What’s new when shopping for a laptop in 2025? 8 things to keep in mind

While laptops haven’t grown by leaps and bounds over the past few years, the industry is finally getting interesting again.

As 2024 comes to an end and we enter 2025, if you’re in the market for a new laptop, I have good news for you: A lot has changed, and more is coming. Here’s what’s new you need to know this year to make an informed laptop buying decision.

Buying last year’s laptop is no longer a good deal

I have recommended Clearance purchase of last year’s laptop models Because the hardware hasn’t really improved much year over year. Sure, maybe that new laptop is Bit Better…but only slightly better. Wouldn’t you rather buy last year’s model that’s almost as good at 50% off?

Now the calculation has changed. If you qualify, you can still find clearance laptops from 2024 or 2023 at great prices Focus on the best laptop salesbut you might want to think twice before buying.

The latest CPUs — I’m talking about Intel Core Ultra Series 2 (Moon Lake)AMD’s Ryzen AI 300 Seriesand Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite — all with some major upgrades, including improved battery life, lower power consumption, standard Wi-Fi 7 support, and an NPU for AI features that promise to get even more interesting in 2025.

Combine all of this with other popular laptop improvements, such as the explosion in popularity Beautiful OLED displayit might be worth spending the money on a current laptop after all.

Latest laptop processors offer extremely long battery life

The battle for laptop processor battery life has finally begun. Intel had a good talk with those guys First generation “Core Ultra” Meteor Lake processors, but they Didn’t really achieve those huge efficiency improvements in our benchmarks and daily tests.

However, things are different now. PCs powered by Intel’s Lunar Lake finally achieve the significant improvements in battery life that Intel promised. Meanwhile, you can also find Arm-powered Windows laptops with Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite and Snapdragon X Plus chips, which also have great battery life. (But thanks to Moon Lake, you won’t must Turn to those Arm-powered laptops for longer battery life.

Related: These laptops have the longest battery life we’ve ever tested

While AMD’s latest Ryzen AI 300 series processors don’t achieve the same battery life, they are quite efficient while offering better multi-threading performance than Lunar Lake CPUs.

PCWorld’s Mark Hachman ran UL’s Procyon Office benchmark, which launches applications such as Microsoft Word and Excel and tests how long they last in real-world usage scenarios. There are The battery number he saw In this more representative test:

• Intel Moon Lake: 17 hours and 7 minutes
• Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite: 16 hours and 20 minutes
• AMD Ryzen AI 300: 10 hours and 42 minutes
• Intel Meteor Lake: 10 hours and 35 minutes

If laptop battery life is important to you—in other words, you don’t prioritize maximum performance for gaming or creative work—then you’ll want to consider a laptop with these newer processors.

Gaming laptops are still using old processors

If you want these cutting-edge battery life figures, you won’t find them in a gaming laptop—even in the newer 2025 models. These long-lasting CPUs are primarily designed for NPU power efficiency and AI performance, which is less important for gaming laptops.

Not surprisingly, most gaming laptops stick with Intel Raptor Lake refreshes CPU — announced in 2023 — for optimal performance. Plus, as we head into 2025, Nvidia’s latest option for action remains GeForce RTX 40 Series GPUs Launching in 2023.

So, not much has changed as far as gaming laptops are concerned. I recommend either keeping an eye out for deals on slightly older gaming laptops, or waiting for some new hardware. Nvidia’s GPUs are about to be updated, and there are many speculations that Nvidia may announce new GPUs at CES 2025.

Wi-Fi 7 will become the new standard

In 2025, there will be few excuses for laptops no Supports Wi-Fi 7. all Comes standard with Wi-Fi 7 hardware. If this is your first time hearing about Learn more about the importance of Wi-Fi 7.

Even if you haven’t upgraded to a Wi-Fi 7 router yet, it’s time to start buying Wi-Fi 7 hardware so you can eventually upgrade—and what better way to do that than starting with a compatible laptop? Then, when your router does die, you can buy a replacement with Wi-Fi 7.

That’s a big improvement from 2024, by the way. Intel’s Meteor Lake processors don’t come standard with Wi-Fi 7 hardware, and you sometimes have to pay extra to upgrade.

