Despite having a name like Universal Serial Bus, USB ports haven’t always been that universal. With different sizes and capabilities for different devices, it was only when USB Type-C came around that we started getting closer to a truly universal connector. These days, pretty much every non-Apple smartphone comes with USB Type-C port for charging, but what about your laptop? One of the big benefits of a universal port is that you can use one charger for all your devices, so it makes total sense to want a laptop that supports USB-C charging.

In this list, we’ve done exactly that. We’ve rounded up some of the best laptops you can buy that have a USB Type-C port for charging, and preferably come with a USB Type-C charger in the box already. Because your phone’s USB charger is probably not fast enough to charge your laptop, it may be easier to use a laptop charger for all your devices instead of a phone charger. Most premium laptops support USB charging by now, so you have a lot of choices here. Without further ado, here’s our list.

Best overall: Dell XPS 13 9310

The Dell XPS 13 9310 took the XDA award for the best ultrabook of 2021, and it shouldn’t come as a surprise. This is an ultra-compact, yet powerful and capable laptop with a fantastic display, design, and of course, USB-C charging.

First off, the Dell XPS 13 comes with Intel’s 11th-generation Core processors, up to a Core i7-1195G7. This is Intel’s most powerful 15W processor, featuring four cores, eight threads, and boost speeds up to 5GHz. Plus, of course, it has Intel Iris Xe graphics, so you can run some light GPU workloads on this laptop out of the box. You can complement that with up to 32GB of RAM and up to a large 2TB SSD, so it’s fair to say you’re not short on performance or storage space.

The XPS 13 also has a fantastic display, which is a 13.4-inch panel in the 16:10 aspect ratio. You have three configurations to choose from here, with the base level being a Full HD+ (1920 x 1200) panel, which is already fairly sharp for a 13-inch laptop. If you want more, though, you can upgrade to a stunning 3.5K (3456 x 2160) OLED panel, giving you both incredible sharpness, fantastic contrast ratios, and vivid colors. If you want the highest resolution and you do color-sensitive work, then there’s an Ultra HD+ (3840 x 2400) option that’s even sharper and covers 100% of Adobe RGB. Both the OLED and UHD+ options also support touch input.

The biggest downfall of the XPS 13 (and the rest of the XPS lineup) is its webcam. To keep bezels as small as possible, Dell designed a tiny 2.25mm camera with 720p resolution. That’s impressive, but it means image quality simply isn’t great, even compared to other 720p cameras. You might want to check out our list of the best webcams if that’s important to you. There’s also no Windows Hello facial recognition, though you do get a fingerprint sensor if you want an easy way to unlock your PC.

The XPS 13 also gets points for its design, which is very compact, including just 14.8mm of thickness. It’s a bit heavier than you might think, starting at 2.64lbs, but that’s not to say it’s hard to carry around. What’s really cool about the XPS 13 is that it comes in two great color options. One of them comes with a dark silver exterior (called platinum) and a black carbon fiber keyboard deck, and the other comes with a light silver exterior (called frost) and an arctic white keyboard deck made from woven glass fiber composite. The use of unique materials gives the XPS 13 a lot of character, and while both models look classy, they’re also unique enough to stick out.

Coming around to the ports, the Dell XPS 13 has two Thunderbolt 4/USB Type-C ports, both of which support charging, which means you can plug in the charger from whatever side you prefer. That’s always nice to have so you can set up in different places more easily. Aside from that, the XPS 13 has a headphone jack and a microSD card reader, so you don’t get a ton of ports, but it’s basically what you’d expect for something this compact. You can always connect a Thunderbolt dock if you need a ton of extra peripherals.

This is easily one of the best laptops around, and that’s been true of the XPS family for a while. You can’t go wrong with this one. You can buy it at Amazon below or find more configurations on Dell’s website.

Best convertible with USB-C charging: Surface Laptop Studio

The Surface Laptop Studio is a brand-new product from Microsoft this year, but it quickly jumped to the top of our favorite laptops. This is a very unique convertible with powerful specs and a form factor that’s one of the coolest things around — in my opinion, at least.

