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 out the doors 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 in 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
