Best Laptop UK – Buyer’s Guide

We have crowned this as the best laptop for business needs for various reasons. Firstly, it is ultra-lightweight, so when you are having to transport it around in a laptop bag from office to office or while you are on the commute, it isn’t going to be too bothersome.

There is a very generous battery life too, of 14 hours, so you have the convenience of a portable computer without the strain of having to plug it in every few hours. A built-in microphone and quality, both fantastic quality, will help when you need to make a Skype call, and the fab Intel UHD graphics will make everything a pleasant experience, whether you’re editing videos or simply typing up reports.

It is quick too, so when you’re jumping from task to task or you have to have 500 Google Chrome tabs open, it isn’t going to strain under the pressure and leave you waiting before it loads.

There is both Wi-Fi and Ethernet ability, although the lack of headphone socket could put some off. Easily resolves with a pair of wireless headphones, though. A good amount of space will help keep your precious photos and videos in one place, and the sound is excellent without using external options. It may just come in under £1000, but there is no denying you get your money’s-worth.

We say it is the best laptop for business, but we would also say it is the best laptop overall which we reviewed.

In our opinion, one of the best Lenovo laptops available to buy online at the moment. Thanks to an eight hour battery life, you won’t be tethered to one position, and a nice clear screen helps when it is movie time.

There is also a 256GB solid state drive, so you have a great amount of storage to keep all of your precious photos and videos in one place, but it is also quick to get everything up and running as soon as possible with a fast boot time.

An 8GB RAM is enough to help you multitask, whether you are listening to music as you type up your work or need quite a few programmes open to get the job done. It is also pleasantly quiet in operation, no matter how much it is pushed to the limits. You get a bit of a cooling fan noise if you’re very busy and for a few minutes after it is turned on of course, but nothing disturbing.

Something which will appeal to those who don’t like a plastic build is that the casing is completely aluminium, so it feels classy as well as looking very dapper indeed. Great if you want something luxurious and modern, yet it is still a really nice weight and size.

Using the File History feature, you will probably be able to copy files from your old laptop too, which takes the headache out of manually transferring it all. There is no CD/DVD drive, but this is something common with modern laptops, so a separate attachments can be bought if necessary.

If you are looking for the best gaming laptop under £1,000, then HP have made a product for you in the form of the 15-cb004na.

It may be a budget pick when compared to a lot of other gaming models out there, but that by no means is evident when using it. There is still a high-quality NVidia GeForce GTX 1050 graphics card, which is not far behind the one that models which are 3x the price use.

A nine hour battery life means you are free to take it wherever you please, whether you want to sit on the sofa or at a desk. You’re not going to have to hunt for a mains socket for a little while. There are also four USB sockets so you can easily attach additional equipment or access external storage, such as photos or music on a stick.

It is largely quite in use, particularly when considering it is primarily a gaming laptop. There is the option to turn the fan off in BIOS if you are only going to be using low-demand tasks. It seems to charge quickly, too, and the sound is loud even if it lacks a bit of bass.

You don’t get as much storage as with many over £2,000, and RAM may also be a bit less. But on the whole, for the saving you make, it is worth the compromise. You still get a great gaming laptop on a budget, and it doesn’t come with too much bloatware so you can really personalise everything installed

Budget laptops can be very hit and miss, especially when they fall into the ‘under £300’ category. But for light multitasking, this laptop offers brilliant value.

It still has all of the specifications you’d expect from a modern day laptop, from the Full HD display, to the nice slim lightweight size. A few unique extras include ASUS IceCool Technology, which keeps the area you rest your palms between 28 and 35 degrees for optimum comfort for hours on end, and ASUS EyeCare which reduces blue light by up to 33% to protect from eye fatigue and tiredness.

You may get a low battery life and RAM when compared to some more expensive models, but they are sacrifices which have to be made if you want to save some pennies. They aren’t issues which should affect your experience or usability, though. On a high point, as it uses hard drive storage, this is massive so it is great for anyone who likes to keep digital copies of all of their photos from years gone by.

There is no ethernet connection, but Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are present. It is very lightweight which makes it good for sitting on your knee on the sofa or taking on the commute, and the screen is anti-glare, which models 10x the cost can sometimes lack.

If you just need an affordable laptop for surfing the web, studying and school work, MS Office, or maybe for family use/as a child’s first computer, then it ticks all those boxes. By far one of the best laptops for basic use

If your main concern is battery life, then the Acer CB3-431 is our pick for the absolute best laptop for battery life.

It will give you up to 14 hours of work in one go without charging, which is over a day’s work depending on what you are doing. If you want to be able to take it to a cafe or library for a few hours without trailing your charging cable with you or relying on there being a plug, then it will see you through.

Because it is a Chromebook, it is very Google-centric. Perfect if you do all of your work on Google Docs and share it to the Drive, needing to share the folders and give access to your work colleagues or seminar group at university.

As the files are stored online, you will be able to access them anywhere. That makes Chromebooks one of the best options for those people who are always on-the-go, yet a bit too forgetful to always remember to carry their USB stick or email it to themselves beforehand.

There is also AC Wi-Fi, which makes things a lot quicker without even changing your router or modem. A concentrated beam of Wi-Fi is delivered so you can be further away from the router and still get great signal. It is the fastest available, so you’ll have no buffering on Netflix and will receive shared files instantly.

Safety will likely be an issue, so the built-in antivirus should give you peace of mind when you are surfing the web and entering personal details. You also have access to millions of additional apps to boost your personal experience, as it runs on Chrome OS as opposed to Windows. Just use the Play Store to browse through them all.

Of course, as you may have seen in the specifications, RAM is low. But as everything is pretty Cloud-based, there is little need for a big powerful processor and oodles of storage, unless you’re running a few installed programmes in which case you may need to give it a breather.

Students need a few things ticked off when it comes to finding the perfect laptop. They need a good price, a fast startup, generous battery life for those hours spent in the library, and a processor which can handle the 500 Google Chrome tabs you need open for reference while you type away at the last minute.

Notebooks are therefore great for university. You get easy access to free programmes such as Google Docs and Slides, which can make it easier to type up all of those essays and create presentations, as well as store them and access from anywhere. No more trekking to the library to realise you have forgotten your USB stick, or paying for subscriptions to Microsoft Office.

Life isn’t all work and no play when you’re a student though, so the 14” Full HD screen will allow you to catch up on all your Netflix boxsets, and the 32GB or 64GB storage will let you store up to 10,000 of those hi-res night out photos.

You have the essentials too, such as speakers, camera, HDMI, headphone socket and three USB ports. It is nice and lightweight to carry around, and the 8 hour battery life will give you plenty of time before you have to reach for the charger.