The Best Business Laptops

I’m a senior staff writer at Wirecutter covering monitors, laptops, tablets, and 3D printers. I specialize in devices designed for professionals, such as the best laptops for photo and video editors. I’ve also been building and repairing my own computers for nearly 20 years.

For this guide:

• I spent a week researching more than a dozen potential candidates to test, eventually testing six business laptops over two weeks.
• I attended CES 2024, one of the biggest tech trade shows of the year, to preview upcoming business laptops.
• I spoke with a variety of sources, from a small-business owner to electronics-repair shop owners, about everything from a business’s IT needs to the importance of upgradable memory.
• Like all Wirecutter journalists, I review and test products with complete editorial independence. I’m never made aware of any business implications of my editorial recommendations. Read more about our editorial standards.
• In accordance with Wirecutter standards, I return or donate all products I’ve tested once my assessment of them is complete. I never hang on to “freebies'' once testing is done.

Whether you run a small business and need a new computer for it or simply want a longer-lasting laptop, you need to decide whether you want an ultrabook or a business laptop. Ultrabooks are typically thin, light, and cheap, while business laptops are chunkier, pricier, and more repairable.

The two kinds of laptops have the same exact processing power, and we put business laptops through the same performance tests as ultrabooks. But business laptops are fundamentally different from ultrabooks because they’re designed to be taken apart.

Rather than using glue and solder to connect components together, which can make them nearly impossible to detach, manufacturers of business laptops design them with sockets that make replacing key components easy. Repair techs we spoke to said that both storage and RAM should be upgradable on a business laptop, unless the client specifically needs a light and thin machine. Storage and RAM constitute two of the most important aspects of a computer’s performance. Because these components can be swapped or upgraded on business laptops, if in the future you run out of hard-drive space or find that you’re constantly running too many applications and using all your RAM, you can add more. Business laptops also make smaller parts such as the speakers, keyboard, and power button easier to remove and replace.

That kind of repairability is important because not having access to your client files, financial information, or any other key business information is a critical setback. Small-business owners told us that their number one concern is being able to pull up information and make decisions quickly, and having a reliable computer is nonnegotiable. Business laptops are built to be repaired by internal IT departments to ensure as little downtime as possible.

As a result, when you’re considering a business laptop, it’s important to be realistic about the practicality of repair. Although business laptops are more repairable than most other laptops, it’s not necessarily a do-it-yourself process, or a remedy for anything that can go wrong. Unless you feel comfortable troubleshooting, ordering parts online, and opening up the back of a laptop to swap those parts, confirm that you have at least one dependable computer-repair shop that you can access. You might also find that after years of use, the laptop isn’t worth repairing due to wear and tear, or that it has fallen behind in terms of performance. But if you spill a drink on your keyboard or crack your screen, a business laptop will undoubtedly be easier to repair than a model for home use.

Shopping for a business laptop is different from buying an ultrabook, but the most important things to look for aren’t all that different:

