(Credit: Zain bin Awais/PCMag)
Which tech companies truly deliver the best products and services? It’s a question we wrestle with constantly here at PCMag. After all, for more than 40 years, our sole mission has been to help you find the right technology to fit your life.
Our writers and editors—seasoned experts with decades of combined experience—rigorously test hundreds of products and services every year, rating each one on a 1-to-5 scale. In the past year alone, we reviewed 1,267 products across 503 brands. Over the course of those 12 months, we also surveyed our tech-savvy readership multiple times to learn which tech companies you trust and recommend most. Those standout brands earn our coveted Readers' Choice award.
To bring you our definitive list of the year’s best tech brands, we combine our expert review data with real-world reader sentiment. The result is our exclusive annual ranking of the top technology companies.
Our full methodology is provided below, but here's the condensed version: We analyze each brand’s Net Promoter Score (NPS) from our reader surveys and average it with the company's review ratings from the previous year. That review score is converted to a 100-point scale to match the NPS, and the two figures are added together to create our Best Brands Index (BBI)—a proprietary score that lets us rank companies with a level of precision that only PCMag can.
The 25 brands with the highest BBI scores earn a spot on this year’s list—representing just 5% of all the brands we reviewed last year. Six companies—AMD, Anker, BenQ, Eufy, HP, and OnePlus—make their debut in 2026. Many others return from previous years, while an elite group—Alienware, Apple, Bitdefender, Corsair, Google, Logitech, Malwarebytes, Microsoft, Nvidia, Razer, Samsung, and Sony—have now landed in our Top 25 for three consecutive years.
Each winning company, listed below, is accompanied by our expert insights explaining what sets it apart and why it continues to earn our trust.
If you’re shopping for technology in 2026, these are the brands that deserve your attention.
25. Lenovo
(Credit: PCMag/Lenovo)Lenovo, one of the biggest PC sellers in the US, returns to the Best Brands top 25 for the first time in two years. PCMag covered a whopping 27 Lenovo products in reviews in 2025. Eight of them have an Editors’ Choice award, the top accolade we grant in our labs testing.
Fifteen score 4 stars (“excellent”) or higher. The two that did even better? The 4.5-star ThinkVision M14t Gen 2 portable monitor and the 5-star ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition laptop, which our reviewer deemed “simply superlative.” The latter was also one of our Best Products of 2025.
Lenovo also has a strong NPS average, largely driven by reader recommendations for its gaming desktop systems in our surveys.
What Our PC Expert Says: “A lot of laptop makers make great machines that earn high scores and awards, but Lenovo has consistently shown that they make the best of the best,” says Brian Westover, PCMag’s principal hardware writer. “2025's Aura Edition systems (the result of a collaboration between Lenovo and Intel) yielded multiple Editors' Choice winners, like the Lenovo ThinkPad X9 14 and the Lenovo Yoga 9i Gen 10, but the real standout was the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition. We called it 'the world's best laptop,' and we stand by that."
24. HP
(Credit: PCMag/HP)This is HP's debut in the Best Brands list via BBI criteria. It’s HP's reviews—of PC systems of all types, as well as printers, scanners, and peripherals—that cement its status as a Best Brand.
Across 20 reviews at PCMag in 2025, HP has a trio of products that merit 4.5 stars; those three, along with four other products, earn Editors’ Choice awards. Of those seven, three also made it onto our Best Products of 2025 list: the HP OmniStudio X 31.5 AIO desktop, the ZBook Power 16 G11 A laptop, and the Series 7 Pro 34-inch WQHD Conferencing Monitor (734pm).
What Our PC Expert Says: “HP has always been a solid brand, but the company has really stepped things up in the last year,” Westover says. “The company's laptop offerings now rival top competitors and are delivering value in a way we love to see, with great build quality, polished features, and superb performance, especially for business and workstation models.”
