Windows 11 では、Microsoft アカウントからローカル アカウントに切り替えることはまだ可能なので、機能がなくなったわけではありません。しかし、サポート ページから手順を削除することで、Microsoft は、そのオプションが存在しない、または少なくとも切り替えを希望するユーザーを支援したくないと見せかけようとしているようです。
Microsoft は、ローカル アカウントよりも Microsoft アカウントのほうが優れていると主張し、ユーザーに Microsoft アカウントで Windows にサインインするよう強く勧めてきた。以前のバージョンのサポート ページでは、同社はこのようなアカウントによって「ローカル アカウントとは異なり、Microsoft サービスのシームレスな統合、セキュリティの強化、デバイス間の同期」が可能になると宣伝していた。
はい、Microsoft アカウントには、特に Windows コンピューターを複数所有している場合に、特定の利点があります。1 つは、Windows テーマやその他の設定をさまざまなデバイス間で同期できることです。また、OneDrive を使用してファイルをバックアップおよび同期する場合も、Microsoft アカウントが必要です。さらに、同じアカウントを使用して、Windows、Microsoft 365、Microsoft Store、Xbox Live にサインインできます。
Windows 10 Pro のセットアップでは、ローカル アカウントを選択することもできます。ただし、Microsoft は誤解を招く専門用語を使用して、ローカル アカウントを「オフライン アカウント」や「制限されたエクスペリエンス」を提供するアカウントと表現し、ユーザーを思いとどまらせています。このような表現では、ローカル アカウントを選択するとオンラインにならないかのように聞こえますが、これはナンセンスです。Windows 10 Home にはローカル オプションがないため、実際には PC をインターネットから切断して騙す必要があります。
Windows 11 のセットアップでは、Microsoft が強力なツールを投入しました。ローカル アカウントを選択するための画面やメニューはありません。代わりに、セットアップ中に Microsoft アカウントでサインインするように指示されます。アカウントを持っていない場合は、その場で作成するしかありません。Microsoft アカウントを使用しないと、セットアップ画面を続行できません。
もう一つのコツは、無料の Rufusと呼ばれるサードパーティのユーティリティUSB スティックから Windows をインストールまたは実行するように設計された Rufus を使用すると、オンラインの Microsoft アカウントの要件を削除し、特定のユーザー名でローカル アカウントを自動的に作成できます。私は Windows の実行とインストールに Rufus を何度も使用しましたが、これは便利なツールです。
それ以外の場合は、Microsoft アカウントを使用して Windows 11 をセットアップし、その後ローカル アカウントに切り替えることができます。設定に移動し、アカウントを選択して、「あなたの情報」画面に移動します。「代わりにローカル アカウントでサインインする」オプションをクリックし、切り替えの手順に従ってください。
Monarch Money is $99 a year but you can get it for 50% off until June 30th with code MINT50, plus there’s a 30-day free trial.
Pros: It’s easy to set up, with powerful tools for analyzing your finances and building a budget.
Cons: It’s one of the more expensive personal financial program I tested.
I spent last Thanksgiving week looking at personal finance programs. Why? When Intuit decided to bury Mint, its popular and free money-tracking and budgeting program, I didn’t have a choice. I had to find another way to manage my money.
Intuit wanted me to move my Mint data to Credit Karma, but I didn’t want to do that. While Credit Karma is good at working with your credit scores, it’s not a budgeting application.
With precious little time to move my years of financial data to a new service, I had to find a suitable replacement. Everyone’s financial needs are different. In my case, I needed a program that could handle multiple bank and credit card accounts, several 401Ks, and some stock and real estate investments.
Monarch Money provides a financial framework for zero-based budgeting. With this approach, you allocate every dollar you earn to expenses and savings. Monarch is more than just a budgeting app. It provides everything you need to manage your personal finances.
Monarch presents income and expenses clearly, making it easy to track your remaining budget. I’m not an emoji fan, but their use here for spending subcategories is charming and functional, enabling quick identification of different categories.
One of my favorite Monarch features is its transaction tracker. The tracker allows you to categorize spending into broad categories, such as food and dining; subcategories, such as groceries and restaurants; and specific merchants, such as Ingles Market and Five Points Diner. This detailed view of spending habits is a standout feature. The app’s auto-categorization is precise and customizable, allowing users to set rules for future transactions based on the merchant or amount.
Monarch also easily imports data from your bank accounts, retirement funds, stock accounts, and credit cards. Of all the applications I looked at, Monarch did the best job of automatically importing data from other services.
Note: If you already downloaded your Mint data as a CSV file, the default format, you can still upload it into Monarch or another money management program. If you haven’t downloaded yet, I’m sorry to say it’s gone for good now.
I also like that Monarch prioritizes savings. You can set a financial goal, such as saving for a house downpayment, and set a deadline. The app creates a dedicated savings section on the home screen. Contributions to this section are only possible when expenses are lower than income.
The customizable dashboard provides an overview of your financial situation, with widgets for comparing monthly spending, viewing recent transactions, monitoring investments, and tracking savings goals.
Another handy feature is Monarch’s Advice section. Here, Monarch spells out the steps you need to manage your money in the long run. This section includes how to review your cash flow, how to set up estate documents, and what to look for in life insurance.
The app also supports shared budgeting, making it suitable for couples or families. Adding another person to the budgeting platform is straightforward. I was able to add my partner to my dashboard without hassle.
I’ve now been using Monarch Money for seven months. In a word, it’s great. It does everything I need and makes managing my money much easier.
Monarch is better than Mint ever was. Mint consistently had trouble importing data from several of my accounts, so I’d need to reconnect them every month or two. Those same accounts stay linked up in Monarch.
