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MagyarThe Best Business Notebooks
Working For Notebookcheck
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News Writer (AUS/NZL based) - Details here
With prices mostly significantly above $1,000 business notebooks tend to offer a lot. However, business customers also tend to ask for quite a lot in return. Long-lasting and robust cases, a wide variety of safety features, top-of-the-line communication modules, and last but not least a high level of performance paired with a low level of emissions. And to make matters worse, professional users have the habit of frequently asking for extended warranties and service options.
Given the often significantly longer life cycles of business notebooks, particularly in regard to the long-term availability of spare parts, we have extended the time frame for this category to at least 12 months or more. Please consider the following top lists when making a decision as well:
- The Best Budget Office Notebooks (affordable office notebooks)
- The Best Mobile Workstations (powerful workstations for professionals)
- The Best Subnotebooks (compact and portable notebooks)
- The Best Laptop 2-in-1/Convertibles (notebooks that can also be used as tablets)
The Best Premium Business Laptops
The table above contains an overview over the best business laptops reviewed by Notebookcheck over the course of the past 12 months as well as still relevant and available older products. In cases of identical score the more recent device is listed first. All prices in above table and price comparisons are updated daily and can thus differ.
Link: all devices in this class reviewed
Editors' Comments
1st – Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 6
Last year, the Carbon performed better than the Yoga. This year, it’s the other way around. The brand-new Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 6 combines continuity with evolution and deservedly received an excellent rating of 91 % in our review. Continuity can be found in its high-quality gray aluminum case as well as its connectivity. Evolution is represented by the larger battery, a higher performance, and options such as 5G or 32 GB of RAM. Its most important enhancement is the new matte 16:10 display, a form factor that fits a convertible such as the ThinkPad X1 Yoga 2021 very well.
On the flip side its most annoying downside is its temperature as well as a firmware problem in our review unit leading to sudden performance dropouts. The keyboard may still perform at a very high level; however we definitely preferred its predecessor’s.
The new ThinkPad X1 Yoga G6 is Lenovo’s best business convertible. Its performance is very good, its case is of extremely high quality, and its matte 16:10 panel left an excellent impression on us.
Availability is somewhat limited right now. Prices start at $1,400 for the base model, and the device can be purchased through Lenovo’s own webstore.
Pricecompare
Top 10 Laptops
Multimedia, Budget Multimedia, Gaming, Budget Gaming, Lightweight Gaming, Business, Budget Office, Workstation, Subnotebooks, Ultrabooks, Chromebooks
under 300 USD/Euros, under 500 USD/Euros, 1,000 USD/Euros, for University Students, Best Displays
Top 10 Smartphones
Smartphones, Phablets, ≤6-inch, Camera Smartphones
2nd – Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Yoga Gen 2
To everyone’s surprise the ThinkPad X13 Yoga Gen 2 managed to secure a top spot on our top 10 list despite the fact that it is distinctly not a member of Lenovo’s high-end ThinkPad X1 series. Nevertheless, it performed very well in our review and achieved a very good rating as a result. We particularly liked its comfortable keyboard, good connectivity, its lightweight yet robust carbon-magnesium case, and most important its 13.3-inch 16:10 display, which offered good brightness, color gamut, and a resolution of 2560 x 1600.
To our bewilderment this particular WQXGA resolution is not available for the X1 Carbon and X1 Yoga, which is unfortunate given that it offers an almost ideal compromise between resolution and energy efficiency. This display is one of the main reasons why the ThinkPad X13 Yoga Gen 2 performed as well as it did and secured its spot high up on our top 10 list.
16:10 is the new trend. Besides the X1 Yoga Gen 6 the ThinkPad X13 Yoga Gen 2 is yet another Lenovo ThinkPad convertible that achieved a very good rating in our review.
Prices start at $1,300, and all SKUs are available for next business day shipping according to Lenovo. The device can be purchased among others through Lenovo’s own webstore.
