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The best MacBooks: Which model should you get in 2025?

Any time you shop for a new laptop, a lot of people are going to tell you the same thing: Get a MacBook.

We don’t blame them. The best MacBooks are fantastic laptops, and while they don’t afford you the freedom of customization that other brands offer, that’s not something everyone will care about. Most of us just want a high-quality laptop that’ll get us through work, school, and play with minimal fuss.

Although MacBooks can get a bit pricey — with the latest M4 MacBook Pros reaching into truly frightening territory — they justify the price with Apple’s signature design, user-friendly OS, and zippy M-series processors. Plus, you can often find MacBook Air and Pro models on sale (with the cheapest ones priced around $850 to $999).

After testing out Apple’s entire lineup of laptops, we’re here to help you narrow down the choices and take home the Apple machine of your dreams. So, let’s start shopping.

Your first big decision: MacBook Pro vs. Air

With today’s current lineup of MacBooks, you really only have two options: The MacBook Pro or the MacBook Air. So, which is right for you?

If you’re a creative who regularly pushes your laptop to the limit with demanding video and photo editing applications, you’ll want to aim for the Pro. The name of the game with the Pro line is processing power, and the latest iterations are the speediest and most performance-driven yet.

the m1 macbook air opened to home screen

Testing the M1 MacBook Air after its 2020 release.
Credit: Zlata Ivleva / Mashable

the m3 macbook pro opened to home screen

Testing the super-powered M3 MacBook Pro.
Credit: Kimberly Gedeon / Mashable

If convenience and portability are your top priorities, then the Air will be most suited to you. It’s thin and light, and it even comes in a 13-inch option if you’ll be lugging it around wherever you go. Plus, ever since the debut of Apple’s M Series chips, the MacBook Air has become a pint-sized powerhouse. The most current model utilizes the M3 chip, so you won’t be sacrificing all that much in terms of power.

Which generation MacBook is the best?

This will come down to what you’re willing to give up in performance, and in some cases, quality. But, whatever you do deem worthy of sacrificing, you’ll be paid back in savings. For example, the 2022 model M2 MacBook Air won’t come with the latest chip, but you’ll still be scoring an impressive laptop that frequently goes on sale for just $849.99. That’s compared to the $1,249 price tag of the most recent Air, and the $1,599 asking price of the latest Pro.

close-up of m1 macbook air keyboard and ports

A photo from Mashable’s test of the M1 MacBook Air.
Credit: Zlata Ivleva / Mashable

the m2 macbook air open to home screen

Testing the M2 MacBook Air.
Credit: Molly Flores / Mashable

So, if you’ve got a lighter budget, don’t fret — you can still get a MacBook at an affordable price. Older MacBooks are still very much worthy of your consideration, and they won’t cost you nearly as much.

What are the best MacBooks?

After testing out the latest Apple laptops, we think there are five MacBooks worth buying in 2025. Check out our top picks below, their pros and cons, and who we think would like each model best.


How we tested

Mashable staff subjected all of the MacBooks on this list to varying degrees of hands-on testing. At minimum, this involved inspecting their build quality and using them for a variety of real-world tasks for several weeks at a time. This included working in different kinds of documents, checking emails, watching videos, taking photos on their webcams, participating in video calls, listening to music (via Spotify), playing games (if possible), and experimenting with any unique software features or use cases they claimed to support.

Additionally, most of the MacBooks featured here were made to run industry-standard benchmark software. We run these benchmarks because they replicate real-world tasks to produce scores we can use to easily compare different laptops’ performance. We recently started implementing these benchmarks in our testing, and you can expect to see them in all of our new laptop reviews going forward.

Performance benchmarks

We evaluate a laptop’s overall performance by running the appropriate version of Primate Labs’ Geekbench 6. (That would be macOS for MacBooks; Windows for Windows laptops, including gaming laptops; and Android for Chromebooks.) This test measures CPU performance in a handful of common tasks, and we record the resulting multi-core score. The higher the score, the better.

Battery life benchmarks

We look to see about 11 to 12 hours of battery life in the MacBooks we test, with 15-plus hours being exceptional, and 9 to 10 hours in the Windows laptops we review, with 12+ hours being ideal. Gaming laptops are a different story: They only need to last at least 2 hours per charge to get our approval, earning extra brownie points for reaching the 4-hour mark. Meanwhile, 8 hours is our baseline for Chromebooks, but 9 to 10 hours is best.

We’ve assessed laptops’ stamina a couple different ways in the past. To standardize our battery life testing methodology, we conduct a video rundown test on MacBook and Windows laptops that involves playing a looped 1080p version of Tears of Steel, a short open-source Blender movie, at 50 percent brightness.

Final thoughts

After evaluating a laptop’s hands-on performance and benchmark testing results, we make our final recommendations based on whether we think they offer a good overall value for the money. A too-expensive laptop will sometimes get a pass if we think it looks and works so great that it’s worth the trouble of finding it on sale.

