The 5 Best Mac Laptops in 2023: Which Is Best for You?

When shopping for a MacBook, it’s easy to get caught up in all the different models and options available to you. It’s about so much more than just MacBook Air vs. MacBook Pro, too. There are multiple screen sizes to choose from, a variety of different chips to pick from, and a number of price points to navigate, as well. How can one possibly make such a big decision, let alone quickly or easily? As it turns out, picking a winner from the best Mac laptops in 2023 is as easy as deciding what’s most important to you in a computer and going from there.

Are you shopping for a MacBook on a budget? There’s a laptop for you. What about those who travel often and need one of the best Mac laptops for the trip? There’s a MacBook for you, too. Perhaps you’d prefer the MacBook with the most impressive performance specs. Or maybe you’re a professional looking for the best Mac laptops to keep up with your workload. There are even options for you, as well. We’ll go over each and every one of these options below, concluding with one of the best Mac laptops overall. Let’s review:

• Best overall: MacBook Pro 13-inch with M2 Chip
• Best budget option: MacBook Air with M1 Chip
• Best travel choice: MacBook Air with M2 Chip
• Best for performance: MacBook Pro 16-inch with M2 Max Chip
• Best for professionals: MacBook Pro 14-inch with M2 Pro Chip

Best Overall: MacBook Pro 13-inch with M2 Chip

When presented with so many different paths to go down, there’s nothing wrong with picking the middle one. This is the guiding principle behind naming the MacBook Pro 13-inch with M2 Chip the best overall among all the Mac laptops in 2023.

Seen as the midpoint between the lightweight, ultra-affordable, moderately performing MacBook Air models and the heavy, expensive, high-performing MacBook Pro models with M2 Pro or M2 Max Chips, the MacBook Pro 13-in. with M2 Chip is a great performer, a decent size, and an affordable price point all rolled into one.

If you’re not sure which one of these best Mac laptops is the ideal choice for you, then you really can’t deny the quality and the price of the MacBook Pro 13-in. with M2 Chip. Reliable performance specs, dependable battery life, plenty of storage and memory, and only 3 pounds in all, it’s the best overall of all the best Mac laptops we’ve compiled here.

Best Overall

Apple 2022 MacBook Pro Laptop with M2 chip

$1,259.93

• 8-core CPU, 10-core GPU
• 13-inch retina display
• Up to 20 hours of battery life
• Available with up to 1TB SSD storage
• Up to 16GB RAM

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11/26/2023 02:25 am GMT

Best Budget Option: MacBook Air with M1 Chip

If you’re shopping for the best Mac laptops on a budget, then look no further than the MacBook Air with M1 Chip. Released in November of 2020 and currently priced at just under a thousand dollars for the most basic model and specs, Apple laptops just don’t get any more affordable than the MacBook Air with M1 Chip.

Better yet, you won’t be sacrificing a thing with this lower price point — the MacBook Air with M1 Chip is still an excellent performer, complete with a long battery life, plenty of storage, a dependable memory, and a beautiful 13.3-inch Retina Display screen.

Sure, you might not be able to do quite as much quite as well as one of the more expensive, more fully loaded MacBook Pro models described below, but the MacBook Air with M1 Chip nevertheless proves to be the best MacBook on a budget. You won’t be disappointed — and neither will your bank account.

Best Portable/ Budget Option

Apple MacBook Air

$749.99

• Up to 18 hours of battery life
• 8-core CPU, 7-core GPU
• 13.3-inch retina display
• Integrated graphics card
• Up to 512GB SSD storage

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11/26/2023 12:11 pm GMT

Best Travel Choice: MacBook Air with M2 Chip

Priced at a couple of hundred dollars higher than the MacBook Air with M1 Chip, the MacBook Air with M2 Chip — released in July of 2022 — is ever so slightly more lightweight than the aforementioned M1 Air. This makes it the preferred option for travelers looking to keep their carry-ons light.