• Performance: A business laptop should be able to run any modern office software, so we considered Windows laptops with the latest processors, those in the Intel Core Ultra line. Although Apple laptops don’t meet most of our criteria for this guide, the M1 chip in the 2020 MacBook Air still competes favorably against the most power-efficient Windows options for a fraction of the price, so we considered it as a budget pick. If you need a faster processor or a dedicated GPU for gaming, photo and video editing, or other work, check out our gaming laptop and pro laptop guides.
• Great keyboard: Business laptops are the quintessential document and spreadsheet devices, so their keys and keyboard layouts should be comfortable to use over long periods. We strongly prefer a backlight.
• Accurate trackpad or pointing device: Though business laptops should be sturdy, most wouldn’t be able to survive your throwing them at a wall in reaction to trackpad frustrations. We prefer Microsoft Precision Touchpads because they’re accurate and compatible with Windows 11’s multitouch trackpad gestures.
• 14-inch IPS screen: We prefer 14-inch business laptops because they’re more pleasant for editing large documents or spreadsheets than 13-inch laptops, yet they’re still smaller and lighter than 15-inch laptops. Most business laptops have 1080p screens that keep text and images sharp, with lots of room to fit more information, and use IPS panels (rather than TN panels) to improve color accuracy and viewing angles. A handful have taller screens with a 1920×1200 resolution, which are just as sharp but provide more vertical pixels.
• Wide range of ports: We prefer systems with a mix of old and new ports for maximum flexibility. Every laptop we consider for this guide offers at least one USB-C port (which you can use to link external monitors, charge the laptop, and connect USB-C accessories), a USB-A port, and an HDMI port. Not every system we test provides an SD or microSD card reader or an Ethernet jack, but we definitely prefer to have those. Thunderbolt 4 is optional, as are additional display outputs such as DisplayPort or VGA.
• Good battery life: We prefer at least eight hours of battery life—enough for a full workday or a coast-to-coast flight plus time spent waiting at the airport. Even business laptops no longer include swappable external batteries.
• Reasonable size and weight: Business laptops are usually larger and heavier than ultrabooks, partly because they’re built to be sturdier and partly because components such as removable memory take up more space than non-upgradable parts. But every laptop we’ve tested for this guide has weighed less than 4 pounds, and most models weigh less than 3.5 pounds.
• Upgradable and repairable: Although we have considered a few thin and light ultrabook-esque laptops, the majority of models we look at for this guide are designed to be opened and serviced easily. The laptop should allow you to get at the SSD bay or slot, as well as the battery, with minimal effort; access to at least one RAM slot and the Wi-Fi card is a plus. And the laptop should let you replace the keyboard and other parts without forcing you to take the entire thing apart or to replace a bunch of other, unrelated components.
• Competitive (if not low) price: Business laptops are typically more expensive than budget ultrabooks or cheap laptops. Their prices fluctuate widely depending on discounts and coupon codes, but in general you should expect to spend between $1,100 and $1,500 for a good business laptop and between $1,600 and $2,000 for an outstanding one. Because most are designed to be upgraded, you can sometimes save money on memory and storage upgrades if you’re willing to do them yourself. And by being easier to upgrade and repair, a business laptop can give you better long-term value despite costing more up front.
• Fingerprint reader or IR camera for speedier logins: Most business laptops offer a fingerprint reader for a nominal fee; some have infrared cameras that can scan your face instead. Technology improvements and Windows 11’s Windows Hello feature make logging in with your finger or face more reliable and predictable than it used to be.

The models we considered in our latest round of tests all came from Apple, Dell, HP, Lenovo, and Samsung because those are the only companies dedicated to building and maintaining a range of computers specifically for businesses. But we have also researched and tested models from Acer, Asus, Fujitsu, and Toshiba in the past.

We tested each laptop for at least two days of ordinary work—namely, loading up and switching among a couple dozen browser tabs, using Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Slack constantly, and playing music and video. This process gave us a feel for each laptop’s keyboard, trackpad, screen, and general performance on common work tasks.

To test the batteries, we used a Spyder5Pro colorimeter to set each laptop’s screen backlight to 150 nits (or candelas per square meter, cd/m2) and ran a web-browsing battery test that cycled through web pages, email, Google Docs, and video. We ran the test twice on each laptop and averaged the results.

We also removed the bottom panel from each laptop and noted how many screws (and other things, if applicable) we would need to remove to access the memory, storage, and internal battery for repair or replacement. Replacing major components in a business laptop should be easier than it is for a regular ultrabook, but replacing a screen, motherboard, or keyboard yourself can still void the warranty, so we didn’t test this firsthand.

The HP EliteBook 840 G11 offers strong performance, a screen that looks better than those on similarly priced business laptops, and a long, 12-hour battery life, all without sacrificing repairability.

It's powerful enough for most office work. In our tests, the EliteBook 840 G11 easily handled web browsing in two Chrome windows full of tabs alongside multiple Excel and Word documents. We also streamed music and video in the background on Spotify and YouTube, which had no impact on the machine’s working performance. However, this laptop is really not meant for any kind of photo or video editing, or any media work other than simple graphic design.

Its display has more contrast and looks more natural than those of other 1080p laptops. In comparison with similarly priced business laptops such as the Dell XPS 14 and Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 5, the HP EliteBook 840 G11 produced images and video with more contrast and skin tones that seemed more natural. In our tests the display reached 400 nits of brightness, which is bright enough for use in most indoor situations, including sunny rooms. We found the display a bit too dim for us to use it comfortably with midday sunlight directly on the screen, but that’s true of all the laptops we tested for this guide.

