Apple MacBook Air (M2) wins big in the Creative Bloq Awards 2022

The Creative Bloq Awards 2022: a person types on a laptop
(Image credit: Future)

We kick-off the Creative Bloq Awards 2022 winners week with our first category, laptops. As you can imagine this was a heavily contested series of awards, with Apple, HP, Asus and other brands locking horns to win.

We have reviews and buying guides for most of the laptops and types in our awards this year, so if you see a winner you like either click through to read the deep-dive review or the related guide. Read our reviewing guide, how we test laptops, for a detailed explanation.

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With a larger screen, excellent battery life, and that new M2 processor for increased power and performance the Apple MacBook Air (M2) is everything a creative designer could want from a laptop. At 11mm thick and weighing 2.7 pounds, the MacBook Air (M2, 2022) is also thinner and lighter than its previous namesake. Our judges love this laptop, as it's a genuine improvement on what came before.

Read our Apple MacBook Air (M2) review.

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The Razer Blade 17 may look like the older version but beneath the deep black chassis is a powerhouse of a laptop that can do pretty much anything thanks to the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti and Intel Core i7 that lurk inside. Our judges voted the Razer Blade 17 the year's best gaming laptop but it could just as easily be used for game development. Powerful, versatile and sleek, the Razer Blade 17 is our gaming laptop of the year.

Read our Razer Blade 17 (2022) review

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When it comes to video editing Apple is a generally a stellar choice of laptop, and this year our judges voted the MacBook Pro 16-inch (2021) the best-of-the-best. This model gives you the largest screen space possible and in our reviewer's words, "colossal battery life". This model doesn't feature the new M2 chip, but it really doesn't matter, for the M1 Max chip is powerful too.

Read our MacBook Pro 16-inch (2021) review.

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The HP Elite Dragonfly 13.5 is a powerful, and some might say OTT Chromebook. But not us or our judges, who love the fact HP has gone all-in on this model. It packs an Intel i7 chip and can go up as much as 32GB of RAM. It may not sound much but for a Chromebook this is overkill and we love it. We also love the 13.5-inch Gorilla Glass touchscreen 4K screen, 512 GB SSD, and a tactile haptic touchpad. Chromebooks have come a long way, and HP's approach deserves your attention.

Read our guide to the best Chromebooks.

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The Asus Zenbook Pro 14 Duo OLED features two vibrant displays packed into one neat laptop, hence the name. While your main work can be undertaken on the top screen a slimmer second display hinges out from the keyboard and sits below it, and both run at a silky 120Hz. Some may bemoan the drain on the battery but our judges overlooked this in favour of the approachable nature of having two OLED displays, particularly for coding. Inside is Intel’s latest 12th-Gen CPU in hulking 14-core spec, a tidy Nvidia GPU, a super-fast SSD with a chunk of fast DDR5 memory – powerful and a unique design.

Read our Asus Zenbook Pro 14 Duo OLED review.

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Is it a laptop or a tablet? For the purposes of this award we've hedged toward the laptop use. Microsoft's Microsoft Surface Pro 8 features a large 13-inch QHD touchscreen and is powered by a 3.0GHz Intel Core i7 chip, ensuring you get plenty of power for full software such as Adobe Photoshop and a decent surface to draw on (there's a 120Hz screen model that's worth it). If you're after the usability of a tablet but want the power of a laptop, the Surface Pro 8 fits the bill.

Read our Microsoft Surface Pro 8 review.

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Editor, Digital Arts & 3D

Ian Dean is Editor, Digital Arts & 3D at Creative Bloq, and the former editor of many leading magazines. These titles included ImagineFX, 3D World and video game titles Play and Official PlayStation Magazine. Ian launched Xbox magazine X360 and edited PlayStation World. For Creative Bloq, Ian combines his experiences to bring the latest news on digital art, VFX and video games and tech, and in his spare time he doodles in Procreate, ArtRage, and Rebelle while finding time to play Xbox and PS5.