Are you tired of having to use a bulky, outdated machine at work? Do you covet the slick-looking, ultra-thin laptops you see in Starbucks or on the train? Then you may need to find a new business laptop. There’s no excuse for using a paving-slab sized laptop that feels like it’s running at a snail’s pace – there are plenty of high-quality, affordable options out there that won’t embarrass you when you pull them out at a meeting.
If you’re baffled about what you should be looking for in a business laptop, that’s understandable; there are almost too many options out there, and it can be confusing finding the right one for you. Luckily, we’re here to help. Read on to see our top picks for business users from the likes of Apple, Dell, HP and Microsoft.
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How to buy the best business laptop for you
There are many things to consider when buying a business laptop, and they’re not always the same things you might think about when buying a laptop for personal use. You might want to ask yourself these questions before making your decision.
How much should I spend?
For a decent business laptop, you’ll generally be looking at forking over anywhere from £800 to £1,200. There are options that fall outside of this range, of course, but that’s the sweet spot in terms of compromising between quality and affordability. We’d recommend spending around £1,000, if your budget allows it, as that’ll usually get you better performance and a higher level of build quality.
What specifications should I look for?
Hardware specifications can be a confusing area when shopping for laptops, and business laptops are no exception. In general, the main things to look out for are the processor and the amount of RAM. RAM is relatively easy: you should aim for 8GB or over, though 4GB should suffice in a pinch. Processors are slightly trickier, as you’ll have to pay attention to the model number.
Intel processors, which most business laptops use, are classified in groups ranging from Celeron to Pentium to Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7, with more cores and higher speeds as you work your way up the range. We’d advise sticking to the Core models, and going for the Core i5 or Core i7 over the less powerful Core i3.
However, the challenge doesn’t end there. In addition to identifying whether it’s Core i5 or Core i7, you should also check which generation the processor is, which is denoted by the first number of the product code. So, for instance, a Core i7-8550U processor would be one of Intel’s eighth-generation chips. Where possible, you should go for the latest generation available, as that will ensure that your device is still speedy enough in a few years to keep up with your requirements.
One last note about hardware: where possible, stay away from any processor with a “Y” in its product code, as this denotes one of Intel’s ultra-low-power chips. These prioritise low power consumption over performance, so they probably won’t be fast enough to support more demanding users.
What other features do I need?
Connectivity is especially important to bear for business laptops. Many newer Ultrabooks have eschewed older ports such as HDMI or the standard Type-A USB 3 port in favour of smaller, multipurpose USB Type-C inputs. If you need specific ports, you should double-check to make sure you get a laptop that supports them, or invest in a dock or adaptor.
Similarly, you should make sure to check the compatibility of your chosen laptop with the software and tools that you’ll be using at work. It’s all very well getting a shiny new MacBook, but if the rest of your company runs exclusively on Windows, getting it to work correctly with the rest of your IT could end up being a big headache.
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The best business laptops to buy in 2018
1. Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon: The best laptop for business productivity
Price:£1,527
The venerable ThinkPad series has been a staple of offices around the world for more than twenty years, and the latest iteration is a perfect example of why. It’s thin and light, with a timeless corporate-friendly design and more than ten hours of battery life. The construction is virtually bullet-proof, and Lenovo manufactures arguably the best keyboards of any laptop brand. What’s more, the X1 Carbon is built specifically for businesses, so you can expect heaps of connectivity, strong management options and other enterprise features.
The current line uses Intel’s previous generation of chips, so it can’t quite match the power of some of the newer devices in this list, but it should be more than speedy enough for the average worker. If you can stomach the (admittedly fairly high) price, then this old-school stalwart won’t disappoint.
Read our full Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon review for more details
Processor | Intel Core i7-7500U 2.7GHz |
RAM | 16GB |
Screen | 1,920 x 1,080, 14in |
Size | 322 x 216 x 16mm (WDH) |
Weight | 1.1kg |
2. Apple MacBook Pro 13in: The best laptop for professional photo editing
Price:£1,249
What “best laptops” list would be complete without an appearance from the trusty MacBook Pro? Apple’s latest notebook continues the trend of offering impressive performance in a gorgeous package, but what really seals the deal over other laptops is that absolutely breathtaking retina screen. With superb, accurate colour and an incredibly sharp picture, it’s ideal for image-editing, design, video-editing and animation.
As with any Apple device, you can expect to fork out a fairly hefty amount for a mid-tier MacBook (and we’d advise going for one of the more powerful configurations). However, that super-accurate screen, turbo-charged SSD speed and excellent overall performance make it a perfect choice for anyone doing a lot of graphics work – particularly professional photographers or editors.
Read our full MacBook Pro review for more details
Processor | Intel Core i5-7267U 3.1GHz |
RAM | 8GB |
Screen | 2,560 x 1,600, 13.3in |
Size | 304 x 212 x 15mm (WDH) |
Weight | 1.4kg |
3. Dell XPS 13: The best business laptop for hard graft on the go
Price:£1,649
One of the most widely-known laptop manufacturers on the face of the planet, Dell has been churning out high-quality business devices for years. The most recent XPS 13, however, has got to be one of its crowning glories. The design hasn’t changed all that radically from the previous version, but it’s been slimmed down and refined while the internals have been overhauled with the latest hardware.
The XPS 13 represents an ideal confluence of power, portability and battery life, which makes it perfect for busy mobile professionals. It’s not the thinnest notebook out there, but the ability to last for more than ten hours in our tests means it’ll have more than enough juice to power you through those days when you just don’t have time to find a power point.