23. Eufy
(Credit: PCMag/Eufy)Eufy, which is owned by Anker (see below) but marketed under a separate label, is completely new to the Best Brands list. Like its parent, it encompasses a wide range of products. In fact, our Eufy reviews range from a vacuum cleaner to a robot mower. However, it’s the Eufy E340 Floodlight Camera, featuring mechanical pan and tilt for sweeping surveillance, that buoys the brand with its 4.5-star rating and an Editors’ Choice award. (The FamiLock S3 Max smart lock also earned an Editors’ Choice.)
What Our Consumer Electronics Expert Says: “Eufy designs devices to make your home smarter,” says PCMag’s mobile writer, Iyaz Akhtar. “Setup is usually straightforward, so you’re up and running quickly, and the companion mobile apps put plenty of controls at your fingertips.”
22. Alienware
(Credit: PCMag/Alienware)The Dell brand Alienware has now been on this list three times. All seven of the Alienware products PCMag reviewed last year received 4-star ratings, including the marquee Area-51 (2025) desktop, the sturdy, midrange 16X Aurora laptop (“a solid all-around laptop packing a GPU that can power modern mainstream gaming experiences”), and the company’s two Editors’ Choice products, both monitors: the Alienware 25 320Hz (AW2525HM) and the Alienware 27 280Hz (AW2725D).
(Wondering where Dell is on this list? It didn’t quite make it, as its BBI score places it at number 26.)
What Our PC Experts Say: “As OLED-clad gaming monitors become commonplace, no one is excelling quite like Alienware,” says PCMag writer Zackery Cuevas. “The Alienware 27 280Hz (AW2725D), for example, brings the exceptional color and contrast of an OLED panel to a reasonable price.”
Matthew Buzzi, PCMag’s principal writer covering hardware and gaming, adds, "Though most come at a premium, Alienware consistently produces well-rated laptops and desktops. They're highly configurable and perform better than most. We particularly like the Area-51 desktop and 16X Aurora."
21. Microsoft
(Credit: PCMag/Microsoft)As it has in the past, Microsoft fares well in our reviews from 2025, winning five Editors’ Choice awards across 13 products and services. Our top Microsoft reviews include 4.5 ratings for OneNote, Microsoft 365 (personal and business), and Windows 11 with integrated Copilot. Microsoft also appears in multiple Readers' Choice survey results, achieving NPS ratings in the 50-60 range.
What Our Software Expert Says: Microsoft’s AI offering “ushers in the age of generative artificial intelligence on the desktop,” says PCMag's principal writer for software, Michael Muchmore. (Copilot itself didn’t earn an Editors' Choice, but it does have an excellent 4-star rating.)
20. Roku
(Credit: PCMag/Roku)You might think of Roku, which makes the Best Brands list for the second time, as a platform for watching streaming video. But it’s also a prolific hardware manufacturer, putting out streaming hubs, soundbars, and even TVs. One of those TVs, the Roku 65-Inch Pro Series Mini-LED TV (2025), got an Editors’ Choice award for being the “best Roku TV we’ve tested." (It's also a great value.) Roku also earned a high NPS score of 67 from our streaming devices survey.
What Our TV Expert Says: “I often recommend Roku to older and less tech-savvy users because it’s so accessible,” says Will Greenwald, PCMag principal writer. “Its interface is simpler and much more direct than most other media streamers and smart TV platforms, thanks to big, clear tiles that jump straight into apps without wading through endless recommendations for things to watch. That means a lot for ease of use.”
19. BenQ
(Credit: PCMag/BenQ)We welcome BenQ, maker of monitors and projectors, to the Best Brands list for the first time. It appears here mainly because of our love for the BenQ GW2486TC, a highly affordable display. Our review awards that Eye-Care monitor a 4.5-star Editors’ Choice.
