The endless, drawn-out pandemic years are definitely over for the PC.
Just a couple of years back, lockdowns and chip shortages caused PC components (even webcams!) to plunge out of stock and products to be delayed for ages. Not in 2023. Fresh new gear flew fast and furious this year, causing an avalanche of releases seemingly every time you blinked. PCWorld’s staff reviewed more PC hardware and software in 2023 than we have anytime in recent memory.
With such a gluttony of choice, it became harder than ever for PC hardware and software to impress us. Few products earned our rare Editors’ Choice award. And only the very best of the best grace this list.
Without further ado, this is the Best PC Hardware and Software of 2023, as chosen by PCWorld’s editors. Congratulations to the winners – with a field this crowded, they’ve definitely earned it.
Best laptop: Dell Inspiron Plus 16
Whether you’re looking for a zippy gaming machine or a productivity laptop, the Dell Inspiron Plus 16 7630 is equipped to do it all. It has a big high refresh rate display, a fast fingerprint reader, solid battery life, and reliable performance. This machine can even handle gaming as well as day-to-day productivity thanks to the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 GPU.
The silver design may be nondescript, but the aluminum chassis is both strong and durable. You’ll also notice a lot of vents, which are designed to keep the laptop cool during intense gaming matches and content creation bursts. We also managed to get 11 hours of battery life out of this machine on a single charge. That’s impressive, especially for a laptop with a larger display and discrete graphics.
Simply put, you can find flashier laptops, but the Dell Inspiron Plus 16 is well-designed and does everything right. Add the fact that’s it’s more affordable than most flagship laptops and it’s easy to see why this was our favorite notebook of 2023. — Ash Biancuzzo
Best desktop PC: Falcon Northwest FragBox
This year, I had the pleasure of testing the single best desktop PC I’ve ever touched – better even than the high-powered, lovingly crafted DIY machines I’ve built myself over the year. Falcon Northwest’s FragBox is flawless in every aspect – and not just what’s inside the box.
The Falcon Northwest FragBox epitomizes why you buy a boutique custom PC. It packs extreme power into an unbelievably small, cool, and quiet custom chassis, while Falcon Northwest’s warranty, buying experience, and Windows/software setup is second to none. The FragBox is incredibly customizable, built by hand by a single technician, and Falcon Northwest stands so firmly by the quality of its systems that its warranty includes free express overnight shipping for repairs if something goes wrong and the U.S.-based support can help you over the phone.
Heck, FNW even throws in a rad mug and delicious custom-brewed coffee with every order. This boutique custom PC doesn’t come cheap, but perfection never does. When the day inevitably comes that I hang up my PC toolkit for good, I’m buying a Falcon Northwest FragBox. I’m in love. — Brad Chacos
Best gaming handheld: Asus ROG Ally
Despite Valve owning the handheld PC space with the Steam Deck, Asus released the ROG Ally and showed that there is still plenty of room for others to be viable. From it’s beautiful and fast 1080p 120Hz adaptive-sync screen to it’s powerful AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme processor packing Zen4 and RDNA 3, it rivals and even surpasses the Steam Deck in plenty of categories. And while many see the fact that it’s running Windows a downside, I see it as a differentiator. It allows me to easily use other launchers or play games that just aren’t possible on the Steam Deck.
Unfortunately it does have it’s fair share of downsides too so it’s not an easy recommend over the Steam Deck, but as someone who has almost all of the major handhelds at his disposal, the Asus ROG Ally is my current go-to. — Adam Patrick Murray
Best CPU: Intel Core i7-14700K
Intel Core i7-14700K
It’s been a quiet year for desktop CPU launches—more of a drizzle than rain for new silicon. Intel’s launch of its 14th-generation processors was particularly subdued, with two of its three new chips offering similar performance as their predecessors. And yet we still got an interesting showdown: the Intel’s Core i7-14700K versus AMD’s gaming-focused Ryzen 7 7800X3D.
With its strong gaming performance, the 7800X3D was a top contender for being the best CPU to launch this year. And in fact, if that’s all you’re planning to do, it’s still an excellent choice, especially if
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