What Is A Business Laptop
A business laptop is designed and intended for company use. Manufacturers optimize business laptops for traveling and longer active periods than personal-use laptops.
Consequently, a business laptop will be more efficient in battery life, speed and power to keep up with a 40-hour workweek. Laptop battery life, speed and power are even more critical when supporting video conferencing demands as organizations pivot to newer technologies.
Tip: For insights on finding the right video conferencing service for your firm, read our in-depth reviews of the best video conferencing services.
Do I Need A Touchscreen Or Stylus Support
Touchscreens are a nice feature if you use them a lot. Laptops with touchscreens and/or stylus support are nearly always more expensive than similar models without touchscreens.
Computers with touchscreens also use a lot more battery power than those without, even if you dont actively use the touchscreen feature. To top it off, touchscreens are heavier than regular screens. If you need a touchscreen or stylus support, you should absolutely look for that feature in a laptop, but dont spring for it just because you think it seems like a cool add-on.
Dell Xps 17 $2699 Was $2745
Why buy
- Offers gaming abilities
The Dell XPS 17 is a real powerhouse of a system. It offers some very powerful hardware under the hood, meaning you can use it for far more than just working on the move. Its capable of video editing and even gaming if you want. It has an Intel Core i9 processor, along with a hefty 16GB of memory. That powerful stuff means multitasking will be a breeze and youll be sure of great performance at all times. Impressively, thats all backed up by 1TB of SSD storage, so you simply wont run out of space for your files. Unless, of course, you decide to install some games. Yes, the Dell XPS 17 is capable of gaming. It has an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 graphics card thats ideal for playing the latest games on the move. If you want some downtime between your meetings, this is your chance.
Elsewhere, the features keep on coming. The Dell XPS 17 has a 17-inch full HD screen that offers 500 nits of brightness, along with InfinityEdge technology, which basically means you dont have to look at any ugly bezels while you work . Anti-glare technology means that eyestrain is a thing of the past, too. The Dell XPS 17 also packs in advanced Wi-Fi 6 technology, so its future-proofed. Other features include the Dell Power Manager, letting you adjust fan speeds and performance depending on what you need. Advanced thermal design means that it is able to offer increased fan airflow by approximately 30%, so you get better performance and a cooler experience.
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The Best Battery Life Laptops For 2022
We’ve tested hundreds of laptops to find the ones that last the longest between charges. These battery-life champs will take you through a day of work, plus a night on the couch.
Im the deputy managing editor of the hardware team at PCMag.com. Reading this during the day? Then you’ve caught me testing gear and editing reviews of laptops, desktop PCs, and tons of other personal tech. Ive covered the consumer tech world as an editor, reporter, and analyst since 2015.
Im one of the consumer PC experts at PCMag, with a particular love for PC gaming. I’ve played games on my computer for as long as I can remember, which eventually led me to building and upgrading my own desktop. Through my years here, I’ve tested and reviewed many, many dozens of laptops and desktops, and I am always happy to recommend a PC for your needs and budget.
Choose An Operating System

Unless you can spend at least $1,300 per laptop, youll be choosing between the Chrome and Windows operating systems, but there are three primary operating systems, and you should know the differences between them. If, after reading these descriptions, you are still unsure which operating system to select, choose Windows. Windows is still the business standard worldwide, and you are unlikely to regret the decision.
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The Best Mobile Workstations For 2022
Need serious mobile muscle for design, creative, or scientific work? These über-laptops with serious specs take the toughest professional applications on the road.
I was picked to write the “20 Most Influential PCs” feature for PCMag’s 40th Anniversary coverage because I remember them allI started on a TRS-80 magazine in 1982 and served as editor of Computer Shopper when it was a 700-page monthly. I was later the editor in chief of Home Office Computing, a magazine that promoted using tech to work from home two decades before a pandemic made it standard practice. Even in semiretirement in Bradenton, Florida, I can’t stop playing with toys and telling people what gear to buy.
Business Laptops Offer More Configuration Options
Because leaders dont typically purchase laptops one at a time, manufacturers design business laptop lines with diverse users in mind. Consequently, many business laptops offer various configuration options. While consumer laptops may provide some opportunity for custom specs including additional storage or a high-quality display they dont come close to offering the custom options available for business machines.
Dell and Lenovo are undoubtedly the industry leaders in customization, allowing shoppers to select processors, batteries, and keyboard backlighting.
Did you know?: Online business laptop shoppers can sort results based on specs, which is helpful when buying in bulk.
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Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon Heat
The X1 Carbon can stay in the kitchen all it wants because no part of the chassis breached our 95-degree Fahrenheit comfort threshold after we played a 15-minute, 1080p video. Peaking at only 93 degrees, the underside was the toastiest location while the keyboard and touchpad the bits your skin actually touches were even cooler.
Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon Graphics
Relying on Intel Iris Xe integrated graphics, the X1 Carbon can run photo and video editing apps but gaming should be avoided.
