laptops of 2015,upcoming games

The best laptops of 2015: Upcoming contenders

Apple MacBook

Having ditched the MacBook line in favour of expanding the MacBook Pro range, Apple has finally seen fit to revive it as a line of ultra-thin laptops. Set to rival the likes of the Dell XPS, Apple's new MacBook is the thinnest and lightest machine it's ever made.

Weighing just 920g and measuring just 13.1mm at its thickest point, the MacBook is - according to Apple - 24% thinner than the MacBook Air. While many were tempted by the Air as a lightweight alternative to a MacBook Pro, the MacBook sports a 12in Retina Display, a brand new Force Touch trackpad - the same that's featured in the latest MacBook Pro range - and new keyboard technology to make Apple's newest laptop a real replacement for the MacBook Pro.

The new sleek frame also features ultra-compact and powerful battery technology to help maximise battery life, and is the first all-metal MacBook on the market thanks to an aluminium hinge.

Prices start at £1,049 for a MacBook with 1.1GHz dual-core Intel Core M with Turbo Boost to 2.4GHz, 8GB RAM, 256GB flash storage and Intel HD Graphics 5300 GPU.

The est laptops of 2015: laptop, touchscreen or hybrid?

Not sure what to buy? The best way to set about making that tricky decision is to first work out what type of laptop you want or need, then consult our best laptop list below for the most appropriate machine in that category. Thanks to the explosion of different form factors, there's now a machine to fit almost any application. See also: what's the best free antivirus 2015?

For a simple, effective laptop, there’s still nothing to beat the traditional clamshell laptop design for value. A standard laptop will do most things more expensive models can, and prices can be very reasonable. Dial back your budget below £500, however, and you’ll have to sacrifice weight, looks and (usually) display quality. It's a case of which compromises bother you least.

Up your spend, and you’ll be able to consider an Ultrabook – thin and light machines that look as good as they perform – or a more luxurious touchscreen laptop. A touchscreen isn't essential, but it is nice to be able to pinch, flick and swipe your way through the Windows 8 user interface and scroll around web pages. Plus, it gives your fingers a bit of respite from tiresome touchpad prodding.

If you want to take it to the next level, a hybrid could be the way to go. These machines allow you to detach or fold away the keyboard so you can use your laptop just like an iPad or Android tablet. For surfing the web on a sofa or just watching videos, many hybrid designs have the edge on a traditional laptop.

Don’t expect any of these fancy features on a business-focused laptop, though. They generally do away with such luxuries, concentrating instead on providing office-friendly features such as Ethernet sockets, fingerprint or smart card readers, and upgradeable components to give you more practical bang for your buck. Accessories such as docking stations are usually high up on the list of priorities, too.

The best laptop of 2015: How do we test?

For those of you who are wondering how we come up with the individual ranking for each laptop in this best laptop chart, here’s a quick guide for how we test each laptop.

Every device here is put through our rigorous suite of benchmarks and battery tests. First, we use our own Real World Benchmarks, which run applications including Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop, Sony Vegas Pro and Apple iTunes to give an indication of all-round computing performance. Click on the any laptop in this list to be taken to the device's full review, where you can see all these scores.

We test the quality of each laptop’s display with a colorimeter, measuring the brightness, contrast ratio and colour accuracy, and use a selection of test images and videos to look for issues such as poor viewing angles or slow response times.

Features & Design

Each device is also evaluated for the quality of its features, build and design. The range of connectivity is taken into account, including network capabilities and hard disk capacity, as well as features such as styluses, docking keyboards, and physical switches to disable wireless networking or temporarily disable touchpads while typing.

For all that can’t be measured objectively, such as the build quality, touchscreen sensitivity, speakers and keyboard, we use our experience to assess these factors objectively, and use this, in combination with a totting up of features, to produce each review’s Features & Design score.

Value for Money and Overall

Our Value for Money score doesn't simply indicate how much each laptop costs, but reflects how much you get for the price paid. The Overall rating is an average of the Performance, Features & Design and Value for Money score, but it may be higher or lower than you'd expect due to rounding.