Perhaps the best reason to use Monarch is that, unlike Mint, which stagnated for years, its team has been working hard on improving it.
Specifically, Monarch has been upgrading its transactions. These include:
New quick search filters: Now you can filter by debit and credit, include or exclude “hidden” transactions, include or exclude synced from institutions, and filter for transactions with attachments, splits, or notes.
New sorting on mobile: Mobile sorting is now on par with what’s available on the web, including the option to sort by date (old to new) and amount (high to low or low to high).
New buttons for quick review: With new buttons at the top of each detailed transaction page, you can hide or mark a transaction as reviewed in a snap.
More detail for quicker scanning: Category and account details are now included in your main transaction list, so you’ll have less to click through to find what you need.
You’ll also see more space on the page for transaction details, a new menu bar that consolidates filters, and the option to collapse the summary panel on the right-hand side.
Behind the scenes, Monarch has also made several significant improvements and fixes. In a Reddit post this month, the Monarch CEO listed the top ones as:
Improved aggregation – He said the company has boosted data partners’ connection reliability, data accuracy, and sync times: “While we’ve made improvements, this is always an ongoing effort. Many of these issues come from the underlying institution or data provider. This doesn’t absolve us of solving them — and you shouldn’t have to care where the issues are coming from — it just makes it a harder problem to solve.”
Improved customer support – “We have spent a lot of time growing and training our CS team, as well as overhauling some of our internal systems. Our customer response times are back to under 24 hours and we’re resolving customer tickets with higher satisfaction levels. Our experiments with AI-based bots have admittedly been a miss for the most part, and we have humans answering the bulk of our support requests now. We’re really sorry if you previously had a poor experience with support. If that’s the case, please try again!”
Bug bashing – “We launched a lot of things very quickly after the Mint shutdown. This introduced some technical debt and more bugs than we had anticipated. We’ve spent many cycles fixing these behind the scenes. Thanks to everyone who has reported them.”
Monarch’s CEO also listed the following as new improvements coming soon:
Rules for split transactions
Rapid transaction review
Support for an alternative budgeting methodology called “Fixed/Flex”
The ability to view bills and dates for credit cards and other liabilities
A complete overhaul of goals and the planning system
Improved collaboration features
A new app design (Yes, it will reduce the whitespace for all of you exhausted by scrolling)
I appreciate a company that says it’s got something wrong and it’ll fix and improve things.
How to use Monarch Money
Getting started with Monarch is easy enough. You link your various finances — checking, savings, retirement, and credit card and loan accounts — to the service. You can also incorporate assets like real estate, vehicles, and cryptocurrencies to assess your net worth. Once set up, these links will automatically update future transactions.
When that work is done, you’re prompted to define your financial objectives, such as clearing a student loan. Monarch then helps you set up a specific line item for these goals, allowing you to decide how much to contribute monthly.
As I mentioned earlier, Monarch uses the zero-based budgeting method for planning your expenditures — it urges you to allocate every dollar of your income each month. Monarch suggests budget amounts for different spending categories based on your historical spending patterns, covering necessities like groceries and lifestyle choices like fitness.
You can monitor the budgeted amount for each category and switch between your current spending and the remaining budget, giving you more control over your finances.
The app’s primary interface showcases your complete budget, including your net worth, recent transactions, and investments, and it compares your current spending against the previous month. The app also highlights your progress towards saving objectives. This dashboard is adaptable, allowing you to tailor the display of information to suit your preferences.
Monarch also supports collaborative budgeting, making it ideal for partners or families to manage finances together. It’s easy to invite others to join your budgeting dashboard via email, and it’s just as simple for them to accept the invitation. Should the need arise, removing someone from your dashboard is also simple.
What I’d like to change about Monarch Money
One oddity with Monarch is that it doesn’t offer credit score access. I get that capability via my credit cards, so I don’t miss it, but still, it would have been nice if Monarch offered it.
Monarch’s recent price hike to $99.99 annually positions it among the more expensive budgeting apps. Still, overall, I found Monarch to be worth the money. For my money, Monarch is the best money management program available today – especially right now during the 50% off deal.
What I didn’t choose any of the other options
There wasn’t anything wrong with the other choices. They just weren’t right for me.
NerdWallet is an interesting combination of an excellent free application and an informative website. It’s ideal for anyone new to managing their money. But, that’s not me. Still, you can’t beat the price.
Rocket Money has an excellent interface, but I found its “pay-what-you-wish” model pricing misleading. To get the most from the application, you’ll need its Premium Membership, which costs from $47.99 to $59.99 annually, or $4 to $12 per month. I also found it difficult to import data into Rocket Money. However, it does a good job of finding and helping you lose subscriptions and other hidden fees.
Quicken Simplifi is not Quicken. Although its parent company still offers Quicken, Simplifi doesn’t resemble it for better or worse. Simplifi stands out by providing tailored spending plans. You can update these in real time to monitor your spending. But, like Rocket Money, Simplifi has trouble importing my data. If your accounts work with Simplifi (and with a free 30-day trial, you’ll have ample opportunity to see if that’s the case), the program is well worth its annual cost of $47.99 (also currently 50% off).
YNAB, short for “You Need A Budget”, is a straightforward, zero-based budgeting app. It will help you meticulously plan your spending by assigning funds to specific categories every time you’re paid. As such, YNAB demands more upfront work than the other applications. Yes, it can help you track your money, but the name of its game is to teach you how to budget using the zero-budget approach. For people who have trouble making and sticking to a budget, YNAB’s annual rate of $99 is well worth the investment. But, I learned how to keep a budget on my own.
