Laptops / Notebooks

Find the information you need to buy laptops online with informative product comparisons and trusted user reviews. Whether you are looking for a powerful mobile workstation with an Intel Core i7, or just a lightweight model for basic office tasks, finding great deals on laptops is a matter of understanding how to pair needs to performance.

No-nonsense business laptops comprise this page. Built for easy IT management, these computers are easy to unscrew, upgrade and fix; they come with and standard security features suited for regulatory compliance. In general, OEM Windows 10 laptops combine performance specs while staying easy on the budget, ideal for a company that issues laptops to a mobile workforce.

If you’re looking for fancy tablets with detachable keyboards and boutique consumer features, browsing the Ultrabook comparisons is a better place for that. If you’re a gamer looking for high resolution displays and dazzling frame rates, many business machines can cut it, but first compare gaming laptops that are more attuned for that purpose.

You’re in the right place if ‘do work’ is your mantra and cost-efficiency is your yardstick. MacBook Pro and MacBook Air are available if you prefer OSX computers.

No frills or fancy builds; just the power to get the job done.

Windows 10 notebooks $300 and up - Clamshells for cost-conscious users provide minimal specs for basic office work. A low-power Intel Celeron, 4 GB of RAM, and 500 GB of storage is fine for e-mail, word, and web browsing. Acer Aspire and TravelMate are both notebooks under $300 that provide great value. HP Laptop 255 G5 is the go-to for the rank-and-file traveling corporate set. If a 180-degree hinge, touchscreen, and SSD are preferred features, the ASUS Transformer Book Flip costs only a bit more.

Looking for more lightweight notebooks in this range? Compare Chromebooks for similar pricing and power specifications.

Windows 10 notebooks under $750 - Strictly utilitarian at the entry point of this range (Intel Core i5, HD displays, 8 GB, 1 TB HDD) mainstream laptops take on serious attributes of a mobile workstation under $750. Last generation’s laptops with Intel Core i7, GeForce 940MX graphics, 1920 x 1080 HD display, and a mid-sized SSD are priced to sell in this price band.

Midrange Lenovo ThinkPad and IdeaPad, Dell Inspiron, and ASUS Zenbook are ideal machines for programmers and spreadsheet specialists working away from their desktop machines.

Laptops with Windows 10 Professional licensing suit business users with a balance power and portability. Starting around the $750 mark, base-models have a HD display, 8 GB of memory, and an Intel Core i5 CPU. Many have a small 128-256 GB solid-state drive paired with a larger HDD.

15-inch laptops work hard

Need something that can stand up to atypical work environments and serious road work? The sturdy carbon fiber build of the Dell Latitude E5570 withstands dings and drops, and handles outdoor elements with high tolerance for hot and cold. For something similar in power and even lighter is the HP ZBook 15u, a hair over 4 lbs. and comes with a spill resistant keyboard deck. The Lenovo ThinkPad T460 offers a famously comfortable “deep” keyboard, and extra security features—a fingerprint reader and single-touch sensor—come standard.

12-inch laptops have boardroom appeal

Compact, thin notebooks convey a sense of style and brilliance are a good fit for the executive suite. You will find IPS panel displays and HD+ resolution start at around $1,000. If thin bezels suit your taste, Dell XPS 13 with its InfinityEdge borderless display is worth a look. The slim matte-silver HP EliteBook Folio G1 has a deep keyboard rare for laptops this compact. The 4K option looks stunning but reduces battery life significantly—to around five hours in this HP laptop.

Laptops with long battery life

If 4K battery life is critical, a 12-inch MacBook sets the bar with eight hours of Retina display on a full charge. What’s more, the 8-cell Li-Polymer battery in the 14-inch Lenovo X1 Carbon gets 17 hours on a full charge at HD resolution.

Professional software for the creative professions—graphic design, music & film production, architecture, engineering, 3D modeling—demands a laptop with discrete graphics hardware for optimal performance, and a multi-threaded CPU like an Intel Core i7 is purpose-built for creative suite applications that utilize multiple cores simultaneously.

Engineers and architects using a laptop for Autodesk, Solidworks, and other CAD programs want a CUDA core heavy NVIDIA Quadro graphics card. Certain models of the Dell Precision 15 and HP Laptop ZBook G3 come equipped with this GPU.

Graphic designers and video editors regularly buy a MacBook for work. Historically Apple OS runs pro design tools especially well. The MacBook Retina projects a top-notch contrast ratio which makes it ideal when color accuracy matters; it has a brilliant 2800 x 1800 resolution and near-180 degree viewing angles. Both MacBook Air and MacBook Pro have Retina displays. For compute-intensive tasks like running production software, MacBook Pro has a dual-core Intel Core i5 processor that reaches 2.9 GHz, and Intel Iris integrated graphics, ideal specs for Aperture and Final Cut.