Best laptops for work 2021–2022 | Articles | Computer technology

Pho­to: techradar.com

Due to the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, lap­top sales increased by 48%. Lap­tops have become the cen­ter of the work­space – many com­pa­nies have moved employ­ees to ful­ly or par­tial­ly remote work.

We have col­lect­ed the best lap­tops for work­ing with office and account­ing appli­ca­tions, texts and ana­lyt­ics. Mod­els from the list are per­fect for work and study. Our rat­ing includes both good inex­pen­sive lap­tops and cool expen­sive mod­els. We tell you which lap­top to choose for work, what fea­tures, advan­tages and dis­ad­van­tages they have.

How was it eval­u­at­ed
Top 5 lap­tops for work
Leno­vo Think­Book 15IIL
Asus Zen­Book 14
Acer SWIFT 5
Xiao­mi Mi Note­book Pro 14″ 2021
Xiao­mi Red­mi­Book Pro 14″ 2021
Results

How was it evaluated

The max­i­mum score for each para­me­ter is 5. Each mod­el was eval­u­at­ed rel­a­tive to oth­er lap­tops from the top.

Screen diagonal

Should be com­fort­able for work. Min­i­mum is 14 inch­es. The larg­er the diag­o­nal, the high­er the score. An addi­tion­al advan­tage would be a high­er screen res­o­lu­tion.

Battery

In order to work in any place con­ve­nient for you and not depend on an out­let or the avail­abil­i­ty of elec­tric­i­ty, a lap­top must pro­vide 7 or more hours of bat­tery life.

The longer one bat­tery charge lasts, the high­er the score. An addi­tion­al plus is the pres­ence of fast charg­ing.

Webcam

After mov­ing employ­ees to remote work, many com­pa­nies are hold­ing meet­ings with col­leagues and busi­ness part­ners online using Zoom, Skype and oth­er appli­ca­tions. There­fore, a web­cam is a must.

The more megapix­els a cam­era has, the high­er the score.

Weight and dimensions

The lap­top should be light and com­pact so that you can com­fort­ably car­ry it with you and con­tin­ue work­ing any­where.

The lighter the mod­el, the high­er the score.

RAM

The base amount of RAM is 4 GB. 8 GB of RAM will be enough for the vast major­i­ty of users (includ­ing for run­ning games).

Addi­tion­al­ly, pay atten­tion to the pres­ence of office and spread­sheet pro­grams like Microsoft Office. But now they are installed in almost all lap­tops.

Top 5 laptops for work

Lenovo ThinkBook 15IIL

The only 15.6‑inch mod­el in our selec­tion. Cred­it: Leno­vo

Screen diag­o­nal

The lap­top is equipped with a 15.6‑inch IPS dis­play with a res­o­lu­tion of 1920x1080 pix­els and anti-reflec­tive coat­ing.

Bat­tery

Bat­tery capac­i­ty 3900 mAh. It lasts for 6–6.5 hours of bat­tery life (max­i­mum bright­ness, office appli­ca­tions, web surf­ing, short video view­ing). With the includ­ed pow­er sup­ply, it takes 70 min­utes to ful­ly charge.

Web­cam

1 MP

Weight and dimen­sions

364 x 245 x 189 mm; 1.8 kg.

RAM

8 GB The amount of RAM can be increased (16 GB) due to the pres­ence of a free slot.

Pecu­liar­i­ties:

• proces­sor Intel Core i3 1005G1 (2 x 1.20 GHz), which is enough for every­day and office tasks (pro­grams and brows­er load quick­ly);
• fast 256GB M.2 PCIe SSD;
• there is a card read­er (sup­ports MMC and SD mem­o­ry cards);
• pre-installed Win­dows 10 Pro;
• USB Type A x 2, USB Type‑C x 2, HDMI out, 3.5mm audio jack;
• key­board with numer­ic key­pad and back­light, key trav­el is soft and pre­cise;
• the lat­est Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) and Blue­tooth 5.0 pro­to­col for wire­less con­nec­tiv­i­ty;
• open­ing of a cov­er on 180 °;
• shut­ter on the cam­era.

The Leno­vo Think­Book 15IIL lap­top costs from 43,990 rubles.

Pros:

• there is a fin­ger­print scan­ner built into the pow­er but­ton for quick login;
• high build qual­i­ty — no gaps, no extra stick­ers, no back­lash, hinged lid made of a durable met­al alloy of met­als;
• Skype-cer­ti­fied bi-direc­tion­al micro­phone and built-in speak­ers.