Quicken still lives
The old favorite financial program, Quicken, is still around, but it’s no longer supported by Intuit. Mint’s parent company, while still offering QuickBooks, sold Quicken in 2016. Under new management, the program lives on.
Today, Quicken is one of the most comprehensive personal finance applications available. Quicken Classic, a desktop-based software complemented by a mobile app, provides extensive financial management tools. This software justifies its annual subscription cost by offering multiple features, including in-depth account management, budgeting, bill handling, and investment tracking.
I can’t recommend Quicken for most people because you must be deep into personal finance management to make the most from the tool. While you can access Quicken via an app with Quicken Mobile and via the internet with Quicken on the Web, the full-powered versions are only available on PCs.
That said, if you’ve used Quicken in the past, it’s still worth a look. The software is available in four different versions. To see if it’s for you, give the Quicken Starter for $3.49 a month a try. The more advanced versions come at different prices: Quicken Deluxe, for personal and small business finance, costs $5.99 a month; Quicken Classic Premier, for investors, costs $6.99 a month; and Quicken Business & Personal, for advanced users, will run you $9.99 a month. Only Quicken Starter and Classic are available for Mac users.
What’s a credit score?
Your credit score is probably the most important number in your life. It determines how likely you are to get credit and your interest rates, how much you’ll pay for everything from a credit card to rent, and even whether you’ll get a job. Heck, there are even dating apps that consider your credit score!
A credit score, also known as a FICO score, is a numerical indicator, typically ranging from 300 to 850, that predicts how likely you are to repay loans and bills. This score is calculated using data from your credit accounts.
There are five main criteria for determining a FICO credit score: payment history, current debt level, frequency of new credit applications, the length of credit history, and the variety of credit types. The two most critical components are payment history, which makes up 35% of the score, and the amount of credit in use. Payment history factors include the timeliness of payments, the frequency of missed payments, how late payments are, and the recency of missed payments. Applying for new credit can briefly lower one’s score.
What is a good credit score?
A score of 700 or more is a good score, while 800 and above is excellent. Most people have scores ranging from 600 to 750. To improve a credit score, you can open accounts that report to credit bureaus, keep low balances, pay bills promptly, and limit new account applications.
It’s also important to remember that you don’t have a single, fixed credit score. The score can differ based on the scoring model used, the data source, and the date of calculation.
Finance programs can help you build up your credit score because they put the information you need to control your finances in your hands. Without these programs, you’re operating blind.
It’s also important to remember that you don’t have a single, fixed credit score. The score can differ based on the scoring model used, the data source, and the date of calculation.
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There is some controversy over who was responsible for generating the stories. The Arena Group, SI’s parent company, didn’t specify a reason for Levinsohn’s firing. In any case, people listed as the authors of the articles did not exist and the timing of Levinsohn’s exit seemed more than coincidental.
Then there’s content company Advon. In a detailed exposé by Futurism (a Knight Foundation grantee), reporters found publications across the Gannett and McClatchy properties used articles produced by Advon to fill their publications.
McClatchy used AI-generated articles attributed to at least 14 fake authors in more than 20 of its outlets, including the Miami Herald and Sacramento Bee, Futurism reported.
According to Futurism’s findings, Advon originally used contract writers living in developing countries. In a bid to save more money, the company tasked those writers with critiquing the work generated by the AI. Eventually, the AI became sufficiently trained and Advon terminated its already underpaid authors.
After Futurism’s report, McClatchy and Gannett deleted the generated articles and consigned the fake authors to digital purgatory.
As AI becomes more capable and mainstream, it should come as no shock that some executives are looking to it as a much lower-cost replacement for human creatives. While AI can replace some creative tasks, AI-generated content can also diminish quality and increase the generic-feeling nature of the resulting work. And that’s to say nothing of the instances AI goes completely off the rails, like when Google’s AI search recommended adding glue to pizza to make it stick better.
We’ll examine the huge temptation AI offers when it comes to saving money, where and why AIs are limited when it comes to content generation, and legitimate ways AIs can help reduce time and cost without sacrificing originality and quality.
The temptations of employing AI
In my previous roles as software company president and magazine publisher, I hired a fair number of creative professionals. I had programmers, writers, editors, artists, and graphic designers on staff. I spent much of my time focused on one challenge: how to make payroll for the next week.
There’s a wide range when it comes to how much creatives are compensated. Some writers get paid on piece work as contractors and barely make minimum wage. Others make six-figure incomes. The same is true for each of the creative professions. But even the least paid still often cost their company hundreds of dollars a week and thousands of dollars per month.
The managerial temptation is compelling. What if you could cut four out of five salaries (or the equivalent contract payments), and keep just one professional whose primary job it is to operate AI services (which, in total, often cost under $100/month)?
For most organizations, the people cost is the largest expense. Replacing humans with a couple of AI subscriptions might seem like the Holy Grail — at least from the point of view of bean counters and others who focus on cost accounting.
As someone whose encore career is now thankfully out of the management arena and is squarely planted in the creative professional category, I can see both sides.
For those of us who make our living as creative professionals, the prospect of being replaced by a bunch of blinking lights is terrifying. Some creatives know they produce enough unique value to justify their continuing employment. But those top-tier skills come with a bigger price tag for employers and clients, which creates yet another temptation paradox.
For outlets like ZDNET, for whom content quality is a competitive advantage, the cost of creatives is necessary and justified. For content farms, and those who hope to strike it rich through spamming affiliate links and crappy reviews all over the web, the need for human content creators seems far less so.