Its battery lasts a full workday. The EliteBook 840 G11 lasted 11 hours 52 minutes on average in our battery test, which we ran multiple times and designed to simulate real-world web browsing.

It has a variety of useful ports and modern wireless options. In addition to a full HDMI 2.1 port, the EliteBook 840 G11 has two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports capable of charging or powering displays, two USB-A ports, a headphone jack, and a SIM tray. It uses Wi-Fi 6E, the latest standard, and has a modern Bluetooth 5.3 antenna.

It has a high-quality webcam with a sliding cover. HP has made the 5-megapixel webcam a standard in many of its laptops, including the EliteBook 840 G11. Its images were sharp and looked better than what we got from many other laptop webcams in lower-light situations. We also like that the webcam has an unobtrusive sliding privacy cover, as well as a visual indicator that lets you know when it’s covering the camera.

It has a large trackpad and a keyboard with function keys. The EliteBook 840 G11’s trackpad measures about 5 by 3 inches, the same size as the MacBook Air’s trackpad. We found this size especially comfortable to use, as it gave us enough room to use the laptop in different sitting arrangements, as well as to perform multi-finger taps and swipes. In addition, HP redesigned the EliteBook keyboard to be much more usable, including moving some function keys away from the right side of the keyboard; it also has large, easy-to-see key legends.

The design is simple and focuses on comfort. The chassis has rounded edges that make it comfortable for you to rest your palms or wrists while you type, and you can easily open the laptop with one hand. It has a simple silver color scheme and is likely to blend into most business environments.

It’s extremely repairable. The EliteBook 840 G11 is designed to be taken apart and serviced—you can replace most of the computer’s components, aside from its CPU. HP offers great repair documentation, including an hour-long video showing the teardown process for the entire laptop.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

It has a low-res screen in comparison with an ultrabook. Many business laptops, including the HP EliteBook 840 G11, have simple, 1080p displays. Although these displays are usable and have been the standard for years, they’re not up to par with the rest of the ultrabook field. Higher-resolution displays are easier on the eyes due to their improved image quality, but typically they also get brighter, produce more contrast, and are usable in higher levels of sunlight. If you’re willing to pay more, our upgrade pick can be configured with a higher-resolution display.

Its magnesium top case is prone to scratches. We found that the magnesium top lid that houses the display is a bit soft and easily scratched by metal. If you tend to toss your laptop into a bag without a case or slide it into a dock, it’s likely to get scratched over time.

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 12 offers a lighter and thinner build and has better battery life than our top pick, while maintaining great performance, a wide selection of ports, and repairability.

Next to our top pick, it offers similar performance in a slimmer package. The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 12 passed all the same tests as the HP EliteBook 840 G11, keeping up with lots of Chrome tabs, Microsoft Office windows, and media streaming. However, it weighs about half a pound less than our top pick and is about a tenth of an inch slimmer, a difference that we could actually feel when holding both in our hands.

Its battery lasts a lot longer than those of our other picks. The X1 Carbon Gen 12 lasted an average of 15 hours 24 minutes in our battery tests, the longest Windows PC battery life we saw in this round. Our test simulates real web browsing, including scrolling social media and watching videos online.

It has business-friendly ports and a decent webcam. The X1 Carbon Gen 12 has two USB-C Thunderbolt 4 ports, two USB-A ports, an HDMI port, and a headphone jack. Its webcam is only 1080p, a lower resolution than the 5-megapixel camera of the EliteBook 840 G11, but it’s still perfectly usable in most lighting situations.

It has a nice display compared with other business laptops, and you can upgrade the display further. In our tests, the standard 1080p display of the X1 Carbon Gen 12 was sharp and high-quality, inching out that of the EliteBook 840 G11 in how natural people looked on screen and based on our visual preference when we compared the laptops side by side. And unlike with many other business laptops, you can upgrade the X1 Carbon Gen 12’s display to a high-resolution 2.8K OLED option. Although OLED screens typically consume more battery, that drawback might be worth tolerating if you’re accustomed to using a Samsung or Apple ultrabook with a higher-res screen.

However, Lenovo’s classic red pointer buttons eat up some trackpad space. The X1 Carbon Gen 12 has the smallest trackpad of our picks, mainly because of the three large buttons that occupy the top portion of the trackpad. Although you can use these buttons in conjunction with the trackpad, they are intended for use with the red pointer nub in the middle of the X1 Carbon Gen 12’s keyboard. This could be a feature or a flaw, depending on whether you like Lenovo’s pointer.

