A PC Expert Recommends The Best Laptops For Working From Home

CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite | RAM: 32GB LPDDR5X | Graphics: Snapdragon X Elite Adreno GPU | Storage: 1TB SSD | Display: 13.4-inch OLED touchscreen | Resolution: 2,880 x 1,800 | Refresh rate: 60Hz | Battery: Up to 27 hours | Weight: 2.6 pounds

Pros:

• Unmatched battery life
• Super lightweight design
• Gorgeous 3K OLED touchscreen display

Cons:

• Lacks a high refresh rate
• Higher resolution display limits battery life

The latest XPS 13 is the best XPS 13 ever, and that’s saying something. Previous generations have been some of the best laptops you can buy, offering excellent performance, lots of storage space and great battery life, but this generation goes far further. It’s built around the new Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite processor, which offers incredible performance and battery life all in one. With the 1080p display, this laptop can last up to 27 hours, which is longer than any other laptop we’ve come across. We’ve configured this model with the 3K OLED display which looks a lot nicer, so the battery isn’t quite as good, but it’ll still last over 20 hours, which few laptops can match.

Along with great efficiency comes strong performance, thanks to the blend of Snapdragon processing cores and the 32GB of LPDDR5X memory. The 1TB SSD keeps the whole system feeling snappy and responsive, too. The whole laptop weighs just over 2.5 pounds, making it one of the lightest laptops out there, even with all its advantages. This is the best laptop for just about anything, making it easily the best work from home laptop you can buy.

CPU: Intel Core i5-1335U | RAM: 16GB DDR4 | Graphics: Intel Iris Xe | Storage: 512GB SSD | Display: 15.6-inch | Resolution: 1,920 x 1,080 | Refresh rate: 120Hz | Battery: Up to 10 hours | Weight: 3.6 pounds

Pros:

• Great performance from such an affordable design
• Good port selection
• High refresh rate display is great for casual gaming

Cons:

• Lacks the performance of more powerful laptops
• Screen can look dull

The Dell Inspiron 15 is an excellent work-from-home laptop with absolutely everything you need for lightweight office tasks, web browsing, and networking. It’s built around the Intel Core i5-1335U processor, which while being entry-level by design, is still monstrously powerful. It sports 10 cores—as many as the very best laptop processors from just a few generations ago. Those are made up of performance cores and efficiency cores, helping to give you lots of multi-tasking power, while retaining good battery life. And at up to 10 hours, there’s enough for a full work day if you step away from your power source.

The onboard Iris Xe graphics are good enough for casual gaming, and the 15.6-inch display looks relatively crisp at 1080p. However, a fun extra there is the 120Hz refresh rate, which makes this laptop’s screen look extra fluid when it’s performing any kind of Windows animations. Get one of those casual games going with a high frame rate, too, and it’ll look buttery smooth. Port selection on the Dell Inspiron 15 is great, too, with a selection of USB-C, USB-A, a headphone jack, micro-SD card reader and an HDMI output for external displays.

CPU: Apple M3 Pro 12-Core | RAM: 8GB Unified Memory | Graphics: Apple M3 GPU 18-core | Storage: 1TB SSD | Display: 14.2-inch | Resolution: 3,024 x 1,964 | Refresh rate: 120Hz | Battery: Up to 22 hours | Weight: 3.5 pounds

Pros:

• Gorgeous display with intense brightness and high refresh rate
• Excellent performance from any of the M3 processors
• As much storage space as you need

Cons:

• Can be expensive in top configurations

If you need a MacBook with real power, the latest generation of MacBook Pro is ready to take on any task. They have incredible performance and efficiency thanks to the latest generation of Apple M3 processor, with this configuration using the M3 Pro model with 12-cores. That’s far from the top model, though, so if you want more cores and more power, there’s a greater core count M3 Pro model, or the M3 Max which really cranks up performance to a new level—though you’ll pay for it. The onboard graphics card is great for 3D design work or casual gaming, too.

Battery life is extensive, lasting well over a work day, and the display is a vibrant mini-LED lit LCD display with incredible brightness, making HDR content look stunning.

CPU: Intel Core Ultra 7 165U vPro | RAM: 32GB LPDDR5 | Graphics: Intel Graphics | Storage: 1TB SSD | Display: 14-inch touchscreen | Resolution: 1,920 x 1,200 | Refresh rate: 60Hz | Battery: Up to 15 hours | Weight: 2.4 pounds

Pros:

• Great performance
• Very lightweight and portable
• Excellent battery life

Cons:

• Lacks a UHD display option

The Lenovo ThinkPad Carbon X1 Gen 12 continues the strong pedigree of its predecessors with its mix of excellent performance, rugged build quality and impressive portability. It has great battery life, lasting up to 15 hours of mixed use, and at just 2.4 pounds, it’s one of the lightest laptops on this list. You can carry it around all day or easily hold it in one hand while you use it. Its screen doesn’t fold flat, but it’s still a touchscreen, giving you additional input options. It’s also not super detailed, but its 1080p+ resolution is perfectly crisp for professional tasks at 14 inches. There’s also the option to upgrade to a 3K OLED if you don’t mind sacrificing battery life.

The build quality is excellent, making sure that this laptop doesn’t just not flex when you use it or carry it around one handed, but it can withstand the odd knock and bang without trouble, too. The keyboard feels great when typing over longer sessions, and while the touchpad is responsive, too, you also have the classic Thinkpad pointing stick option, too.

CPU: Intel Core Ultra 9 185H | RAM: 32GB LPDDR5X | Graphics: Intel Arc | Storage: 1TB SSD | Display: 2 x 14-inch OLED touchscreen | Resolution: 2,880 x 1,800 | Refresh rate: 120Hz | Battery: Up to 13.5 hours | Weight: 3.6 pounds

Pros:

• Masses of screen space across the two displays
• Both offer gorgeous OLED contrast and colors
• Strong performance from the latest-generation hardware

Cons:

• Lacks a dedicated GPU for 3D rendering

The latest generation Asus ZenBook Duo has two full-size displays. That gives it an enormous advantage on screen space, and a huge advantage in productivity in general, with a range of options for how you display and configure your content and touch controls. You can extend video-editing timelines, have custom controls on the second screen, read a book like a real book, and use it as a huge dual-screen tablet if needed. There is so much you can do with a setup like this that you just can’t do on any other laptop.

Alongside the gorgeous OLED screens you get cutting-edge mobile performance from the Intel Core Ultra 9 processor, with its 16 cores, and 32GB of LPDDR5X memory for good measure. It doesn’t have a dedicated GPU, so it’s less capable when it comes to 3D rendering and gaming, but the onboard Intel Arc GPU is fine for basic tasks. The 120Hz refresh rate on these display is great for gaming, though, so in casual games, or when game streaming, your favorite games will look fantastic.