Top laptop brands compared

About Top laptop brands compared

Shopping for a laptop means weighing a purchase price against what surrounds it: the length of cover, the returns window, and how easily you can reach someone in your own country. This ranking draws together 39 brands that sell laptops or sit alongside them, and it is not a straight price list. A low entry point says little on its own when the warranty is short or the seller answers only in writing. Laptops here are bought outright rather than subscribed to, so there is no renewal price to weigh. The figures that play that role are the warranty and the returns window, which is why both carry weight in the scoring. Entry prices are quoted in each brand's own currency, worth checking before two lines are placed side by side. Windows dominates the systems in the ranking at 73.5%, ahead of Android at 52.9% and macOS at 35.3%, and the middle price here is €146.73. The running trade-off is low entry price against cover after the sale.

How we picked

Scores are set with fixed weights before the order is drawn. Cost carries 40%, offer 40% and trust 20%, so the entry price and the deal around the machine count for more than name recognition. Cost reads the price each brand publishes and sets it against the spread in the data, which runs €86.82 to €1,226. Offer covers what you get at that price: the product types on offer, the memory ceiling, the systems shipped and whether a machine can be built to order. Trust reads the warranty, the returns window and the support channels, and warranty lengths in the data run 1 to 3 years. Every figure is taken from the brand's own published pages: store and product listings, shipping and returns pages, warranty pages, and the terms or about pages that give the company name and headquarters. No account was created, no order placed and no machine tested, so nothing here rests on a visit or a personal order. Where a brand is a partner it is listed first; this list holds no partner placements, so the order runs on score alone.

Our top picks

1. 1. Coolblue Belgium

   Coolblue Belgium earns a place in this ranking on service rather than on laptops. Returns inside 30 days and a warranty of 2 years would suit a laptop buyer, and support covers email, phone and help centre. The limits sit in the listed range, which is headphones, earbuds and speakers, and in the entry price of €22.99 drawn from the audio side of the shop. Markets are BE, NL and DE. Adorama also reaches buyers outside Europe but opens its own catalogue at $6.99.

   • Free delivery threshold: €0
   • Return window: 30 days
   • Extended warranty: Yes

   Pros

   • You have 30 days to send an order back, which takes the risk out of a big purchase.
   • Every product carries 2 years of cover, and an extended warranty is available on top of it.
   • Delivery is free on every order, with the threshold at €0, and click and collect is offered for small items.
   • Refurbished is part of computers, phones and audio here, which the JBL range does not cover: its categories run audio, gaming and refurbished.

   Cons

   • Support runs on email, phone and help centre only, so there is no live chat in the list.
   • The noise cancelling earbuds listed run 8 hours on a charge, well under the 40 median across the products compared here.
   • A 30 days return window places Coolblue Belgium at 3 of 80 brands compared, so it is not the longest window in the field.

2. B2. Blackview

   Blackview closes this ranking as a phone specialist. Its listed range is new phones and rugged phones, its systems are Android and its chips come from intel, with DE, FR and IT as the served markets. The service figures are respectable: returns inside 30 days, support on email, phone and chat and a warranty of 1 year. Against ALTERNATE, the brand above it in this ranking, the difference is the catalogue rather than the cover, since ALTERNATE builds laptops to order across DE, AT and BE and its warranty runs 2 years.

   • Price from: €149.95
   • Warranty: 12 months
   • Return window: 30 days

   Pros

   • Returns of 30 days rank near the top of the brands tracked, at 2 of 42.
   • Support covers email, phone, chat, the help centre and the community through email, phone and chat, so replies can come by whichever route suits.
   • Store categories span computers, phones and audio, so phones, audio, gaming and computers sit together.
   • Entry price of €149.95 keeps the range within reach for buyers comparing rugged models.
   • Product types list new phones and rugged phones, pairing everyday handsets with rugged ones.

   Cons

   • Entry price of €149.95 sits above Oukitel at $107.99, so it is not the cheapest way in.
   • Warranty of 12 months places Blackview mid-table on cover length, at 12 of 33.
   • Multiroom is a no, so the audio range does not cover whole-home linking.
   • Codec support runs to aac only, narrower than most rivals in the audio category.

