Which laptop to choose for Work 2023

The best business laptops offer durability, power, security and ease of use, whether you are in the office or working from home.

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 ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 9)

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.

Apple MacBook Air M2

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.

The best Apple laptop for business

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. 

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Far far away, behind the word mountains, far from the countries Vokalia and Consonantia, there live the blind texts. Separated they live in Bookmarksgrove right at the coast of the Semantics, a large language ocean. A small river named Duden flows by their place and supplies it with the necessary regelialia. It is a paradisematic country, in which roasted parts of sentences fly into your mouth. Even the all-powerful Pointing has no control about the blind texts it is an almost unorthographic life One day however a small line of blind text by the name of Lorem Ipsum decided to leave for the far World of Grammar. The Big Oxmox advised her not to do so, because there were thousands of bad Commas, wild Question Marks and devious Semikoli, but the Little Blind Text didn’t listen.

Lenovo ThinkBook 14s Yoga

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.

• 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.