Of course, the fact that it’s equipped with the superior M2 Chip is merely an added bonus. Boasting better performance, superior memory, a better video engine, and a bigger, brighter 13.6-inch Liquid Retina Display screen, the MacBook Air with M2 Chip is more than just the best of the best Mac laptops for travel… it’s a better MacBook Air, period.

Though it still lacks some of those superior performance specs found in the MacBook Pro family, the MacBook Air with M2 Chip is nevertheless an impressively lightweight laptop. As a matter of fact, at 2.7 pounds, it’s the lightest of all the best Mac laptops. Therefore, the best for frequent travelers.

Best Travel Choice

Apple 2022 MacBook Pro Laptop with M2

$1,254.93

• Up to 24 GB of RAM
• 13-inch retina display
• Active cooling
• Can drive displays up to 8K resolution

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11/26/2023 01:51 am GMT

Best for Performance: MacBook Pro 16-inch with M2 Max Chip

One of the newest entries in the list of the best Mac laptops, the MacBook Pro 16-inch with M2 Max Chip instantly became the best-performing MacBook in the entire Apple family upon its release in January of 2023. This is all thanks to the amazing M2 Max Chip installed inside.

Offering the most spectacular performance specs in the history of the MacBook — a 12-core CPU, up to 38-core GPU, 400GB/s unified memory, a battery life of up to 22 hours, and as much as 8 TB of storage in all — there’s no question that the MacBook Pro 16-inch with M2 Max Chip is the best performer of all the best Mac laptops currently on the market.

Naturally, these profound performance specs come with a profound price point. At $3,499 (or more, depending on the kind of specs you add to your laptop before checkout), you’ll need to pay a pretty penny for the best performance in all of Apple. However, if you’re someone who needs this kind of high-performing laptop, it’ll unquestionably be worth it.

Best for Performance

Apple 2023 MacBook Pro Laptop M2 Max chip with 12‑core CPU and 38‑core GPU: 16.2-inch Liquid Retina XDR Display, 32GB Unified Memory, 1TB SSD Storage. Works with iPhone/iPad; Silver

$2,199.99

• Powered by the Apple M2 Max chip
• Up to 22 hours of battery life
• 12-core CPU, 38-core GPU
• Upgradeable to 8TB storage
• 16.2-inch liquid retina XDR display

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11/27/2023 02:36 am GMT

Best for Professionals: MacBook Pro 14-inch with M2 Pro Chip

While we’ve already touched on the impressiveness of the Apple M2 Max chip, the remarkable SoC was released alongside an equally powerful chip at a slightly lower price point: The Apple M2 Pro chip. As it turns out, the MacBook Pro 14-inch with M2 Pro Chip is the best for professionals of all the best Mac laptops in the Apple inventory.

Not every professional needs such immense power (like you’ll find in the MacBook Pro 16-in. with M2 Max Chip). Some professionals just need to be able to do a fair amount of photo and video editing, a decent amount of web browsing, and a reliable amount of programming. For these professionals, there’s simply no denying the usefulness of the MacBook Pro 14-inch with M2 Pro Chip.

While it might not be as supercharged as a MacBook Pro with an M2 Max Chip, the MacBook Pro 14-inch with M2 Pro Chip remains the best of all the best Mac laptops for the professional Apple user. Dependable battery, powerful chip, plenty of storage… it’s all there to help you get the job done.

Best for Professionals

Apple 2023 MacBook Pro Laptop M2 Pro

$1,719.13

• Liquid Retina display with 1,000 nits brightness
• M2 Pro or M2 Max processor
• Up to 32GB of unified memory
• Touch ID and Magic Keyboard

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11/25/2023 08:16 pm GMT

How to Pick the Best Mac Laptops: Step-By-Step

Choosing a winner from the best Mac laptops is not something you can do blindly. There are several important factors to take into consideration before you make your choice. These four considerations are the very same ones we thought long and hard about when we compiled our winning Macs above. What kind of portability are you looking for in a laptop? What about screen size? And how important are performance specs and other internal stats to you? Plus, does a certain price point factor into your decision? Let’s review these important considerations below:

• Portability
• Screen Size
• Internal Specs
• Price

Portability

Firstly, there’s portability. In other words, how easy is it to carry around the best Mac laptops? A large part of what has made laptops so endlessly appealing over the years in comparison to the desktop computer is their ability to be lugged around and used on the go. With this in mind, what kind of portability is offered by a MacBook Air over a MacBook Pro? What about a 13-inch model vs a 16-inch model? The answers to these questions pertain directly to the kind of portability each of the best Mac laptops has to offer.

