We review dozens of business laptops each year and the models that make our best business laptops offer a combination of comfort, performance and battery life. Don’t forget about security and durability — business laptops typically come with fingerprint sensors, IR cameras, and security chips, and many have military-grade durability. Some even feature webcam sliders and displays with built-in privacy filters for the extremely security conscious. If you need something with more oomph than your traditional business laptop, then check out our best workstations page. If you’re not sold on a business laptop, read our best laptops page for options that can pull double duty at home or in the office. Are you a fan of a specific brand? See our best Lenovo ThinkPad or best Dell laptop guides. Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Carbon is our favorite business laptop for five years running and the Gen 9 model kept that trend rolling thanks to its lightweight design, fast performance, and strong display options. Apple has strong options in the MacBook Air M2 or any of the MacBook Pro models, while Dell, Microsoft, and HP all offer compelling options at varying price points. Read on for a more detailed look at our top picks and we’ll find the perfect fit for you. Lenovo’s 9th Gen edition of its flagship business laptop delivers fast performance from 11th Gen Intel CPUs, you get longer battery life (15 hours!), powerful quad speakers, a new 14-inch display with a 16:10 aspect ratio, and plenty of ports, all in an impossibly lightweight chassis (2.5 pounds). But it’s still those classic ThinkPad features — a durable design (with MIL-STD-810G strength), best-in-class keyboard and stealthy black/red aesthetics — that carry the X1 Carbon to greatness. Yes, we wish the ThinkPad X1 Carbon had a better webcam and hadn’t ditched the SD card reader in the previous. Also, top configurations can get very expensive; still, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better business laptop. See our full Lenovo ThinkPad Carbon X1 (Gen 9) review. The MacBook Air M2 is a nearly perfect laptop with the same outstanding performance and battery life that we’ve come to expect from Apple Silicon, but it also introduces the new design from the MacBook Pro 14 and 16 along with a gorgeous new 13.6-inch display. This is a blend of performance and portability that few Windows laptops can challenge, so for those that can live in the macOS ecosystem, this belongs at the top of your list. Our lone complaint with the Air M2 is that the SSD has a slightly slower write speed than its predecessor, but it is still well above average and not something that should sway you against it. While you have a pair of USB-C ports and the new MagSafe charging port, if you are looking to escape carrying a USB-C hub with you then you will need to look to the MacBook Pro 14, which sports an HDMI port, an SD card slot, MagSafe and a trio of Thunderbolt 4 ports (sadly, still no USB-A). If battery life is your biggest concern then the MacBook Pro 13-inch M2 is your best choice with over 18 hours on a single charge in our test! It didn’t get the updated design of the Air this year, but its performance remains outstanding. See our full Apple MacBook M2 review. The ThinkBook 14s Yoga delivers amazing value at under $1,000 for a durable 2-in-1 that includes a built-in Smart Pen, solid performance and battery life. While it could never quite grab that first place spot on our benchmarks, it consistently earned itself a silver, which makes for a balanced laptop that won’t let you down in any regard. Overall, if you don’t want to spend a penny more than $1,000 — and you want an impressive 14-inch business-oriented convertible with an included Smart Pen — you can’t go wrong with the ThinkBook 14s Yoga. See our full Lenovo ThinkBook 14S Yoga review With 5 out of 5 stars, how is the Dell Precision 5470 not higher than 4th on this list? It’s simple, not everyone needs this much power in a business laptop. This is a workstation laptop with the Nvidia RTX A1000 GPU and Intel Core i9-12900H CPU to prove it. It can’t go toe-to-toe with the best gaming laptops, but it will run circles around any typical business laptop. If your productivity work ever dips into the realm of content creation, if you are like me and you just overload your laptop with a million seemingly small tasks, or you are frequently transferring large data files, the blazing performance of the 5470 will be worth its 3.3-pound weight in gold. Lastly I’ll touch on the display, which is a gorgeous 14-inch anti-glare InfintyEdge touchscreen with a 2560 x 1600-pixel resolution and the ability to overpower any brightly lit environment with its 499 nit max brightness. See our full Dell Precision 5470 review. If battery life is a priority, the Dell Latitude 9430 2-in-1 is going to be a serious contender for the best business laptop for you. The 2-in-1 laptop cruised to 12 hours and 39 minutes in our Laptop Mag Battery test. That’s hardly the only reason to choose it though; the bright InfinityEdge display lets Dell squeeze a 14-inch display into a super slim 0.54-inch chassis. Performance is more than enough to juggle all the browser tabs you forgot to close during the day along with every productivity app in your arsenal. The sleek, but durable build, and the flexible 2-in-1 convertible form factor make all help to extend its utility. Add in excellent enterprise-grade security