Its RAM isn’t upgradable. Unlike in the EliteBook 840 G11, the X1 Carbon Gen 12’s RAM is soldered to the motherboard. That means you can’t repair or upgrade it in the future. The other major components of the laptop, in contrast, can be repaired or replaced.

The Apple MacBook Air (M1, 2020) might not be the obvious first choice for a business laptop, since it has only USB-C ports and is infamously impossible to repair yourself. But its price and Apple’s nationwide repair network make it a competitive option.

Its performance is still great, almost four years after its release. The M1 chip is powerful enough for basic web browsing and office work, though if you’re a Microsoft Office power user we recommend a Windows laptop instead, as those applications work a bit more seamlessly there. However, the M1 chip is more than enough for a few Word documents and Excel spreadsheets, and the MacBook Air held up to all the same tests as our top pick and upgrade pick did.

Its still beats most Windows laptops in battery life. The MacBook Air’s M1 chip has proven to be power-efficient, lasting more than 14 hours in our battery tests. Some newer Windows laptops, such as the upgrade pick in this guide, are finally beating Apple’s battery-life scores. But four years after its release, the M1 MacBook Air is still extremely competitive in this regard.

It has the nicest screen of any of our picks. The M1 MacBook Air has a high-quality display with a 2560×1600 resolution, in contrast to the 1080p displays in all the other models we tested. Images looked sharp and vibrant, and text appeared crisp. Typically MacBook Air displays are also far more color-accurate than those of their business laptop or ultrabook counterparts.

It’s the thinnest laptop we tested. It’s kind of Apple’s calling card, but this MacBook Air is extremely thin—significantly thinner than our upgrade pick, the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 12. However, it weighs about a quarter of a pound more at 2.8 pounds.

It trades repairability for replaceability. Apple’s advantage for business users is its nationwide network of physical stores that can repair or replace computers on short notice. The M1 MacBook Air is also widely available for sale at Walmart stores across the US. So although you can’t repair this laptop yourself, Apple’s repair support is far superior to what you can get from competitors. The laptop is also so inexpensive that you could buy a replacement and still spend less overall than buying our top pick.

It isn’t the best business laptop. While the M1 MacBook Air is a great budget ultrabook, which makes it good at surfing the internet and watching media, it doesn’t have some of the features we look for in a great business laptop. For instance, it has only two USB-C ports and a headphone jack, and you have to use one USB-C port to charge the laptop. This means you need to use a dongle for any USB-A accessories or HDMI output. In addition, its webcam offers only 720p resolution, which looks a bit dated in video calls and performs much worse in low light compared with the higher-resolution options in our other picks. But the M1 MacBook Air’s price, performance, screen, and availability make it a strong option for a budget business laptop.

Intel has announced its second line of processors this year, called Intel Core Ultra (Series 2), codenamed Lunar Lake. Initial reports suggest that the new chips have similar, if not better, energy efficiency and power than the Qualcomm Snapdragon processors we just tested and added to the Other good business laptops and competition section. But Intel Core Ultra (Series 2) processors won’t have the same compatibility issues as Snapdragon processors, where apps have to be specifically ported to work on Qualcomm’s ARM architecture. Some developers haven’t built their apps to work on ARM. But these new Intel chips could give the energy efficiency boost of ARM without compatibility issues, so we’ll be testing laptops with Lunar Lake processors as soon as we can. We’re particularly interested in the Acer TravelMate P6 14 AI, Asus ExpertBook P5, HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14, and the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Aura Edition.

For the best battery life: The Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 has a new Snapdragon Elite processor that posted 22 hours of battery life on average based on our tests, the longest-lasting business laptop we’ve tested. This processor also comes with a drawback, however, as it’s new to the market and some developers haven’t rebuilt their applications to work with the new hardware. (Here’s a list of major compatible apps.) The ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 is otherwise a very good business laptop, with USB-A and HDMI ports alongside two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports, and the design, keyboard, and trackpad are very similar to our upgrade pick, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon. It has a sharp 1920x1200 display with a 16:10 aspect ratio, which gives more vertical space on screen, but that’s the case with most business laptops. If you only use supported applications and care most about battery life, the ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 is the laptop we’d recommend.