Starting with performance, the Surface Laptop Studio is the most powerful Surface yet, and it comes packing Intel’s new H35-series processors, up to a Core i7-11370H. This is a 35W processor with four cores, eight threads, and up to 4.8GHz clock speeds, and because of that higher power rating, it’s also more powerful than a typical laptop. It also includes Intel Iris Xe graphics, but if that’s not enough power for you, the Core i7 model of this laptop also includes an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti graphics card, so you can feasibly play some games and run more demanding tasks on it. Aside from that, you can configure the Surface Laptop Studio with up to 32GB of RAM and a 2TB SSD, making for a very powerful machine all around.

You also get a great display with the Surface Laptop Studio. This is a 14.4-inch panel, and it comes in the signature 3:2 aspect ratio of Surface devices, which is slightly taller than even 16:10 displays. This one is also very sharp, coming in a 2400 x 1600 resolution, and it supports Dolby Vision, too. One thing that makes this panel unique is that it’s one of the few non-gaming laptops that supports a 120Hz refresh rate, so animations, transitions, and other motion will look much smoother on this screen. Being a convertible, touch and pen support are obviously included, but if you have a Surface Slim Pen 2, you also get haptic feedback while drawing in certain apps, making it feel like a real pen on real paper.

The Surface Laptop Studio also has the benefit of having one of the better webcams you can find on a laptop. It’s a Full HD camera, which isn’t new to Surface devices in general, but it is new to the Surface Laptop range. That higher-resolution camera means you’ll look better during video calls and meetings, which is especially important nowadays. The camera also supports Windows Hello facial recognition, as most Surface devices do.

What truly makes the Surface Laptop Studio stand out is its design. It’s a convertible, yes, but it doesn’t rotate 360 degrees on a single hinge. Instead, it has a second hinge beyond the display, and you can use that to pull the screen closer to you (as seen above), you fold the display down over the keyboard base to turn it into a canvas for note-taking or artistic work. It’s genuinely cool, and easier to go from one stance to another than a traditional convertible. As for portability, the Surface Laptop Studio measures in at 18.94mm, and it starts at 3.87lbs of weight. It’s fairly lightweight for the specs inside, but it doesn’t stand out on that front.

Finally, in terms of ports, the Surface Laptop Studio does support USB Type-C charging, but it doesn’t come. Out of the box, it uses the Surface Connect port to charge, but it does have two Thunderbolt 4 ports you can use for charging if you want to. You might need to buy a high-power charger, though, especially if you choose the Core i7 model. Aside from those three ports, there’s a headphone jack, which means the Surface Laptop Studio doesn’t offer a ton of variety, but the inclusion of Thunderbolt support helps make up for it.

Personally speaking, the Surface Laptop Studio is my favorite device on this list, and it’s a truly great laptop, It may be lacking some ports, but between the performance, the unique form factor, and the display, this is one of the very best laptops you can buy today.

Also great: HP Spectre x360 14

We may love the Surface Laptop Studio’s form factor, but if you’re a bigger fan of traditional convertibles, we’ve got you covered, too. The HP Spectre x360 14 is one of HP’s most recent additions to the lineup, and it gets enough right that it might just be the best one in the family.

First things first, the HP SPectre x360 is powered by Intel’s 11th-generation Core processors up to a Core i7-1165G7, which has four cores, eight threads, and boost speeds up to 4.7GHz. This is a 15W processor, on par with the Dell XPS 13 mentioned above, albeit slightly slower, and it also includes Intel Iris Xe graphics. In addition to that, you can configure the Sectre x360 14 with up to 16GB of RAM and a 2TB SSD, giving you plenty of storage and enough memory to multitask without a problem.

