There have been a ton of technological inventions over the last decade, but none that has been able to displace our need for the laptop. Largish screen, attached keyboard, decent memory, battery life and portability. Since its introduction, the laptop has been through multiple transformations in order to beef up and trim down on any number of these elements, so that today’s best portables can hold more, last for hours or days away from an electric socket, and are (almost!) as light as our packed lunch. Have tablets and phones dented their stature? To an extent, but as long as there’s work to be done and movies to be watched, then you can count on laptops keeping their place in the sun a while longer; all with the latest upgrades and improvements, as listed in our 6 of the best.
Microsoft Surface Go 2
The newest Microsoft Surface product is a compact, 10.5-inch tablet that encapsulates a solid Windows 10 PC. The entry-level Surface Go with 64 GB of storage and 4 GB of RAM is just $400 (trackpad and keyboard not included). It can cope with a steady stream of apps without slowing down, and can handle up to 10 hours of video playback before you need to find a socket. Not bad for the price. It’s also great for video chatting – with rear and front facing cameras and twin mics helping to ensure clarity and audio quality that is better than more expensive options. Overall, a compact, handle-anything and – best of all – affordable little laptop.
ASUS ZenBook Flip 14 Mini Laptop
This practical two-in-one (laptop and tablet) is good value but very sturdily built, and looks great at a decent sub $500 price. With 4 GB of RAM means you shouldn’t open too many tabs at one time and can’t handle bigger jobs (like video editing) but will handle most day-to-day tasks just fine.
The 14-inch touchscreen is on the large side, but it weighs in at under 1.4kg and is super slim too; with ports to spare and 128 GB of storage space for your apps, games, photos and videos.
ASUS L203MA Mini Laptop
A great starter laptop for younger students thanks to its friendly price and fairly rugged design, this laptop still comes handily equipped with plenty of ports (for projecting slides onto a large screen or downloading pictures). A reasonably sized 11.6-inch display has 1080p resolution, and 180-degree of movement, so you can lay it flat on a table like a tablet. With 4GB of Ram and 64GB of storage it betters some of the other similarly priced laptops on the market, and with a 10-hour battery life and a weight of under 1kg you can stay on the go most of the day.
Acer Swift 3 Mini Laptop
Most mid-range laptops are competing to find a perfect balance between performance and price, and the Acer Swift 3 is in the leading pack in that department. 10th-gen Intel Core i5 processor, 8 GB of RAM, and a huge 512 GB solid-state drive all sound even more impressive when you consider the price. You can expect around 13 hours of battery life, and while it doesn’t have a touch screen, it’ll see you through a full-day’s work and night with honour
Apple MacBook Air
The first laptop on your wish-list before pricing considerations, the latest MacBook (made from recycled aluminium) is a well-built piece of kit that is also thinner and lighter than previous incarnations. 10th-gen Intel processor, Apple’s high definition retina display and an upgraded keyboard, as well as 8GB of RAM are what you also get for close to $1,000. Users frequently buy Apple for its video editing capabilities, and if it’s serious 4K video editing you’re doing, opt for the more powerful MacBook Pro instead. Otherwise, in terms of build and spec, this is a great laptop if price isn’t an issue.
Dell XPS 13
A great Windows laptop due to its premium build and finish, a powerful processor (Intel 1oth-gen quad-core Ice Lake) and 13.4-inch beautiful touchscreen. Dell offers plenty of set-ups to suit your particular needs or budgetary constraints. The Intel Core i5 touch-screen is our model of choice with 8GB of RAM and 256 GB SSD storage. For a price, you can have it all.