It bears mentioning that these aren’t the only MacBooks we’ve tried — we’re constantly testing and assessing new models across different categories, and many don’t make the final cut. With that in mind, you can expect this guide to evolve on a pretty continuous basis. We’re always on the lookout for new top contenders.


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macOS 27 Beta has a secret Siri AI interface. How to try it.

You’ve waited long enough for Apple’s relaunch of Siri as an AI assistant, and now you can finally try out the Siri AI beta for iOS. But, psst, don’t tell anyone, but there’s even more Siri AI for you to try out with a secret Siri AI interface on Mac.

A Reddit user on the r/MacOSBeta subreddit has discovered a “hidden lightweight UI” for Siri AI in the macOS 27 Golden Gate beta. This feature basically provides users with an array of AI tools, presented in a pop-up menu whenever text is highlighted.

The Siri AI pop-up interface includes AI tools such as Rewrite, Proofread, “How does this sound?,” and “Edit with Siri.” There are also menu options for summarization and providing bullet points from the selected text.

Siri AI can also provide a selection of specific tools dependent on the context of what’s selected. For example, highlighting a phone number provides a pop-up to “Add to contacts” or when selecting an address the pop-up offers an “Open in Maps” option. There are tools for creating calendar events, composing messages and emails, and tracking flights and packages as well.

Why is the feature hidden? Well, as MacRumors points out, the Siri AI interface in macOS 27 developer beta 3 and public beta 1 is simply an unfinished product. Certain features don’t yet work how they’re supposed to. Some options don’t work at all. Clearly, Apple has yet to make it available because it’s simply not ready.

However, Reddit users say there is a way to turn the interface on in the macOS Golden Gate Beta. According to Redditor pdfu, if users running the macOS 27 beta simply need to open up the Terminal and input a few lines of code.

Please note: We do not recommend running terminal instructions or changing important OS files unless you fully understand what you’re doing. We have not tested these terminal instructions, so proceed at your own risk.

sudo mkdir -p /Library/Preferences/FeatureFlags/Domain && sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/FeatureFlags/Domain/WritingTools LightweightUI_macOS -dict Enabled -bool true

After that, the Reddit threat instructs users to restart their computer and the Siri AI interface will be enabled.

If you’ve had enough of the unfinished interface, you can turn it back off by once again opening Terminal and the following input:

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/FeatureFlags/Domain/WritingTools LightweightUI_macOS -dict Enabled -bool false

It’s unclear if the Siri AI interface will launch with the official version of the new macOS. However, it’s certainly interesting to see Apple further brand its Siri AI relaunch as an all-in-one AI tool across the company’s products.

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X-Men ‘97 Just Secretly Connected Itself To The Raunchiest Marvel Movies

By Chris Snellgrove
| Updated

As a longtime Marvel fan, one of my favorite things about X-Men ‘97 is how many fun Easter eggs are stuffed into every single episode. Sometimes, these are winking references to earlier episodes. More often than not, they are connections to the comics and to the larger Marvel universe. Of course, these references are often of the blink-and-you’ll-miss-them variety. Because of this, you sometimes need to be as fast as Quicksilver on the remote control if you want to catch every wacky bit of trivia that pops up onscreen.

That was certainly the case with the recent episode “Weapon X, Lies, and DVDs.” This episode follows up on an earlier Animated Series episode (“Weapon X, Lies, and Video Tape”) and has Wolverine and a team of oddballs discovering major secrets about Weapon X. It’s an episode filled with some jaw-droppingly weird X-Men lore, including an appearance from everyone’s favorite xenomorph knock-offs, the Brood. However, that’s not the weirdest thing about this terrifying tale. The episode provides a list of characters attached to the Weapon X program, and if you pause at the right moment, you’ll see names from the raunchiest, bloodiest Marvel movies ever made: Deadpool and Logan!

The Ultimate In ’90s Media Technology

In Marvel Comics, it’s revealed that Weapon X wasn’t actually the name of the program. Instead, it was the Weapon Plus program, and Wolverine was referred to as “Weapon X” because he was the tenth experiment created by the program (X is the Roman numeral for 10). Incidentally, Weapon I was Captain America, who was turned into the world’s greatest soldier through an experimental super-serum. Later, the project switched to experimenting on mutants, with the goal of creating weaponized warriors who would be easy to control. There have been many characters experimented on or otherwise connected to the program, which is why so many names appear in “Weapon X, Lies, and DVD.”

The episode doesn’t get into the full tangled history of the program, which is consistently referred to as Weapon X. However, the characters do find test subject data on DVDs, all of which are helpfully labeled with the name of the person who was experimented on. One set of DVDs is very easy to view, and the other appears for only a brief moment. With the help of the pause button, though, you can identify some major names. This includes Bucky Barnes, better known to MCU fans as the Winter Soldier. It also includes characters who have only appeared in the comics, including the creepy villain, John Sublime.

