Notebookcheck's Top 10 Premium Office/Business Laptops

With renewed case, modern connectivity, and long battery runtimes, the Lenovo ThinkPad T470 can take the lead in our ranking. The keyboard is still excellent and the touchpad has been improved. In view of being a modern notebook, the 14-inch ThinkPad T470 delivers decent maintainability and two batteries. Even larger modules are optionally available as an external battery. Hence, it is possible to double the battery runtime if required. The fan noise is very quiet during operation.

Their Full HD displays are often a weakness of Lenovo laptops. While they are based on IPS technology, especially the brightness could be higher in many cases. Our test model performs better in this aspect. According to our measurements, the average brightness is just under 290 cd/m². However, the panel is not apt for professional image editing due to modest color precision and limited gamut. But all this has its price. At above 1600 Euros (~$1743), the ThinkPad T470 is not a bargain.

Overall, the performance of the ThinkPad T470 is still more than convincing, and it does not have big weaknesses. Therefore, we assign it our Editor's Choice Award.

Lenovo has also revised the compact ThinkPad X1 Carbon this year. The new case has an even smaller footprint and still houses a 14-inch display. Currently, the decent Full HD display is the only option. The high-resolution WQHD variant will probably be available from mid-year.

The slim ThinkPad's input devices are excellent, but the thin case also has its disadvantages. First of all, cooling it is difficult. Therefore, the surface temperatures are high under load. In addition, the Core i7 processor cannot permanently keep up its high performance. The fan already turns on under short load peaks in real-world scenarios.

For the time being, many modern business laptops have only come with frugal dual-core processors, which are sufficient for typical office tasks. Those who need higher CPU performance often have to fall back on powerful multimedia systems or mobile workstations. The Dell Latitude 14 E5470 is an exception, since a mobile quad-core chip from Intel can be found in the 14-inch case.

Therewith, the performance is higher than many competitors', but the maximum Turbo clock cannot be kept up for a long time under load (throttling does not occur). The Latitude 14 is also convincing in other aspects. Apart from its good Full HD IPS display, you will get many security features, a good keyboard and a high-quality case. The connectivity is also ok. Only a fast USB-C port is missing.

Acer might not be the first manufacturer to be associated with high-end business notebooks. Thus, it is even more surprising that the company produced such a balanced bundle with its TravelMate P648-M. Case and input devices of the 14-incher rival those on the ThinkPad T460 or EliteBook 840 G3. In addition, the TravelMate is one of the few business notebooks to ship with Thunderbolt 3. As the laptop also delivers respectable battery runtimes, high system performance and an integrated LTE module, Acer has indeed managed to create an alternative to the established competition. This is all the more true in view of its relatively fair asking price.

It often gets overlooked that apart from the "big three", Lenovo, HP, and Dell, there are other manufacturers that can produce convincing notebooks - wrongly, as Toshiba proves with the Tecra Z50 series. In contrast to many competitors, the Z50 neither omits an integrated DVD drive nor an analog VGA-out. In addition, users will appreciate four USB-3.0 ports. Pros are low noise and temperature emissions, excellent input devices, many security features, and an excellent Full HD display in 15.6-inch format. Those who can accept smaller weaknesses such as modest speaker quality or difficult maintenance will get an interesting alternative to devices such as the EliteBook 850 G3 or ThinkPad T560 in the Tecra. However, prospective buyers should consider that the price only includes a one-year warranty - which is uncommon in this category.

Dell's Latitude 14 Rugged 5414 is certainly not your common business notebook. While some modern 14-inch Ultrabooks are almost scratching the 1-kg mark, the 5415 tips the scale at 3 kilograms – and not without a reason: Being a so-called "ruggedized" notebook, the Latitude promises resistance against any kind of environmental influences. Besides the solid and flawlessly built chassis, however, Dell's outdoor specialist can convince with its display. It reaches more than 1000 nits and therefore easily surpasses all rivals. This means you can still see the content on the excellent high-contrast Full HD panel even in direct sunlight. Supported by a 97-Wh battery, the 14-inch system will last a full business day without a socket. Unfortunately, Dell does charge a steep price for the laptop: You should plan with at least 3,000 Euros (~$3267) – for a low-end SKU with a 128 GB SSD and i5 processor.

Lenovo equipped the 15-inch T series laptop with a compact case. In addition, the business laptop is also available with a high-resolution 4K display for the first time. In our test, the ThinkPad T570 convinces with many qualities, including high-end case, modern connectivity, and great input devices. While the matte 4K panel requires more energy, it performs better than its FHD counterpart in almost all aspects.

In addition, our test model features a dedicated graphics card. Hence, the T570 is suitable for occasional gaming sessions (with less-demanding titles). However, a professional GPU remains reserved for mobile workstations. Unfortunately, the performance shows several flaws. Apart from the undersized power adapter, there are issues with CPU performance on battery. Furthermore, the case temperature gets very high.

By the way, the "smaller" Full HD test model of the T570 without dedicated graphics card suffered from similar problems on battery and achieved a rating of 86% in our review.

With the new Latitude 7480, Dell did a lot right: high-end case, good 14-inch IPS panel (FHD), many interfaces, and great input devices. The performance of our test model with Core i7 is also good. At the same time, the case remains comfortably cool. In addition, the large 60 Wh battery ensures very good battery runtimes. We recorded almost 12 hours in our Wi-Fi test. Hence, use away from a power outlet should be possible for a normal workday without problems.

In theory, the laptop could have achieved an even better rank. However, like several other laptops from Dell, our test model shows clearly audible coil whining. This is especially annoying, since the fan is often off under low load and belongs to the quietest models under load.

The EliteBook 840 G4 from HP belongs to those devices which "only" got new processors this year. This is not a bad thing for the case, since the aluminum build still performs well in comparison to the competition. The interfaces still include older standards such as VGA-out, which might be important in productive environments. However, you have to do without a modern Thunderbolt 3 port.

The Full HD panel based on TN technology might still be the biggest disadvantage. While the brightness of the 14-inch display is good with above 300 cd/m², the panel falls behind the competition in other aspects. In particular, the viewing angles are problematic, since you will already face image changes when slightly moving away from the ideal sitting position.

From the first to the last place in the ranking? While the ThinkPad T460s predecessor secured top place in the ranking, the ThinkPad T470s successor only performs well enough for the 10th place. Not much has changed at a first glance, since Lenovo uses the same case and has even incorporated a modern USB-C/Thunderbolt-3 port, which is very unfavorably placed on the right side however. Further problems exist in terms of performance, since the fast Core i7 processor is slightly too much for the cooling system. Hence, the potential performance gain compared to a Core i5 chip can only be utilized to some extent and the surface temperatures are high under load.

Another problem is the performance on battery, since the processor cannot even keep up its base clock in this scenario. A BIOS upgrade might improve this. However, the way it is now, the new ThinkPad T470s is unable to reach a "very good" rating.