Pricecompare
3rd – HP Elite Dragonfly Max
Last year’s HP Elite Dragonfly surprised us with its unusual dark blue case, not necessarily with its color but mostly its low weight. The HP Elite Dragonfly Max is successor to the Elite Dragonfly in a “maximum” SKU thereof. It includes all Elite Dragonfly G2 features and adds a better webcam, HP SureView, and a new black case.
In addition to features such as 5G, a very quiet fan, a good keyboard, and a great webcam the HP Elite Dragonfly Max achieved a very good rating in our review. Its largest downside is the SureView display that impedes tablet mode usability due to its narrow viewing angles.
The recipe is very simple. Take the Spectre x360 13, put it in a nice professional suite and tie, and voila: the HP Elite Dragonfly Max. The device offers SureView and low noise emissions at the cost of crisp image quality and performance when compared to many other 13.3-inch notebooks with Intel’s 11 gen. processors.
Considering that it is a direct competitor to Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Yoga its high price is not surprising at all. Prices start at $2,300, and the device is currently only available through HP’s own website.
Pricecompare
4th – Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 2
With its most recent upgrade to AMD silicon the Lenovo ThinkPad X13 G2 successfully managed to rise through the ranks of our premium business laptops top list. Among its competitors, the ThinkPad X13 G2 AMD is notable for its excellent performance, its 16:10 display, and its comparatively low price. All other business laptops that managed to score as high as the X13 G2, such as for example the ThinkPad X1 Yoga or the HP EliteBook Dragonfly Max, are significantly more expensive. Its most prominent downsides are the soldered RAM as well as the keyboard, which isn’t as good as its predecessor’s.
North of 90 thanks to AMD. The faster Ryzen processor managed to improve upon the already good ThinkPad X13 G2.
The device is available among others through Lenovo’s own webstore with prices starting at just $900.
Pricecompare
5th – Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 9
The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 9 is very closely related to the X1 Yoga G6. However, as the more traditional laptop it lacks the latter’s convertibleness, such as the 360-degree display hinge or the integrated stylus. In return, it is significantly lighter and clad in traditional ThinkPad black. These details aside is it almost identical to the X1 Yoga G6, including the 16:10 display and the worse keyboard.
Please note that the X1 Carbon 2021 with FHD display achieved a better score in our review mainly due to its significantly longer battery life.
Apart from the worse keyboard the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon G9 is a great successor and worthy member of Lenovo’s flagship series.
Prices are comparable to its very closely related sibling and start at around $1,400. The device is available through Lenovo’s own webstore where a configurator is available to build your own custom device. Select SKUs are also available through the usual retail channels, such as Amazon.
Pricecompare
6th – HP Elitebook x360 1040 G7
The EliteBook 1000-series is HP’s equivalent to Dell’s Latitude 9000-series or Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1-series. The HP EliteBook x360 1040 G7 is the larger device with a 14-inch display and based on its name a convertible with a 360 degree hinge, just like the X1 Yoga. As is typical for a business laptop it features a good keyboard and good connectivity. One benefit it has over Lenovo’s ThinkPad-series is its extremely bright 1,000 nits LCD.
In return it is missing a microSD card slot, its fan is whiney and high-pitched, and the display is slow. Nevertheless, the HP EliteBook x360 1040 G7 managed to achieve a very good rating in our review.
The HP EliteBook x360 1040 G7 is a convertible with a reat design and great features held back by an aging UHD Graphics GPU.
The device is fairly expensive, in part due to poor availability. Retail prices for unavailable SKUs start at around $1,800 while one available SKUs is listed on Amazon for over $2,000.
Pricecompare
7th – HP EliteBook 840 Aero G8
Aero may be another word for Air but the HP EliteBook 840 Aero G8 is anything but an Apple MacBook Air copycat. Instead, it is a lighter version of HP’s EliteBook 840 G8. Thanks to generous use of magnesium instead of aluminum HP was able to lower its weight from 1.32 kg (2.91 lbs) to 1.2 kg (2.65 lbs) without sacrificing rigidity or build quality noticeably. Its benefits include a long battery life, low noise emissions, comfortable input devices, and very good upgradability thanks to two RAM slots. There aren’t any major drawbacks, but we would have wished for a 16:10 display or at least 4K or OLED options. The notebook could have also benefitted from a higher CPU performance.
