If you're looking for a laptop for work, your best bet is an ultraportable that's easy to carry around with a battery that lasts long enough to get you through the day. You'd also want to look at the display, keyboard, touchpad, and webcam quality, as they can significantly impact the overall user experience. A wide port selection will allow you to connect multiple peripherals or external displays without needing a separate dock. Of course, you'd want enough processing power to handle your tasks. We've compiled a list of recommendations to help you with your purchasing decision, including options for different operating systems and form factors so you can find the laptop to suit your needs.
We've tested over 115 laptops, and below, you'll find our recommendations for the best business laptops you can buy. See our recommendations for the best laptops, the best lightweight laptops, and the best laptops for graphic design.
The best work laptop we've tested is the HP Spectre x360 14 (2024). This premium 2-in-1 laptop features a sturdy all-aluminum chassis with a thin and light design, which makes it a great choice for those who travel a lot. Using Intel's new Meteor Lake processors, light productivity tasks like text processing, web browsing, spreadsheets, and presentations are a breeze, and its NPU (Neural Processing Unit) accelerates AI features like Windows' Copilot. Battery life is excellent, so you don't need to worry about charging it throughout the workday; you can charge it over USB-C, giving you the freedom to use a wide range of compatible chargers.
The overall user experience is great. You get a sharp 2.8K OLED display with touch and pen input, an excellent haptic touchpad, and a 4k webcam. A fingerprint sensor and facial recognition camera are also included for quick logins. Port selection is decent, including one USB-A and two USB-C/Thunderbolt 4s, so you can transfer files quickly and connect multiple peripherals and external displays. There's also support for Wi-Fi 7. Unfortunately, the RAM isn't user-replaceable, so make sure you get enough for your needs upfront. Lastly, remember that OLEDs are susceptible to permanent burn-in, and their flickering can be bothersome to some.
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For a more modest mid-range model, check out the Lenovo Yoga 7i 16 (2023), a well-built 2-in-1 convertible. This laptop sports a large 16-inch display, so you get plenty of room for split-screen multitasking, and since it's a 2-in-1, you can flip the screen around and use it as a tablet. You can choose between an FHD+ or QHD+ panel; we recommend the latter, as it looks sharper and gets brighter to combat glare. There's pen input support, but depending on the model, you may need to buy the stylus separately.
The keyboard feels comfortable to type on for extended periods. It also includes a numpad, which is handy for those working with lots of numbers. Battery life is excellent at around 12 hours of light use, so you can easily get through a typical workday with plenty of charge to spare. Biometrics include a fingerprint sensor and a facial recognition camera. Our main complaint is that the webcam image has an unnatural tint, and the microphone picks up some background noise. You can get this laptop directly from Lenovo if you have trouble finding it elsewhere.
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Our budget pick is the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i 15 (2023). This 15-inch ultraportable is available with various Intel 13th Gen CPUs, from a Core i3 to i7, and up to 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. The Intel CPUs are low-power processors, so while they can handle light productivity tasks like text processing and spreadsheets, don't expect to do anything super intensive. It has a comfortable full-size keyboard with a numpad, a small but responsive touchpad, and a surprisingly good 720p webcam. There's a fingerprint sensor built into the power button for quick logins.
The biggest drawbacks compared to the models above are the quality of the available displays and battery life. The displays are noticeably dimmer and look washed out, and the battery lasts less than seven hours of light use, so you'll need to plug the laptop in to get through a typical workday. Ports include two USB-As, a USB-C, an HDMI, and an SD card reader. The USB-C supports video output and charging but not Thunderbolt 4, which is unfortunate but expected for a budget-friendly model.
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If you want to spend as little as possible, get the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i Chromebook 14 (2023). This simple 14-inch Chromebook is a great option for younger students or anyone needing a simple device to do light work like responding to emails, text processing, spreadsheets, and video playback. The Core i3 configuration (paired with a FHD touch-sensitive display, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage) is often on sale for around $400 directly from Lenovo. There are cheaper configurations; however, we don't recommend them unless you have an extremely light workload and don't mind compromising on the display quality.
The touch-sensitive FHD display gets bright enough for well-lit settings and is reasonably color-accurate. Above the display sits an excellent 1080p webcam, so your colleagues and clients can see and hear you clearly on video calls. The keyboard feels spacious but a tad mushy, and the touchpad is small and not always responsive. For those new to Chrome OS, know that this operating system is limited in the type of applications you can install, so you must ensure you can do everything through a Chrome browser or Android app.
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Although Windows is the most used operating system in the corporate business world, some of you may prefer or have the option to use a MacBook, especially in this remote work era. If so, we recommend the Apple MacBook Air 15 (2024), one of the best laptops we've tested for business and personal use. This laptop is an incredibly well-built ultraportable that comes with Apple's M3 silicon; its performance is excellent for most productivity tasks, including some light photo or video editing. Its 15-inch display gives you plenty of room for split-screen multitasking and gets bright enough to combat glare, even outdoors in broad daylight. It also features best-in-class battery life, so you can comfortably get through a full workday on a single charge.