What Our Monitor Expert Says: “Not only has BenQ produced some of the finest graphic arts monitors we have encountered, but they also excel at the other end of the price spectrum,” says Tony Hoffman, PCMag senior writer. "Their GW2486TC, which is good for small office, home office, or personal use, breaks new ground in a sub-$200 display. With it, you get a stand with a full complement of ergonomic features, and a much wider range of ports than is usual in a budget monitor. Its 100Hz refresh rate should appeal to both casual gamers and game designers.”
18. Sony
(Credit: PCMag/Sony)Sony, which produces a wide array of tech devices, has appeared in the top 25 Best Brands list for three consecutive years; this go-round, it’s four places higher than last time. Its NPS scores are high, particularly for its headphones.
Out of 17 Sony products reviewed in 2025, three have an Editors’ Choice. One of those winners, the active noise-cancelling, foldable Sony WH-1000XM6 headphones, got a 4.5-star rating and is one of our Best Products of 2025. Another highlight: the Sony FE 16mm F1.8 G wide-angle lens.
What Our Camera Expert Says: “Sony's mirrorless cameras are among the best we've reviewed, and work with the widest selection of lenses of any brand,” says PCMag's lead camera writer Jim Fisher. “2025 saw the release of the a7 V, a do-it-all for shutterbugs and pros that wowed us with its picture quality and autofocus, and the FE 50-150mm F2 GM earned a Technical Excellence award as the first full-frame telezoom with F2 optics. These were just a couple of additions to its already strong camera portfolio.”
17. Razer
(Credit: PCMag/Razer)Up from number 21 last year, Razer owes its improved spot in large part to mice. We reviewed four of its gaming mice last year and gave all of them 4.5-star Editor’s Choice awards. We also gave a 4.5-star Editors' Choice and a Best Product of the Year award to the Razer Blade 14 (2025), which our reviewer calls “a prime portable gaming laptop with an unmatched build, long battery life, frame-rate muscle, and a 3K OLED display that dazzles.”
The Razer Blackshark V3 Pro gaming headset, which our reviewer says “delivers excellent audio quality, cancels out noise, and has a clear-sounding, convenient microphone,” also snags a 4.5-star Editors' Choice award.
What Our Peripheral and PC Experts Say: “Razer still delivers the goods when it comes to peripherals like mice, which are often feature-rich and competition-ready," PCMag's Cuevas says. "The Razer DeathAdder V4 Pro is one such example, but even the brand's productivity-focused mice, like the Razer Pro Click V2, rival the best on the market. They’re expensive, no doubt, but oftentimes, they're more than worth the money."
“Razer is leading across a few product categories right now,” Buzzi adds. “Though expensive, the Razer Blade 14 was one of my favorite laptops in 2025 for its sleek style and capable gaming performance in a super-portable package.”
16. Nvidia
(Credit: PCMag/Nvidia)Last year’s number one, Nvidia, still soars—it will likely surpass Alphabet as the most profitable company in the world this year. Although the brand is associated with AI, our primary focus is on what Nvidia brings to the world of graphics. We reviewed three of its cards in 2025, awarding the GeForce RTX 5080 Founders Edition a 4.5-star Editors' Choice.
Ten months after that review, Michael Sexton, PCMag’s senior writer covering PC components, conducted a follow-up, in which he hailed the 5080 as "the best graphics card of this generation.” Readers likewise give both Nvidia graphics cards and its graphics chips high NPS ratings.
What Our Graphics Card Expert Says: "Nvidia has shown that its drive to create the most powerful graphics cards and AI accelerators knows no bounds,” says Sexton today. “The company's top-of-the-line Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 is unrivaled but also too expensive to be a serious option for most gamers, leaving the company's second-most-powerful card, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080, as its best graphics card for gamers. Backed up with potent AI hardware and features like DLSS upscaling and frame generation technology, these graphics cards offer exceptional performance for running any modern game."
15. Anker
(Credit: PCMag/Anker)Anker’s name appears on a wide range of products, including charging devices, cables, and related accessories. However, it also markets items such as security cameras, vacuums, and scales under the Eufy moniker (see above).
