GB
  
You are currently viewing the United Kingdom version of the site.
Would you like to switch to your local site?
24 MIN READ TIME

The A-List

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

PREMIUM LAPTOPS

Apple MacBook Pro M4

M4 beast from £1,599 from apple.com/uk

This M4 update to the already brilliant MacBook Pro line is an easy recommendation, so the big question becomes do you choose the 14in version from £1,599 or 16in from £2,499? And then how much do you upgrade, as Apple isn’t afraid of high prices. But whatever you choose should last for years, and look great while it’s doing it.

REVIEW Issue 364, p50

Apple MacBook Air M4

If you don’t need the all-out power of the Pro, this is a brilliant, cheaper alternative despite the unchanged chassis and screen. 13in from £999, 15in from £1,199 from apple.com/uk

REVIEW Issue 368, p54

Honor MagicBook Art 14 (2025)

This slim 1kg laptop packs

Intel’s powerful Core Ultra 7 255H and a gorgeous 14.6in OLED touchscreen, yet survived for 12 hours in our light-use tests. And it looks gorgeous, too. £1,500 from honor.com

REVIEW Issue 373, p59

Asus ProArt PX13

With AMD’s new Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 inside, this 1.4kg compact powerhouse offers incredible amounts of power. Add a fantastic OLED screen and RTX 4070 graphics and it’s a winner. From £2,000 from uk.store.asus.com

REVIEW Issue 361, p50

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

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

BUSINESS LAPTOPS

Dell Pro 13 Premium

Sheer quality from £1,452 exc VAT from dell.com

Dell’s business laptop series has a new name, but its commitment to build quality and astonishing levels of configuration remain the same. Here, you benefit from a 1.1kg weight and 24-hour battery life, with Intel’s 200V vPro series there for easier remote management. Just make sure you avoid the cheap screen option.

REVIEW Issue 368, p46

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

Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6

(Snapdragon)

There’s no better laptop if you want to try out Snapdragon, thanks to its combination of build quality, speed and battery life. £1,500 exc VAT from lenovo.com

REVIEW Issue 360, p56

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

EVERYDAY LAPTOPS

Asus Vivobook S15

Copilot+ PC for £699 from currys.co.uk

This is one of the best-value laptops around, with an eight-core Snapdragon X Plus chip speeding things along in general use – albeit not in games. At 1.4kg it’s extremely light for a budget 15.6in laptop and its battery life is excellent too.

REVIEW Issue 371, p83

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

Microsoft Surface Laptop, 13-inch

Another laptop powered by a Snapdragon chip, but it’s low power so this stylish laptop is best for less demanding tasks. From £899 from microsoft.com

REVIEW Issue 371, p54

CHROMEBOOKS

Lenovo Chromebook Plus Gen 10

MediaTek AI power for £549 from lenovo.com

Unlock this article and much more with
You can enjoy:
Enjoy this edition in full
Instant access to 600+ titles
Thousands of back issues
No contract or commitment
Try for 99p
SUBSCRIBE NOW
30 day trial, then just £9.99 / month. Cancel anytime. New subscribers only.


Learn more
Pocketmags Plus
Pocketmags Plus

This article is from...


