Until about 15 years in the past, the time period “laptop” meant one factor: a conveyable PC that unfolds to disclose a display screen on one half and a keyboard on the opposite.

But with the launch of Apple’s iPad in 2010, PC distributors’ subsequent push into touchscreen designs, and the continued maturation of the PC market, the definition of “laptop” has broadened. Choosing a laptop computer isn’t nearly tech specs and construct high quality. It’s now in regards to the basic form of the factor.

Let’s attempt to break all of it down with a taxonomy for each form of laptop computer you should purchase in the present day.

Further studying: PCWorld’s top laptop recommendations

Clamshell laptops

Dominic Bayley / IDG

Dominic Bayley / IDG

Dominic Bayley / IDG

The most standard class of all of them, clamshells don’t flip, bend, or rework. They merely concentrate on letting you’re employed with a keyboard and trackpad (or mouse) with probably the most environment friendly designs potential.

Even right here, although, we are able to outline a handful of subcategories:

• Touchscreen laptops: These help you manipulate the display screen instantly whereas nonetheless resembling an everyday laptop computer. Some common laptops provide a touchscreen as an elective improve.
• Ultraportable laptops: High-end shopper laptops with premium designs targeted on portability. These could also be informally often called “Ultrabooks” — stemming from Intel’s early-2010s marketing push towards the MacBook Air — or simply “thin-and-light” laptops. HP’s Dragonfly G4 is our present high decide on this subcategory.
• Gaming laptops: Clamshells with devoted graphics playing cards and different gaming-centric options, resembling customizable keyboard lighting, distinctive cooling options, and flashy designs. You know them once you see them. Alienware’s m16 R2 is our high decide proper now for a gaming laptop computer.
• Desktop replacements: Heavier laptops with bigger screens and highly effective CPUs, with battery life and portability as afterthoughts. These are inclined to have some overlap with gaming laptops, as seen in our best laptops for video editing.

2-in-1 laptops

Beyond the fundamental clamshell, many PC makers provide laptops that may rework into tablets for drawing, taking notes, studying ebooks, and taking part in touchscreen video games. While there are numerous sorts of 2-in-1 laptops, they primarily fall into two camps: convertibles and detachables.

Convertibles

IDG / Brendan Nystedt

IDG / Brendan Nystedt

IDG / Brendan Nystedt

With convertible laptops, the keyboard part is completely related to the display screen, but it surely folds out of the best way so you possibly can lay the display screen flat in your lap or on a desk. While convertibles are heavier and bulkier than removable laptops, they really feel extra like conventional clamshells when utilized in laptop computer mode. (They do, nevertheless, are typically bulkier than non-convertible laptops.)

Within the convertible subgenre, there are a few subtypes:

• 360-degree hinge convertibles have screens that fold all the best way round beneath the keyboard — a type made well-known by Lenovo’s Yoga line.
• Easel-style convertibles have pivoting screens that lay down on high of the keyboard. These are rarer, however Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Studio and HP’s Elite Folio are notable examples.

Detachables

Mattias Inghe

Mattias Inghe

Mattias Inghe

With removable laptops, the display screen portion pulls aside from the keyboard and turns into a standalone pill. This provides you an uncompromised pill expertise, however with some trade-offs on the laptop computer entrance: Because all of the computing parts should sit behind the display screen, it may be top-heavy and may have its personal kickstand, so it’s extra cumbersome to maintain in your lap. Detachables can also be much less performant than normal clamshells, whose parts can use all of the house underneath the keyboard to dissipate warmth.

Detachables themselves fall into a number of subcategories:

Exotics

Mattias Inghe

Mattias Inghe

Mattias Inghe

Want one thing somewhat extra uncommon? Laptop makers have began experimenting with new sorts of laptops that contain a number of screens or foldable show tech.

These gadgets are typically a lot pricier than conventional laptops, they usually can typically really feel like options in the hunt for an issue. It’s commonplace for laptop computer makers to desert or overhaul their concepts after a technology or two, so these experimental laptops are best-suited for folk who don’t thoughts dwelling on the bleeding edge.

Let’s break down the differing types:

• Foldable laptops include a single, versatile show, whose two halves provide a laptop-like floor when partially folded or a bigger, freestanding show when unfolded. A separate keyboard and trackpad deck permits for interplay with out counting on the touchscreen. HP’s Spectre Foldable and Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Fold are current examples.
• Dual-screen laptops change the standard keyboard part with a second display screen, maybe with an attachable keyboard and trackpad deck for enter. Standing the screens up and utilizing the keyboard individually approximates the texture of getting two screens. Asus did an awesome job on this idea with the 2024 ZenBook Duo.
• Laptops with additional screens can complement the principle display screen with additional info, as seen with Asus’ ROG Zephyrus Duo 16.
• Twistable laptops have a display screen that rotates round to supply additional performance on the opposite facet. An instance is the Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 4, which has an OLED display screen on one facet and E-ink on the opposite, with the latter aimed toward notetaking, studying, and targeted writing.