from its vPro processor, secure and convenient login via its FHD IR camera or fingerprint reader and you have a business laptop that justifies its admittedly high price. See our full Dell Latitude 9430 2-in-1 review. The Microsoft Surface Pro 8 isn’t a quantum leap forward from its predecessors. Still, it makes enough crucial upgrades to an already excellent 2-in-1 tablet to once again put it among the top 2-in-1 laptops. The added screen size and reduced bezels make for a more modern look, while the rounded edges give it a much more tablet-friendly feel backed up by some of the new software touches in Windows 11. For creatives or prolific note-takers, the new Slim Pen 2 combined with the Type Cover gives you a built-in stylus with a tactile feel that makes for an improved inking experience. A bit more battery life would have been outstanding and the price jump may be hard for some to swallow. However, taken as a whole, the Surface Pro 8 is a solid addition to the Surface lineup and a compelling option for those looking to upgrade their laptop for the move to Windows 11. Not sold on the Surface Pro 8? See our review of the ThinkPad X12 Detachable. If you want more dedicated business features, the Surface Pro 7+ offers a more enterprise-focused take with the last-gen Surface Pro design. We’re in the process of reviewing the Surface Pro 9, but if you need something today check out our Surface Pro 9 vs. Surface Pro 8 overview and rest assured you aren’t missing too much; you can also probably find a solid deal on the Surface Pro 8 right now. See our full Surface Pro 8 review. Chromebooks…for business users? Yes, we mean it. The HP Elite Dragonfly Chromebook Enterprise is the best option available today. Boasting Intel vPro security, a Titan C chip, and a fingerprint sensor the Dragonfly far surpasses the security of your average Chromebook. A free year of Parallels for Chromebooks gives you full access to any Windows apps you might still need. The security and ease of management offered by the HP Elite Dragfonfly Chromebook are two strong selling points, but the rest of the hardware doesn’t let down from there. The 13.5K 2K display with up to 400 nits of brightness looks outstanding. The 2-in-1 form factor, light 2.8-pound chassis, and optional 5G support make it a dream for frequent travelers. At just over 9 hours in our Laptop Mag battery test the battery life could be better and the price makes it a tough sell if work isn’t paying for it, but for businesses that will save considerable money on support, it is worth the investment. See our full HP Elite Dragonfly Chromebook review. With the Latitude 7320 Detachable, Dell takes on the Surface Pro 7 and wins. Standout features include a gorgeous 13-inch display, fast performance, a comfortable detachable keyboard with a built-in stylus slot, useful security features, and a class-leading webcam (yes, you read that right). These are all packaged in a sleek metal chassis that can easily be slipped into a backpack or purse. The Latitude does waver in a few areas. The kickstand feels somewhat flimsy and the sky-high price will detract all but the highest-ranking execs or the wealthiest corporations. Despite these faults, the Latitude 7320 gives Dell enterprise customers an excellent version of this ultra-mobile form factor so they can work or relax from anywhere. See our full Dell Latitude 7320 Detachable review. The Lenovo ThinkPad P15 Gen 2 improved on what was already a winning formula with the original ThinkPad P15 with upgraded performance and stellar battery life for the 1080p model. The laptop’s 11th Gen Intel Core i9-11950H CPU, Nvidia RTX A5000 GPU and 32GB of RAM make it an absolute workhorse of a workstation. If raw performance is your goal, it will be hard to beat the ThinkPad P15 Gen 2. The one concern for creatives will be the display, but if that’s crucial for you consider the OLED panel option or perhaps an external display. See our full Lenovo ThinkPad P15 Gen 2 review. The HP Elite Dragonfly G3 is a power-efficient gem with a lightweight, portable form factor, a great webcam, and a battery runtime that climbs above 14 hours! While the performance won’t have the Dragonfly G3 doubling as your gaming laptop in your downtime, it’s more than enough to handle productivity and web browsing tasks and that efficiency over raw power is a worthwhile tradeoff for business users. Factoring in the productivity-enhancing 3:2 aspect ratio, the comfortable clicky keyboard, the spacious touchpad, solid webcam and 2.2-pound weight and you have a fantastic option for business users that travel or are frequently moving around the office or working remotely. Read our full HP Elite Dragonfly G3 review. This salacious attention grabber comes with an 11th Gen Intel Core i9 processor, 32GB of RAM, 2TB of SSD storage, and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 GPU that will more than handle all your Adobe Creative Suite power-hungry needs and then some. The $4,727 system is gorgeous, powerful, MIL-SPEC tough, and in my humble opinion is one of the best content creator laptops on the market. Oh, I forgot to mention, its OLED 4K touchscreen is bright, vivid and positively stunning. However, for the price, I wish the battery lasted longer and it didn’t run as hot. If you’re looking for longer battery life and just a scooch more power, the $2,999 MSI Creator Z16 is an option that’s loads cheaper. See our full HP ZBook Studio G8 review.