That brings us to a fundamental question: Do consumers of creative output prefer cheap or good? The answer is both. Some consumers gravitate to high-quality work. Others have little ability to distinguish between something of quality created by a human and something just churned out by an AI.
To be clear, not all creative output by humans is brushed with greatness. Humans phone in their work as much as the next AI. And not all creative output by AIs is low quality. Some of the images I created using Midjourney for my record album covers are just spectacular, far and away better than anything I could ever have done on my own, and I simply wasn’t going to hire an artist for a personal side project.
While the promise of generative AI appears, on its surface, to be cheap content for everyone, there are costs, challenges, and limitations that prevent AI from being used to easily replace legions of knowledge workers.
AI’s costs, challenges, and limitations
Here’s something that seems like we’re really living in the future: The surge of generative AI content to replace or impersonate what humans create is leading to the growth of another AI to combat that.
Yep, we live in a time of AI wars. In this case, we’re talking about the ever-escalating attempts by low-quality volume content producers and spammers to fill the internet with money-generating garbage vs. Google, which has major efforts in place to lower the SEO value of automatically generated content.
Google’s blog post on this makes for interesting reading, not only because SEO is so important, but because it showcases how creative work may be judged going into the future.
“Our focus is on the quality of content, rather than how content is produced,” the post says. Google’s algorithms are tuned to elevate original, high-quality content that demonstrates expertise, experience, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness.
While automation may have a role in, for example, posting up-to-date weather data or sports scores, detailed analysis benefits from a human voice. When it comes to the vast tracts of AI-generated filler designed to raise SEO value or trigger affiliate payments, Google actively fights this lower-quality content and spam.
Google’s battle against poor-quality content alone should be enough to give most organizations pause. If you want to have a viable presence on Google, your content has to be good—and that alone helps protect the jobs of creative professionals.
There are other limits outside of concerns over Google SEO juice as well.
One of the biggest is that generative AIs just don’t do big projects all that well. I’ve used ChatGPT to help me with my programming with great success. I’ve found it very helpful when I ask it for a small, very special-purpose routine. But whenever I’ve given it a more complex problem, it has failed.
The same is true for writing projects or even academic research. I would love to use ChatGPT to do a full literature review. But the best it usually does is cite one or two websites (and it loves Wikipedia).
Compare that to a real literature review done by a graduate student, digging through thousands of academic papers, journals, and other documents to create a carefully aggregated summary of available research.
There are also liability and legal costs as well. Here at ZDNET, we don’t publish images produced by AIs because most of the image-generating AIs were trained on the entire internet, copyright be damned. We certainly don’t want to be implicated or sued over the use of copyrighted content, just because it happens to be generated by DALL-E 3 or Midjourney.
The one exception to that rule is when we’re reporting on how AIs work. In that context, we use AI-generated images for illustration purposes. Take this article I wrote last year about Midjourney vs. DALL-E 3. I was shocked to find that OpenAI’s DALL-E 3 generated images of Snoopy. Yes, that Snoopy. Later in the article, it generated images that could have been pulled right out of TheNightmare Before Christmas.
Then there’s the case of Missouri litigant Jonathan Karlen. He was fined $10,000 by an appeals court judge because he used an AI to generate dozens of non-existent citations in a legal brief filed in St. Charles County. Not only were some of his citations fake, but other aspects of his filing had errors, omissions, and formatting mistakes.
“The use of AI may bring about complex legal considerations including but not limited to intellectual property rights and compliance with regulations, which must be carefully navigated to avoid negative and potentially huge legal, financial, and reputational repercussions,” said Carl D’Halluin, chief technology officer at data migration and protection company Datadobi.
The big takeaway here is that AIs make mistakes, as do humans. The use of AI-generated content could easily lead to both copyright claims and much more damaging liability claims.
But fear not. AI can be used by creatives as a force for good.
How creatives can use AI
Let’s pause and think about some terms: skills, creativity, and vision. When I taught programming and multimedia (interactive animation and video) in college, most of my students were laser-focused on acquiring the skills that would land them specific jobs.
Skill is about the ability to do the task. Can you create a rough cut in Final Cut by stringing clips together? Can you write a JavaScript program to combine the name and URL of a web page into a bookmark on your browser? Can you create a simple graphic for a social media post?
All of these are about the ability to perform tasks with some level of expertise and precision. They’re tasks necessary for doing the job, and in some gigs, they are the job. Humans have often created tools to help perform skills faster and with more precision.
For example, we use software-based video editors now, but back in the day, editors cut pieces of actual film together. Most woodworkers use power tools to get the job done faster, while some purists still prefer doing everything with hand tools.
When I got my first product manager job, we didn’t have PowerPoint, but did a lot of presentations. We used old-school carousel projectors and 35mm slides. To put the graphics on those slides, we took weeks, and spent thousands of dollars per deck, working with outside slide production houses.
PowerPoint required those slide services to pivot. Not everyone survived. That’s tech natural selection at work.
AI, at the skills level, is another power tool. It can get the job done faster, increase efficiency, reduce repetitiveness, and help lesser-skilled folks produce more skilled output.
But then there’s creativity. Creativity is the ability to think of new ideas, new ways of doing things, and new projects. It’s much more about imagination, the ability to think across disciplines, and the art of combining existing ideas in interesting and novel ways.
Vision is the ability to use creativity to see a path to a result. It’s the ability to see and choose goals, articulate a mission, and describe desired outcomes.
Today, we can use AI to truly help with skills. Removing the background from a photo in Photoshop relies on AI, and it saves a ton of time compared to hand-specifying bezier curves to make that selection. AI can also help generate new ideas and even articulate vision. But it’s not really capable of deciding what’s good for you or your company.
