It’s often said that a worker is only as good as their tools, so any office-based worker will need to make sure they have one of the best business laptop options to ensure they’re maximising their potential.
With so many laptops available these days, picking out the best business laptop possible is no easy task, so we’ve decided to help out. Our team of experienced experts review multiple laptops throughout the year, and we’ve picked out the top scoring portables for this very best list.
When reviewing a laptop, we make sure to conduct as many tests as possible, including industry-standard benchmarks to evaluate performance, screen tests to make sure the display is up to snuff, and battery drains to check the stamina between charges. Only the laptops that perform well in these tests, and represent good value for money, are considered for this list.
Everyone has different tastes, so we’ve made sure to include a variety of options, including those based on Windows, macOS or even ChromeOS. There’s also a wide variety of prices to make sure everyone is catered to.
If you can’t find a business laptop you like at the moment, we’d recommend bookmarking this list as we’ll be updating it frequently as more of them pass through the Trusted Labs. It’s also worth checking out our Best Laptop, Best Ultrabook, Best Student Laptop and Best Budget Laptop pages for a more general look.
- Best overall business laptop: Apple MacBook Air M2 (2022) – check price
- Best value business laptop: Acer Chromebook Plus 515 – check price
- Best business laptop for creatives: Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch M3 Max – check price
- Best 16-inch business laptop: Acer Swift Edge 16 – check price
- Best for security: Dell Latitude 7320 – check price
SQUIRREL_ANCHOR_LIST
Learn more about how we test laptops
Every laptop we review goes through a series of uniform checks designed to gauge key things including build quality, performance, screen quality and battery life.
These include formal synthetic benchmarks and scripted tests, plus a series of real world checks, such as how well it runs the most frequently used apps.
We also make sure to use every laptop we review as our primary device for at least a week to ensure our review is as accurate as possible.

Apple MacBook Air M2 (2022)
Pros
- Fantastic performance
- Sleek, updated design
- Excellent keyboard and trackpad
- Long battery life
Cons
- Expensive starting price and upgrades
- More colours would have been nice
- The M1 version remains an excellent buy for less

Acer Chromebook Plus 515
Pros
- Great build quality
- USB-C charging
- Stacked specs for the price
Cons
- Sluggish trackpad
- 60Hz non-touch display

Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch M3 Max
Pros
- Exceptional performance
- Stunning display and keyboard
Cons
- The price builds up very quickly
- No Face ID

Acer Swift Edge 16
Pros
- Impressively well-rounded performance
- Bright and rich 3.2K OLED display
- Impressively lightweight
- Top-tier port selection
Cons
- Odd trackpad click
- Poor speakers
- Eager fans

Dell Latitude 7320
Pros
- High-brightness matte screen
- Near-silent with general office-type work
- Low weight
- Long battery life
Cons
- Limited display contrast
- Touchpad should be better at this price

Apple MacBook Air M2 (2022)
Best overall business laptopPros
- Fantastic performance
- Sleek, updated design
- Excellent keyboard and trackpad
- Long battery life
Cons
- Expensive starting price and upgrades
- More colours would have been nice
- The M1 version remains an excellent buy for less
For the best overall business laptop we’ve tested, look no further than the Apple MacBook Air M2 (2022)
Inside, it features Apple’s M2 chip, which is more than capable of handling professional tasks such as 4K video editing with ease. The 8GB of RAM on the standard model should be more than enough for most people, especially given the upgrade to 16GB will cost you an extra £200/$200. Like its predecessor, this is also a fanless MacBook, which means it’s silent all the time, but may fall down during sustained loads due to the lack of active cooling.
The MacBook Air M2 has a 13.6-inch screen. In testing, we found it to match Apple’s claimed 500 nits of brightness, meaning it’s ideal if you’re working a lot in brighter spots. And if the 13-inch screen is a little too small for you, there’s also the option of the 15-inch MacBook Air which also represents excellent value.
At 1.24kg, the 13-inch MacBook Air is immensely portable, and a thickness of just 1.13cm also makes it thinner than an iPad with a Magic Keyboard attached. The port selection is alright, with USB-C ports and a MagSafe connection, although you don’t get an SD card reader and HDMI out, as you do on the MacBook Pro. The keyboard and trackpad are both excellent, which is a must if you spend much of the day working in docs and sheets.
The endurance on offer is also excellent, with the M2 MacBook Air lasting comfortably throughout a working day with around 20% to spare, while in running a video loop tested, it lasted for around 14 hours, which is a 2 hour boost compared to the original M1 powered MacBook Air.