Minus­es:

• a small amount of per­ma­nent mem­o­ry (but can be increased with the help of cards).

Asus ZenBook 14

Asus Zen­Book 14 holds a charge for a long time and charges quick­ly. Pho­to: Asus

Screen diag­o­nal

This mod­el has a 14-inch IPS touch dis­play with a res­o­lu­tion of 1920 x 1080 pix­els.

Bat­tery

Can work up to 15 hours with­out recharg­ing. USB Pow­er Deliv­ery fast charg­ing tech­nol­o­gy is sup­port­ed — from 0 to 60% in 49 min­utes.

Web­cam

1.3 MP

Weight and dimen­sions

319 x 208 x 13.9 mm, 1.17 kg.

RAM

8 GB

Pecu­liar­i­ties:

• proces­sor Intel Core i3 1115G4 (3 GHz);
• 256 GB M.2 PCIe SSD;
• SD card read­er;
• OS Win­dows 10 Home (at the begin­ning of 2022, the man­u­fac­tur­er promis­es an upgrade to Win­dows 11);
• USB Type A, HDMI, Thun­der­bolt 3 with USB‑C x 2 (for fast charg­ing, video out­put to exter­nal mon­i­tors in 4K / UHD and data trans­fer at speeds up to 40 Gb / s).
• for wire­less com­mu­ni­ca­tion there is Wi-Fi 802.11ax and Blue­tooth 5.0
• speak­ers are Hi-Fi cer­ti­fied by Har­man Kar­don;
• An orig­i­nal hinge design that auto­mat­i­cal­ly rais­es the back of the case when the lid is opened, improv­ing cool­ing and sound, and tilt­ing the key­board to a more com­fort­able angle.

The cost of Asus Zen­Book 14 is from 57,990 rubles.

Pros:

• screen with rich col­ors;
• high-qual­i­ty and loud speak­ers;
• cam­era with recog­ni­tion — you can enter your account by face;
• fast charg­ing.

Minus­es:

• own­ers com­plain about the incon­ve­nient loca­tion of the pow­er but­ton (next to the Del key);
• a small amount of inter­nal mem­o­ry (if nec­es­sary, you can increase);
• a lot of neg­a­tive reviews for a small and uncom­fort­able touch­pad;
• a qui­et crack­le inside the case (they say that this is a “fea­ture” of this mod­el.

Acer SWIFT 5

Acer SWIFT 5 is the most expen­sive lap­top in our rank­ing. Pho­to: acer

Screen diag­o­nal

It uses a 14-inch IPS-matrix with a res­o­lu­tion of 1920 x 1080 pix­els. Touch screen.

Bat­tery

A full charge of the bat­tery is enough for an aver­age of 8.5–9 hours of bat­tery life. Sup­ports fast charg­ing — 30 min­utes at the out­let gives 4.5 hours of work.

Web­cam

Yes, per­mis­sion not spec­i­fied.

Weight and dimen­sions

318.7 x 210.5 x 14.9mm; 0.99 kg

RAM

16 GB.

Pecu­liar­i­ties:

• Intel Core i7 1065G7 proces­sor;
• 1 TB SSD;
• nVidia GeForce MX350 video card with 2048 MB own mem­o­ry (you can play Dota 2, GTA V and oth­er demand­ing games with­out freezes and lags);
• pre-installed Win­dows 10 Pro;
• ports: 1 x USB 2.0, 1 x USB 3.0, 1 x Thun­der­bolt 3, HDMI, Line-out for con­nect­ing speak­ers, Mic-in for micro­phone, Kens­ing­ton secu­ri­ty lock for phys­i­cal lap­top pro­tec­tion;
• Wi-Fi 802.11ax and Blue­tooth 5.0;
• micro­phone and 2 speak­ers for video con­fer­enc­ing or video com­mu­ni­ca­tion;
• sup­port for the vir­tu­al assis­tant Kon­tara;
• has a fin­ger­print scan­ner
• Acti­vate Win­dows with your voice when the screen is off.

The Acer SWIFT 5 lap­top costs from 142,407 rubles.

Pros:

• light;
• pow­er­ful;
• durable (case made of mag­ne­sium-lithi­um and mag­ne­sium-alu­minum alloys);
• bright and clear screen;
• fast charg­ing.

Minus­es:

• there are com­plaints about the accu­ra­cy of the fin­ger­print scan­ner;
• expen­sive.