On the 3DMark Fire Strike benchmark, the X1 Carbon hit 4,734, crushing the EliteBook and matching the X1 Yoga . The Latitude 9420 powered ahead with a 5,258.
In real-world testing, the X1 Carbon played Sid Meier’s Civilization VI: Gathering Storm at 35 frames per second, just ahead of our 30fps playability threshold. That beats the Dell and sits alongside the X1 Yoga .
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Choosing A Laptop For Productivity
There are compelling reasons to consider business-specific laptops rather than consumer devices when purchasing laptops for your company. The most crucial factor is your teams productivity: Whatever laptop will be most compatible with your workflows, easy for you all to use, and helpful in achieving your tasks is the right choice for your company.
Bassam Kaado contributed to the writing and research in this article.
Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon Battery Life
Leave the brick in your office and work from bed because the X1 Carbon with an FHD+ display can easily last a full workday before powering down. Heck, you can even watch the entirety of Zack Snyder’s Justice League after you clock off before refueling the X1 Carbon via its USB-C port.
I say that because the laptop lasted for an outstanding 15 hours and 39 minutes on the Laptop Mag Battery Test, which involves continuous web surfing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits.
The X1 Carbon isn’t the only marathon runner in this category. The EliteBook x360 1040 had an extra breathe in its lungs while the Latitude 9420 2-in-1 and X1 Yoga weren’t far behind the Carbon. These endurance beasts bested the category average by several hours.
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How We Test The Best Business Laptops
To find the best laptops, we run every machine through a rigorous suite of benchmarks and real-world tests to gauge how it will perform during everyday use.
We measure the average brightness and color quality of each laptop’s display using our in-house light meter and colorimeter. For general performance, we run our machines through tests that include Geekbench 5 , as well as various 3DMark tests to measure graphics capabilities. We also run a file transfer test to measure how fast a machine’s hard drive is, and a custom battery test that has the machine browse the internet over Wi-Fi until it runs out of juice.
And because we know everyone likes to play games sometimes, we run every laptop we review through the Sid Meier’s Civilization VI: Gathering Storm graphical benchmarking test to see how well it handles light gaming.
For more information, check out our how we test page for Tom’s Guide.
Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon Ports

With a mix of modern and legacy ports, the X1 Carbon shelters you from the dongle life.
I still reminisce about the SD card slot days, but then, who am I to complain about a razor-thin laptop with such a wide assortment of ports? Now, let’s get to it! On the right side are a USB 3.2 Type-A port, a headphone jack and a Kensington lock slot.
Flip the X1 Carbon around and you’ll find two Thunderbolt 4 ports, a second USB 3.2 Type-A input and an HDMI 2.0 port.
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Tips For Choosing The Best Business Laptop
Introduction
Shopping for a business laptop computer for your organization can be a tough decision, but we are here to help you buy the best notebook computer for your company. Finding the right notebook PC among the best business laptops, top notebook computers, and tablet PCs is easy if you know what features to look for. Important features that you should consider include a solid state drive, Trusted Platform Module , rugged build, extended warranty, webcam, biometric fingerprint reader, and more. These features can affect your organizations productivity and security, and most feature packed business laptops should be equipped with them.
Following are some additional things you should consider when searching for the best business notebook for your organization:
Portability
Consider how often the laptop will be used out of the office. If it is being issued to a mobile salesperson for instance, you should consider getting a laptop with a slim profile and longer battery life. On the other hand, if it is going to be used almost exclusively in the office, more performance and larger dimensions should be considered.
Power
While everyone wants a more powerful and speedier processor, a business laptop being used for data entry wont necessarily need it. For a business workstation, get a notebook computer that is fast enough for the tasks it will be doing and avoid getting something that is complete overkill.
Support
Warranty And Service Agreements
business laptops are expected to work longer. While a consumer laptop may come with a one-year warranty, a business laptop may include a warranty up to three years. For example, HP business laptops come with three-year parts and three-year labor warranties.
Service options also vary between business and consumer laptops. Manufacturers often have separate service channels for business users.
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Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon Performance
Turn it up to 11! That’s what Lenovo did with the X1 Carbon Gen 9, which gets its horsepower from an Intel 11th Gen Core i7-1165G7 CPU and 16GB of RAM . My 9-to-5 workload wasn’t much of a challenge for this speedy business laptop, which quickly loaded 20 tabs in Microsoft Edge, including two pairs of and Twitch streams. I even watched Olympic BMX racing for a few hours before the horrific accidents made me turn away and question the safety of the sport. Just remember that lengthy demanding tasks especially graphics-heavy ones will tax any laptop in this class.
The X1 Carbon did a good, if unremarkable, job on our synthetic benchmarks. Starting with the Geekbench 5.4 overall performance test, the Lenovo hit 5,365, topping its convertible cousin in the X1 Yoga , as well as the EliteBook x360 1040 and the category average . The Latitude 9420 2-in-1 won this round by a comfortable margin.