The EliteBook 840 Aero G8 is the best choice if you are looking for the quietest currently available Tiger Lake-U EVO-based notebook. If you are looking for the best performaning Tiger Lake-U notebook, however, you will have to look elsewhere.
At the time of writing, the HP EliteBook 840 Aero G8 was only available through HP’s own online shop with prices starting at just under $1,700.
Pricecompare
8th – Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 1
The only new entry this quarter is the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 1, Lenovo’s first foray into the world of 13-inch laptops since the original ThinkPad X1 back in 2011. The X1 Nano is even more portable, which means as small, compact, and lightweight as possible. A first for the X1-series is the 16:10 display resulting in a display that is just as wide as that of a 16:9 14-inch laptop. It is powered by a Tiger Lake UP4 CPU and is thus about as fast as the older ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 8 in regard to CPU performance.
There are, however, a few downsides as well, particularly connectivity and keyboard. With just two USB-C/Thunderbolt 4 ports the X1 Nano is very limited for a business notebook, and the keyboard’s key travel is just 1.35 mm (yet another first for a ThinkPad) making for a completely different typing experience. Despite these flaws the ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 1 scored an impressive 90 % from the get-go, and was thus able to secure a place high up ont his top list.
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9th – Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 2
The ThinkPad T14s Gen 2 is Lenovo’s premium T-series ThinkPad and positioned right below the X1 Carbon. Depending on year it might have even been better than the X1, but this is certainly not the case for the 2021 line-up. The ThinkPad T14s G2 may have been redesigned, much like the X1 Carbon, but it continues to feature the “old” 16:9 display.
Nevertheless, it is anything but bad despite its narrow display. Its very good keyboard, its matte low-power display, its versatile connectivity, and its high-quality case make for a perfect laptop for many business customers.
A very good rating with room for improvement. The ThinkPad T14s Gen 2 could have scored even higher if it wasn’t for its 16:9 display.
The ThinkPad T14s Gen 2 is available in various configurations through Lenovo’s own web store with prices starting at just shy of $1,200 at the time of writing.
Pricecompare
10th – Dell Latitude 9520 2-in-1
Dell’s Latitude 9000-series is not limited to smaller 14-inch high-end business laptops but also contains a 15-inch device. The Dell Latitude 9520 is the second incarnation thereof, following the Latitude 9510. This updated model maintains many of its predecessor’s positive aspects, such as for example the compact case for a 15-inch device or its extremely long battery life of 14 hours in our Wi-Fi test. As is expected of a business laptop connectivity is pretty good and even includes an optional 5G modem. Unfortunately, the newer model’s CPU performance is lower than it used to be.
The Latitude 9520 2-in-1’s most striking features are its unusually long battery life, its Wi-Fi modem with support for 5G connectivity, its metal case, and the fact that for a 15-inch convertible it turns out to be quite handy and portable.
In addition to Dell’s own webstore select SKUs are also available on Amazon, such as for example the Core i7-1185G7 model with 16 GB of RAM and 512 GB of SSD storage for $2,000.
Pricecompare
11th – Dell Latitude 9420 2-in-1
Dell’s high-end laptops within the Latitude-series are members of the 9000-series, and the Dell Latitude 9420 2-in-1 is Dell’s latest 14-inch laptop, and the first with a truly unique design. Its predecessor, the Latitude 9410, was based on the older Latitude 7000-series. The first “true” Latitude 9000 makes sure to set itself apart from the 7000-series right away by introducing a 16:10 display resulting in very narrow display bezels rendering the Latitude 9420 2-in-1 a very compact device despite its 14-inch display.
It offers a high-quality case and long battery life. On the flip side we find the lack of M.2-2280 support in favor of the smaller M.2-2230 format slightly disturbing and the lack of page up/down keys rather unfortunate.