The X-Men Get Raunchy

Unsurprisingly, Wolverine and his crew from this episode (including Maverick, Garrison Kane, Sabertooth, and Lady Deathstrike) all appear on the DVDs, as do other characters from Wolverine’s past, including Silver Fox. But for fans of the live-action movies, the most notable names that appear in the episode are Ajax and Deadpool (the villain and hero, respectively, of the first Deadpool movie) and X-23, who appeared in both Logan and Deadpool & Wolverine. Amusingly enough, this effectively connects the (mostly) family-friendly X-Men ‘97 with some of the raunchiest and most vulgar Marvel movies ever made!

Deadpool effectively paved the way for modern, R-rated superhero movies with a film that combined over-the-top ultraviolence and hilariously crass dialogue. It was also unapologetically raunchy, with a naughty Morena Baccarin sex scene that likely made the pre-cancerous Wade Wilson wish that his booty had a healing factor. Logan, meanwhile, was more serious but no less brutal, connecting X-23 (who was created for the kids’ show X-Men: Evolution) to a violent and heartbreaking film where we bid farewell to both Logan and Professor X. Now, that same character (who made a fan-favorite return in the wonderfully offensive Deadpool & Wolverine) is permanently tied to X-Men ‘97

Does that mean we’re likely to see X-23 onscreen? Not really: even if X-Men ‘97 runs for several more seasons, there are so many ‘80s, ‘90s, and early ‘00s stories to adapt before the writers would ever get to her story. Deadpool might be likelier to appear: after all, he appeared in X-Men: The Animated Series via things like flashbacks and Morph transformations, and Morph continues to take on this appearance in X-Men ‘97. Is all of this leading up to a proper appearance from the Merc With a Mouth? Maybe. Somehow, though, I think Jean Grey will be too busy fighting Apocalypse to help Deadpool properly celebrate International Women’s Day!


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Raunchy Stargate SG-1 Episode Is So Bad Even The Show Made Fun Of It

By Jonathan Klotz
| Updated

Once any show has been on the air for five years, it will start to wobble under its own internal logic, lore, and mythology. Stargate SG-1 was on the air for a decade, which means those early Season 1-3 episodes sometimes contradict what becomes canon later. In the case of Season 1’s “Hathor,” it’s unclear why a Goa’uld Queen needs male DNA to produce more larvae. Later episodes show that it’s not needed, and they can reproduce asexually, but that’s the least of the issues with “Hathor.” 

Stargate Goes Full Species

“Hathor” centers around the unearthing of the Egyptian Goddess of Love, Hathor (Suanne Braun), who emerges from a sarcophagus after 3000 years, speaking English. Drawn to the Stargate, she shows up at Cheyenne Mountain and quickly starts bringing the men within the base into her thrall. Starting with Daniel (Michael Shanks), then General Hammond (Don S. Davis), O’Neill (Richard Dean Anderson) is the next to succumb, though Teal’c’s (Christopher Judge) Goa’uld renders him resistant to her power. 

That sets up a showdown between the men and the women (all five of them), led by Captain Carter (Amanda Tapping) and Dr. Frasier (Teryl Rothery) in the locker room where Hathor is preparing to use a hot tub to birth a new generation of Goa’uld larvae using Daniel Jackson’s juices. That’s how the show refers to it. It’s as awkward as it sounds. 

The Writers Chose To Ignore The Episode

Great Villain, Horrible Debut

Stargate SG-1 would eventually mock “Hathor” in the Season 8 episode “Citizen Joe,” a clip show that highlighted the ridiculousness of those early season episodes. “Hathor” was the first episode in the series where the team didn’t travel through the Stargate, and the only one written by David Bennett Carren and J. Larry Carroll. Hathor herself would come back two more times, as a much more formidable (and better written) villain, particularly in Season 2’s “Out of Mind.”

Ever since Homer introduced the concept of Sirens in The Odyssey, the “beautiful woman mind controls all men” trope is widely used in sci-fi and fantasy shows. Stargate SG-1 had no problem recycling classic tropes and often doing them incredibly well, from time loops (“Windows of Opportunity”) to “that old man can kick everyone’s ass” (Bra’tac), but “Hathor” was a misfire. 

Teryl Rothery wasn’t even able to deliver the line “there’s five women in here, and we’re very lonely” while keeping a straight face. The more series re-watches you do, “Hathor” sticks out more and more like one of the worst episodes of the series. Unlike “Emancipation,” which was so bad it caused the writers to rework Carter’s character, “Hathor” has no silver lining, other than the self-styled goddess having more character, personality, and better lines in her later appearances. Her debut episode could be erased from the timeline, and you’d still know everything about her within minutes of her second appearance.

They can’t all be winners, and with a decade of episodes to get through, Stargate SG-1 was going to have some episodes you don’t have to bother watching.


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