“Creatives can leverage AI to handle repetitive data creation, customization, and management tasks, ultimately allowing them to focus more on art and innovation and less on administrative duties,” Datadobi’s D’Halluin told ZDNET.
The farther along you are in your career or your creative journey, the more time AIs can save you. This is because the more advanced you are, the more likely you’ll be able to easily identify and define tasks that can be easily delegated, compared to tasks that require your own unique skills, perspective, and experience.
When it comes to corporate cost management, the real challenge lies in managers understanding their markets, unique offerings, and the competitive value their creative professionals provide.
Sure, AIs can reduce the workload of entry-level staffers and even take over some of the work that might have been delegated to those just entering the workforce.
While AIs can assist more senior professionals, years of experience and seasoning produce the key value. If you can’t replace a senior creative with someone fresh out of college or art school, you can’t replace that senior creative with an AI either.
AI and the future of creative work
An average of about 50 million Americans left their jobs in 2020 and 2021, according to a study from consultancy McKinsey & Company. Much of that was pandemic-era attrition, but there are still 10 million vacant jobs. As a quarter of Americans reach or exceed retirement age by the end of the decade, that number could grow.
While I’d never put it past a short-sighted bean counter to terminate productive workers in favor of a low-quality AI, that may not be the issue. AIs may help augment a workforce, allowing employees to keep up when their employers are unable to find more help.
McKinsey also estimates 30% of hours worked today could be automated by 2030. That could boost employee productivity, but it’s also likely to disproportionately impact lower-wage workers, whose jobs are easier to automate or augment.
Meanwhile, a 2024 study by Microsoft and LinkedIn found that 78% of the knowledge workers surveyed are BYOAI (bring your own AI). In other words, they’re not using corporate-sanctioned AI services, but logging into ChatGPT, Gemini, or Copilot. Nearly three out of four employees are using AI at work. Almost half of them started using it within the last six months.
In the survey, 66% of company leaders said they wouldn’t hire someone without AI skills, and 71% said they’d hire a less experienced candidate who has AI chops over a more experienced candidate who is not AI savvy. Microsoft does have a horse in this race, but part of the reason it has invested so much in AI is because of metrics like these.
Personally, I have found AI to be a huge time saver. I initially started using ChatGPT and its ilk because I write about AI. But now that I have these tools in my kit, I’m never looking back.
While AI has failed miserably at writing full programs for me, there’s no doubt ChatGPT has saved me weeks per project writing and assisted me in debugging small segments of code at a time. Midjourney has helped me create social media graphics for my wife’s e-commerce business. ChatGPT’s analytics processing has helped me do product market analysis I would never otherwise have had the time to do.
Fundamentally, I don’t think companies will save money by replacing creatives with AI. However, I think companies would be remiss if they didn’t recognize the performance and productivity benefits creatives can gain by augmenting their output using AI tools.
I’ll leave you with an intriguing thought from Alex Ambroziak, senior creative producer of, content strategy at Shutterstock. He’s coined the phrase the “generative AI paradox,” wherein creatives who seem to have the most to lose to AI, may actually be the best qualified to use it.
“There’s a misconception that AI, especially in its generative form, is simple to use and will get instant results but the reality is that the same skill set that is needed for composition and design is necessary to use AI creatively, only now, it’s supercharged,” he told ZDNET.
At least in 2024, AI is still a productivity tool to enhance and not replace.
Gone are the days of huge PC towers taking up desk space to achieve powerful performance. Computers with an abundance of power can now be condensed into a slim laptop with a lower price tag than some high-end models. Many of the best laptops under $1,000 are lightweight and offer lightning-fast speeds, highly detailed graphics, and up to 1TB of storage space to meet all of your creative or professional needs.
My pick for the best laptop under $1,000 overall is the M2 MacBook Air, thanks to its solid performance, portability, and HD display. With the March release of the M3 MacBook Air, the previous M2 model received a price cut. This is great news because the device is well known for its portability and awesome performance but not for its affordability. Of course, the M2 MacBook Air isn’t the only option out there. With this in mind, check out my top picks for the best laptops under $1,000.
The best laptops under $1,000 of 2024
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Apple M2 MacBook Air
Best laptop under $1,000 overall
The best laptop under $1,000 overall is the M2 MacBook Air, which was also named ZDNET’s Product of the Year for 2022. It’s a fantastic machine for a variety of reasons. The M2 SoC (system on a chip) gives the device a much-needed performance boost. It lets you quickly transfer enormous files, render videos, compress them, and create multimedia-intense PowerPoints. The M2 MacBook Air can do all of this without blinking.
Professional and casual users alike will appreciate the Liquid Retina display, which can simultaneously show 1.07 billion shades of color. Granted, it may not be as stunning as the screen on the MacBook Pro, but you still get a roughly 2K resolution image (2,560 x 1,664 pixels). Having a screen this nice does come at a cost. The M2 MacBook Air has a slightly worse battery life than the 2020 model, lasting about 16 hours instead of 17 hours.
Despite the slightly short battery life, the device is a premiere laptop, no matter how you look at it. As ZDNET’s editor-in-chief Jason Hiner wrote in his hands-on review, “the M2 MacBook Air is… the first redesign of the… product line in over a decade, and Apple has delivered a hardware design that impresses” on both form and function.
Apple M2 MacBook Air tech specs: CPU Model: Apple M2 | RAM Memory: 8GB | Hard Disk Drive: 256GB SSD | Screen Size: 13.6 inches
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Gigabyte G5 KF
Best laptop under $1,000 for gaming
Gaming laptops tend to be rather expensive, and for good reason. They often house some of the industry’s best hardware configurations. They’re so good that these machines can also be found among the best video editing laptops. Finding an excellent, inexpensive gaming laptop can be tricky, although it is possible. Case in point: the Gigabyte G5 KF. It may be cheap, but don’t let the low price tag fool you because it’s quite a beast. It houses a 12th Gen Intel Core i5 processor with a Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 graphics card, ensuring powerful performance.