Our 2025 reviews and surveys specifically covered Anker entries in the audio and video projector spaces. Two of its Nebula line won Editors’ Choice awards this year, in fact. Reviewer M. David Stone calls the 4.5-star Anker Nebula X1 “arguably the most ambitious room-to-room projector we've seen” and the top premium pick for portability. Meanwhile, Anker Soundcore headphones won the Readers’ Choice award for best value.
What Our Consumer Electronics Expert Says: “Anker builds affordable products that punch above their price class,” says PCMag's Akhtar. “From cables to projectors, its lineup shares solid construction and dependable performance.”
14. Corsair
(Credit: PCMag/Corsair)Arguably the favorite brand among PCMag’s massive do-it-yourself PC builder audience, Corsair makes its third appearance on this list, thanks to a mix of high reviews (last year it had only one 4.5-star score; this year it has three) and elevated NPS ratings on its cases and peripherals. In our reviews, it did particularly well with the Corsair One i600 desktop PC (“an impressive gaming PC that justifies its premium price.”)
Many of our Corsair reviews were for PC cases, with the innovative Air 5400 (”simply the coolest PC case in recent memory”) rated the best. Naturally, readers in our PC components survey gave Corsair a high NPS rating.
What Our DIY PC Expert Says: “Corsair’s an interesting mix these days,” says executive editor and PC Labs director John Burek. “It’s grown well beyond being just a PC DIY brand. With its acquisition of companies like Origin PC, Elgato, Drop, Fanatec, and SCUF, Corsair now has a mega-footprint in PC enthusiast spaces across the field, from PC prebuilds to game controllers to streamer gear. It’s become something of a quiet behemoth.”
13. Samsung
(Credit: PCMag/Samsung)Samsung was the third-most-reviewed brand on PCMag in 2025—we went deep on 24 of its products, from PCs to TVs to storage. Of course, mobile phones account for the bulk of coverage. Two Samsung phones—the Galaxy S25 Ultra (“the ultimate Android handset”) and the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 (“the best folding phone you can buy, bar none”) have 4.5-star ratings. The premium-priced Galaxy Chromebook Plus laptop also nets a 4.5.
Those are just three of the company’s 10 Editors’ Choice award winners, some of which also made our Best Products of the Year list. Twenty-one of our Samsung reviews have a rating of 4 stars or better. Meanwhile, Samsung’s NPS scores were almost uniformly excellent, with particularly high reader ratings for its storage and business tablets.
What Our PC and Mobile Experts Say: “Samsung might be better known for phones and TVs, but the few laptops that the company makes are nothing to sneeze at,” PCMag's Westover says. “We really love the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus, because it elevates the humble Chromebook with better build quality, a gorgeous AMOLED display, and snappy performance. And to deliver that premium experience without a hugely inflated price is an accomplishment all its own.”
“Samsung offers a phone for nearly every kind of user,” Akhtar adds. “Whether you need a standard slab, a rugged handset, or a phone that unfolds into a tablet, Samsung has you covered. The company gradually brings flagship features to lower-cost models, so even its inexpensive phones deliver more than you’d expect.”
12. Malwarebytes
(Credit: PCMag/Malwarebytes)Malwarebytes makes its third appearance as a Best Brand under the current methodology and has the year's best average NPS score, at 83.40. (Last year, it had the second-highest NPS, after Toyota). But NPS alone can’t put a brand in our list—you need excellent reviews, too. Our security reviewer, Neil J. Rubenking, found plenty to be happy about in his assessments of the company's products in 2025. For example, Malwarebytes Premium adds real-time "multi-layered detection that eradicates most malware" to the stellar stopping power you get on-demand in the free edition, according to Rubenking.
What Our Security Expert Says: “If your antivirus fails, and it don’t look good, who ya gonna call?” Rubenking asks. "The answer: Malwarebytes. Even tech support agents from competitors have instructed me to use it. The product line has grown, culminating in a powerful security suite with VPN and identity protection, but the Malwarebytes Free cleanup tool remains the go-to exterminator for persistent malware.”
