Owning a powerful and efficient business laptop is one of the best things you can do for yourself as a business owner. This isn’t to say that you need to run out and drop $3,000 on the most expensive PC you can find; especially since a machine costing upwards of a $1,500 is probably overkill for most folks. Still, it pays to get all the features you’ll need from a business PC, and we’re here today to give you a crash course on the subject.
Brands like Apple, Lenovo, and Dell are some of the top names for business-optimized laptops. Not only do we have recommended models for each company, but we’re going to break down all the most important criteria for business PCs, too.
For even more options, check out our complete laptop buying guide for 2024.
Dell XPS 13 Plus
Best overall
- Irresistibly fresh design
- Great OLED screen
- Helpful performance modes
- Excellent haptic touchpad
- Webcam has been improved
- Gets warm on the bottom
- No headphone jack
- Battery life less than average
| Specifications | |
|---|---|
| CPU: | Intel Core i5-1340P, Intel Core i7-1360P, Intel Core i9-1370P |
| RAM: | 8GB, 16GB, 32GB |
| GPU: | Intel Iris Xe |
| Screen: | 13.3 inches |
| Storage: | 512GB - 2TB SSD |
| Dimensions: | 11.63 inches x 7.84 inches x 0.60 inches |
The Dell XPS 13 Plus is a laptop with a high-quality chassis and lightweight design that can be used anywhere. It has a large, comfortable keyboard that stretches the full width of the laptop’s base. The keys give a satisfying click and have an impressive 1mm travel distance from press to tap, making this a great laptop for typing up documents and one of the best laptops for writers. However, the insides are possibly where you’ll find most of your happiness with the XPS 13 Plus, as you can tune its hardware to your qualifications quite nicely. Those need large amounts of storage can get up to 2TB if they so desire, but if you’re relying on the cloud you can go 512GB. If you predict that your business will want locally run LLMs in the future or you want to use intensive video editting software, try the 32GB of RAM edition, otherwise the 16GB should be more than plenty.
For a more intense overview of this laptop, our Dell XPS 13 Plus review touches everything from getting used to the haptic feedback in the mousepad to the specifics of its ports. One of the few downsides of this laptop is its battery life. While our review has more details, you can expect to get around six hours, plus or minus, on a single charge. While that’s good on a four-hour work week, you’ll want to keep your charger handy if you’re burning the midnight oil.
MacBook Pro 16-inch (2023)
Best for Apple fans
- High-powered MacBook
- Inherent virus protection
- Apple ecosystem integration
- Quite expensive
| Specifications | |
|---|---|
| CPU: | Apple M2 Pro 12-core |
| RAM: | 16GB, 32GB |
| GPU: | Apple M2 Pro 19-core |
| Screen: | 16.2-inch Retina |
| Storage: | 512GB - 1TB SSD |
| Dimensions: | 14.01 inches x 9.77 inches x 0.66 inches |
If you run a small business, you likely want your business gear to integrate well with the rest of your life. There are no set on-the-clock, off-the-clock hours (unless you set healthy boundaries, that is), so having your phone and your laptop work well together seamlessly is a no brainer. For most, that means getting one of the best MacBooks. And of these, we find the MacBook Pro 160-inch to be highly powered and ready to help you through whatever business needs you have.
Another big bonus to a MacBook, even if you use an Android smartphone, is how virus resistant they are. While it may have reached meme level coverage in the past, the macOS is more secure than Windows, even in the current year, with only 6% of all malware breaches occurring on macOS. With on-site protection like fingerprint login, the whole system is quite secure and will make you feel safe having your most important financial documents inside.
Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 Gen 2
Best for travel
- Solid and attractive build
- Very strong productivity performance
- Quality OLED display
- Excellent keyboard and touchpad
- Superior security and manageability
- Last-gen AMD CPU
- Displays are just 60Hz
- Below-average battery life
| Specifications | |
|---|---|
| CPU: | AMD Ryzen 5 Pro 7540U, AMD Ryzen 7 Pro 7840U |
| RAM: | 16GB, 32GB, 64GB |
| GPU: | AMD Radeon 740M graphics, AMD Radeon 780M graphics |
| Screen: | 13.3-inch 16:10 WUXGA (1,920 x 1,200) IPS, 13.3-inch 16:10 WUXGA IPS touchscreen, 13.3-inch 16:10 2.8K (2,880 x 1,800) OLED touchscreen |
| Storage: | 256GB SSD - 2TB SSD |
| Dimensions: | 11.59 inches x 7.86 inches x 0.55 inches |
For traveling purposes, you should highly consider getting a Lenovo laptop, as they are usually built with both security and toughness built in mind. For security, this laptop allows login via fingerprint or facial recognition, based on images taken from the webcam. This webcam can be quickly toggled on and off via the F9 key for added privacy as well. This laptop, like all ThinkPad laptops, comes with ThinkShield software, which is a suite designed around business security.