3. 3. GEEKOM: best for top-pick

   GEEKOM earns the top-pick label here by pairing the lowest entry point with long cover. Its mini PC and laptop lines start at $219, memory tops out at 256 GB, and the warranty runs 3 years with returns inside 30 days. Build to order is a yes, machines ship with Windows and Linux, and chips come from amd and intel. The trade-off is support: it runs on email, help centre and community, so there is no phone line to call. Scan, the brand below it in this ranking, matches the warranty length but adds phone and chat.

   • Price from: $219
   • Build to order: Yes
   • Warranty: 3 years

   Pros

   • Price starts at $219, among the lower entry points in the 34 brands ranked on price from.
   • A warranty of 3 years places it at 1 of 34 brands ranked on warranty length.
   • Build to order is yes, so memory and storage choices fit the machine you actually need.
   • Returns run 30 days, giving room to change your mind after delivery.
   • Windows and Linux are both offered, so the same range serves home and technical buyers.

   Cons

   • Support runs on email, help centre and community only, with no live phone or chat line listed.
   • Graphics come from amd and intel, so buyers wanting dedicated gaming cards will look elsewhere.
   • Product types are mini pc and laptop, with no full-size desktop towers in the range.
   • Entry price of $219 sits at 17 of 34 brands ranked on price from, so it is a good rate rather than the cheapest.

4. A4. Adorama

   Adorama is in this ranking for laptop buyers shopping a general catalogue rather than a computer specialist. Laptops appear under Windows and macOS, with nvidia, intel and apple across the range and memory up to 64 GB. Support is the strong point, with chat, phone and help centre and a company trading since 1974. The offset is the shape of the shop, since the listed product range is lenses and used cameras and build to order is a no, so machines arrive as stocked. ALTERNATE, ranked after it in this ranking, runs the other way: build to order is a yes and laptops sit at the centre of laptop, gaming laptop and desktop.

   • Trade-in: Yes
   • Legal entity: Adorama Camera, Inc.
   • Headquarters: United States

   Pros

   • Lenses and used-cameras lead lenses and used cameras, while computers, phones and audio runs through computers, phones, audio, tv, gaming and appliances with no camera line.
   • Refurbished gear is a listed category in cameras, audio and refurbished, so a used route sits beside new stock from the same seller.
   • Trade-in is offered and support reaches chat, phone and help centre, so help and an upgrade route do not sit behind a single channel.
   • Headphone listings pair noise cancelling with battery life of 40 hours, and a listed pair of earbuds carries an IP57 rating.

   Cons

   • Build to order is not offered, so laptop configurations arrive as stocked rather than assembled to a specification.
   • The range is narrower than computers, phones and audio, which puts computers, phones, audio, tv, gaming, cameras and appliances under a single roof.
   • Laptops cover Windows and macOS only, so Chromebooks and Linux machines sit outside what the store lists.

What to look for

Entry price

Read the price the brand publishes first, then check its currency. The middle price across this ranking is €146.73, with €103.82 at the lower end and €427.74 at the upper. A low entry point means little once cover is added.

Cover after the sale

Warranty and returns do the work a renewal price would on a subscription. The middle warranty here is 1 and the longest runs to 3, so the distance between a short term and a longer one matters across the life of a machine.

How you reach support

Support decides how fast a problem gets solved. 94.6% of the offers here include a help centre, 78.4% include email and 70.3% include a phone line. Check the list per brand, since some answer only in writing.

Chips and memory

Graphics decide what a laptop can handle. 65.4% of the offers carry Intel graphics, 65.4% carry Nvidia and 61.5% carry AMD, so a gaming machine narrows the field quickly.

System and configuration

73.5% of the offers in this ranking run Windows and 17.6% run Linux, which matters if you maintain your own machines. Build to order covers 54.5% of the offers, leaving the rest as fixed stock.

Screen and battery

Displays and battery life are where budget machines give ground. The middle top refresh rate in the ranking is 480, 71.4% of offers run OLED panels, and the middle battery figure is 40.

Frequently asked questions

Top laptop brands compared by country

• Australia
• Canada
• France
• Germany
• Italy
• Netherlands
• Spain
• United Kingdom
• United States

The data behind this ranking

All data and the CSV