Technologies

83% of US Adults Still Choose Laptops for Work and School Over Sleek Smartphones and Tablets, CNET Survey Finds

Most US adults want faster, longer-lasting laptops, but one generation is chasing style over specs.

Upgrading to a new laptop can feel like a never-ending rabbit hole. Even when you know what you need, choosing the best features, specs and design within your budget can be a bit overwhelming, to say the least.

Between back-to-school season and the holidays fast approaching, now’s the time to shop around for a deal on a new laptop. But what are US adults looking for when upgrading their laptops, anyway?

CNET’s new laptop survey found that nearly half of US adults are upgrading for better speed (45%) and battery life (44%). But that’s not all. One generation is looking beyond the specs and opting for sleekness and aesthetics instead — more about that below.

Here’s exactly what laptop owners are looking for, what experts think about the findings and what they recommend before you buy your next one.

Over half of US adults use laptops for creating and viewing documents

Even though smartphones and tablets are capable of letting us write essays and notes, US adults lean on smartphones for organization (66%), note-taking (48%), gaming (47%), and streaming shows and movies (44%). CNET found that laptops are used for work and educational tasks like creating and viewing documents (52%), creative work (33%), test-taking (31%) and studying (33%). Here’s a closer look.

Why not tablets instead of laptops?

David Carnoy, a CNET executive editor and tech expert, said most people have room for two primary devices, mainly a smartphone and laptop. Most don’t use a tablet for day-to-day activities or more tedious tasks.

«Tablets have been relegated to second-tier status in terms of must-have productivity tools and are viewed by a lot of folks as entertainment devices,» said Carnoy. «We’ve been waiting for tablets to become real hybrid devices that are true laptop replacements.»

One exception to a tablet functioning like a laptop is the Microsoft Surface Pro models that run Windows 11. However, Carnoy pointed out that they’re pricier — even before adding accessories to make the tablet work more like a laptop.

Performance matters more than aesthetics for most US laptop owners. Laptop owners looking to upgrade aren’t motivated to upgrade for fun features like messaging upgrades and artificial intelligence capabilities. By the numbers, only 10% of US adults get a new laptop for AI capabilities, while 12% upgrade for external device support and 7% upgrade for a new color.

Instead, nearly half of US adults are considering a new laptop for better speed (45%), while 44% want better battery life, according to the survey. Other top motivators include storage (39%) and screen quality (28%).

One exception: Gen Z favors design and sleekness

Like most US adults, Gen Z upgrades laptops for common reasons, like battery life (55%) and storage (50%). But aesthetic elements have a special appeal to this generation.

Gen Z is motivated to upgrade their laptops for sleekness and design appeal, such as screen quality (37%), design sleekness (25%), pen support (11%) and color options (10%). Experts pointed to a few reasons for Gen Z’s motivating factors.

Many of today’s laptop processors are powerful, so choosing the right processor has become less important compared to choosing a laptop with aesthetics that speak to you, said Matt Elliott, CNET senior editor and computer expert.

PC Mag’s consumer personal computer expert, Matthew Buzzi, added that Gen Z liking aesthetics more than other generations could be a broader trend on the horizon because there’s a baseline for what most laptops offer, and the aesthetic and design are what set them apart.

«Aside from enthusiasts, most shoppers don’t care about the particulars of components, and they’re all fast enough; aesthetic is part of personal identity and signals something about your lifestyle,» Buzzi said.

You may have to sacrifice a better battery for speed and performance

While 45% of US adults want to upgrade their laptop for speed improvements, 44% want better battery life. But chances are, you won’t have the best of both worlds.

Brian Westover, PC Mag’s lead personal computer analyst, said a longer battery life is the biggest advantage of a new laptop. Some systems can last 20 hours or more based on rundown tests.

Ideally, you don’t want to sacrifice your battery life for the best speed and performance. But if you have to choose, Westover recommends aiming for as much RAM as possible so you can multitask faster. Usually, you won’t be able to upgrade RAM. Westover recommends a minimum of 16GB to 32GB.

Elliott agrees that battery life and performance are often in conflict. More powerful processors deliver speedier performance, but at the expense of a shorter battery life. Efficient processors aren’t as fast but have a longer battery life. If you’re looking for an efficient processor and battery, Elliott recommends MacBooks with an M4 processor. And Windows with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X series processors offers the best battery life.

HP is the most popular laptop brand

The most popular brand is HP, especially for millennials, Gen X and baby boomers. Beyond HP, Apple follows closely behind at 22%, which is a popular pick for Gen Z. US adults also own Dell (18%) and Lenovo (12%).

Elliott likes that HP is a style-conscious quality brand. However, it’s mind-blowing that more people have an HP than Lenovo because it’s the leader in overall shipments, Elliott said. Overall, HP is a solid laptop brand choice and one worth considering depending on your needs.

Read more: Best HP Laptop for 2025

If you’re looking for a high-performing HP laptop, consider one with an Intel Core Ultra 7 or 9 processor. an AMD Ryzen 9 AI 300 series chip or a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite CPU, Elliott said. You’ll also want at least 16GB of RAM and high-definition 1,920×1,080-pixel resolution for clear text and images, but HP offers higher resolutions if you want more. Other specifications vary based on your preference, including size and storage space.