Acer Chromebook Plus 515
Best value business laptopPros
- Great build quality
- USB-C charging
- Stacked specs for the price
Cons
- Sluggish trackpad
- 60Hz non-touch display
The first thing to highlight with the Acer Chromebook Plus 515 is that it runs on ChromeOS instead of Windows. That may be problematic for those who need bespoke software in their business that is only available through Windows or macOS. However, if you simply need a business laptop for browsing the web and typing up essays, the Acer Chromebook Plus 515 fits the bill while saving you lots of money in the meantime.
During the testing process, we were incredibly impressed with the Acer Chromebook Plus 515. Available for under £500/$500, it offers a solid productivity performance (at least for a Chromebook) and a superb battery life that we recorded to last over 10 hours.
Like most Chromebooks at this price, the Acer Chromebook Plus 515 is made up of a mix of plastic and metal. We were impressed with the overall build quality, and the keyboard is perfectly adequate for typing up essays all day, even if the trackpad can be a little sluggish.
With many modern Windows laptops costing well over £1000/$1000, the Acer Chromebook Plus 515 is a cost-effective alternative that can handle web browsing and productivity workloads perfectly fine. Just make sure ChromeOS supports all of the software you need for work before hitting checkout.

Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch M3 Max
Best business laptop for creativesPros
- Exceptional performance
- Stunning display and keyboard
Cons
- The price builds up very quickly
- No Face ID
The MacBook Pro has long been our number one recommendation for business workers who need to dip into creative workloads such as video editing, and the MacBook Pro 16-inch M3 Max only strengthens its position with a supercharged performance thanks to the cutting edge M3 Max chip.
You’ll struggle to find a more powerful laptop than the MacBook Pro for content creation, as it saw a higher benchmark score for processing speed than almost any other laptop that we reviewed in 2023. Importantly, graphics performance is excellent too, allowing for speedy rendering times.
Laptops optimised for such workloads usually have major drawbacks, as it can impact battery life and the weight of the portable. However, the MacBook Pro can last up to 15 hours for productivity work, which we were able to verify during testing. And at 2.16kg, this is a rather heavy laptop, but it’s still surprisingly portable considering how much power it has to offer.
Due to the extravagant price, the MacBook Pro 16-inch M3 Max is a needless purchase for business workers who just need to send emails, fill in spreadsheets and type up reports. The Acer Swift X 14 is a good middle-ground option too if you want a cheaper laptop with an entry-level graphics performance. But if you need a powerful laptop that can handle heavy duty tasks such as video editing, then the MacBook Pro is the best option.

Acer Swift Edge 16
Best 16-inch business laptopPros
- Impressively well-rounded performance
- Bright and rich 3.2K OLED display
- Impressively lightweight
- Top-tier port selection
Cons
- Odd trackpad click
- Poor speakers
- Eager fans
If you’re the type who work with multiple tabs open, or need to view exhaustive spreadsheets while also typing up a report, then it’s likely that a 13-inch laptop screen just isn’t big enough to squeeze everything on the display simultaneously. So we’ve decided to include the Acer Swift Edge 16 in this list, which has a big 16-inch screen as well as excellent productivity performance.
Despite its large screen, the Acer Swift Edge is delightfully light, coming in at just 1.23kg. This will be incredibly important for those who lug their laptop to the office every day. And despite having a thin chassis, there’s a great selection of ports here including USB-C, HDMI 2.1 and a microSD card reader. There’s even Wi-Fi 7 support for a speedy connection to the web.
One of the highlights of this laptop is the gorgeous OLED screen, with eye-popping colour making videos look far more vibrant. An OLED screen isn’t imperative for a business, of course, but it’s still a nice bonus if you like to watch the likes of Netflix and YouTube on your lunch break.
So if you fancy yourself a speedy productivity laptop with a big screen, we reckon the Acer Swift Edge 16 provides the best value. And if you want an even bigger screen, then we suggest checking out the LG Gram 17 (2023) instead.