In terms of the display, the Spectre x360 14 comes with a 13.5-inch panel, and it’s the first (and so far, only) Spectre to use the tall 3:2 aspect ratio. This means the laptop is as wide as its 13-inch sibling but as tall as the 15-inch model. The base configuration comes with a Full HD+ (1920 x 1280) panel, which is already sharp enough for a display of this size. If you want an even better display, you can upgrade to a “3K2K” (3000 x 2000) OLED display, which is sharper and offers all the benefits of an OLED panel, like true blacks and high contrast ratios. Both panels have 400 nits of brightness, so they should be usably outdoors without a problem.

The Spectre x360’s webcam suffers from a similar problem to the Dell XPS 13. To shrink the bezels as much as possible, HP used a tiny 720p webcam that doesn’t produce very good images in video calls and meetings. At least HP found space for a Windows Hello facial recognition camera, though, and that’s in addition to a fingerprint reader, so you can use whatever method you prefer to unlock your laptop.

Design-wise, HP’s Spectre lineup is one of the most unique ones around, and that holds true with the Spectre x360 14. The “nightfall black” and “Poseidon blue” variants of this laptop use a dual-tone look. Most surfaces of the laptop are either black or dark blue, but the edges and hinges of the laptop use copper (in the black model) or gold (in the blue model) accents, giving the laptop a much more premium feel. You can also get the natural silver model if you want something more subdued, though. The laptop also has iconic angular edges and trimmed-off corners below the display, contributing to an even more unique look. As for portability, the Spectre x360 14 weighs 2.95lbs and measures just over 17mm in thickness.

As for ports, the HP Spectre x360 has two Thunderbolt 4/USB-C ports that can be used for charging, and while they’re both on the same side, one of them is in one of the cut-off corners, which makes it a bit more accessible from both sides. You also get one USB Type-A port for legacy peripherals, a headphone jack, and a microSD card reader. This covers most of the basics for a laptop of this size, and you’re only missing a traditional display output, meaning you might need an adapter to connect external monitors.

This is a stellar convertible laptop with high-end performance, a stunning design, a great display, and a decent supply of ports including USB-C charging. You can’t ask for much more than that.

Best business laptop with USB-C charging: Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 9

Lenovo’s ThinkPad lineup is home to some of the most iconic business laptops out there, and none is more iconic than the ThinkPad X1 Carbon. It’s one of the oldest laptops in the family, but Lenovo has done a great job of modernizing it while still keeping what makes a ThinkPad so well-known.

Starting with performance, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 9 comes with 11th-generation 15W processors from Intel, maxing out with an Intel Core i7-1185G7 with vPro. Intel vPro processors include extra security features for businesses, and are generally a bit faster than the non-vPro models, too. This one is a quad-core, eight-thread model with boost speeds up to 4.8GHz, and of course, Iris Xe graphics. In addition to that, you can configure it with up to 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD, giving you plenty of performance and space for your files.

The latest model of the ThinkPad X1 Carbon improves the display by switching to a taller 16:10 aspect ratio from the previous 16:9 panel, which is great for productivity. The base model is a Full HD+ (1920 x 1200) IPS panel with 400 nits of brightness, but you can go all the way to an Ultra HD+ (3840 x 2400) model with HDR support and 500 nits. Some FHD+ configurations also include touch support and a privacy guard to prevent others from seeing what’s on your screen.

The webcam on the ThinkPad X1 Carbon is a 720p camera, though it’s not super small like the ones we saw above. Windows Hello facial recognition isn’t included by default in the base model, but you can add it as an option. You also get a fingerprint reader, which is included by default with the laptop.

One thing that hasn’t changed what the latest X1 Carbon is the iconic ThinkPad look. The classic black chassis with red accents is still here, as are features like the pointing stick and duplicate mouse buttons above the touchpad and the rounded keyboard keys. It’s been modernized, though, so the laptop measures just 14.9mm thick and weighs 2.49lbs in the base configuration. You get all the ThinkPad features you know in a very portable package, which is great. Also, if you get the Ultra HD+ display, the lid of the laptop comes covered in black carbon fiber for a more unique look.