Moreover, the G5 KF comes with a 15.6-inch Full HD (1,920 x 1,080 pixels) display sporting a high refresh rate of 144Hz. The refresh rate, if you’re not familiar with it, is the frequency of how often a screen updates itself. The higher the rate, the smoother the output will be. This is important because video games benefit significantly from high refresh rates. They ensure you never miss the action and can see everything coming at you.
As good as the G5 HF is, it has some downsides. Multiple user reviews on Amazon complain about how loud the fan can get (gaming laptops require robust cooling systems to keep operating at an optimal temperature). The device can still get hot despite the noise, making typing more difficult.
GIGABYTE G5 KF tech specs: CPU Model: 12th Gen Intel Core i5-12500H | RAM Memory: 8GB | Hard Disk Drive: 512 GB SSD | Screen Size: 15.6 inches
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Lenovo Yoga 7i 2-in1
Best 2-in-1 laptop under $1,000
2-in-1 laptops offer unique utility due to their flexibility: one minute, you could use it as a traditional laptop typing away on the keyboard, and the next, you’d be drawing on it like a tablet after flipping the display around. Their form factor allows them to tackle all sorts of workloads. Among the low-cost options, the Lenovo Yoga 7i is the best.
The Yoga 7i’s success is due to three factors: its hardware, its display, and its design. First, the device houses the decently powerful Intel Core Ultra 5 alongside 16GB of RAM, making it robust and speedy enough to handle a wide array of tasks easily. Additionally, it offers a good amount of storage courtesy of its 512GB SSD.
Regarding its display, you’ll receive a 16-inch Full HD touchscreen. ZDNET Editor Kyle Kucharski referred to it as “dynamic… [adding] another dimension to Windows” and allowing “flexible usage.”
However, it is not particularly bright, maxing out at 300 nits (you’re better off not using this laptop under the sun). Design-wise, Lenovo made several great choices: It’s slim yet durable, and the hinges feel particularly strong, minimizing screen wobble.
Lenovo Yoga 7i 2-in-1 tech specs: CPU Model: Intel Core Ultra 5 Series 1 | RAM Memory: 16 GB | Hard Disk Drive: 512 SSD | Screen Size: 16-inches
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Dell Inspiron 16
Best 16-inch laptop under $1,000
Dell’s Inspiron series is known for having some of the best work laptops in its lineup, and for good reason. They deliver solid performance, plenty of storage space, and a great, high-resolution display, all at a reasonable price. This tradition of reliability continues with the company’s latest refresh for the Inspiron 16.
Dell decided to ditch AMD hardware for this model and equip the laptop only with Intel chips. Because of this change, the new Inspiron 16 is a bit more expensive but is still worth the cost. Inside is a 13th-generation Intel Core i5-1334U alongside an integrated Iris Xe GPU. There is no Meteor Lake chipset, but you can still expect outstanding performance from this engine. It’ll be able to handle a whole day’s work with ease. Plus, it has more RAM, too, at 16GB instead of 8GB.
Like before, buyers get a full terabyte of storage and a large, 16-inch Full-HD Plus (1,920 x 1,200 pixels) display. The glass is covered with an anti-glare coating, ensuring images come through crystal clear under direct sunlight. Of course, we can’t forget the rugged aluminum body, which lets it survive being tossed and turned in your bag while traveling.
The Inspiron 16 offers multiple configuration options to boost its performance; however, doing so will increase the price tag considerably, with some going past $1,000.
Dell Inspiron 16 tech specs: CPU Model: 13th Gen Intel Core i5-1334U | RAM Memory: 16 GB | Hard Disk Drive: 512 GB SSD | Screen Size: 16 inches
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HP Pavilion Plus
Best screen for a laptop under $1,000
Being a budget laptop doesn’t necessarily mean you have to offer a subpar experience. Case in point: the HP Pavilion Plus, which has a fantastic screen. It starts strong, as the base model houses a 1,920 x 1,200 pixel resolution IPS (in-plane switching) display. An IPS screen is notable because it outputs more color and has better viewing angles than an LED display.
One step above that, you have the WQXGA options, which outputs at a resolution of 2,560 x 1,600 pixels. Not only is it an IP screen, but it’s also covered in an anti-glare coating to ensure clarity. And it’s been certified for Low Blue Light to keep your eye from getting tired of staring at a screen all day. Then, at the top, HP offers a stunning 2.8K resolution OLED screen. This is the cream of the crop as the option can show off a vibrant array of colors and abyssal blacks in high quality.
The problem with the OLED option is that it is the most expensive of the three. It requires you to get the AMD Ryzen 7 7840U processor, increasing the cost of the laptop to over $800. It is still relatively cheap compared to other OLED laptops, but it may be out of budget for some people. Regardless of the price, the Pavilion Plus is a great device.
