluminium frame, 1.2kg weight and all-day battery life for the win.

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View Issues
PC Pro
June 2026
VIEW IN STORE

Other Articles in this Issue


PC Pro
Your bonus software
We scour the globe to negotiate the best software deals for our readers, from extended licences to full programs you don’t need to pay a penny for. Here’s this month’s lineup
Confidential computing
How can you process sensitive data without the risk of a leak? Darien Graham-Smith looks at trusted execution environments
“The only difference between the Neo and the Pro is what happens when you put your foot on the accelerator”
The MacBook Neo is far more than a cut-price laptop: it’s an important strategic move that – for now at least – none of Apple’s rivals can match
“I’m increasingly of the opinion that what needs repairing are the brains running global tech firms”
Celebrations as the EU rolls out positive changes, but it’s confusion inside Dell’s parts department. And is a famous wizard hiding inside your laptop?
“What better expert to help me with risks in relation to data given to AI than Copilot itself?”
How do you create a data protection impact assessment? Don’t turn to Copilot, Olivia finds, but do learn lessons from the Large Hadron Collider
“The threat is actually as old as the hills and twice as smelly. I’m talking, once again, of phishing”
Why Signal and Proton Mail remain my privacy go-to partnership, despite the recent misleading headlines that suggest that’s a bad idea
“Everyone looks the same during these discussions, a strange mixture of sure/not sure”
Consider this Steve’s Old Router Survival Guide, including a plea to avoid using open-source firmware to breathe new life into old kit
REGULARS
How I miss the moans of the old days
T wo decades ago, PC Pro ’s news
Readers’ comments
Your views and feedback from email and the web
Star letter
Your questions answered I was just reading the
Next month
ON SALE Thursday 4 June
Corporate leeches shouldn’t suck our blood for profit, says Jon Honeyball
I opened the envelope. Inside sat a letter
BRIEFING
The slow death of social media
Research shows Britons are tiring of the online abuse and the negative effects on mental health
PC sales spike is false flag
Q1 bump in sales is “not genuine demand”
Making IT admin easier
Intel’s GM for Commercial Client Segments reveals a host of new vPro features
VIEWPOINTS
Introducing my learned friend, Claude
As people turn to AI chatbots for health and emotional advice, it’s time to define exactly where they sit in our friendship culture
Amazon needs to read the room
Consigning old but working e-readers to landfill isn’t winning Amazon any fans, but there are things it can do to make book lovers happy
There’s no place like home
Much like moving house, switching to a new laptop is a discombobulating experience until you make everything just so
Readers’ poll
Which of the following most plagues your life when it comes to providing IT support to friends, family and the place you actually work?
FEATURES
BE YOUR OWN IT DEPARTMENT
WHETHER FOR A SMALL BUSINESS OR IN YOUR OWN HOME, BARRY COLLINS EXPLAINS HOW TO KEEP YOUR IT IN ORDER
Inside the INTERNET ARCHIVE
Iain Thomson tours the archive of a trillion web pages, which some copyright holders are trying to drive out of existence
RECYCLE AN OLD PC AS A HOME BACKUP HUB
The free UrBackup platform lets you run your own fully featured home backup server. Nik Rawlinson finds out how
The best way to sandbox software and it isn’t always virtualisation
Virtualisation isn’t the only way to compartmentalise software: Darien Graham-Smith explores how sandboxing and containerisation could save you a lot of memory and disk space
REVIEWS THIS MONTH
Asus Zenbook A16
Blistering debut for the Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite range, with superb battery life and far better 3D acceleration
How we test
Laptops and PCs We run a selection of
HP EliteBoard G1a (wireless)
A brilliant piece of design that should meet the needs of most businesses – but at what price?
Intel Core Ultra 5 250K Plus, Core Ultra 7 270K Plus
Intel’s Arrow Lake Refresh delivers two bulked-up chips that are refreshingly cheap and great for creators
HP Omen Max 45L (2026)
The new Omen Max 45L extracts the most from its components with minimum noise – and a high price
Re CyberPowerPC Infinity Ultra 7 Plus
Intel’s new Core Ultra 7 270K Plus proves an excellent partner for a GeForce RTX 5070 Ti card
Acer Aspire C27-2
A lack of all-round quality means that only those on the tightest of budgets should consider this 27in all-in-one
Medion Akoya Signium 27 S1
So long as you don’t want to play games, this is a great-value all-in-one PC that chews up everyday tasks