How to choose a business laptop
Here are some things to keep in mind when choosing the right model of business laptop for you or your company.
Do you need Intel vPro or AMD Pro? Many business laptops are available with CPUs that have Intel vPro technology, which lets a support person log in remotely, even if the computer can’t boot. However, unless you have a large IT department and a huge fleet of laptops that you need the ability to service remotely, you probably won’t use this feature.How fast do you need it to be? Most business users will be happy with a laptop that has a quad-core, Core i5 CPU like the Core i5-1135G7 or Core i5-1145G7 (vPro) and the CPU’s integrated Intel Iris Xe graphics. However, if you require a high-end performance for 3D Modeling, professional video editing, or creating predictive models, then get a mobile workstation with Core i7 or Core i9 H-Series CPU (model numbers end in HQ) and Nvidia Quadro graphics.Long battery life: Nobody wants to run out of juice in the middle of a long workday or a cross-country flight. Unless you’re getting a giant workstation, look for a laptop that gets more than 9 hours on a charge. Some business systems come with a choice of regular or extended batteries; always get the high-capacity unit.SSDs for responsiveness: If you want a truly fast computer, get a solid state drive rather than a mechanical hard drive. SSDs boot up, open programs and multitask at least three times faster than old-fashioned hard drives.The right ports: Nobody likes to carry a bag full of dongles. Consider which kinds of connections you or your employees will need the most. If you connect to a wired network a lot, make sure the laptop has an Ethernet port. If photography is a key part of the job, choose a laptop with a memory card reader. No matter what your needs, a Thunderbolt 4 port is a huge plus, because it will allow you to connect to a new generation of high-speed peripherals, universal chargers and powerful docks.A great keyboard: It almost goes without saying that every laptop should have a good keyboard. But with business systems, a comfortable typing experience is even more important. Look for snappy feedback, deep travel and absolutely no flex.
How we test business laptops
We put each laptop through extensive benchmark testing — both synthetic and real-world — before they end up in the hands of our reviewers. We evaluate each aspect of the laptop, including its performance, battery life, display, speakers and heat management. In our benchmark testing, we use a Klein K10 colorimeter to detect the brightness and DCI-P3 color gamut of the laptop’s display. For performance testing, we run the laptop through a gauntlet of benchmarks, including GeekBench 5 and 3DMark professional graphics tests. To determine real-world performance, we task the laptop to convert a 4K video to 1080p resolution and to duplicate a 25GB multimedia file. Our real-world graphics test includes the Assasin’s Creed Valhalla benchmark with medium settings at 1080p resolution. We also run heat tests by playing a 15-minute full-screen video and measuring temperatures in different areas of the laptop. Last but not least, our battery test consists of continuous web surfing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits of brightness. For MacBooks and premium Windows 11 laptops, a runtime of over 9 hours is considered a good result whereas gaming laptops and workstations that can stay powered for longer than 5 hours deserve praise. These tests are complemented with extensive hands-on testing from our reviewers who critique everything from the laptop’s materials to the feel of its touchpad.