Unfortunately, Wi-Fi 7 still isn’t standard on gaming laptops. As mentioned above, most gaming laptops come with Raptor Lake Refresh CPUs for optimal performance, and these laptops often don’t have Wi-Fi 7. -Fi 7 supports it, but you have to go out of your way to find it.

The cutting-edge “Copilot+ PC” is a PC equipped with an NPU for AI tasks

when Co-pilot+computer Launching in late summer 2024, they are all Arm-based laptops equipped with Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite or Snapdragon X Plus processors. Now that changes: You can also get a Copilot+ PC with an Intel Lunar Lake or AMD Ryzen AI 300 series processor.

if you Do When you buy a Copilot+ PC, you get more than just Copilot keys on your keyboard. You’ll get additional AI capabilities in Windows that rely on newer hardware that’s only available in Copilot+ PCs.

At launch, these AI features weren’t very interesting. But Microsoft is working hard to add more artificial intelligence features to Windows and Still trying our best to save it Controversial Windows recall feature (Regularly takes screenshots of your computer screen and allows you to search your activity history with simple typing prompts). These Copilot+ PCs also include When the co-pilot is running Windows applications can take advantage.

All of these artificial intelligence benefits are powered by the neural processing units (NPUs) in these PCs. To qualify as a Copilot+ PC, a computer needs to have an NPU capable of at least 40 trillion operations per second (TOPS). (Not sure what NPU is? Check out Our NPU and AI chip interpreters.)

Laptops are getting more RAM and storage space

A happy story is happening across the consumer electronics industry right now, from laptops to cell phones: More RAM and more storage are becoming the standard.

This is all thanks to the explosion of artificial intelligence, but a rising tide lifts all boats. Laptops and other devices require large amounts of RAM to keep AI models in memory, so devices with lower amounts of RAM no longer require it.

Related: How much memory does a laptop need?

Microsoft’s Copilot+ PC requirements require minimum 16GB RAM and 256GB storage. While not every laptop is a Copilot+ PC, the heavy focus on artificial intelligence means base model laptops likely have enough RAM and storage that you can buy them without having to pay for potentially expensive RAM and storage upgrades cost.

Related: How much SSD space does your laptop need?

Arm-powered laptops have good (but not perfect) software compatibility

You don’t have to buy an Arm-based Windows laptop to get great battery life, but you might still want one. if you yes Those interested in products like Microsoft’s latest Surface Laptop or Surface Pro should know that software compatibility (which was already pretty good at launch) has continued to improve since then.

Most Windows desktop apps run fine on Arm laptops, thanks to prism compatible layerand some apps that were incompatible at launch (such as Google Drive and some VPN apps) can now run on Arm laptops. However, many Adobe applications now run on these PCs as well not all. Some older printers may also not work.

Long story short, an Arm laptop may be a good fit for you and you may not run into any software compatibility issues, but please know that the risk is still there. Intel believes these potential application issues (along with Lunar Lake’s efficiency improvements) will make you skip Qualcomm Snapdragon X-powered systems for Lunar Lake PCs, which can run legacy x86 software without any emulation.

That said, most typical laptop users should be fine with an Arm laptop. If you end up getting one, make sure you get one from A store with a good return policy Just in case it doesn’t meet your needs.

Laptop hardware to be launched in 2025

While Nvidia has yet to announce anything official, rumor Said that they will release the GeForce RTX 50 series GPU at CES 2025 in January. If a new mobile GPU is included, this will give gamers a reason to upgrade, or at least a reason to buy a newer laptop if you’re in the market for a new portable gaming PC!

Intel also has some new processors: panther lake It will be the successor to Lunar Lake, and Intel said it plans to release this new hardware in the second half of 2025.

AMD is rumored to be working on “thrush haloThe hardware is designed to be high-performance, but the company has yet to officially announce anything. I’m keeping an eye on CES 2025 in January, where the company may make some related announcements.

Qualcomm has also promised to launch cheaper Arm laptops powered by Snapdragon X Plus. The company is Target price range is $700 to $900 Equipped with the new Snapdragon X Plus chip, it focuses on performance.

But Qualcomm isn’t just after lower prices. The company also appears to be developing “Snapdragon X Gen 2” hardware, according to reports Leaks from Dell. If the rumors are true, these processors could launch in mid-2025. Expect power efficiency and performance upgrades.

In 2025, the notebook computer market will heat up and become lively again. I just wish there were more new hardware for gaming laptops!