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

By Ian Dean
published

Apple joins Razer, HP and Asus by scooping awards in the Laptops category.

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.

There are more than 70 award categories this year from game design and gaming PCs to sewing machines and design software. The winners of the Creative Bloq Awards 2022 will be shared throughout this week, to catch up we have a schedule below.

  • MONDAY: Laptops and Tablets
  • TUESDAY: Crafting and Home Studio
  • WEDNESDAY: Gaming and Entertainment
  • THURSDAY: Software and Computing
  • FRIDAY: Cameras

Each of the laptop categories below was voted on by our team of judges, which includes the Creative Bloq team and hand-picked editors from our sister sites and magazines, including TechRadar and T3.com; experts in this field. For a full list of judges visit the Creative Bloq Awards 2022 website. Now, let's see which laptops have won.

Laptop of the year: Apple MacBook Air (M2)

Read our Apple MacBook Air (M2) review

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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Best laptop for gaming: Razer Blade 17

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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

Best laptop for video editing: MacBook Pro 16-inch (2021)

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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.

Best Chromebook: HP Elite Dragonfly 13.5

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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.

Best laptop for programming: Asus Zenbook Pro 14 Duo OLED

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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.

Best laptop for drawing: Microsoft Surface Pro 8

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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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Ian Dean
Ian Dean
Editor, Digital Arts & 3D

Ian Dean is Editor, Digital Arts & 3D at Creativebloq, and the former editor of many leading magazines. These titles included ImagineFX, 3D World and leading video game title Official PlayStation Magazine. In his early career he wrote for music and film magazines including Uncut and SFX. Ian launched Xbox magazine X360 and edited PlayStation World. For Creative Bloq, Ian combines his experiences to bring the latest news on AI, digital art and video game art and tech, and more to Creative Bloq, and in his spare time he doodles in Procreate, ArtRage, and Rebelle while finding time to play Xbox and PS5. He's also a keen Cricut user and laser cutter fan, and is currently crafting on Glowforge and xTools M1.

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