Read our full Dell XPS 13 review for more details
Processor | Intel Core i7-8550U 1.8GHz |
RAM | 16GB |
Screen | 1,920 x 1,080, 13.3in |
Size | 302 x 199 x 11.6mm (WDH) |
Weight | 1.21kg |
4. Microsoft Surface Laptop: The best business laptop under £1,000
Price:£1,249
Microsoft might have intended its first proper clamshell notebook to appeal to the lucrative student market, but it also accidentally created a rather excellent business machine. The sleek, minimalist design is absolutely gorgeous with an Alcantara-covered keyboard surround that is downright delightful to the touch, and it’s backed up by enough power to cover even more demanding power users. It has a great screen, excellent battery life and a fantastically usable keyboard. It’s a pleasure to work on.
One thing it is somewhat lacking is ports, with just one USB port and a mini DisplayPort for connecting external devices. If you can get past this, however, the Surface Laptop is one of the most wallet-friendly choices on this list, coming in at less than £1,000 for a speedy Core i5 model, and considering how nice it is that’s an absolute bargain.
Read our full Microsoft Surface Laptop review for more details
Processor | Intel Core i5-7200U 2.5GHz |
RAM | 8GB |
Screen | 12,256 x 1,504, 13.5in |
Size | 308 x 223 x 14.47mm (WDH) |
Weight | 1.25kg |
5. Lenovo Yoga 920: The best business 2-in-1
Price:£1,199
We’re still not 100% convinced about the usefulness of 2-in-1 devices, but if you’re after a business hybrid then you’re unlikely to find one better than the Lenovo Yoga 920. A gorgeous lightweight design and heavy-duty performance are big attractions, but the real standout feature is the Yoga’s amazing hinge.
The watchband-style hinge negates one of the usual problems with 2-in-1 devices, in that it holds the screen stiffly in place at any angle regardless of whether you’re prodding at it or carrying it around. Despite that, it still manages to somehow be fluid and easy to adjust when you need to. Add in a bundled stylus, and the Yoga 920 becomes the perfect business convertible for those who want the power of a laptop with the versatility of a tablet.
Read our full Lenovo Yoga 920 review for more details
Processor | Intel Core i7-8550U 1.8GHz |
RAM | 8GB |
Screen | 1,920 x 1,080, 13.9in |
Size | 323 x 223.5 x 13.95mm (WDH) |
Weight | 1.37kg |
6. Microsoft Surface Book 2: The best all-round business laptop
Price:£2,999
Microsoft’s first Surface Book was impressive enough in its own right, but its sophomore effort is something else entirely. The Surface Book 2 is seriously high-quality, with a super-high-resolution screen, a powerful eighth-generation processor and even (in some configurations) a dedicated GPU. Not only is it powerful enough to use for serious tasks like video editing, it’s also a detachable, so you can use it to do some sketching, or annotate documents and the like.
It may not be the fastest or the most portable entry on this list – and it’s definitely not the cheapest – but the Surface Book 2 is a near-perfect all-rounder, capable of handling pretty much anything you’d care to throw at it and able to turn its hand to just about any role or application.
Read our full Microsoft Surface Book 2 review for more details
Processor | Intel Core i7-8650U 1.9GHz |
RAM | 16GB |
Screen | 3,000 x 2,000, 13.5in |
Size | 312 x 232 x 15-23 mm (WDH) |
Weight | 1.64kg |
7. Dell XPS 15 2-in-1: The best business laptop for raw power
Price:£1,699
The 2-in-1 variant of Dell’s XPS 13 was somewhat disappointing, featuring a decidedly underwhelming dual-core processor. Imagine our surprise, then, when the XPS 15 2-in-1 turned out to be one of the fastest business laptops we’ve ever tested. Thanks to Intel’s Kaby Lake-G chips and AMD’s Radeon Vega graphics, this machine is an absolute beast, only narrowly slower than its clamshell stablemate.
Frankly, the fact that it’s a convertible is the least interesting thing about it – considering it’s a 15in machine, it’s remarkably slim and light. The battery life is also excellent, given the amount of power on display. If you’re looking for a laptop with serious grunt, this is the machine to go for.
Read our full Dell XPS 15 2-in-1 review for more details
Processor | Intel Core i5-8305G 2.8GHz |
RAM | 8GB |
Screen | 1,920 x 1,080, 15.6in |
Size | 354 x 235 x 16mm (WDH) |
Weight | 2kg |
8. HP Spectre 13: The best-looking business laptop around
Price:£1,400
Business laptops no longer have to be the ugly, slab-like monstrosities they once were, and nowhere is this more apparent than with the HP Spectre 13. Okay, so it’s not strictly designed for the business market, but it’s perfectly capable of keeping up with the demands of enterprise users. It’s also absolutely stunning to boot; razor-thin, measuring just over 10mm wide, with a matte-black and bronze colour scheme that’s immediately eye-catching.
The Spectre 13’s beauty isn’t just skin-deep either, thanks to the Core i7 Coffee Lake processor that powers it. Its biggest weakness, unfortunately, is its battery life. With a score in our tests of less than five hours, it’s nowhere near as long-lived as some competitors from the likes of Apple and Dell. Still, if you want a laptop that’s going to make your colleagues green with envy, it’ll more than do the job.
Read our full HP Spectre 13 review for more details
Processor | Intel Core i7-8550U 1.8GHz |
RAM | 8GB |
Screen | 3,840 x 2,160, 13.3in |
Size | 308 x 224 x 10mm (WDH) |
Weight | 1.1kg |