Dell Latitude 7320
Best for securityPros
- High-brightness matte screen
- Near-silent with general office-type work
- Low weight
- Long battery life
Cons
- Limited display contrast
- Touchpad should be better at this price
The Dell Latitude 7320 is a marvellous option for a business laptop if security is integral thanks to the Intel vPro features on offer. It’s also one of the more functional-looking devices out there.
This is reflected in its plainer design than other more expensive laptops, although at 1.21kg, it’s one of the lightest on this list, which makes it especially portable. It’s also rather well built too, with little flexing in the casing. The light weight definitely didn’t lead to any compromises on build quality. With a deep travel and some rather chunky and large keys, we also found the keyboard on the 7320 to be one of the best compact laptop keyboards we’ve tested in a while.
We found the performance for such a small laptop to be solid, with great results in our benchmark tests, while the screen also proved to be decent enough for mainstream work. It’s a 13.3-inch FHD matted panel, which makes this laptop much easier to use in bright environments. Colours here are relatively punchy, and gamut coverage is more than good enough for basic productivity tasks, even if it may not be up to standard for more intensive workloads.
A total 63Wh capacity also allows the Latitude 7320 to offer some great battery life, with it reaching the heights of 12.5 hours during our testing. This is more than enough for a working day, and you may even be able to get a couple more hours out of it before grabbing the charging cable.
Test Data
Apple MacBook Air M2 (2022) | Acer Chromebook Plus 515 | Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch M3 Max | Acer Swift Edge 16 | Dell Latitude 7320 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
PCMark 10 | – | – | – | 6582 | 5079 |
PugetBench for Premiere Pro | – | – | 891 | 202 | – |
Cinebench R23 multi core | 8100 | – | 24038 | 11656 | 4198 |
Cinebench R23 single core | – | – | 1958 | 1652 | – |
Geekbench 5 single core | 1928 | – | 2355 | 1828 | 1527 |
Geekbench 5 multi core | 8968 | – | 22980 | 8946 | 5597 |
Geekbench 6 single core | – | 1763 | 3212 | 2399 | – |
Geekbench 6 multi core | – | 5748 | 21495 | 10182 | – |
3DMark Time Spy | – | – | – | 2665 | 1561 |
CrystalDiskMark Read speed | 2913.7 MB/s | – | – | 7151.34 MB/s | – |
CrystalDiskMark Write Speed | – | – | – | 1625.81 MB/s | – |
Brightness (SDR) | 503 nits | – | – | 371.1 nits | 478 nits |
Black level | – | – | – | 0 nits | – |
Contrast ratio | – | – | – | 0:1 | 999:1 |
White Visual Colour Temperature | – | – | – | 6900 K | – |
sRGB | – | – | – | 100 % | 99.7 % |
Adobe RGB | – | – | – | 95 % | 71.6 % |
DCI-P3 | – | – | – | 100 % | 75.4 % |
PCMark Battery (office) | – | – | – | 8 hrs | – |
Battery discharge after 60 minutes of online Netflix playback | – | 10 % | – | – | – |
Battery recharge time | – | 64 mins | – | – | – |
Full Specs
Apple MacBook Air M2 (2022) Review | Acer Chromebook Plus 515 Review | Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch M3 Max Review | Acer Swift Edge 16 Review | Dell Latitude 7320 Review | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
UK RRP | £1249 | £499 | £3599 | £1299 | £1842 |
USA RRP | $1199 | – | $3499 | $1299.99 | – |
EU RRP | €1499 | – | €4349 | €1199 | – |
CA RRP | CA$1499 | – | CA$4649 | – | – |
AUD RRP | AU$1899 | – | AU$5999 | – | – |
CPU | Apple M2 | 12th-gen Intel Core i5 | M3 Max | AMD Ryzen 7 7840U | Intel Core i7-1185G7 |
Manufacturer | Apple | Acer | Apple | Acer | Dell |
Screen Size | 13.6 inches | 15.6 inches | 16 inches | 16 inches | 13.3 inches |
Storage Capacity | 256GB, 512GB, 1TB | 256GB | 1TB, 2TB, 3TB, 4TB, 5TB | 512GB | 512GB |
Front Camera | 1080p | FHD | 1080p | 1440p | 720p |
Battery | 52.6 Whr | 4590 mAh | – | 54 Whr | 63 Whr |
Battery Hours | – | 9 | 23 00 | – | 12 31 |
Size (Dimensions) | 30.41 x 21.5 x 1.13 CM | x x INCHES | 35.57 x 24.81 x 1.68 CM | 358 x 245.9 x 12.95 MM | 306.5 x 199.5 x 16.96 MM |
Weight | 1.24 KG | – | 2.16 KG | 1.23 KG | 1.12 G |
ASIN | B0B3BJD4F4 | – | B0CM5VRLK1 | B0B1VV7RMG | B095PB44PG |
Operating System | MacOS | – | macOS | Windows 11 | Windows 10 |
Release Date | 2022 | 2023 | 2023 | 2023 | 2021 |
First Reviewed Date | 03/08/2022 | – | 13/12/2023 | – | 31/08/2021 |
Model Number | – | N23C10 | – | – | – |
Resolution | 2560 x 1664 | x | 3456 x 2234 | 3200 x 2000 | 1920 x 1080 |
HDR | – | – | No | No | – |
Refresh Rate | 60 Hz | 60 Hz | 120 Hz | 120 Hz | 60 Hz |
Ports | 2x Thunderbolt 3, 1x MagSafe | – | Thunderbolt 4 x3, SDXC, HDMI, MagSafe | 2x USB-4 Type-C, 2x USB-A, HDMI 2.1, headphone jack and microSD card reader | USB-C, Thunderbolt 4, USB-A,HDMI |
GPU | Apple M2 | Intel IRIS Xe | M3 Max | AMD Radeon 780M | Intel Xe |
RAM | 8GB | 8GB | 32GB, 64GB, 128GB | 16GB | 16GB |
Connectivity | – | – | – | Wi-Fi 7 | – |
Colours | Midnight, Starlight, Silver, Space Grey | – | Space Black, Silver | Olivine Black | – |
Display Technology | IPS | IPS | Mini LED | OLED | LCD |
Screen Technology | – | – | – | IPS | IPS |
Touch Screen | No | No | No | No | No |
Convertible? | No | No | No | No | No |