HP Pavilion Plus tech specs: CPU Model: AMD Ryzen 5 7540U | RAM Memory: 16 GB | Hard Disk Drive: 512 GB SSD | Screen Size: 14 inches
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Acer Aspire 3
Best value laptop under $1,000
The Acer Aspire 3 has earned its spot as the best laptop for value. It’s the cheapest option here and serves as a solid work machine. The device has an AMD Ryzen 3 7320U processor, an integrated AMD Radeon graphics card, and 8GB of RAM. It’s a lightweight laptop that can handle various tasks, from internet browsing to writing documents and streaming movies. Due to its mid-range hardware, the Aspire 3’s battery can last quite a while – about 11 hours on a single charge, according to Acer. You should know the
If you check out the Amazon reviews for the laptop, you’ll notice many people like the display. The summary explicitly points out that users enjoy how it “provides crisp visuals and vibrant colors.” That’s probably because Acer gave their model a 15.6-inch Full HD resolution (1,920 x 1,080 pixels) IPS display.
Like the previous Pavilion Plus, IPS tech allows the computer to show vibrant colors. It even supports Acer BlueLightShield, which lowers the amount of harmful blue light sent to your eyes. Another great feature worth mentioning is its large cooling fan, which ensures the model is at an optimal temperature at all times.
Acer Aspire 3 tech specs: CPU Model: AMD Ryzen 3 7320U | RAM Memory: 8GB LPDDR5 | Hard Disk Drive: 128 GB | Screen Size: 15.6 inches
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Asus Zenbook 14
Best work laptop under $1,000
ASUS isn’t known for its work laptops. People associate the name with gaming hardware, but you’d be surprised what the Zenbook 14 can deliver. It houses an Intel Core Ultra 5 125H alongside an NPU or neural processing unit. NPUs are a relatively new piece of tech that has become quite common in 2024 laptops. They improve overall hardware performance, which is great to have on low-end models.
While the Zenbook 14 is less powerful with the integrated Intel graphics card and 8GB of RAM, the NPU makes up much of the slack.
One area the laptop excelled in was battery longevity. During our initial tests, it lasted 12 straight hours before running out of juice. Be aware that this length of time was achieved without battery save mode turned on. With the feature active, there’s a good chance it would’ve gone for much longer. Additionally, it comes with a vibrant OLED screen displaying a Full HD resolution (1,920 x 1,200 pixels) image.
Also, remember that the Zenbook 14 can become warm when the hardware is pushed to its limits.
Asus Zenbook 14techspecs: CPU Model: Intel Core Ultra 5 | RAM Memory: 8 GB | Hard Disk Drive: 512 GB | Screen Size: 14-inches
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The best laptop under $1,000 is Apple’s M2 MacBook Air. It delivers on multiple fronts: great performance, a nice screen, a lightweight design, and so on. But that doesn’t mean you should discount the other options. They’re all solid picks. Below is a table where we compare the best laptops by price, their CPU, storage size, and screen size to make the decision process easier.
With all big decisions comes a lot of research. Thankfully, we did a lot of the heavy lifting for you regarding searching up the key specs of the best laptops under $1,000. Below is a table comparing the best laptops in this list by price, CPU model, and screen size to help make the decision process more manageable.
Best laptop under $1,000
Lowest price available
CPU
Screen size
Storage size
Apple M2 MacBook Air
$950
M2
13.6 inches
256 GB
GIGABYTE G5 KF
$800
12th Gen Intel Core i5-12500H
15.6 inches
512 GB
Lenovo Yoga 7i 2-in-1
$700
Intel Core Ultra 5
16 inches
512 GB
Dell Inspiron 16
$450
13th-Gen Intel Core i5 1334U
16 inches
1 TB
HP Pavilion Plus
$640
AMD Ryzen 5 7540U
14 inches
512 GB
Acer Aspire 3
$300
Intel Core i6-8265U
15.6 inches
256 GB
Asus Zenbook 14
$800
Acer Ryzen 3 7320U
15.6 inches
128 GB
The best laptop is the one that meets your needs. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all computer. The MacBook Air, as great as it is, is a bad pick for people who want a gaming laptop. Mac hardware just isn’t built for that. Small laptops aren’t recommended for those who are looking for a large screen.
Read the chart below to find out which device works best for you.
Choose this best laptop under $1,000….
If you want….
Apple M2 MacBook Air
A laptop that’s perfect for Apple users. Harnessing its M2 chip and 8GB of memory, this MacBook Air model offers solid performance plus a high-quality screen.
Gigabyte G5 KF
The best cheap gaming laptop. Cheap doesn’t mean it’s a slouch as this model packs in a GeForce RTX GPU and 12th-Gen Intel processor
Lenovo Yoga 7i 2-in-1
The best 2-in-1 laptop. Lenovo’s machine delivers great performance and a hi-res display inside a slim, portable form factor.
Dell Inspiron 16
A great work laptop with a huge display. In addition to its 16-inch screen, the model offers a full terabyte of storage, great hardware, and a durable body
HP Pavilion Plus
A lap top with a fantastic screen. The Pavilion Plus sports multiple screen options that are all great, peaking with the 2.8K OLED screen. It can output a stunning array of colors.
Acer Aspire 3
The best value laptop under $1,000. It’s a solid work machine capable of tackling multiple types of tasks and can up to 11 hours on a single charge.
Asus Zenbook 14
The best work laptop under $1,000. It’s a machine that utilizes AI to push mid-range hardware above and beyond what it can normally do alone.
A great laptop doesn’t have to cost a fortune. To determine the best laptops under $1,000, there are several factors you need to consider.
CPU Model: A good processor allows your computer to complete workloads quickly and understand the task at hand. Look for a newer processor boasting faster speeds to guarantee a high-performing machine.
RAM Memory: Consider how much memory you will need for your computer. If you deal with a lot of files, you’ll need more RAM than the average user.
Screen size: It’s usually a matter of preference when it comes to picking out the best screen size. Laptops under $1,000 tend to have small display screens, ranging from 12.3 inches to 15.6 inches. It is possible to find laptops that are both bigger and smaller than this specific range.
