Take a look at some of the best options available, and then read on to learn the fine points of everything from IT management and deployment to secure logins and durable chassis and keyboards. Business laptops work harder than civilian consumer models (and usually cost more), but your business deserves nothing less. These are the best business laptops we've tested for 2022.
Best Mac Laptop For Designers 2015
Built for business, it's an easy choice for our favorite business laptop, outshining even competing systems from Dell and Apple. And if our five-star rating didn't already say it, we'll spell it out here: This isn't just the finest business laptop we've seen, it's the world's best laptop.
The ThinkPad X1 Carbon has always been the traveler's business laptop. If you want the best business ultraportable on the planet, this is the undeniable choice, somehow improving on what was already the best lightweight business machine on the market.
The Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 is one of many ultraportable business laptops, but this AMD-powered system stands out from the pack, thanks to its mix of premium design and superb performance. From the first look, you'll know this isn't your father's ThinkPad: Instead of basic black, the lid is covered in recycled vegan leather, and the metal frame of the chassis is accented with polished, bronze-colored aluminum. With a fantastic keyboard, a reimagined TrackPoint and a spacious glass-surfaced touchpad, there is so much tactile luxury at your fingertips that you'll love to sit down to work. And this slim machine can work, with AMD Ryzen processing and graphics providing some of the best performance in the category, backed with a battery that lasts all day.
Lenovo's ThinkBook laptops are a great affordable option for small businesses, and the Yoga 2-in-1 design has been the best version of the laptop/tablet hybrid for years. With the Lenovo ThinkBook 14s Yoga Gen 2, you get all of that business-ready capability in a budget-friendly model that's perfect for entrepreneurs or small businesses operating on a shoestring. The result isn't a standout in design or performance, but it's a solid value for a flexible workhorse business 2-in-1.
The Pro's Type Cover and kickstand are both as good as detachable accessories get, but the device is still happier on a desk than in your lap in laptop mode. Otherwise, its best-in-class design and build quality make the Surface Pro 8 (and the Surface Pro 8 for Business with LTE mobile broadband support) the definitive Windows tablet.
Today, processors with four or more cores are widely available to handle both everyday email checking and more strenuous business applications. Many business laptops use Intel's latest 11th Generation "Tiger Lake" processors, and 12th Generation "Alder Lake" processors are just hitting the market, though models with the previous 10th Generation "Ice Lake" and "Comet Lake" chips remain widely available and are plenty capable for mainstream productivity tasks. Truly demanding workflows will need hexa-core units like the latest top-end Core i7 and Core i9 CPUs. You can even find eight-core Core i9 chips, previously limited to desktops, in some larger workstation-grade machines meant for designers, engineers, and serious data crunchers. AMD-based laptops, employing the Ryzen Pro series of CPUs, remain uncommon but have started to infiltrate some classic business-laptop lines, such as Lenovo's ThinkPad.
Every laptop these days has some flavor of Wi-Fi built in. It should get you satisfactory throughput, but you have to find a hotspot or an unprotected network to surf the web. Look for dual-band (2.4GHz and 5GHz) Wi-Fi for the best flexibility for your IT organization. The most common kind nowadays, 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6), runs primarily on 5GHz networks, but it will work with 2.4GHz networks as a fallback. Offices in high-density buildings may wish to use the less-populated 5GHz bands, as the 2.4GHz channels tend to get more crowded. Some budget business laptops still sport older 802.11ac Wi-Fi; these may offer less reliable connections but are still adequate for most small and medium businesses.
A big battery can be your best friend on a lengthy flight or a long commute. Business laptops usually come with multiple battery options. Some enterprise-class laptops have two or three different kinds of batteries (four-, six-, and nine-cell options). More cells means longer battery life, all else being equal. The "equal" is the tricky part; this isn't always the case with laptops that use 4K displays or other power-hungry components. A big battery adds some heft, but being able to run it unplugged from dawn 'til dusk is worth the weight gain.
If your work is graphics-intensive, you'll want to opt for a laptop with discrete graphics. When choosing a processor, you'll have to find the right balance between power for your applications and energy efficiency, and in selecting a battery, you'll need to choose between its capacity and weight. When you determine the best features for your needs, you can focus on just those laptops that incorporate them. And that's where our deep-dive reviews come in.