Screen Size

Secondly, there’s screen size to take into account. Apple offers a number of different screen sizes for its various different MacBook models, and each one comes with its own set of advantages and disadvantages. Do you want a smaller, 13-inch screen? Or would you rather have a bigger, 16-inch screen? There’s also the middle-of-the-road option, with a number of MacBooks being offered in 14-inch models. A difference of a few inches across the board might not sound like much, but it absolutely matters.

Internal Specs

Thirdly — and arguably one of the most important considerations of the bunch — is the matter of internal specifications. How much do you care about battery life? What about memory? Or storage? What about the brightness of the screen? Or the power of the internal chip to handle things like video editing or photo editing? Whether you’re intending to use one of the best Mac laptops for web browsing alone or plan to run your entire business off of one, the question of internal specs is one you should not take lightly.

Price

Lastly, there’s price. In the end, the MacBook you ultimately choose might end up boiling down to price and price alone. With so many different price points throughout the Apple inventory, it can be easy to convince yourself you need the most expensive option or the most affordable option because they’re the easiest to spot. Don’t be afraid to explore some of the mid-range price points, though. Oftentimes, the leap from one price point to the next is a matter of merely a hundred or two hundred dollars. Set a budget, and then stick to it.

What to Know Before Buying One of the Best Mac Laptops

Before you buy one of the best Mac laptops listed above, there are a few things you should know first. The MacBook family is one of the best and most beloved collections in the entire laptop market for a reason, but there are still a few important considerations worth stating.

For one, MacBooks are not the most supportive of gaming. As a matter of fact, it’s pretty hard (if not outright impossible) to run the latest and greatest video games on a MacBook. The graphics and processors are impressive, to be sure, but not always impressive enough to support AAA games.

You see, MacBooks are not the most technologically advanced laptops on the market. That’s not to suggest they’re in any way bad, of course — just not as technologically advanced as some of the other, more complex laptop offerings on the market. They’re the most user-friendly, which means they lack some of those advanced features others might find on a Windows laptop.

One more thing: MacBooks can also be incredibly expensive. Buying one of the best Mac laptops does not make for the most money-saving or cost-effective decisions, especially if you’ve thought about building a PC before. Depending on what you’re looking for in a laptop, a MacBook might not be it (even if it’s one of the best Mac laptops today).

Using the Best Mac Laptops: What to Expect

So: You’ve decided on a MacBook and officially made your purchase. Congratulations! You’re in for one of the most fun and exciting laptop user experiences on the market today. As previously mentioned, MacBooks are so popular for very good reasons. These are just a few of the biggest ones.

For starters, MacBooks are astoundingly user-friendly. They’re easy enough for even the most inexperienced computer user to follow along with. From web browsing to email to some of the more advanced features like iMovie or GarageBand, a MacBook is great for any and all users — regardless of experience.

Additionally, MacBooks are very compatible with other Apple products. If you have an iPad, an Apple Watch, an iPhone, or AirPods (or maybe even a combination of the bunch), you’ll find that your new MacBook is super supportive of these Apple products and makes integrating them with your new laptop a breeze.

All in all, MacBooks — especially the best Mac laptops — are an excellent investment for even the most casual computer users. They last years and years without showing any signs of wear, and Apple has great customer service should you encounter any problems along the way. You can expect years of nice and simple enjoyment to come. Enjoy!

The image featured at the top of this post is ©WeDesing/Shutterstock.com.