The user experience is great. The keyboard feels spacious and tactile, and the touchpad is large and responsive. You get an excellent 1080p webcam, so your colleagues can see and hear you clearly on video calls. Port selection is the major pain point here, as you only get two USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 ports; while you can use these to connect to two external monitors, this only works if the lid is closed. If you plan to use an external monitor with the laptop closed or prefer a more compact device for on-the-go use, you can get the Apple MacBook Air 13 (2024). It's cheaper, but the speakers don't sound as good. Unlike the 15-inch model, Apple still sells the Apple MacBook Air 13 (2022) with the M2 SoC as a budget-friendly option, coming in $100 USD cheaper than the 2024 model.
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For people needing to do a bit of everything, including graphic design, photo editing, and maybe even making short videos for their website, we recommend the Apple MacBook Pro 14 (M3, 2023), one of the best laptops for small business use that we've tested. This 14-inch workstation sports a gorgeous, color-accurate Mini-LED display and comes with Apple's M3 Pro and Max SoCs that are ideal for demanding work tasks. You get the same niceties as the Apple MacBook Air 15 (2024) above, like the keyboard, touchpad, and webcam, but you also get a much better selection of ports for peripherals and external displays. The feature-rich MacBook Pro 14 is easily one of the best laptops for small business owners.
If you prefer Windows, get the HP OMEN Transcend 14 (2024) instead. While this 14-inch laptop can't match the build quality or user experience of the MacBook Pro, its lower price and versatility as a workstation that's also great for gaming make it one of the best laptops we've tested for business and personal use. Its 2.8k OLED display has full DCI P3 coverage, making it appropriate for color correction tasks. While the display is certainly bright enough for most indoor settings, the MacBook's Mini-LED display gets much brighter. The port selection is great, including with one USB-C, one Thunderbolt 4, and one HDMI 2.1 port. Unfortunately, you can only get up to 32GB of soldered RAM, which might not be enough for some workloads. Finally, the webcam is mediocre, as the image looks soft and overexposed with an unnaturally warm tint.
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If you like the 2-in-1 tablet form factor, get the Microsoft Surface Pro 8 (2021), one of the best laptops for business and personal use we've tested. You can detach the keyboard to save space when consuming media or make the device easier to hold, and the built-in kickstand lets you tilt the screen to an almost flat position to take notes or draw with a stylus. It works with Microsoft's Slim Pen 2, though any Microsoft Pen Protocol stylus will work. The Slim Pen 2 supports 4096 levels of pressure sensitivity and tilt, making it suitable for digital artists and creators, and it even has a haptic engine that simulates the feel of writing or drawing on paper. You have to buy the keyboard and stylus separately, though, increasing the overall cost of the device.
The keyboard feels very comfortable, especially for a type cover keyboard, and there's a slot at the top to store and charge the Microsoft Slim Pen 2. Its 1080p webcam is excellent and among the best on the market, and there's even a back-facing camera to take photos for your project or to share. For ports, you get two USB-Cs, a proprietary Surface Connect charging port, and a 3.5 mm headphone jack. The USB-Cs support Thunderbolt 4, allowing you to transfer files quickly and connect two 4k @ 60Hz displays with a single cable. Battery life sits around seven hours of light use, which is on the shorter side but not bad for a tablet PC. By the way, there's a newer Microsoft Surface Pro 9 with faster Intel 12th Gen CPUs; however, they're usually more expensive, so it's up to you whether you need the extra processing power.
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May 23, 2024: Due to availability, we replaced the LG gram 14 (2023) with the HP Spectre x360 14 (2024), the M2 MacBook Air 15 (2023) with the newer M3 MacBook Air 15 (2024), and the Windows alternative to our workstation pick to the HP OMEN Transcend (2024). Minor text changes were made for clarity and accuracy.
Apr 25, 2024: Small text edits to add the HP Spectre x360 14 (2024) as an alternative to the LG gram 14 (2023).
Mar 27, 2024: Minor text edits to provide information regarding the new M3 Apple MacBook Airs. Added the ASUS Zenbook 14 OLED (2024) as a Notable Mention.
Mar 01, 2024: Minor text edits for clarity. No changes in product picks.
Feb 08, 2024: Added the Apple MacBook Air 15 (2023) as the ‘Best MacBook For Business.’ Added a ‘Best Workstation For Business’ category for people needing to do more intensive work like video editing or graphic design. Replaced the Acer Swift 3 14 (2020) with the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i 15 (2023) because it has a better keyboard, touchpad, and webcam, and it’s a newer device with better availability.
Our recommendations above are what we think are currently the best laptops for work you can get. In addition to the test results, we factor in the price (a cheaper laptop wins over a pricier one if the difference isn't worth it), feedback from our visitors, and availability (no laptops that are too difficult to find or almost out of stock everywhere).
If you prefer to make your own decision, here’s the list of all of our laptop reviews. Keep in mind that most laptops are available in various configurations, and the table only shows the results of the model we tested, so it’s best to see the full review for information about other variants.