Our current favorite business laptops are laid out below. We refresh the list often to include the newest products, and because of the large number of laptops we review every year, not every top-rated product makes the cut. For more, also see our overall top laptop picks, and if money is tight, our roundup of the best budget laptops is worth a read.
Apple is known for making devices that work well together, and it may be no surprise that we recommend the Apple Magic Mouse 2 as the best mouse for Mac users. Its iconic, low-profile design makes it extremely easy to toss into laptop bags or even your pocket. There's a new black color variant available, but the basic design hasn't changed since it was first released in 2015. The top of the mouse is a glossy Multi-Touch surface made of acrylic that behaves just like a trackpad. You register regular mouse clicks by tapping this surface, but it also recognizes a range of gestures, like scrolling, zooming, and swiping between applications. While its shape isn't as ergonomic as other popular options, like our mid-range pick, the Logitech MX Anywhere 3, it's suitable for all hand sizes.
Editor's Note (December 2017): Though it's over two years old, the 2015 MacBook Pro 15-inch is still for sale and still recommended for anyone who wants the best keyboard and ports on an Apple laptop. See our fresh take on this 15-inch MacBook Pro and our comparison versus newer MacBooks Pros.
Gaming laptops are some of the most powerful machines on the market, and increasingly creatives are finding themselves investing in an RGB-clad laptop to handle their processing and rendering needs - we've even included a laptop from Razer, famed for its gaming hardware, in our selection of the best laptops for animation above. Most of the best gaming laptops will be perfectly capable of meeting an animator's needs.
The best laptop for animation will offer you power and a nice, big display so you can see what you're working on. Though this used to mean a bulky device or even desktop PC, nowadays you'll be able to choose a thin, powerful, versatile laptop.
Model: The lightweight and portable Apple MacBook Air 13 inch 2015-03 is to some a benchmark of portable capability. Beautifully designed with smooth matte finish, curved edges and premium build quality, the Apple MacBook Air 13 inch 2015-03 is a pleasure to use. On board is a 13.3 inch LED-backlit widescreen display with a glossy finish. Colors are stunning and details are sharp providing an immersive feeling. The 1.35 kg laptop comes with an Intel Core i5 dual core processor clocked at 1.6 GHz, up to 8 GB of RAM, Intel HD Graphics 6000 GPU and up to 512 GB of flash storage. Users will have no problems performing everyday on-the-go tasks using the Apple MacBook Air 13 inch 2015-03, which looks stylish as a bonus.
As Apple updated its website with the newest additions to the Macbook Pro family, something just as noteworthy came to light. Apple removed the mid-2015 15-inch Retina Macbook Pro model(Opens in a new window) from its online store, officially killing off what some consider to be the best laptop ever made.
With a quick glance, it is obvious that the "Early 2015" models have 13-Inch displays and the "Mid-2015" models have 15-Inch displays, but there are many other differences that are nearly as important, even if they are not as obvious. As a result, a detailed comparison of the lines is necessary to determine which model is the best choice for your needs.
"Best OS for MacBook Pro 2015 Currently my MacBook Pro is running on El Capitan. What would be the best OS to upgrade it to? Some have suggested Catalina and others Mojave. So, I am confused. I don't want to lose the speed and ease of operating which I currently have."
The ongoing battle of Dell XPS 13 vs MacBook Pro is heating up now that Apple's finally ditched its problematic keyboard. Meanwhile, Dell continues to improve on one of the best laptop designs in the business.
We've considered the Dell XPS 13 to be the best laptop you can buy for quite some time, and the new Dell XPS 13 2020 is the best iteration yet. But now that the MacBook Pro also has 10th Gen Intel CPUs and an improved keyboard, does Apple have a winning-enough equation to topple Dell?
This week's roundup of the best laptop deals includes five can't-miss Editors' Choice deals starting with $169 off Apple's just-released 2015 MacBook Air. We've also found a budget Lenovo for an astonishingly low $199 and three mainstream machines from $399. 2ff7e9595c
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