11. MSI
(Credit: PCMag/MSI)MSI was missing from the Best Brands list last year, even though gaming-loving PCMag readers taking our surveys adore it. This time around, our audience gives the brand high NPS ratings for laptops and game systems in particular. PCMag's writers hand MSI products high marks, with laptops like the budget-conscious MSI Katana 15 HX and the enormous Raider 18 HX AI earning Editors’ Choice awards. We also give 4-star ratings to two MSI monitors, a motherboard, and a PC case.
What Our Gaming PC Expert Says: “MSI has been doing well across a number of categories for a while now,” Buzzi says. “The Katana 15 was one of our favorite affordable gaming laptops last year, while MSI also produces high-end alternatives. Even newer device types, such as its gaming handheld, the Claw, have shown improvement year-over-year.”
10. LG
(Credit: PCMag/LG )LG’s finish in the top 10 is quite the comeback story, seeing as it didn’t make the top 25 Best Brands list last year. Of the eight LG products we reviewed in 2025, five received an Editors’ Choice award. The best of the lot are the 4.5-star Evo C5 and EV G5 OLED series. We also gave exemplary reviews to LG Gram laptops and UltraGear OLED monitors.
LG did well with NPS ratings, appearing in surveys for TVs, monitors, and even home kitchen appliances. However, it truly shines for its high NPS for home laptops. After all, LG took home our Readers’ Choice award as top laptop brand overall last year.
What Our TV and Laptop Experts Say: “LG was one of the first big names in widely accessible OLED TVs, and it's stayed around the top in terms of quality and value,” Greenwald says. “Its C series in particular has been a consistently excellent OLED TV, and I've often recommended it to anyone who wants the benefits of an OLED but doesn't necessarily want to spend $3,000 on a flagship model.”
“LG's footprint in the laptop space is small, with just a single product line, the LG Gram,” Westover adds. “But that dedication to lightweight premium design and solid performance earns them high praise. Their laptops are easily overlooked, but they punch above their weight in terms of portable performance and premium designs.”
9. OnePlus
(Credit: PCMag/OnePlus)The last time China's OnePlus made this list, in 2021, we still relied solely on NPS scores. This year, in addition to a nice 67.0 NPS average (from our smartphone survey), we factor in five reviews, all 4 stars. Standouts include the spiffy and impressive OnePlus 13, the affordable “battery beast” OnePlus 15, and the brand’s latest smartwatch, the OnePlus Watch 3.
What Our Mobile Expert Says: “For Android fans unhappy with Samsung or Google, OnePlus is a great alternative,” Akhtar says. “Its hardware is high-end, and the company packs in huge batteries for long battery life. OnePlus’ watches are deeply integrated with its phones, which makes things easy if you live in the OnePlus ecosystem.”
8. Asus
(Credit: PCMag/Asus)We ran 27 Asus reviews in the past year for products including peripherals, laptops, desktops, monitors, graphics cards, mesh routers, and even a handheld game console, the Editors’ Choice-winning ROG Xbox Ally X. The brand's highest-rated (4.5 stars) products include the mini-desktop powerhouse ROG NUC (2025) and the ProArt PX13 laptop (“a screaming-fast compact convertible for demanding creative apps”). The company’s NPS scores were very high, in particular for its routers and graphics cards. All of which adds up to a four-slot jump up the list for the Taiwan-based company.
What Our Hardware Expert Says: “Asus has proved a reliable name in our buying guides for the best laptops, desktops, and monitors for years,” PCMag hardware deputy managing editor Joe Osborne says. “The brand has often topped our list of the best laptops overall with its Zenbook series of mainstream notebooks. Plus, Asus’s ProArt series has challenged serious content creation machines, including Apple’s MacBook Pro laptops and Microsoft’s Surface Pro tablets.”