Dell XPS 16 (2026)
Not a gaming laptop, but a superb 16in choice due to the quality of the screen, strong battery life and slim design
Nothing Phone (4a) Pro
Its striking design and useful Glyph Matrix serve as a welcome reminder that phones can still be fun
Xiaomi Poco X8 Pro Max
The long-lasting battery is the star of this affordable phone, backed up by fast charging and solid performance
Apple Studio Display XDR
Game-changing for creative professionals thanks to the 120Hz Mini-LED panel and Thunderbolt 5, but there’s a catch
HP Series 7 Pro 732xk
A 4K, 31.5in monitor that majors on style, connectivity, colour coverage and top-notch image quality
Acer ProCreator PE270XT
If you’re happy with a glossy screen, this is a superb choice for photographers, animators and designers
Huion Kamvas Pro 24 (Gen3)
The vibrant 4K display and huge 24in working area, plus excellent accessories, make for a compelling package
Jabra Evolve3 75
This ultra-premium headset justifies the steep price thanks to features that will genuinely enhance your day
Cherry Xtrfy K5 Pro TMR Compact
Exceptionally crisp action with the build quality we expect from Cherry
Epomaker HE75 Mag
Doesn’t sound the best, but fantastic value for money and it’s great to type on
Keychron V1 Ultra 8K
A triumphant update to the original V1 Ultra, and worth the hassle of importing
Lemokey P2 HE
This magnetic keyboard is ideal for gamers who love to customise
MINI PCs BIG NAMES, SMALL PRICES
Whether you’re looking for something to roll out in a business, play games on or simply a great-value system, our test of 11 contenders has something for you
Slimming down the options: finding your perfect mini PC
Mini PCs can do everything you want, so long as you choose the right one. Here’s how to make the best selection for your needs
Asus ROG GR70 MiniPC
Asus joins the gaming party with a ridiculously powerful PC that surely no-one can afford
Geekom A5 Pro
The Geekom A5 Pro may perform like the cheapest PC here, but it’s genuinely tiny – and classy too
Lenovo ThinkCentre M70q Gen6
If you’re looking for a business PC, Lenovo’s ThinkCentre M70q Gen6 might be just the thing
Minisforum X1 Lite
Not the smallest or best looking, but this compact powerhouse is superb value and performs strongly
MSI Cubi Z AI 8M
The Cubi Z AI 8M is a strong mini PC, well served for ports and upgrades, and a good choice for businesses
Wired2Fire AMD R8845 Mini PC
This latest iteration of Wired2Fire’s mini PC is still brilliant, but it can’t quite do enough to win in this company
Acer Revo RB-102
It might look like a thick carpet, but Acer’s Revo RB-102 is a competent entry-level mini PC
Lenovo ThinkCentre M75q Gen5
Expensive, under-specified and underwhelming, the ThinkCentre M75q Gen5 is probably best avoided
Minisforum M1 Plus
This mini PC is competent and fairly well specified, but it’s not the best way to spend your money
MSI Cubi NUC AI+
Despite its strong specification and Copilot+ PC status, MSI’s Cubi NUC AI+ fails to shine
PCSpecialist Azena 4L AMD
This mini PC packs a mighty Ryzen processor, but you’ll be stuck with its lacklustre graphics
RAMs for the memory?
Mini PCs aren’t immune to the shortage of RAM, and that makes pricing hard to predict
Labs Mini PCs
How we test Details of this month’s benchmarks
Best VoIP for business 2026
Three hosted VoIP services aim to dethrone our long-term A-List choice 3CX in the battle for best service – and they all have their merits, says Dave Mitchell
3CX Phone System 20 Update 8
An unbeatable range of features, flexible deployments, affordable plans and smart agentic AI services
GoTo Connect
Classy, cloud-hosted solution with an appealing set of call features and sophisticated AI-powered services
TelephoneSystems. Cloud
A great cloud-hosted VoIP choice for SMBs that’s a cinch to deploy, easy to manage and excellent value
VoIP8
This affordable and flexible cloud-hosted VoIP solution will appeal to SMBs with limited technical know-how
Ugreen NASync iDX6011 Pro
This mighty desktop NAS teams up a powerful hardware package with smart local AI features
Zyxel NWA50BE Pro
This affordable dual-band Wi-Fi 7 AP performs well and will be by your side when you make the jump to 6GHz
Atari Portfolio review
David Crookes casts judgement over Atari’s pioneering palmtop, which only costs £100 less than it did at launch
THE NETWORK
What to do about shadow AI?
Workers are embracing AI – whether their bosses know it or not. Steve Cassidy explores the threat, and the opportunities
FUTURES
13 ways AI could save lives
AI might improve patient outcomes and diagnose disease earlier if we apply it to healthcare in an evidence-based way, finds Nicole Kobie

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