Choosing the Best Laptop for Small Business
Work anytime, anywhere. Bring your ideas on the go with a small business laptop that meets your need for flexibility, collaboration, and performance.
Laptops That Meet You Where You Are
For small businesses, every decision has an incredible impact. With multiple form factors that could serve your employees, making the right decision can be overwhelming.
Let’s start simple. When evaluating small business laptops, start with three primary considerations: security, performance, and connectivity. We’ll walk you through what to consider for each to ensure you’re choosing the best laptop for your small business.
What to Look for in a Small Business Laptop
Security That Moves with You
When you or your team is on the go and not directly connected to your own secure network, the ability to access data without the worry of opening your business up to a cyberattack is critical. The most comprehensive way you can protect your sensitive data is by choosing business-grade laptops with integrated hardware-based security technology, such as those on the Intel vPro® Essentials platform. Attackers are now more sophisticated and skilled, which means software-based security alone is no longer enough to protect against attacks. With security built in at the silicon level, you gain additional protection at the application, data, and firmware levels. And with purpose-built hardware-based security in place, you can protect your devices without compromising system performance or interrupting productivity.
Performance That Enables Productivity
Small business laptops need to work as hard as your employees do, and a powerful laptop can be the difference between a productive day and a frustrating one. When you’re jumping between video calls and the apps you need to get work done, you need a laptop that optimizes battery performance and has enough storage to eliminate slowdowns and crashes.
Your laptop central processing unit (CPU) provides the power you need to get work done at the pace your business demands, even when running many programs at once. A more powerful processor enables your computer to handle multiple concurrent applications and complete tasks faster. A good processor also helps optimize the random-access memory (RAM) in your laptop to further improve performance. Look for laptops on the Intel vPro® Essentials platform with the latest Intel® Core™ processors, which offer more-stable experiences and the responsiveness you need wherever work takes you.
Capacity and Speed for Uninterrupted Creativity
A computer’s RAM temporarily stores data on the laptop that the CPU can call up almost instantly. As your computer’s working memory, having more RAM means your PC can support more programs running at once. The amount of RAM you need will depend on the complexity of the programs you use.
Storage is used to launch and operate programs and the operating system. Storage also holds all your files, which is critical for mobile employees. Your laptop should provide the storage space needed to keep you and your team from experiencing unexpected work interruptions. Equally important to storage size is storage speed. Solid-state drives (SSD) in laptops are smaller, lighter, and faster than hard disk drives (HDD) and help to accelerate tasks like logging on to your laptop and launching programs. SSDs also have no moving parts, which means they can better withstand laptops being accidentally bumped or dropped.
Reliable Connectivity to Make the Difference
Keeping employees connected to customers, business files, mission-critical apps, and each other is crucial for business. When teams collaborate across locations, they need reliable tools built with flexibility and speed in mind.
Small business laptops equipped with the latest wireless connectivity standards can help ensure a quality connection, even on shared networks and when working with high-bandwidth applications.
Most laptops include USB or Thunderbolt™ 4 ports and an audio jack for connecting external peripherals or integrated Bluetooth capabilities for wireless connections. To give your employees quick access to power and the ability to connect additional displays and devices with ease, take advantage of laptops with an integrated universal Thunderbolt™ port that provides fast charging1 and high-speed data and video transfer2 capabilities, like those powered by Intel.
Tools Built with Sustainability Top of Mind
In today’s climate-conscious world, it’s important to consider the environmental impacts of the products we use and how to collectively reduce our carbon footprint. While the energy efficiency of your devices is important, that’s just one piece of the overall PC life cycle. At Intel, we’re committed to sustainable computing from manufacturing through PC usage and device end of life. Laptops on the Intel vPro® platform—supporting Intel® technologies—are built with sustainability as an integral aspect right from the start.
Versatile Laptops for Your Mobile Team
Today’s laptops come in all sizes and weights. Choosing the right small business laptop comes down to what fits your current business activities the best and will scale to support your future growth plans and needs.
Standard Laptops and Notebooks
Business-grade laptops on the Intel vPro® Essentials platform provide the power, agility, and built-in security to help keep you and your team connected, productive, and more protected.
Ultraportable Laptops
For busy employees on the go, consider an Intel vPro®—an Intel® Evo™ Design laptop.3 It offers all the capabilities and security of an Intel-based standard laptop in a thin, light, and sleek design. High performance, fast charging, long-lasting battery, instant wake, and best-in-class connectivity mean your team has the flexibility to do their best work wherever your business takes them.
2-in-1 Laptops
When you need the mobility of a tablet with the performance of a PC, turn to 2-in-1 laptops. Whether you’re booking appointments, updating a sales desk, or serving patrons on your retail shop floor, 2-in-1s are highly versatile and are perfect for working at a desk with a laptop configuration or collaborating with team members and customers on the go in tablet mode.
Mobile Workstations
If your business does design-heavy work, like building or product design, 3D modeling, data analytics, or professional video and audio editing, your team will need a more powerful, responsive device that keeps them in the flow of creativity instead of waiting for it to catch up. Intel-based mobile workstations built on the Intel vPro® Essentials platform provide the performance, larger screen, and full keyboard needed for this data-intensive work, while still offering the mobility you need for on-the-go collaboration, sales presentations, and more.
Chromebooks
Ultramodern Chromebooks powered by Intel® processors offer long battery life, fast access to online applications, and a smooth multitasking experience. Available on the Intel vPro® platform, these Intel-powered devices offer a flexible mobile option with integrated security capabilities to protect your team and your data in the office or on the go.
Build Your Small Business Foundation on the Intel vPro® Platform
When choosing the best laptop for your small businesses, business-class laptops on the Intel vPro® platform provide the power, agility, and built-in security to help keep your business productive—and more protected.
Intel vPro® Essentials
Desktops on Intel vPro® Essentials are designed for small businesses without a dedicated IT team.
Intel vPro® Enterprise
Businesses with dedicated IT support should consider laptops on Intel vPro® Enterprise, which include expanded fleet management features and security capabilities.
Small Business Technology Resources
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Additional PC Resources for Small Business
FAQs
Frequently Asked Questions
The best laptop for your small business will provide the performance and connectivity you and your employees need to collaborate and create uninterrupted as well as integrated security to protect your employees, data, and business from evolving cyber threats. Business-grade laptops on the Intel vPro® Essentials platform provide the power, agility, and built-in security that help keep businesses productive and more protected.
Product and Performance Information
Laptop charging: Thunderbolt™ 4 technology for thin and light notebooks that require up to 100W to charge. Thunderbolt™ 5 technology for laptops that require up to 140W to charge. 140W‒240W is available on some devices.
Performance is based on minimum specification requirements by Thunderbolt™ certification. Performance varies by use, configuration, and other factors. Learn more at intel.com/performanceindex.
All versions of the Intel vPro® platform require an eligible Intel® processor, a supported operating system, Intel® LAN and/or WLAN silicon, firmware enhancements, and other hardware and software necessary to deliver the manageability use cases, security features, system performance, and stability that define the platform. See intel.com/performance-vpro for details.