For ports, you get two Thunderbolt 4/USB-C connections with support for charging (though they’re both on the same side), plus two USB Type-A ports (3.2 Gen 1), HDMI 2.0, and a headphone jack. Like many business laptops, you also get the option for LTE or 5G connectivity, and that adds a nano SIM slot to the laptop, too. Cellular network support means you can stay connected to the internet wherever you go, and that can be very useful.

The ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 9 nails all the basics of a business laptop, with great performance, a classic design, a tall screen, and lots of ports. You can buy it at Best Buy below, but you can find more configurations on Lenovo’s website.

Best gaming laptop with USB-C charging: ASUS ROG Flow X13

While many gaming laptops technically support USB-C charging, the amount of power they consume usually far exceeds the power that USB Power Delivery supports (until the recent announcement of 240W USB charging, at least). Because of that, most gaming laptops don’t fit on this list all that well, but the ASUS ROG Flow X13 is an exception.

That’s because, performance-wise, the ASUS ROG Flow X13 isn’t up there with other gaming laptops. But that’s not to say it’s slow by any means. It comes with AMD’s 35W Ryzen processors, up to a Ryzen 9 5980HS, which is an 8-core, 16-thread processor with boost speeds up to 4.8GHz. That’s one of the fastest laptop processors around, but it doesn’t use as much power as some others. That’s paired with up to an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti graphics card, also rated for 35W, giving you solid performance to play most modern games at decent frame rates, though it will obviously vary from game to game. Aside from that, you get up to 32GB of RAM (not upgradeable) and a 1TB SSD, so you have quite a bit of space for games and files.

If you want more gaming performance, you can buy this laptop alongside the ROG Xg Mobile, an external GPU enclosure containing a GeForce RTX 3080 plus more ports to expand the connectivity on the laptop. Keep in mind this uses a proprietary connector, and Thunderbolt-based external GPUs won’t work here.

For a gaming laptop, the ASUS ROG Flow X13 has an uncommon display, being a 13.4-inch panel with a 16:10 aspect ratio. The base model is a Full HD+ (1920 x 1080) panel and it has a 120Hz refresh rate for smoother gaming (and motion in general), though there’s also an option for an Ultra HD+ 60Hz panel if you prefer the higher resolution. Despite being a gaming laptop, it’s also a convertible, and that means the display supports touch and pen input, and a pen is even included in the box in some models. That makes this a very versatile laptop, though, and that’s great.

The webcam on the ROG Flow X13 is a 720p camera, as you might have expected, and it doesn’t support Windows Hello facial recognition. That’s not uncommon for gaming laptops, and thankfully, you do get a fingerprint reader built into the power button on the side of the laptop. That should make unlocking your PC a bit easier.

Coming to the design, the ROG Flow X13 is very subdued for a gaming laptop, depending on the model you get. It’s an all-black laptop with a striped pattern running through the chassis, but the ASUS ROG branding on the lid does have an RGB light in some models. The keyboard is only backlit in white, so it looks professional on that front, too. It’s also very thin and light for a gaming laptop, weighing 2.87lbs and measuring 15.8mm in thickness.

For ports, the ROG Flow X13 counts two USB Type-c (3.2 Gen 2 ports), both of which can charge the laptop, and they’re on different sides of the laptop, too. The charger goes up to 100W, so it should be able to keep the laptop charged even under load. You also get one USB Type-A port (3.2 Gen 2), HDMI 2.0b, and a headphone jack. One of the USB Type-C ports is also part of the ROG Xg mobile interface to connect the external GPU, if you choose to get it. Naturally, Thunderbolt support isn’t available because this is an AMD laptop, but this is still a solid setup.

This is a gaming laptop for those who don’t need the absolute most performance, but it’s a fantastic choice all the same. It can run just about any modern game and it’s also great for productivity and all kinds of tasks. This is the only laptop on this list I’ve personally bought and own, and I definitely recommend it.