Price: Cost is, of course, the most important factor here, so pay attention to that price tag. We find that the best devices range between $500 to $800, depending on the make and model you choose.
Here at ZDNET, we receive a lot of laptops to check out and review. Taking into account the model from the past, any of them could’ve made the list. So, it’s important we separate the best from the rest. To do this, we follow the guidelines in the previous question. We look at what kind of processor the device has, the amount of memory, the size of the screen, and how much it costs. From there, the laptops are tested for quality. We run labor-intensive apps to how well they perform.
Once all that is done, we come to a consensus on what the best ones are and put them together on a list. It can be tricky at times to pick the winners, although some are a no-brainer.
Yes, of course. You can find solid gaming laptops that cost less than $1,000. However, keep in mind that you get what you pay for. Cheap gaming laptops aren’t exactly known for their power. They won’t have the same level of performance as a more expensive machine. If you’re a casual gamer or don’t care that much about having the best graphical performance possible, then a mid-ranger computer will provide a great experience.
If you are going to get a computer for gaming, you’re better off buying a proper desktop although those can be expensive.
Many of the laptops featured on this list came out in the last few years or so. You can save even more money by buying an older model, but there is a limit to how far you can go. At a certain point, it becomes detrimental to own an old machine because it’s so out of date. Windows 10, for example, is scheduled to receive its last official update on October 2025. You could keep your own Win 10 laptop past that date, but after a while, you’ll begin to experience performance degradation. It won’t be as fast plus you’d be less secure against new online threats.
We recommend keeping a laptop for five years before considering an upgrade.
It is definitely worth fixing your old laptop if you want to hold onto it. iFixit is an online retailer where you buy spare parts for multiple laptop brands, including Lenovo, Acer, and HP. Apple has its own repair service for MacBooks too.
Making repairs does require you to have a bit of technical knowledge. It’s not super difficult as these retailers offer step-by-step guides on how to fix hardware. However, repairs can be expensive, especially when it comes to Apple. Replacing the battery on the M2 MacBook Air costs an estimated $160.
No. Cheap laptops can have a build on par with higher-end models, if not better in certain cases. With this in mind, it’s important you take frequent care of your machine regardless of how much it costs. Under $1,000 is still pretty expensive and it would be a shame if your laptop stops working.
There are multiple things you can do to ensure a laptop’s longevity. For example, make sure it’s well-ventilated. Place your device on a desk or hard surface, and not on a pillow or something soft. Heat can get trapped on soft materials. We also recommend installing updates as they come. These patches often introduce new protections against malware or you can always get antivirus software.
Just about every major laptop manufacturer develops a mid-range laptop: Apple, HP, Acer, Dell, and so on. All of our favorites, and arguably, the best ones are here on this list.
The best touchscreen laptop is the HP Spectre x360. We recommend checking out its entry earlier in the list, but to give you a quick rundown on why we like it so much, the device comes with a stunning 2.8K OLED display, which is perfect for working on. What’s more, it has an IMAX-boosted sound system, making it ideal for watching movies. And it has a 9MP webcam, ensuring you look good in video calls.
We also recommend laptops from the Microsoft Surface Pro series. They didn’t make the list, but they’re still great picks. Surface Pro laptops come in a variety of different sizes and specs combinations. So much so, you’re bound to find the perfect one for you.
Absolutely. There are a ton of cheap laptops out there. We would’ve to have included more, but for the sake of brevity, we kept the list short. Down below are a few more choices from the big-name brands and more that are worth your consideration.
200メートル予選で最速の5人のうち4人が To Uzawa、 飯塚翔太、 Yudai Nishi そして Koki Ueyamaはパリの出場枠に入っており、3番目に速い選手とともに問題なく準決勝に進むはずだ。 Soshi Misakubo。
宇沢（筑波大学） – 20.23 SB / PB
飯塚翔太（ミズノ） – 20.27 SB / 20.11 PB
水久保 壮志（宮崎スポーツ協会） – 20.43 SB / PB
西 雄大 (ミント東京) – 20.43 SB / PB
上山 幸樹 (住友電工) – 20.43 SB / 20.26 PB
上本直樹（エースジャパン） – 20.48 SB / PB
宇野翔斗（オリコ） – 20.49 SB / PB
松井健斗（関西大学） – 20.60 SB / PB
山路 宏太朗 (サイネット) – 20.62 SB/PB
Aoto Suzuki (Sumitomo Denko) – 20.67 SB / PB
女子100m予選 / 準決勝 – 15:00 / 18:30
日本には女子100メートルでオリンピック出場を狙える選手はいないが、中堅選手同士の熱い対決が期待される。 Mei Kodama そして昨年の全国チャンピオン 君島亜里沙君島が決勝に進めなかったら驚きだが、児玉は10月に11.37秒と好成績を収めたが、2024年の成績については今のところやや疑問符がつく。
アドレスバーといえば、iOS および Android 向けの Chrome モバイル版でも、検索時に候補が表示されるようになります。検索内容に基づいて、Chrome のアドレスバーにその情報が表示されます。Google は、ユーザーが「スケジュール」という語句で検索すると、Chrome が地元の City Metro のスケジュールを提案し、ユーザーが希望する目的地に早く到着できるようにするという例を挙げています。この機能は、モバイル向け Chrome の今回のアップデートで利用できるようになります。
Google は以前から、モバイル ブラウザの Android 版でトレンド検索を表示する機能を提供してきました。最新のアップデートでは、iOS 版にトレンド検索が追加され、Apple デバイスの所有者は Google 検索で現在どのような人気検索が行われているのかをいつでも確認できるようになります。
