2024 has just been wrapped up and has been a turbulent year for the technology world. Intel has gone from strength to … well, strength with the excellent Arc B-series launch. We’ve also seen some incredible products hit the market, including many AI desktop and laptop PCs. Apple finally gave its trusty Mac Mini a refresh, and we’ve seen a continued push for network-attached storage (NAS) and home lab solutions.

Thankfully, the year wasn’t a wash and we’ve rounded up some of our favorite products from 2024. We’ve been fairly selective with our shortlist process and you’ll find an award for everything from laptops and mini PCs to CPUs and SBCs.

Best laptop: HP OmniBook Ultra Flip

HP may have changed up its whole branding this year, but it didn't change its ability to make the best laptops on the market. After winning our hearts with the Spectre x360 14 last year, the company did it again with the OmniBook Ultra Flipin 2024.

Powered by Intel's Lunar Lake processors, the OmniBook Ultra Flip has terrific performance and battery life, paired with one of the best designs you can get in a premium laptop, particularly one that's already packing the latest hardware. It also has a beautiful OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate, a 9MP webcam that's still unmatched by any other brand of laptop, and an outstanding keyboard and touchpad. HP has been toning down its laptop design a bit in recent years, but the curved edges and trimmed corners of the OmniBook Ultra Flip still make this a very unique and easily recognizable machine.

In our review, we said "literally everyone should buy this" and we mean it — you just can't do better than the HP OmniBook Ultra Flip. — João Carrasqueira, Lead Windows Editor

Worth highlighting: Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x

If HP is the best laptop maker of the year, Lenovo isn't far behind with the phenomenal Yoga Slim 7x. One of the debut devices for the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite, the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x offers outstanding battery life and performance, very close to the OmniBook Ultra Flip.

It also excels in every other aspect, too. The 3K OLED display has a 90Hz refresh rate and looks absolutely fantastic — and it's the default option, so you don't need to make sacrifices to get a cheaper price point. Plus, it has a fantastic keyboard as well, and it comes with three whole USB4 ports, which is nice to see. Speaking of seeing, the Yoga Slim 7x is also very easy on the eyes with its beautiful Cosmic Blue chassis, making this a great laptop to show off at school or while traveling.

It only really misses out on a couple of things from the best laptop of the year, but you could never go wrong with the Yoga Slim 7x. — João Carrasqueira, Lead Windows Editor

Best clamshell laptop: Surface Laptop 7

We couldn't wrap up the best laptops of 2024 without mentioning the Surface Laptop 7, though. Another showcase device for the Snapdragon X Elite (and X Plus), this is another absolutely terrific machine. It comes with a higher tier of the Snapdragon X Elite compared to the Lenovo laptop, so performance is even better across the board, and you still get the same fantastic battery life.

Microsoft finally renovated the Surface Laptop with this iteration, giving it a totally new design with smaller bezels, a more rounded look (including rounded corners for the display), and one of the best port selections for a laptop of this kind. Plus, the display finally fixes the terrible reflectivity of prior iterations, making this a visual treat in almost any environment. It may not be OLED, but this is a screen that still looks great.

Pair that with the most color options you can get on a Windows laptop (including a stunning new Sapphire blue), two size options, and an excellent keyboard and touchpad, and it's easy to see why this earns an award from us. — João Carrasqueira, Lead Windows Editor

Best tablet: Surface Pro 11

Microsoft had a double-whammy of excellence this year, as the Surface Pro 11 was another absolute standout in the Windows world, simply being the best Windows tablet around, if not the best tablet in general. The Surface Pro line has always suffered from not having proper tablet battery life, but the inclusion of Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite and X Plus chips fixed that while giving us some of the best performance we've ever seen on a Surface Pro.

On top of that, Microsoft finally added a beautiful OLED display to the Surface Pro 11, in addition to making the glass less reflective, so this is truly a great device for consuming media and taking with you on a trip, which Microsoft hasn't been able to say in a long time.

Of course, it comes in the same beautiful colors as the Surface Laptop 7, and if you want to use it as a laptop, the new Surface Pro Flex Keyboard also adds some capabilities we haven't seen before, since you can now use the keyboard over Bluetooth so it's not always attached to the screen (this does cost a lot more, but it's a big upgrade).

Windows tablets may be few and far between, yes, but that's not why the Surface Pro 11 is the best; it truly has fantastic hardware in every way. — João Carrasqueira, Lead Windows Editor

Best mobile CPU: Snapdragon X Elite

The mighty Snapdragon X Elite was one of the best CPU launches for 2024. While Windows on Arm has come a long way since 2016, this mobile processor is set to take the initiative to new heights with incredible battery life and performance, akin to Apple’s switch to its in-house Arm processors. What’s interesting about the Snapdragon X Elite, which powers some impressive hardware, such as the Surface Laptop 7, is it’s competing on multiple fronts.