The Acer Travelmate P6 14 is lightweight and has a sharp touchscreen display, plus it has the mix of USB-A, USB-C, and HDMI ports we like to see on business laptops. But it has a loud fan that spins up way too often, including while doing something as simple as unzipping a small file. Loud laptop fans used to be a fact of life, but the laptops we recommend now are quiet unless under heavy workloads. It's also impossible to turn off the Acer's AI presence sensing, which dims the display when it thinks a person has walked away from the laptop. This probably won’t be an issue for most people, but if you're turning away from your laptop a lot—like while doing some work on an L-shaped desk—it becomes incredibly annoying waiting for a second for the computer to recognize your human body.

The Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 has become a very good business laptop over its many iterations, but there are still a few things holding us back from recommending it. First, we noticed artifacts that looked like a slight grainy texture on the displays across the two units we tested. When we originally asked Microsoft about the same issue on the OLED version of the new Surface Pro, which launched at the same time, the company said it was an element of the touchscreen that was visibly interacting with the display. The Surface Laptop’s Snapdragon processor is also not compatible with every Windows application. (Here’s a list of major compatible apps.) This is less of an issue as more Windows applications get ported to the new chip’s architecture, but it prevents us from fully endorsing laptops with those processors. With that said, we commend Microsoft for making the newest Surface Laptop incredibly easy to repair. In addition to components being labeled and easy to remove, even the rubber feet on the bottom of the laptop are designed to be easily taken out and—crucially—put back in, rather than using cheaper glue to stick on standard feet like most manufacturers.

We tested two versions of the HP EliteBook 1040, with both OLED and non-OLED displays. These are about half a pound lighter and slightly slimmer than the EliteBook 840 we currently recommend, but after using them we don’t think the sleeker design is worth the at least $350 difference between the models. Between the two models of the EliteBook 1040 we tested, the OLED display was a drastic improvement in contrast and image quality, especially compared to the lackluster, low-quality displays often found on business laptops. As much as we liked it, the OLED display took off about 6 hours of battery life, measuring in at 10.5 hours compared to the non-OLED version's 16.5-hour lifespan.

The Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge is extremely fast and has a lot of attractive features, like a slim design and sharp AMOLED display. However, it falls short as a great business laptop. It's not repairable, and the new Snapdragon processor still isn't compatible with all software on Windows. (Here’s a list of major compatible apps.) We'd rather recommend a laptop we know can run any Windows application, and the current benefits of Snapdragon processors aren't significant enough to brave the uncertain waters of compatibility issues.

The Dell XPS 14 lacks USB-A and HDMI ports, and it’s heavy. This model weighs 3.7 pounds, only about half a pound more than our top pick, the HP EliteBook 840 G11, but it’s a very noticeable half pound. We also had an issue with the webcam crashing, and we found the laptop oddly difficult to open, especially one-handed.

The Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 5 delivered good performance in our tests, but we prefer the HP EliteBook 840 G11’s build quality, display, and webcam. Our top pick is lighter and slimmer, it’s easier to open with one hand, and its display has more contrast. This Lenovo laptop’s speakers sounded worse than those on the HP model too, and we had a brief problem with the webcam’s image flashing purple when we launched the camera.

The Samsung Galaxy Book4 Pro provided great performance in our tests, and it has the ports we like to see on a business laptop, but it fell short in battery life. We measured an average battery life of just under 9.5 hours, about 2.5 hours less than what we got from our top pick, the HP EliteBook 840 G11. We also prefer the HP laptop’s webcam.

Apple’s 14-inch MacBook Pro and 16-inch MacBook Pro are both intended for professionals—“pro” is right in the name, after all. They’re light, their screens are fantastic, their keyboards and trackpads are good, and Apple’s support is usually responsive and helpful. We have a guide to MacBooks if you prefer macOS to Windows. But these laptops currently don’t meet most of our upgradability and repairability criteria for a good business laptop. They’re difficult to repair and usually impossible to upgrade, and they include just a handful of identical ports, necessitating a pile of dongles.

Correction: A previous version of this guide referred to the HP EliteBook 840’s top lid as plastic, but it is actually made of magnesium.

This article was edited by Signe Brewster and Caitlin McGarry.