We Found the Best Laptops and Tablets Worth Giving as Gifts in 2026

The MacBook Neo is not only one of the best laptops we tested in 2026, but it’s an incredible value. At $599, the Neo is nearly half the price of the cheapest MacBook Air, and students and teachers can get it for only $499. Despite that lower price, it’s a well-built laptop with great everyday performance and even has a little muscle for basic gaming and content creation.

The A16 is perfect for anyone who wants a big, 16-inch laptop that they can take with them. The 16-inch OLED provides a wonderful work surface, and the sub-3-pound weight makes the Zenbook A16 an easy travel companion. Plus, it’s well-equipped to last a long time with strong performance for today’s demands and those of tomorrow.

HP continues to impress us with its budget-conscious laptops, like the OmniBook 3 16. While it has more plastic in its construction than pricier models this size, the build quality is strong. Its performance and display are good for everyday tasks, but its battery life is what really wowed us, lasting more than 34 hours in our tests. 

Finding an affordable gaming laptop is going to be difficult this year because of memory and storage shortages. However, we expect Lenovo will still manage to have something like the Legion 5i that delivers great performance for the price. If you’re looking for a gaming laptop that can also handle business, this is it. 

Like the MacBook Neo, Dell’s littlest XPS offers quite a lot for its $700 starting price. In fact, it outclasses the Neo in several ways like its higher-res touchscreen, faster Wi-Fi and USB-C ports and a backlit keyboard. If you’re doing more than basics, you’ll probably want to spend a bit more for the 16GB version, but otherwise, the XPS13 is a great travel companion. 

Available in 14.6- and 11-inch sizes, the S11 is at the top of Samsung’s tablet lineup and it shows. Its high-end design is matched with a beautiful display, and performance is excellent for entertainment, gaming and work. With pen and keyboard support and a battery life longer than 11 hours in our tests, the S11 has it all.

The Astra 2 continues RedMagic’s trend of packing nearly every top-of-the-line spec imaginable into its products. With a speedy Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 processor along with RedMagic’s fourth-gen custom graphics and AI processor, the RedCore 4, the 9.1-inch tablet is primed for fantastic gaming performance, aided by a unique liquid-cooling system that adds some flash to otherwise clean design. Plus, its 2.4K OLED screen is the brightest Android tablet display CNET has tested.

Apple dominates the tablet market and the 11th-generation iPad is our top pick for giving because it’s a great choice for most people and kids. Not only is it affordable but it’s improved a lot over its predecessor, doubling the base storage to 128GB and adding a faster A16 chip. Sure, you’re not getting all the bells and whistles of the iPad Pro, but you’ll have everything you need for basic content creation, education and simple home office tasks.

If you’re shopping for a tablet for little ones, Amazon’s Fire HD 10 Kids Edition is a worthy choice. This 10.1-inch tablet has the biggest display in Amazon’s lineup. It also features a rubber bumper in case of drops and other mishaps, as well as plenty of parental control options.