The Latitude 9420 1-in-1 offers a lot of pros with a few cons mixed in here and there, most of which should not cause any issues for most users.
The Latitude 9420 2-in-1 is currently only available through Dell’s on online store. Prices start at around $2,000.
Pricecompare
Display Ratings
| Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga G6-20Y0S00200 | Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Yoga G2 | HP Elite Dragonfly Max | Lenovo ThinkPad X13 G2 AMD 20XH001KGE | Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon G9-20XXS00100 | HP EliteBook x360 1040 G7, i7-10810U | HP EliteBook 840 Aero G8 3E4Q6AA | Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano-20UN002UGE | Lenovo ThinkPad T14s G2 20WM003TGE | Dell Latitude 15 9520 2-in-1 | Dell Latitude 9420 2-in-1 Iris Xe G7 96EUs, i7-1185G7, WDC PC SN530 SDBPNPZ-512G | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Display | |||||||||||
| Display P3 Coverage | 69.79 | 68.26 | 70.1 | 76.08 | 66.13 | 68 | 70.43 | 68.1 | 69.9 | 80.7 | |
| sRGB Coverage | 97.12 | 99.05 | 99.4 | 99.88 | 95.52 | 97.6 | 99.92 | 91.7 | 98.7 | 100 | |
| AdobeRGB 1998 Coverage | 72.19 | 70.33 | 71.3 | 77.71 | 68.08 | 69.3 | 71.98 | 67.1 | 70.4 | 79.7 | |
| Response Times | |||||||||||
| Response Time Grey 50% / Grey 80% * | 49.2 ? | 52 ? | 44.8 ? | 34 ? | 62.4 ? | 52.4 ? | 48 ? | 46.8 ? | 68 ? | 39.2 ? | 54 ? |
| Response Time Black / White * | 22 ? | 32 ? | 32 ? | 22 ? | 34.8 ? | 32 ? | 28.8 ? | 28 ? | 34 ? | 27.2 ? | 32.8 ? |
| PWM Frequency | 22730 ? | ||||||||||
| Screen | |||||||||||
| Brightness middle | 417 | 460 | 777.5 | 309 | 396 | 406.7 | 466.4 | 460 | 422.9 | 403.6 | 483.6 |
| Brightness | 404 | 423 | 727 | 297 | 397 | 382 | 426 | 434 | 397 | 368 | 465 |
| Brightness Distribution | 93 | 85 | 75 | 81 | 90 | 88 | 84 | 92 | 91 | 84 | 92 |
| Black Level * | 0.22 | 0.33 | 0.44 | 0.26 | 0.23 | 0.28 | 0.32 | 0.27 | 0.32 | 0.22 | 0.32 |
| Contrast | 1895 | 1394 | 1767 | 1188 | 1722 | 1453 | 1458 | 1704 | 1322 | 1835 | 1511 |
| Colorchecker dE 2000 * | 2.8 | 1 | 1.62 | 1.6 | 3.7 | 3.74 | 2.84 | 1.1 | 4.8 | 3.34 | 3.69 |
| Colorchecker dE 2000 max. * | 4.7 | 1.5 | 5.26 | 3 | 7.6 | 5.92 | 4.73 | 4.5 | 8.7 | 6.29 | 5.97 |
| Colorchecker dE 2000 calibrated * | 1.6 | 0.8 | 1.32 | 0.8 | 1.7 | 2.18 | 2.27 | 1 | 1.9 | 0.99 | 2.05 |