When choosing an HP laptop, Elliott recommends paying attention to the differences between its OmniBook and EliteBook models. OmniBooks are more consumer-focused, while EliteBooks are more for business needs. For a midrange HP laptop, prepare to spend at least $1,000.

Which laptop should you buy?

Choosing the right laptop for now and the foreseeable future can be tough. Beyond price and a design you’ll like, there are dozens of other specs and features to consider. Here are some buying tips from our experts.

Operating system

The operating system is usually the first decision people make when choosing a new laptop, said Elliott. It ultimately boils down to personal preference. Windows is known for business needs, while Mac’s operating system is more geared toward creativity. You’ll also want to consider software you already use, like Windows Office. Other factors to weigh include your display preference, since the look and feel between the two is different.

You can run Windows from your Mac if you like Mac’s features but prefer Windows’ operating system.

Performance

One concern is not having enough or having too much performance, Buzzi said.

«It’s fairly easy to spend too much on a system with more power than you need for basic computing tasks, though at least it will future-proof your purchase to an extent,» Buzzi said. It could be a waste of money to have a high-performing laptop but not use it to its full potential.

On the other hand, nothing would be more disappointing than firing up a brand new laptop and discovering it doesn’t have enough power for your needs, Buzzi added.

Buzzi recommends reading reviews and buying guides to learn about specifications to look for that depend on your use case. It can also help you gauge a laptop’s speed and make a more informed decision.

Size

Nearly one in four US adults upgrade their laptops for size. It can boil down to preference if you want a bigger display size, but beware of the size and weight if you’re traveling with it.

Avoid buying a laptop that’s heavier than your books to carry around campus if you’re purchasing one for school. Westover recommends one that weighs three and a half pounds or less, and usually a maximum size of 14 inches.

«For students, I would suggest a smaller and lighter laptop with long battery life. You want something that won’t feel like an anchor in your backpack or won’t need to be recharged every time you turn around,» said Elliott.

Read more: Best Lightweight Laptop for 2025

Memory and storage

Ideally, you’ll need a laptop with a lot of RAM, or memory, plus plenty of storage, said Westover. Experts recommend at least 16GB of RAM, and even more if you have the option to upgrade your memory you can.

But upgrading memory is less common than adding storage, You can expand your storage with an external hard drive. Your storage needs will depend on your tasks, but experts recommend a minimum of 256GB.

Methodology

CNET commissioned YouGov Plc to conduct the survey. All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. Total sample size was 2,601 adults, of whom 2,145 own a laptop. Fieldwork was undertaken between July 16-18, 2025. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all US adults (aged 18 plus).

Technologies

A New Bill Aims to Ban Both Adult Content Online and VPN Use. Could It Work?

Michigan representatives just proposed a bill to ban many types of internet content, as well as VPNs that could be used to circumvent it. Here’s what we know.

On Sept. 11, Michigan representatives proposed an internet content ban bill unlike any of the others we’ve seen: This particularly far-reaching legislation would ban not only many types of online content, but also the ability to legally use any VPN.

The bill, called the Anticorruption of Public Morals Act and advanced by six Republican representatives, would ban a wide variety of adult content online, ranging from ASMR and adult manga to AI content and any depiction of transgender people. It also seeks to ban all use of VPNs, foreign or US-produced.

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VPNs (virtual private networks) are suites of software often used as workarounds to avoid similar bans that have passed in states like Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi, as well as the UK. They can be purchased with subscriptions or downloaded, and are built into some browsers and Wi-Fi routers as well.

But Michigan’s bill would charge internet service providers with detecting and blocking VPN use, as well as banning the sale of VPNs in the state. Associated fines would be up to $500,000.

What the ban could mean for VPNs

Unlike some laws banning access to adult content, this Michigan bill is comprehensive. It applies to all residents of Michigan, adults or children, targets an extensive range of content and includes language that could ban not only VPNs but any method of bypassing internet filters or restrictions.

That could spell trouble for VPN owners and other internet users who leverage these tools to improve their privacy, protect their identities online, prevent ISPs from gathering data about them or increase their device safety when browsing on public Wi-Fi.

Read more: CNET Survey: 47% of Americans Use VPNs for Privacy. That Number Could Rise. Here’s Why

Bills like these could have unintended side effects. John Perrino, senior policy and advocacy expert at the nonprofit Internet Society, mentioned to CNET that adult content laws like this could interfere with what kind of music people can stream, the sexual health forums and articles they can access and even important news involving sexual topics that they may want to read. «Additionally, state age verification laws are difficult for smaller services to comply with, hurting competition and an open internet,» John added.

The Anticorruption of Public Morals Act has not passed the Michigan House of Representatives committee nor been voted on by the Michigan Senate, and it’s not clear how much support the bill currently has beyond the six Republican representatives who have proposed it. As we’ve seen with state legislation in the past, sometimes bills like these can serve as templates for other representatives who may want to propose similar laws in their own states.