Best 17-inch laptop with USB-C charging: LG gram 17

Fans of larger laptops can sometimes have it tough when it comes to finding a thin and light laptop, but the LG gram 17 is perfect for those users. It’s a capable laptop with great battery life, solid performance, and a surprisingly lightweight design.

The LG gram 17 is powered by an Intel Core i7-1165G7 processor, with four cores, eight threads, and boost speeds up to 4.7GHz, plus Intel Iris Xe graphics built-in. It’s a high-end laptop, but it’s using 15W processors, which allows it to be as light as it is. It also comes with up to 16GB of RAM and a 2TB SSD, so multi-tasking shouldn’t be a problem, and you shouldn’t have to worry about running out of space for your files.

As you’d probably expect from the name, the LG gram 17 comes with a 17-inch display, and it has a 16:10 aspect ratio. That helps the screen feel that much bigger, and with a very sharp Quad HD+ (2560 x 1600) resolution, it makes great use of the available space. The high pixel density and size mean you get a lot of space for multiple apps at once, making multitasking easier. The display also covers 99% of DCI-P3, so it’s great for creative professionals.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the gram 17 still comes with a 720p webcam, and it doesn’t support Windows Hello facial recognition, either. Instead, there’s a fingerprint sensor built into the power button, which admittedly does make it fairly easy to unlock the PC whenever you need it.

What’s most impressive about the LG gram 17 is just how light it is, weighing under 3lbs. Sure, we’ve seen other laptops on this list be that light, but they have way smaller screens, so this is still very impressive. It’s also fairly thin, measuring 17.78mm, and overall, it’s a laptop you can take anywhere, while still giving you a big canvas to work on. This is thanks to a build that mostly uses magnesium, compared to the more typical aluminum laptops. While we’re on the topic of design, it’s worth noting the gram 17 also has a number pad, which some users might find useful.

And for ports, the LG gram packs two Thunderbolt 4/USB-C ports with support for charging (both on the same side, unfortunately), two USB Type-A (3.2 Gen 2) ports, HDMI, a headphone jack, and a microSD card reader. That covers just about any basic need you might have, and it’s a solid setup to boot. It’d be nice if the charging ports were on different sides, but that’s arguably a minor detail.

The LG gram 17 isn’t the most powerful 17-inch laptop out there, but it’s one of the most portable, and that’s its biggest focus. It still delivers a premium experience and it can go with you anywhere.

Best tablet: Surface Pro 8

There aren’t a whole lot of great Windows tablets out there, but the ones that exist are very good. Still, the Surface Pro 8 stands out from the pack, not only featuring high-end specs and a great display, but also Thunderbolt support for the first time.

Performance-wise, the Surface Pro 8 is on par with other ultrabooks, starting with 11th-generation Intel Core processors up to a Core i7-1185G7. As we’ve mentioned before, this is a quad-core, eight-thread processor that can boost up to 4.8GHz as needed and also includes Iris Xe graphics for some light GPU workloads. You can also configure the Surface Pro 8 with up to 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD, so it definitely doesn’t fall short just because it’s a tablet.

One of the areas where the Surface Pro 8 shines is its display (no pun intended). This is a 13-inch panel in the signature 3:2 aspect ratio we know Surface devices for, and it’s a very sharp panel at 2880 x 1920 resolution, which is the standard across all configurations. Of course, it supports touch and pen input, and just like the Surface Laptop Studio, you get haptic feedback in the Surface Slim Pen 2 when you use it with this tablet. Also, this is the only Windows tablet that supports a 120Hz refresh rate for the display (though it’s set to 60Hz out of the box), and it also supports Dolby Vision.

Another strength of the Surface Pro 8 is in its cameras. The front-facing webcam on the Pro 8 is a 5MP sensor, and it supports 1080p video, making it one of the best webcams you’ll find on any laptop out there. It also supports Windows Hello facial recognition, as most Surface devices do. In addition to that, you get another camera on the back, this one being a 10MP camera with 4K video recording. If you’re taking lots of video calls, this is a fantastic device.