7. Hisense
(Credit: PCMag/Hisense)Hisense moves up four notches from last year, cracking the top 10. The company only placed once in our Readers’ Choice surveys (for TVs), but no matter. Across six reviews last year on PCMag, it received high scores for its display technology, specifically projectors and TVs. Half of those reviews earn 4.5 stars. Most notable are the Hisense C2 Ultra projector—one of our Best Products of 2025—and the colorful, yet budget-friendly 65U65QF TV. Like last year, Hisense is ahead of any other large-TV maker on the list.
What Our TV Expert Says: “Hisense has been consistently putting out excellent TVs for very good prices, and making some advances in the technical field as well,” Greenwald says. “Its U6 line is regularly a top budget pick, and in 2025, it especially impressed me for pushing past a major brightness threshold (1,000 nits) that similarly priced TVs have never really come close to. Both it and the higher-end U8 line are perennial favorites for the values they offer.”
6. Apple
(Credit: PCMag/Apple)Apple remains in exactly the same spot it held in 2025. It ties with Lenovo and Asus as the most-reviewed brand at PCMag this past year—all three companies have 27 reviews for their products and services—but only Apple can claim more than half (14) earned an Editors’ Choice. Six of its products achieve a 4.5 rating, including the iPhone 17 (“best iPhone for the money and our top pick”) and the Mac Studio (2025, M4 Max). In addition, one product, the AirPods Pro 3, has an exemplary 5-star score thanks to “innovative new features that push the best AirPods closer to perfection.”
Apple is also the most frequently rated company in our numerous surveys, with a total of 23 NPS ratings averaging a decent 64.5. Readers hold Apple in especially high regard for its payment services, music streaming, and desktops and laptops.
What Our PC Expert Says: “Apple keeps showing up on our top brand lists again and again for one simple reason: The company is absolutely obsessed with improving its products,” Westover says. “Whether it's the Mac Studio desktop or the latest MacBook Pro, the blend of immaculate design, tight hardware and software integration, and chips that deliver big leaps in performance year after year, it's always a safe bet to assume that the newest Mac is the best one Apple has ever made.”
5. Logitech
(Credit: PCMag/Logitech)Logitech’s third appearance in Best Brands under our current setup shows a steady climb. Its BBI score has increased two years in a row, and the PC peripherals maker scored well with readers who recommend its mice and keyboards. Also, our audience loves Logitech as an online retailer; it won our Readers’ Choice award for best manufacturer online store in our Rate the Tech Retailers survey.
We only had a handful of Logitech product reviews appear on the site last year, but more than enough for inclusion. One of them—the Logitech MX Master 4 mouse—rates a perfect 5 stars.
What Our PC Peripherals Expert Says: “Logitech is easily the most reliable brand when it comes to productivity," Cuevas says. "Logitech gear is well-designed—that much is clear by just looking at it—but the brand's power really comes from how accessible and versatile Logi Options is. Logitech’s compatibility with other operating systems, including macOS and Linux, also makes it an easy recommendation.”
4. Google
(Credit: PCMag/Google)We reviewed Google products and services—everything from doorbells to AI chatbots to security keys—16 times in the past 12 months. Seven of those products are Editors’ Choice winners, including Google Maps (“the gold standard for navigation apps”) and the Google Pixel 9a smartphone (“the best midrange Android phone you can buy”), both of which have 4.5 stars. Google earned incredibly high NPS ratings for its GFiber ISP service in our broadband survey. All of which adds up to Google’s best placement yet on PCMag’s Best Brands list.
What Our Mobile Expert Says: “Google Pixel phones offer spectacular photography thanks to a combination of good hardware and stellar software,” Akhtar says. “Features like Magic Eraser clean up images, while Best Take ensures perfect group photos. On top of that, Google made these features easy to use! The Pixel 10 Pro, complete with those integrated AI tools, is one of the best phones made today.”