Xiaomi Mi Notebook Pro 14″ 2021

This Xiao­mi lap­top has a high screen refresh rate. Pho­to: xiao­mi

Screen diag­o­nal

14-inch IPS dis­play with a res­o­lu­tion of 2.5K (2560 x 1600 pix­els).

There is a ver­sion with a 15.6‑inch OLED screen with a res­o­lu­tion of 3456 x 2160 pix­els.

Bat­tery

With a screen refresh rate of 90 Hz, the lap­top works with­out recharg­ing for 6 hours. It takes almost 2 hours to ful­ly charge.

Web­cam

1 MP

Weight and dimen­sions

316 x 220 x 15.6 mm, 1.55 kg.

RAM

16 GB.

Pecu­liar­i­ties:

• pro­duc­tive proces­sor Intel Core i7 11370H;
• video card NVIDIA GeForce MX450;
• 512 GB inter­nal stor­age (SSD);
• OS Win­dows 10;
• 3 USB‑C ports (1 — Thun­der­bolt 4), 3.5 mm audio jack (includes an adapter with USB and HDMI ports);
• Wi-Fi 802.11ax and Blue­tooth 5.0;
• 2 stereo speak­ers for high qual­i­ty sound;
• light sen­sor that auto­mat­i­cal­ly adjusts the back­light of the key­board;
• the screen is TUV Rhein­land cer­ti­fied (min­i­mizes blue light harm­ful to the eyes) and DC Dim­ming tech­nol­o­gy (reduces flick­er);
• the dis­play is pro­tect­ed by Corn­ing Goril­la Glass;
• high screen refresh rate for a smooth pic­ture (you can choose 60, 90 or 120 Hz).

The cost of Xiao­mi Mi Note­book Pro 14 “2021 is from 102,990 rubles.

Pros:

• excel­lent dis­play;
• good per­for­mance;
• high-qual­i­ty assem­bly (alu­minum alloy body, smooth hinges — the lid can be opened with one hand).

Minus­es:

• no USB‑A port;
• over­heat­ing at high load;
• high price.

Xiaomi RedmiBook Pro 14″ 2021

Pho­to: xiao­mi

Screen diag­o­nal

14″ IPS dis­play with a res­o­lu­tion of 2560 x 1600 pix­els.

Bat­tery

The bat­tery charge is enough for 11.5 hours of oper­a­tion. Using the includ­ed 60W pow­er sup­ply, the lap­top charges from 0 to 50% in 35 min­utes.

Web­cam

1 MP

Weight and dimen­sions

315.6 x 220.4 x 17.25mm; 1.46 kg.

RAM

16 GB.

Pecu­liar­i­ties:

• proces­sor Intel Core i5 11300H;
• video card NVIDIA GeForce MX450;
• 512 GB inter­nal stor­age (SSD);
• OS Win­dows 10 Home;
• ports: Thun­der­bolt 4 (with USB Type‑C) x 1, USB Type‑C x 1, USB 2.0 x 1, USB 3.2 x 1, HDMI x 1, 3.5 mm audio jack;
• wire­less com­mu­ni­ca­tion via 802.11ax pro­to­col (Wi-Fi 6) and Blue­tooth 5.1;
• fin­ger­print scan­ner inte­grat­ed into the pow­er but­ton;
• blue screen pro­tec­tion (TÜV Rhein­land cer­ti­fied).

The Xiao­mi Red­mi­Book Pro 14″ 2021 lap­top costs from 79,910 rubles.

Pros:

• decent per­for­mance;
• there is a fin­ger­print scan­ner for quick login;
• com­fort­able key­board and touch­pad;
• fast charg­ing.

Minus­es:

• heat­ing under heavy loads.

Results

The reviewed lap­top mod­els received the fol­low­ing rat­ings:

Asus Zen­Book 14 and Xiao­mi Red­mi­Book Pro 14 “2021 scored the same num­ber of points. The for­mer lasts longer with­out recharg­ing, has excel­lent speak­ers and is cheap­er. The lat­ter has more RAM and a bet­ter screen.

Acer SWIFT 5 is the light­est and most expen­sive mod­el in the rank­ing.

Leno­vo Think­Book 15IIL with 15.6‑inch screen is the most afford­able lap­top in the selec­tion.

Xiao­mi Mi Note­book Pro 14″ 2021 fea­tures a high-qual­i­ty screen with a high refresh rate.

If you are a pro­gram­mer or work with graph­ics, then the require­ments for hard­ware and dis­play are high­er — we have com­piled a list of the best lap­tops for work­ing with pho­tos for you.