Could VPNs still get around bans like these?

That’s a complex question that this bill doesn’t really address. When I asked NordVPN how easy it would be track VPN use, privacy advocate Laura Tyrylyte explained, «From a technical standpoint, ISPs can attempt to distinguish VPN traffic using deep packet inspection, or they can block known VPN IP addresses. However, deploying them effectively requires big investments and ongoing maintenance, making large-scale VPN blocking both costly and complex.»

Also, VPNs have ways around deep packet inspection and other methods. CNET senior editor Moe Long mentioned obfuscation like NordWhisper, a counter to DPI that attempts to make VPN traffic look like normal web traffic so it’s harder to detect.

There are also no-log features offered by many VPNs to guarantee they don’t keep a record of your activity, and no-log audits from third parties like Deloitte that, well, try to guarantee the guarantee. There are even server tricks VPNs can use like RAM-only servers that automatically erase data each time they’re rebooted or shut down.

If you’re seriously concerned about your data privacy, you can look for features like these in a VPN and see if they are right for you. Changes like these, even on the state level, are one reason we pay close attention to how specific VPNs work during our testing, and make sure to recommend the right VPNs for the job, from speedy browsing to privacy while traveling.

Correction, Oct. 9: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated how RAM-only servers work. RAM-only servers run on volatile memory and are wiped of data when they are rebooted or shut down.

Technologies

AWS Outage Explained: Why Half the Internet Went Down While You Were Sleeping

Reddit, Roblox and Ring are just a tiny fraction of the hundreds of sites and services that were impacted when Amazon Web Services went down.

The internet kicked off the week the way that many of us often feel like doing: by refusing to go to work. An outage at Amazon Web Services (AWS) rendered huge portions of the internet unavailable on Monday morning, with sites and services including Snapchat, Fortnite, Venmo, the PlayStation Network and, predictably, Amazon, unavailable for a short period of time.

AWS is a cloud services provider owned by Amazon that props up huge portions of the internet. As with the Fastly and Crowdstrike outages over the past few years, the AWS outage shows just how much of the internet relies on the same infrastructure — and how quickly our access to the sites and services we rely on can be revoked when something goes wrong.

Just after midnight PT on October 20, AWS first registered an issue on its service status page, saying it was «investigating increased error rates and latencies for multiple AWS services in the US-EAST-1 Region.» Around 2 a.m. PT, it said it had identified a potential root cause of the issue, and within half an hour, it had started applying mitigations that were resulting in significant signs of recovery.

«The underlying DNS issue has been fully mitigated, and most AWS Service operations are succeeding normally now,» AWS said at 3.35 a.m. PT. The company didn’t respond to request for further comment beyond pointing us back to the AWS health dashboard.

Around the time that AWS says it first began noticing error rates, Downdetector saw reports begin to spike across many online services, including banks, airlines and phone carriers. As AWS resolved the issue, some of these reports saw a drop off, whereas others have yet to return to normal. (Disclosure: Downdetector is owned by the same parent company as CNET, Ziff Davis.)

Around 4 a.m. PT, Reddit was still down, while services including Verizon and YouTube were still seeing a significant number of reported issues.

Technologies

Verum Messenger: How to Protect Your Personal Data and Why Choosing a Secure Messenger Matters

A major data leak has been reported involving users of the Russian messenger MAX. Hackers claimed to have obtained the platform’s entire database, which includes 46,203,590 records. To prove their claims, they published part of the stolen data publicly.

According to preliminary information, the attackers gained access to users’ personal details, including contact numbers, chats, IP addresses, and other sensitive data. Cybersecurity experts warn that such incidents can lead to serious consequences — from account takeovers and extortion to large-scale phishing attacks.

Why these leaks happen

The main cause of such breaches is the storage of personal user data on servers without adequate protection or encryption. If attackers gain access to these servers, users’ information becomes fully exposed.

Additionally, many popular messaging apps require users to register with a phone number and provide extra personal information, increasing the amount of data that can be stolen.

How to reduce the risks

The only reliable way to protect your personal messages and data is to use messaging platforms that do not store personal information on their servers and rely on true end-to-end encryption.

One such solution is Verum Messenger — a next-generation app built on the principle of maximum privacy. The platform:

does not store users’ personal data;
uses unique encryption keys generated locally on the user’s device;
does not require a phone number or other personal information to register;
has no access to messages, calls, or files;
provides effective anti-spam and anti-scam protection;
offers private chats and group channels with flexible security settings.

Even in the event of a server breach, attackers would not be able to access message content — because encryption keys simply do not exist on the company’s side.

Freedom of communication without the risk of leaks

In addition to its strong security foundation, Verum Messenger offers a built-in ecosystem of tools — from encrypted email Verum Mail and an integrated VPN for anonymous connections to free crypto mining with Verum Coin and eSIM connectivity in over 150 countries worldwide.

As data breaches become increasingly common, choosing a secure messenger is no longer just about convenience — it’s about personal safety.