3. Bose
(Credit: PCMag/Bose)For Bose’s second appearance in the Best Brands top 25, it makes a massive leap forward, shooting from number 21 to number three. That’s because Bose was all over our Readers’ Choice survey on headphones and speakers. Its NPS average of 68.3, based on 10 ratings, is amazing.
Bose reviews this year were also quite good, with all four reviewed products scoring 4.0 or higher. The Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen) earned a 4.5-star Editors’ Choice review ("Bose remains the champion of noise-cancelling earphones"), which helps maintain the brand's high ranking.
What Our Audio Expert Says: "Bose continued to release strong audio products throughout 2025, with earphones, headphones, and speakers all earning high marks from PCMag's reviewers," says managing editor Eric Zeman. "The QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen) are particularly impressive for their world-class noise cancellation and improved audio when compared with the first-gen product. People who love audio will also love many of the products Bose makes and enjoy their stellar performance for years to come."
2. Bitdefender
(Credit: PCMag/Bitdefender)Bitdefender remains one of our (and your) absolute favorite companies for PC security. Across six NPS scores, earned in our surveys on antivirus and security suites, plus seven reviews at PCMag (five of them have 4.5 stars, and three of those are Editors' Choice winners), the security stalwart maintains a high level of quality. Landing squarely in second place again this year (two years ago, it was number one), Bitdefender is among the most consistent of the best brands we’ve covered. If you’re looking to buy a security suite, our experts and readers agree: Bitdefender should be your top choice.
What Our Expert Expert Says: “At every level, from standalone antivirus app to massive security suite to identity theft remediation service, Bitdefender shines like a beacon of hope and security,” Rubenking says. “Five current Bitdefender products—beyond what we reviewed just in 2025—have earned our Editors’ Choice honor, more than any other security company. In fact, Bitdefender is what I use to protect my own devices.”
1. AMD
(Credit: PCMag/AMD)AMD didn’t make our rankings for the past two years, but this time around it leads our list. That's because 2025 was a truly great year for AMD. Two of the three Ryzen chips we reviewed (the 16-core Ryzen 9 9950X3D and the 64-core Ryzen Threadripper 9980X) earn 4.5-star ratings, helping AMD amass the highest review index average in our top 25. The brand also has outstanding reader recommendations from our PC components survey—AMD CPUs, in particular, dazzle with an NPS of 82.
For AMD, it isn't about quantity—the company has just enough reviews and survey responses to qualify for our ranking. These results are entirely about quality.
What Our CPU Expert Says: "The direction AMD has taken its CPU designs has lead to some notable performance enhancements, particularly in gaming, and at a time when AMD's leading competitor in this space, Intel, has been facing difficulties with its own processors," Sexton says. "The introduction of a new architecture has been particularly impactful, and helped to boost gaming performance, making the processors that support favorites in the esports community."
Honorable Mention: Bambu Lab (Highest Review Rating Average)
(Credit: PCMag/Bambu Lab)We note above that AMD has the highest average review rating among the top 25. That’s because another brand has an even higher average review rating overall—a 4.5. That company is Bambu Lab, maker of 3D printers so excellent that all three we reviewed in 2025 merit Editors’ Choice awards. The mainstream multi-color A1 got 4 stars, the large-format pro-level H2S earned 4.5, and the consumer P2S (“the new benchmark for mainstream 3D printing”) nailed a perfect score of 5 and took home a Best Products of 2025 award.
What Our 3D Printer Expert Says: “Since launching its X1 Carbon (X1C) less than four years ago, Bambu Lab, based in Shenzhen, China, has changed the landscape of filament-based 3D printing by introducing a series of exemplary machines for users at different levels,” Hoffman says. “Bambu printers are reasonably priced for what they offer and are well-designed, feature-rich, reliable, easy-to-use, and capable of excellent print quality.”