It took the 512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD in our X1 Carbon 51 seconds to duplicate 25GB of multimedia files for a transfer rate of 523.9 megabytes per second. This time, the Carbon fell only to the Yoga after outpacing the EliteBook and Latitude . None of these met the laptop average of 617.5 MBps.
Finally winning the gold, the X1 Carbon converted a 4K video to 1080p resolution in 13 minutes and 23 seconds. This was a photo-finish against the X1 Yoga and the Latitude 9420 but a good distance ahead of the EliteBook x360 and the premium laptop average .
Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon Audio
Dual speakers underneath work with another set flanking the keyboard to deliver loud, clear audio. I couldn’t help but dance to the heart-thumping rhythm and frenetic pacing of Jain’s “Makeba” as it filled my moderately sized office. Vocals were crisp and there was a palpable energy to the simple instrumentation. Missing from the track was a weighty low-end, but I still didn’t stand a chance the catchy tune wormed its way into my ears for the rest of the day.
More sonically complex songs like The Postal Service’s “Such Great Heights” were deftly handled by the Dolby Atmos speaker system. Each electronic boink and bop had its place in the soundstage and never shrouded Ben Gibbard’s quietly powerful vocals. Best of all, the speakers didn’t distort even at 100% volume.
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Our Pick: Dell Latitude 5420
Tested battery life: | 12 hours |
The Dell Latitude 5420 is a flexible business laptop for anyone who needs both USB-A and USB-C ports, wants long battery life, and values repairability over sleekness or weight. Business laptops are generally built to work in as many situations as possible, offering a wide range of ports and providing plenty of options to customize the speed and additional features such as NFC, SmartCard compatibility, and a fingerprint reader. The Latitude 5420 offers all of those options and comes with ports that many other manufacturers systems have stopped including, such as Ethernet and microSD.
While shopping, you might notice that the Latitude 5420 isnt the latest version of this machine Dell has an updated version, the 5430. That newer run of Latitudes offers updated, 12th-generation Intel processors but is generally harder to find in stock and much more expensive. The 11th-generation Intel processors in the Latitude 5420 line are still very capable and represent a better value for most people.
We didnt find any major fault with the basic 14-inch 1080p screen included with the laptop. In our tests it was bright enough for daily use but a bit hard to see well in direct sunlight. Colors looked a little muted on the Latitude 5420s display, but the effect was not noticeable in general web browsing and office work.
Why Buying A Business Laptop Can Be Your Best Decision
Whether you are a professional, a home computing user or even a student, business laptops are your best companions for computing tasks. Business laptops are well-known for their powerful performance and sleekly designed eye-catching bodies. These powerful mobile workstations feature an advanced hardware which is perfectly designed to seamlessly run any amount of heavy workload.
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Is A Comfortable Keyboard A High Priority
When youre busy looking at laptop designs, its easy to forget about the basics and be dazzled by gorgeous chassis and high-resolution screens, but keyboard comfort is an important factor for most business users. In fact, an uncomfortable keyboard will be a much bigger barrier to productivity than a slightly unimpressive PPI or a bland design. While you shop, keep in mind that the smaller the laptop, the smaller the keyboard, and that typing on a miniature keyboard for hours at a time can be tiresome.
If possible, test out keyboards to get a feel for what you like. If you cant do that, at least take note of the size of the keyboard on any laptop you consider. If you choose a laptop with a less-than-optimal keyboard, you can invest in an external keyboard for long typing sessions but this is not ideal, of course.
Choosing The Right Business Laptop

When it comes to selecting a business laptop, the sheer number of choices can be overwhelming. Every brand offers multiple product families, and every model offers a wide range of features and components. From processing power and storage to durability, choosing the best computer for business comes down to determining how the device will be used and what components are essential. With clear requirements in mind, businesses can select the best laptop for every user, workload, and application. As an innovator in computers for the workplace, Dells range of laptops are designed for a variety of work environments and provide the ability to customize devices for specific purposes and use cases.
Explore versatile and sleek Latitude and Chromebook 2-in-1s, designed to inspire your next big idea.
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Best Laptops For Business In 2022
Whether you want comfort, style, or a powerhouse, the Dell XPS 15 OLED is more than up to the challenge. This gorgeous computer, which comes with an equally gorgeous 3.5K OLED display, can do it all. Thanks to its high-end internals including discrete Nvidia graphics, it can handle just about any workload you can throw at it. And, though its shorter battery life might be an issue as a business laptop, its trackpad and keyboard are accurate and comfortable to use for long periods of time. And, like all premium portables from Dells XPS line, its dressed to impress.
As far as business laptops go, very few are more powerful than the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 6, a 2-in-1 workhorse that delivers excellent battery life of up to 14 hours and a breathtaking 16:10 display to boot. If youre going to be working long hours, which pretty much comes with the territory, this is the laptop youll want to be working in and staring at. Of course, being an Evo-certified laptop targeted for business professionals, it boasts many security add-ons as well. And, were sure all professionals will appreciate that SD card slot and garaged stylus.
Read the full review: Dell XPS 13 review.