View Issues
PC Pro
November 2025
VIEW IN STORE

Other Articles in this Issue


PC Pro
The legend behindYugoslavia’s DIY computer
Inspirational stories from computing’s long-distant past
REGULARS
AI is back, and this time it’s personal
I t ’s the morning after. I’m battling
CONTRIBUTORS
Simon Handby We normally ask Simon to
Next month ON SALE Thursday 6 November
SUBSCRIBE.PCPRO.CO.UK Features PC Pro Technology Excellence
The next technology breakthrough will be sensational, says Jon Honeyball
@PCPRO FACEBOOK.COM/PCPRO W a ndering around
BRIEFING
Google grapples with good cop, bad cop
Vastly differing remedies for anti-competitive behaviour in the US and the EU create huge uncertainty
Apple Airs new iPhone
Slender new iPhone revealed
Hard truths on green PCs
Emmanuel Fromont, Acer
VIEWPOINTS
Controversial Haidt is hard to love
Sorry, OpenAI – you’ll never achieve AGI unless you can inject machines with the mish-mash of emotion and biology that define human intelligence
Put on your headphones – sometimes
Playing music out loud in public spaces is annoying and selfish, but not as foolish as ignoring the rest of the world
The laptop that won’t stop
Apple Silicon has completely redefined hardware lifecycles for the better, but how annoying when you’re tempted by something new
Readers’ comments
Your views and feedback from email and the web
Readers’ poll
Apple, Google and Samsung have all released glitzy new phones recently, but what features do you really care about?
FEATURES
WIPE ALL YOUR DEVICES
Don’t discard your devices without securely erasing their data first. Barry Collins reveals how to wipe a wide range of tech
BEST OF IFA 2025
WE SHARE OUR 29 FAVOURITE PRODUCTS LAUNCHED AT THE “WORLD’S BIGGEST TECH EVENT” IN BERLIN
Build a home security system for under £20
Protecting your home or workplace doesn’t need to be expensive. Nik Rawlinson shows you how it’s done
MYSTERIES OF IP EXPLAINED
We rely on IP every day, yet most of us are hazy on the details of how it works. Darien Graham-Smith tackles common questions about addressing, routing, ports, packet sizes and more
Futures Glossary of the future
What does it all mean?
REVIEWS THIS MONTH
Lenovo ThinkBook G6 Plus Rollable
A brilliant innovation from Lenovo, the only question being whether it’s worth the price in pounds (in both senses)
Bag a software bargain
Don’t pay full price for software when we can offer you huge reductions on genuine products
HP Z2 Mini G1a workstation
This AI-focused workstation could make a drastic difference to the speed of your workflows
SafeErase 18 Professional
Total value this month £105
Canon Maxify BX110
A tiny inkjet that’s perfect for cramped spaces or printing on the road, with high print costs its only downside
BenQ RD320
An intriguing 32in 4K monitor designed for programmers, and as usual BenQ delivers great-quality results
Cherry Xtrfy MX 10.1 Wireless
Even non-gamers should find much to love about this mechanical keyboard
Cherry KW 300W MX
A compact mechanical keyboard with extremely quiet keys, but it’s not cheap
ReMarkable Paper Pro Move
Nearly the perfect tablet for writing and drawing on the move thanks to its compact size and pen-on-paper feel
Google Pixel 10 Pro
A limited upgrade over last year’s model, but the new Pixel standard-bearer barely puts a foot wrong
Google Pixel 10
The closest Google has come to hitting the iPhone bullseye, even if it misses out on some AI features
OnePlus Nord 5
A curious mix of upgrades and downgrades mean this mid-range offering fails to sparkle
LABS
MINI PC WONDERS
We put a dozen tiny computers through our digital wringer, so whether you’re looking for an office companion or an all-rounder for personal use we have the answer
Shrink fit: how to choose your perfect mini PC
Mini PCs offer more potential than laptops yet more pitfalls than a desktop PC. Here’s how to navigate the choices
Asus NUC 14 Pro AI
The NUC 14 Pro AI hits the sweet spot, delivering strong performance for a fair price in a tiny package
Geekom A5
Cut-price PCs always force some compromises, but the Geekom A5 navigates them deftly
Minisforum UM750L Slim
This brilliant mini PC offers mid-range speeds for a price that looks like a typo: it’s sensational value
Minisforum AI X1 Pro
An amazing spec and great performance at a price that undercuts market leaders – and it’s stylish, too
Wired2Fire AMD R8845 Mini PC
Wired2Fire’s AMD R8845 Mini PC offers simply ridiculous specs and performance for the money
Acer Veriton N6 VN6710GT
Acer’s Veriton is a business-focused mini PC, but with only 8GB of RAM it failed to set our benchmarks alight
Asus ExpertCenter PN54
Packs a huge amount of performance into a truly tiny space, so it’s a shame about the price
Geekom Mini IT12
Quiet, compact and relatively upgradable, the Mini IT12 puts value ahead of outright performance
Lenovo ThinkCentre M75q Gen 5
A mini PC that screams business, the ThinkCentre M75q Gen 5 is capable but fails to stand out
Lenovo ThinkCentre Neo 50s Gen 5
Bigger than true mini PCs, the ThinkCentre Neo 50s Gen 5 is a reminder why small is beautiful
MSI Cubi NUC AI 1UMG
MSI’s business-friendly mini PC sits in a very competitive space, and unfortunately it doesn’t come out on top
MSI Cubi NUC AI+
MSI’s Cubi NUC AI+ is a pricey, high-end AI mini PC based on Intel’s Lunar Lake chips – for good and bad
Why no Chromeboxes?
We discover if there’s life in mini PCs running Chrome OS
How we test
Details of this month’s benchmarks and tests
View from the Labs
I loved writing this Labs. Unpacking a dozen
BUYER’S GUIDE
Business backup 2025
Practical buying and strategic advice for IT managers and decision makers
Arcserve UDP 10.2
Powerful data protection for physical and virtual environments with top recovery features
Arctera Backup Exec 25
A classy data protection solution with plenty of ransomware protection features at a decent price
Hornetsecurity VM Backup 9.13
Drag and drop takes the very affordable VM Backup to the top of our list for protecting virtualised environments
BUSINESS BACKUP SOFTWARE
Nakivo Backup & Replication 11
Perfect for SMBs seeking the best host platform support, great data protection features and good value
D-Link DBR-700
WAN redundancy, wireless network management and plenty of 2.5GbE ports at a good price
Synology DiskStation DS1825+
This smart desktop NAS offers a high capacity, good 10GbE performance and top data protection features
THE NETWORK
Performance monitoring
Get the best from your systems
Agentic AI
Are you ready for AI bots to start actively working in your business? Steve Cassidy looks at the opportunities – and risks
Real World Computing
“It caused a few ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’ at my local pub, which is one of my benchmarks for geek wizardry”
Expert advice from our panel of professionals
“The laptop wasn’t pretty. Beneath the chalky corrosion was damage like I’d never seen”
It’s time to ask important questions: are you too drunk for Windows? Does Microsoft own a phone? Should one die or a pay a bill?
“If your security training is boring, it’s not doing its job. This stuff is existential”
Training is the legal risk you’re probably sleeping through, but do so at your peril if you work in the field of information security
“Don’t dismiss this as someone else’s problem, as doing so could mean it soon becomes yours”
What on earth are Device Bound Session Credentials, and why do you need them? Allow Google, with a certain amount of help from Davey, to explain
“The state of panic around who will own the future of AI is profound”
Whether it’s creating robust defences against the rise of AI or the effects of the Online Safety Act on businesses, a sensible approach can be found
Chat
X
Pocketmags Support