#PokdePicks Best Laptops Of 2023
#PokdePicks Best Laptops Of 2023
We’ve had our fair share of laptops reviewed this year, ranging from budget to premium, lightweight to heavyweight, mainstream to niche, and everything in between. As we conclude 2023, here are our top picks of the best laptops we’ve reviewed in the past 12 months.
ASUS Zenbook Pro 14 OLED (UX6404)
Simply put, this 14-inch creator laptop from ASUS defies its size, and what hides beneath its chassis is some ferocious hardware that can plow through any heavyweight workload you could throw at it. One of the unique features it offers is the DialPad which acts as a virtual dial integrated directly into the touchpad. It’s got some quirks – but you should be able to make good use of it once you get through the learning curve.
Of course, be prepared to pay RM10,999 for the Intel Core i9-13900H + RTX 4070 pairing, and for gamers – you’re more likely to pick their ROG offerings instead. We believe this is one of the best high-performance laptops you can get today outside of the gaming realm, with very few compromises getting in the way.
You can read our detailed review of this laptop by clicking here.
Apple Macbook Pro 16-inch (M2 Pro, 19-core GPU)
The second generation of M-series SoCs brings the performance of the already impressive Macbook Pros up a notch, and naturally, this M2 Pro-powered Macbook Pro 16-inch is no exception. For those in the Apple ecosystem, it’s hard to beat the seamlessness of iPhones, iPads, Macbooks, and everything in between working together in tandem.
While the new Macbooks ticks plenty of boxes, there’s one rather unsightly feature that you just have to live with – the dreaded notch. That certainly messes with the great display this laptop already comes with, so you might just want to train yourself to tune your eyes out of that one. Prices are naturally expensive: with the RM10,799 starting price, it’s not for everyone.
We have our review of this laptop, configured with M2 Pro SoC with 19-core GPU (costs RM14,799) that you can read here.
Lenovo LOQ 15 (15APH8)
Lenovo’s budget gaming brand has been reborn with a new name: LOQ. That aside, most of the insides in the Lenovo LOQ 15 (15APH8) are still very much the bloodline from its IdeaPad Gaming predecessors, and it comes with the robust AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS CPU (plus the NVIDIA RTX 4050) in our configuration to really sweeten the deal.
Now, to be clear – our experience with it is not quite ideal, but we believe there’s potential for it to be great if you have the correct hardware configuration. That’s the advantage of this laptop, something that other laptop vendors in Malaysia rarely if not outright do not offer. The configurator lists the starting price at RM3,949, and you can go up from there.
Alternatively, you can read on our thoughts on this laptop (with RM5,210 configuration) by clicking here.
Dell XPS 13 Plus 9320
Now, allow me to slightly bend the rules for the “best laptops” for this one. Objectively speaking, the Dell XPS 13 Plus is a quirky laptop, to say the least – it looks nothing like the conventional 13/14-inch laptop that you may find elsewhere, featuring touch-sensitive controls, a borderless touchpad, and a zero-gap keyboard. But I do feel like Dell deserves some points here for trying some new ideas on the tried-and-tested lightweight laptop formula.
That isn’t to say it’s got no legitimate strength going for it: one of the best parts of this laptop is its sheer endurance. We observed a nearly 11-hour worth of runtime on a single charge, which comfortably beats all the laptops we’ve tested throughout 2023. All that uniqueness does come at a cost, at RM7,299 – it’s not exactly a cheap laptop given its specs on paper, but it could very well be a conversation starter.
You can click here and read our verdict on this rather unique piece of gadget.
Acer Swift Edge 16 (SFE16-43)
Our last pick for this list is the Acer Swift Edge 16, powered by none other than the very first AI-infused laptop processor on the market: the AMD Ryzen 7 7840U. Ryzen AI made its debut here, and it leaves solid impressions on what’s to come in 2024 (as Intel is launching its AI-infused chips, too). The Acer laptop also stands out for another reason: weight. At 1.23kg, it’s the lightest 16-inch laptop we’ve seen so far.
The strengths of this laptop come in two main aspects. Let’s talk display first – it’s an OLED with HDR capabilities, and colors really do pop if you’re into media consumption. As for the webcam, you now have background blur, auto-framing and eye gaze correction built right into the laptop, and what’s not to love with the impressive QHD resolution it delivers? Unfortunately, we don’t have local pricing on this one just yet – but the $1,299.99 US pricing should give you what to expect in case the laptop does arrive in Malaysia at some point.
Here’s our review of this laptop which you can access by clicking right here.
And that’s it for the laptop class of 2023 – not all laptops excel in every aspect, so our picks may not necessarily apply to everyone’s use cases. Still, we do think that some of them are worth mentioning for bringing something new to the table despite their quirks, and it’s something that we the tech enthusiasts tend to appreciate. What do you think? Any laptops that you think deserve a spot? Tell us in the comments.