Qualcomm is taking on Intel and AMD in the PC space. The company is also swinging at Apple to entice Mac owners to make the leap to Windows. Although software still has some ways to go with Arm support, it’s largely excellent with adequate cooling. Our Editor-in-Chief, Rich Woods, raved about the CPU in his glowing Surface Laptop 7 review, noting ”Performance is phenomenal, especially when using native applications, but emulation is solid too.” — Richard Pinnock-Edmonds, Lead PC Hardware Editor

Also best mobile CPU: Intel Lunar Lake

Intel needed a big win for 2024 with the lackluster launch of Arrow Lake. Thankfully, Lunar Lake wasn’t all that bad. In fact, this range of mobile processors was actually very good. Intel managed to bust the myth of Arm CPUs being more efficient across the board, though things don’t look too great for the x86 giant in heavier workloads. What’s certain is Intel is catching up with Arm and its partners, offering a viable mobile alternative.

There’s still some way to go with Lunar Lake and how Intel will position itself against the next generation of Arm-based processors, but at least the company is making strides in the mobile space. The Snapdragon X Elite is an incredible CPU, but so too are some of Intel’s Lunar Lake offerings. — Richard Pinnock-Edmonds, Lead PC Hardware Editor

Best desktop CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D

The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D is a breath of fresh air in a world where Intel has seemingly dropped the ball several times. It's been an instant sales hit and for good reason, the performance that it's capable of is simply incredible. For gamers competing in titles like Counter-Strike 2 and Valorant the 3D V-Cache manages to improve 99% and 99.9% lows to the point that they're almost as consistent as your average frame rate.

The only downside of this CPU is that it's so popular it can be hard to get your hands on, though supply issues are currently said to be easing. If you're looking for a new gaming CPU and you're considering picking up a Team Red option, AMD has absolutely earned its spot on our list for this year. — Adam Conway, Lead Technical Editor

Best GPU: Intel Arc B580

In a world where GPUs are essentially a duopoly made up of Nvidia and AMD, it feels great to see someone new in the space. The Intel Arc B580 is a competitor to the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 and AMD Radeon RX 7600, while coming in at just $249. It has a higher boost clock speed, 4GB of more video RAM, a faster memory bus with higher bandwidth than the RTX 4060 while being cheaper. It's an incredible deal, and if you're looking for a genuinely affordable GPU then this is one you should consider.

To give you an idea of its performance, the Intel Arc B580 managed to pull off 40 frames per second in Cyberpunk 2077 at 4K at RT Ultra, something incredibly impressive for a mid-range card costing way less than the competition. — Adam Conway, Lead Technical Editor

Coolest PC case: Thermaltake Tower 300

The PC case has evolved through the decades from beige towers to interesting and unique designs. Thermaltake’s Tower 300 is one example from 2024 with an emphasis on design and cooling. It’s a Micro-ATX chassis with support for 420 mm-long radiators, making this one of the more unusual compact cases on the market. Eight 120 mm or 140 mm fans can be installed, so you won’t have trouble cooling even the most demanding PC components.

Being an octagonal shape, the insides of the PC can be viewed from a wide angle, effectively showcasing your system to visitors. I’ve used the larger Thermaltake Tower 900, a giant slab of metal that was an absolute blast to build a PC inside. The Tower 300 is much more manageable if you have a compatible motherboard. Pick up the optional stand kit and the Tower 300 can even be positioned horizontally. — Richard Pinnock-Edmonds, Lead PC Hardware Editor

Best gaming handheld: Asus ROG Ally X

In a year filled with gorgeous retro gaming handhelds from the likes of Analogue, Miyoo, Anbernic, and ModRetro, it’s an amazing time to be a handheld gaming fan. But out of every handheld we got our hands on this year, the ROG Ally X takes the crown. That it manages this despite its operating system is an impressive feat and just goes to show you how good the hardware Asus put together is.

Many PC gaming handhelds use the AMD Z1 Extreme SoC, but only the Ally X pairs it with 24GB of 7,500MT/s LPDDR5 RAM, giving it enough memory to split between CPU and GPU tasks. The 16:9 FHD screen runs at 120Hz with FreeSync, which is perfect for this form factor. And while many other handhelds used tiny, space-constrained SSDs, Asus used a standard 2280-style in the Ally X so it can pack up to 8TB of NVMe goodness inside. — Joe Rice-Jones, Product Reviewer