The best laptops and 2-in-1s this holiday season

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Until now I would have been hesitant to recommend the 13-inch MacBook Pro in a gift guide: To get the best features (a Touch ID sensor), you’d have to pay an eye-watering $1,799. Meanwhile, the $1,099 MacBook Air already had Touch ID, albeit with less-powerful silicon under the hood. This year, though, Apple updated the entry-level $1,299 MacBook Pro so that it combines everything we liked about the Air and higher-end Pro, with an asking price that is in the same ballpark as its lower-powered cousin. Now that the price is right (and the features too), the base MacBook Pro is our go-to recommendation for Apple fans in search of a new laptop. It’s faster than the entry-level MBP used to be, there’s the Touch ID sensor we’re so fond of, improved speakers and an already-great Retina with the addition of Apple’s True Tone technology. The main drawback is the keyboard, though Apple has tweaked the design (again) to make it more responsive. — Dana Wollman, Editor-in-Chief

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For years now, Dell’s ultraportable XPS 13 has been one of our favorite Windows laptops. The company also makes a convertible 2-in-1 version of the XPS 13, and although the first version was flawed in some ways, the newest model addresses basically all of its earlier shortcomings. In fact, if money were no object we’d choose the 2-in-1 version over the regular one. For us, it largely comes down to the fact that the 2-in-1 has a more modern design, with a profile that manages to be thin even with a rotating 360-degree hinge. Speaking of, the hinge feels sturdy and smooth in use. We’re also fans of the long battery life, comfortable keyboard and the HDR display. It’s worth acknowledging that this “nice bonus” comes at a premium. A similarly specced version of the 2-in-1 will cost $250 more than the standard edition, which means gift givers still have plenty of reason to stick with the regular model. — D.W.

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We already have an excellent convertible laptop on this list, but hey, more choices are better, right? With no disrespect to the Dell XPS 13 2-in-1, we’re also intrigued by HP’s latest Spectre x360. Aside from its thin, sleek design, one thing it offers that Dell doesn’t is a 4K AMOLED display, with 400-nit brightness and support for the DCI-P3 color gamut to boot. Combine that with Intel’s 10th-gen Core processors and you have a machine that could do just as well for photo and video editing as Netflix binges. Last, on a more pedestrian note, it’ll be hard for most PC makers to beat HP’s claim of 22-hour battery life, with fast charging that gets the machine back to a 50-percent charge in just half an hour. — D.W.

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Last year’s 13.5-inch Surface Laptop 2 was so perfect we could barely think of any drawbacks. We dug its design, its comfortable keyboard, its long battery life — you get the idea. Now Microsoft is back with generation three, and though we haven’t yet had a chance to take it for an extended spin, we expect to like it, if last year’s model is any indication. For better or worse, there aren’t many differences this year. The biggest change is an upgrade to Intel’s 10th-generation Core processors. The keyboard design has also seen an update; our own Devindra Hardawar spent enough time with it to proclaim it’s a superior typing experience to Apple’s flat MacBook Pro keys. Basically, then, if you read our review from last year and thought the Surface Laptop seemed perfect for the Windows user in your life, the third generation is a safe bet. — D.W.

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We have laptops in our holiday gift guide as well as tablets. But Microsoft’s Surface Pro is neither and both at the same time. The Pro has long made our best-of lists thanks to its lightweight, versatile design and laptop-grade chipsets. The new Surface Pro 7 makes the list too, and it’s even more notebook-like this year, thanks to the addition of a much-needed USB-C port. We also love the keyboard cover, even though, as essential as it is, it’s still sold separately. Consider throwing one in or going halfsies with a friend who loves your giftee as much as you do. — D.W.

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Not every gaming laptop has to cost an arm and a leg. Dell’s G7 15 starts at less than $1,000, but it’s hard to call it a budget machine when it can be configured with NVIDIA’s RTX 2060 graphics and Intel’s ninth-generation processors. It’s the ideal gift for college students or anyone who’d like to play modern games but doesn’t need all the bells and whistles you’d find in pricier notebooks. And while the first round of G7 laptops were a bit bland, Dell managed to come up with some surprisingly subtle designs here. — D.H.

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If you have a parent or student who needs a new computer this holiday season, let us make a somewhat bold suggestion: Get them a Pixelbook Go. Unlike the past few Chrome OS devices Google has made, the Pixelbook is a classic laptop through and through, but Chrome OS is extremely simple. Perhaps too simple for some, given that it doesn’t run nearly as much “traditional” software as a Mac or PC. But given how much computing can be done on the web at this point, it’s easy to get a lot accomplished with the Pixelbook Go. It also combines an outstanding keyboard with strong battery life, making it well-suited to long typing sessions. It also can run Android apps, which means you can install Netflix and download shows and movies from it for a flight, something you can’t do on a Mac or PC. — Nathan Ingraham, Deputy Managing Editor