In business and travel situations, you’ll like the ability to quickly tap a dictation button for speech-to-text document creation. The noise-cancelling mics included in the laptop will help get the words right and have you sounding like a star in your next 1080p video meeting. If you run into adverse weather conditions or have a tendency to carelessly through your laptop in your bag, you’ll additionally have less to worry about with the Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 Gen 2, as it is built with more than 200 quality checks in mind so it has high-quality durability.
While this is the very new second gen, you can check out our Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 Gen 1 review to get a more in-depth idea of what to expect from the machine.
Dell Inspiron 15
Also consider
- Customizable quality
- Quality keyboard with numpad
- Large trackpad
- Older model
- 1080p only
| Specifications | |
|---|---|
| CPU: | Intel Core i5, Intel Core i7 |
| RAM: | 4GB, 8GB, 12GB |
| GPU: | Nvidia GeForce MX330 |
| Screen: | 15.6-inch HD Ultraslim Anti-Glare non-touch screen, 15.6-inch HD Truelife On-Cell touch screen, 15.6-inch FHD Ultraslim Anti-Glare non-touch screen |
| Storage: | 256GB - 2TB SSD |
| Dimensions: | 14.96 inches x 10.25 inches x 0.93 inches |
If you want a decent Dell laptop that’s good for business, but won’t cost you a ton, check out the Dell Inspiron 15. It isn’t much for special features, but has a standard chassis, and clears the minimum qualification checks to be a functional laptop. It will provide a good typing experience, has a numpad for when you need to tackle that Excel sheet, and has a large trackpad for convenient selection.
Most important to the Dell Inspiron 15 is its highly customizable hardware. Even at max settings, which includes 16GB or RAM and a 1TB SSD hard drive, this laptop is only a hair over $500. If you’re willing to sacrifice more storage and power, this laptop can drop substantially below the $500 mark, making it the best business laptop for the dollar conscious.
Here are some important criteria to consider when shopping for a business laptop:
Security
Security is a huge factor for your business laptop, especially if you own your own business. But, even a worker that is grabbing a laptop for somebody else’s business doesn’t want to be the one that causes a security breach. Look for features like thumbprint logins to deter others from getting into your data. A low angle of view on the screen will make it harder for those sitting next to you in the coffeeshop or on the plane to read the contents on your screen. Finally, some laptops have built-in security and come with advanced security software out of the gate.
Local storage
While you may think of local storage as something most critical to gaming laptops, you can also use up quite a bit of storage in certain industries. For example, if you are into video manipulation or sound editing, you’ll likely want programs (and video files) stored locally. On the other hand, if you mostly write documents, save some money by getting a cheaper hard drive and bank on using the cloud more.
Webcam and mic
A good webcam and mic on your laptop will help you stand out in video conferencing situations and make you the Zoom hero. While the pandemic is slowly but surely becoming a distant memory, professionalism in online calls is still expected and — should you want to work from home — having a good setup can be a big factor in making your plea to avoid the office. To stay private, try to find webcams with a physical shutter.
For those of you that run your own business and typically do all of your business in person, it can be tempting to limit how much you think about this category. While that’s a valid position to take, it might be worth considering what other business opportunities can be achieved if you allow for virtual conferencing with potential clients in the future.
Hardware, graphics, and more
For many categories of laptops, we pride the beautiful screens, expansive memory, and more. In so many ways, however, the hardware, graphics, and other peripherals of your business laptop might very well be considered extras. Consider what you really need. For a lot of basic software, 8GB of RAM will likely cut it. Sure, getting more is nice, but you don’t necessarily need to spend an arm and a leg for it.
On the flip side, if you’re doing fancy video editing or computationally expensive work, getting something better is worth your time. If you expect to use a locally-run LLM for your business in the next year or two, for example, a laptop with 32GB and a fancy graphics card could very well be the best business laptop for you. The important thing here is to gauge your expectations based on the predicted needs of your business. Unlike our everyday laptops, which are used for such a wide variety of things that it is nearly always better to get a bit extra, business laptops have a well-defined purpose.
Price
A final thought to get entered into your mind before you start shopping for your laptop, is how much you’re willing to pay for it. It’s business, so you can go one way or the other on this. One school of thought will say that you should invest highly in your business, never skimping on the details. Plus, depending on your situation and tax laws, you might even be able to write off your purchase.
The other school of thought will keep the mantra “every dollar saved is a dollar earned” and want to spend less. That’s valid too, and something we support. Whatever you choose, however, it is best to have a budget in mind before you start looking at laptops to buy so you don’t get swayed too heavily by what you see. Most people will spend between $500 and $2,500 on one of the best business laptops, but your purchase might fall on either side of this depending on where you fall on the willingness to pay spectrum.