Honorable Mention: Toyota (Highest NPS Average)
(Credit: PCMag/Toyota)Like last year, Toyota makes the list via an honorable mention, thanks to incredibly high NPS numbers from our survey of electrified cars. When averaged, Toyota does not have the highest NPS in the list—that honor goes to Malwarebytes, above—but it has the highest without any accompanying reviews. Across its plug-in and standard hybrids, the maker of the Prius scores a set of NPSs that any other brand would covet. It's one of the many reasons why Toyota is also our Readers’ Choice brand for hybrids for the second year in a row.
What Our Electric Vehicle Expert Says: “Toyota was one of the first to offer a hybrid with the Prius, and it has since expanded to over 15 models, including trucks, sedans, and SUVs like the popular Rav-4," says PCMag senior reporter Emily Forlini. "A few years ago, the Japanese automaker decided to lean into hybrids, rather than pure EVs, and the bet is paying off in the US market."
The Full Best Brands List
Below is a searchable list of the 25 Best Brands for 2025. Each line indicates the average NPS and average review score after conversion to a 1-to-100 scale. The complete methodology is below.
(Credit: Zain bin Awais/ShutterStock)What Is a Net Promoter Score (NPS)?
When asked, "How likely is it that you would recommend this company to a friend or colleague?" survey respondents click on a scale of 0 ("Not at All Likely") to 10 ("Extremely Likely"). Their answer categorizes them as Promoter, Passive, or Detractor:
- Promoters (score 9 or 10): Loyal enthusiasts who will continue to buy from and refer others to the brand. They are extremely likely to recommend getting more products or services from the vendor.
- Passives (score 7 or 8): Satisfied but unenthusiastic customers who are vulnerable to competitive offerings. They probably don't care about the company one way or the other.
- Detractors (score 0 to 6): Unhappy customers who can damage the brand and impede growth through negative word of mouth. These people are unlikely to recommend the company.
Passives are ignored. The Net Promoter Score is determined by subtracting the Detractors percentage from the Promoters percentage.
If a brand has numerous detractors, its score can be a negative number—an NPS of less than zero. Note that a final Net Promoter Score is not a percentage: It's a score between -100 (possible if every rating is a Detractor) and +100.
NPS has plenty of critics. Some say the information gleaned from an NPS is not actionable. A company can't actually "use" its NPS rating to improve itself, except by "trying harder," without really knowing what people didn't like in the first place. But a company that sees its NPS increase over time can infer that it's doing something right. Those with high NPS numbers—the kind represented in this story—are the companies with whom you want to do business.
Net Promoter®, NPS®, NPS Prism®, Net Promoter System®, and the NPS-related emoticons are registered trademarks of Bain & Company, Inc., NICE Systems, Inc., and Fred Reichheld. Net Promoter Score™ is a service mark of Bain & Company, Inc., NICE Systems, Inc., and Fred Reichheld.
How We Determine the Best Brands Ranking
First, we compile a list of all the Net Promoter Scores earned in our 2025 Readers' Choice and Business Choice surveys. Some vendors achieve several Net Promoter Scores above 50 over the course of a year (Apple, for example), while others have only one or two. We average the collective NPS ratings at or above 50. We remove any score below 50—the creators of NPS call scores 50 or higher “excellent” and anything above 80 “world-class.”
Next, we collate a list of all the products reviewed on PCMag last year (between Dec. 20, 2024, and Dec. 26, 2025). All reviewed products are rated on a scale of 1 to 5. We discard any previews without ratings and any duplicate reviews when products are updated more than once in the year, using only the final score awarded. We also delete reviews based on testing another similar, but different SKU model, typically found in our TV coverage, to avoid artificially inflating a brand’s review rating. We then narrow the list to only brands with three or more reviews during the year. We average each company's ratings across all its reviews, and convert the average review rating to an index ranging from 1 to 100. Every review rating gets assigned a corresponding value.
We add the converted review rating index to the average NPS to create our Best Brands Index (BBI), which can reach 200. The top 25 companies with the highest BBI comprise our Best Tech Brands list.