The Best Business Laptops

You don’t have to run a business to benefit from a business laptop. They’re easier to repair and upgrade than other laptops, and they’re built with sturdy materials that hold up well to travel and frequent use. We’ve tested dozens of business laptops over the years, and the HP EliteBook 840 G9 is the best option for most people: It has plenty of ports, it offers all-day battery life, and it comes with a comfortable, reliable keyboard and trackpad. But if you don’t care about being able to upgrade or fix your laptop yourself, a good ultrabook is usually cheaper.

Processor:Intel Core i5-1240PStorage:256 GB SSDGraphics:Intel XeScreen:1080p IPSMemory:8 GBWeight:2.9 poundsTested battery life:10 hours

The HP EliteBook 840 G9 is a slim, light, and repairable business laptop that still manages to pack a large screen that’s great for productivity, a powerful processor, and a nice selection of USB-A and USB-C ports. HP has also updated this design to include a new 16:10 display that gives more screen space to work, upgraded its webcam for better video calls, and reworked the keyboard to be less prone to typos. It also has a 10-hour battery life. These quality-of-life upgrades have boosted the EliteBook 840 G9 back up to our top pick.

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Processor:Intel Core i5-1235UStorage:256 GB SSDGraphics:Intel XeScreen:1080p IPSMemory:8 GBWeight:3.03 poundsTested battery life:9 hours

The Dell Latitude 5430 includes everything we like to see in a business laptop. It performs well at basic tasks from browsing the web to building Excel pivot tables, it has a wide range of ports, and it lasts more than an entire workday on its battery. The 14-inch 1080p screen looks nice enough to work on all day, and we liked using the laptop’s keyboard and trackpad. It’s also easy to repair and upgrade, so you can use it for years and years to come, even if parts fail or break. If you’re on the go, the Latitude 5430 isn’t too big or bulky, so it’s easy to slide into a backpack. However, a number of updates to the slimmer, more powerful, and longer-lasting HP EliteBook 840 G9 inched it over the Latitude for our top pick.

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 10 has a great screen, fast processor options, nice keyboard, and a long 13-hour battery life that makes it the best of all worlds for a Windows laptop. It costs about $200 more than our top pick, and upgrades to the screen could make it pricier, but Lenovo’s top-quality hardware and reliability are hard to beat. Aside from the laptop’s processor and RAM, most other components are easy to repair.

Also great

Framework Laptop

The most repairable option

Framework makes it easy to repair and upgrade your laptop by selling easy DIY upgrade kits and swappable ports.

Buying Options

$1,049

from

Framework

The Framework Laptop is the most repairable option in this guide, because Framework itself is built around creating laptops that can be easily upgraded and repaired. The Framework Laptop is fast and has a great processor and screen, and it’s similar in build quality to laptops from major manufacturers. It does have some potential pitfalls, like a nine-hour battery life that’s shorter than some of its competitors, and the fact that Framework is an independent company going up against established laptop brands. If Framework goes under and parts are no longer available, your laptop isn’t nearly as upgradable or repairable anymore.