| Greyscale dE 2000 * | 3.7 | 1.2 | 1.6 | 2 | 5.2 | 4.3 | 3.7 | 1.6 | 6.1 | 5.2 | 3.5 |
| Gamma | 2.08 106% | 2.26 97% | 2.2 100% | 2.24 98% | 2.11 104% | 2.19 100% | 2.13 103% | 2.2 100% | 2.23 99% | 2.09 105% | 2.04 108% |
| CCT | 6545 99% | 6652 98% | 6538 99% | 6315 103% | 6252 104% | 6781 96% | 6886 94% | 6475 100% | 7635 85% | 7629 85% | 6158 106% |
| Color Space (Percent of AdobeRGB 1998) | 65.9 | 64.4 | 72.3 | 70.4 | 61.6 | 65.7 | |||||
| Color Space (Percent of sRGB) | 96.6 | 99.12 | 94.8 | 99.9 | 95.1 | 99.9 | |||||
| Noise | |||||||||||
| off / environment * | 24.2 | 24 | 24.9 | 24.17 | 25.2 | 24.1 | 24.9 | 24.81 | 24 | 25.4 | |
| Idle Minimum * | 24.2 | 24 | 24.9 | 24.17 | 25.2 | 24.2 | 24.9 | 24.81 | 24.1 | 25.4 | |
| Idle Average * | 24.2 | 24 | 24.9 | 24.17 | 25.2 | 24.2 | 26.3 | 24.81 | 24.1 | 25.4 | |
| Idle Maximum * | 29.9 | 24 | 24.9 | 24.17 | 25.2 | 24.2 | 31.8 | 24.81 | 25.8 | 25.4 | |
| Load Average * | 33.7 | 32.72 | 29.7 | 29.92 | 30 | 26.9 | 34.3 | 35.14 | 34.2 | 25.4 | |
| Witcher 3 ultra * | 33.7 | 31.3 | 27.9 | 34.3 | 39.6 | 41.3 | |||||
| Load Maximum * | 36.7 | 33.88 | 31.3 | 31.52 | 38.1 | 29.9 | 37.5 | 35.14 | 39.6 | 41.3 | |
| Heat | |||||||||||
| Maximum Upper Side * | 44.1 | 47.2 | 39.4 | 43.7 | 36.6 | 39.2 | 42.2 | 47.5 | 40 | 43.4 | |
| Maximum Bottom * | 47.3 | 51.5 | 50 | 38 | 46.2 | 51.2 | 47.5 | 43.4 | 47.2 | 48 | |
| Idle Upper Side * | 25.5 | 30 | 31.6 | 25.8 | 25.8 | 33 | 24.3 | 28.4 | 23.4 | 29.8 | |
| Idle Bottom * | 26.6 | 30.5 | 33.4 | 26.2 | 29.8 | 34 | 25.3 | 28.3 | 27.4 | 28 | |
| Battery Runtime | |||||||||||
| Reader / Idle | 1723 | 3768 | 1487 | 1721 | |||||||
| WiFi v1.3 | 717 | 555 | 659 | 556 | 700 | 1128 | 685 | 596 | 580 | 885 | 699 |
| Load | 119 | 118 | 174 | 86 | 334 | 151 | 98 | 85 | 146 | ||
| Power Consumption | |||||||||||
| Idle Minimum * | 3.3 | 3.61 | 2.9 | 3.82 | 3 | 1.6 | 3.2 | 3.3 | 2.2 | 2.6 | 4.6 |
| Idle Average * | 5.8 | 6.78 | 9.9 | 5.74 | 5.2 | 4.5 | 5.4 | 5.7 | 5.5 | 5 | 7.8 |
| Idle Maximum * | 9.6 | 7.45 | 10.4 | 7.65 | 5.9 | 5.2 | 6.9 | 9.1 | 6.1 | 7.1 | 8.2 |
| Load Average * | 47.2 | 48.85 | 37.1 | 35.79 | 42.8 | 41.7 | 38.9 | 29.6 | 41.3 | 44 | 47.9 |
| Witcher 3 ultra * | 35.6 | 28.7 | 31.5 | 35.6 | 37 | 27.7 | 34.5 | 39.5 | 38.8 | ||
| Load Maximum * | 65.3 | 66.51 | 58.8 | 45.04 | 65.7 | 70.8 | 66.5 | 55.1 | 67.3 | 88.7 | 87.1 |
* ... smaller is better