Being a tablet with no keyboard out of the box, the Surface Pro 8 is one of the more portable devices on this list. It weighs just 1.96lbs, and it measures 9.3mm thin, so this is a device you can truly take anywhere without much hassle. Even if you add a Surface Pro Signature Keyboard, this is still one of the most portable devices on this list.

In terms of ports, the Surface Pro 8 suffers from the same problem most Surface devices do. It does have two Thunderbolt 4/USB-C ports with charging support, but the default charging method is using the Surface Connect port and the charger that comes in the box. Those are also the only ports on this tablet aside from a 3.5mm headphone jack, so you don’t have a ton of options unless you get a dock or adapter. For a tablet, that’s not bad, but it falls a little short as a PC.

Despite its shortcomings, the Surface Pro 8 is a fantastic Windows tablet with high-end specs and a great display and cameras, making it great for everything from working to consuming media.

Best budget laptop with USB-C charging: HP Pavilion Aero

Finally, what if you want a great affordable laptop that supports USB-C charging? The HP Pavilion Aero might be the answer, seeing as it’s one of the best budget laptops you can buy in general. It doesn’t come with a USB Type-C charger in the box, but it does support it.

Despite being affordable, the HP Pavilion Aero doesn’t lack in performance, It comes with AMD’s Ryzen 5000 series processors, starting with a Ryzen 5 5600U in the base model. That’s already a 6-core, 12-thread processor that can boost up to 4.2GHz, so performance definitely isn’t lacking here. You can upgrade to a Ryzen 7 if you can afford it though. The base model also includes 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD for storage, which is a solid combination for an affordable laptop, though again, you can go up to 16GB and 1TB, respectively, depending on how much you’re willing to spend.

The display is another area where HP didn’t cheap out. This is a 13.3-inch panel with a 16:10 aspect ratio — a rare sight in laptops at this price — and it comes in Full HD+ (1920 x 1200) resolution out of the box, too. If that’s not impressive enough, you can upgrade to a Quad HD+ (2560 x 1600) panel for just $30. And it’s a 400-nit panel in both variants, so outdoor visibility isn’t a problem, something you can’t say of a lot of other cheap laptops.

Corners have to be cut somewhere, though, and the camera here is a 720p sensor without Windows Hello facial recognition. That’s not to say you’re completely out of options, though, you do get a fingerprint reader built-in. While that’s not something exclusive to the Pavilion Aero, it could easily have been left out considering everything else on offer here, so it’s great to see it made the cut.

Back on a positive note, the HP Pavilion Aero is also a very lightweight and portable laptop, another area that affordable laptops tend to struggle with. It weighs less than 2.2lbs thanks to its magnesium chassis, and it’s just over 17mm thick. This is also a unique laptop in the sense that it gives you four color options to choose from. They’re all fairly subdued, but you get to choose something that fits your style, and that’s always good.

Finally, the port selection on the HP Pavilion Aero includes one USB-C port (3.2 Gen 2) with support for charging, two USB Type-A (3.2 Gen 1) ports, HDMI, a headphone jack, and a microSD card reader. The default charger uses a proprietary barrel port, but if you happen to have a powerful USB-C charging brick already, then you can use it with this laptop.

With a launch price of $750, the HP Pavilion Aero was a fantastic mainstream laptop already, but now that it’s often heavily discounted (at writing time, it costs $550), this is a steal. We definitely recommend this laptop if you’re on a tight budget and want a great experience.

And those are what we’d consider the best laptops with USB-C charging you can buy right now. Many of these come with a USB Type-C charger in the box, while others might require you to buy one separately, but they all support it to some extent. We chose the Dell XPS 13 for the top of this list because it’s simply the best ultrabook of the year, thanks to a very compact design, high-end specs, a great display, and two very distinct looks to suit your taste. Personally speaking, the Surface Laptop Studio is my favorite device on this list, though, and you’re bound to have your own preference. All of these are great laptops and you can’t go wrong with them.

If you’re looking for something else in your next laptop, you may want to check out our list of the best 5G-enabled laptops you can buy today.