Need a new laptop for work? Check out our favorite Windows laptops and MacBooks for business users, tested and reviewed by CNET's laptop experts.
The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11 is our favorite laptop for business users. It’s Lenovo’s flagship business ultraportable and has become the standard against which other business ultraportables are measured. It's a boxy, matte-black laptop that won't be mistaken for anything other than a ThinkPad. While it can be described as "boxy," the X1 Carbon is not clunky or heavy. It's just about perfect in terms of offering room to work while remaining light enough for daily commutes or long days on the road. With outstanding battery life, it will last through those long days on a single charge.
The ThinkPad X1 Carbon is a great pick for traveling execs, but we also have picks for creative pros who need a high-quality display and high-powered graphics. At CNET, we test all kinds of laptops, from budget models for everyday tasks to high-performance laptops for gaming and content creation and everything in between. Each member of our team has decades of experience testing and reviewing laptops. We conduct performance testing under controlled conditions in the CNET Labs and extensive hands-on use to assess the design, features and performance of each laptop we review.
You'll find a good number of recommendations here, but we also have more specific picks in different laptop categories, starting with the best overall laptop and also including best budget laptop, best Windows laptop and best two-in-one laptop. If you are looking for a laptop not for work but for play, check out our picks for the best gaming laptop and the best cheap gaming laptop. If you have narrowed your choice to a specific brand, check out our favorites for the best Dell laptop and the best HP laptop. Beyond Windows, we have recommendations for the best MacBook and best Chromebook.
It delivers no surprises or revolutionary upgrades from past iterations, but the latest ThinkPad X1 Carbon's security features, build quality and performance remain excellent. Its 14-inch display and 2.5-pound weight are the sweet spot of enough screen space to work long stretches without needing to connect to an external display, while also being light enough for daily travel. With an industry-best keyboard, long battery life and greener construction, the X1 Carbon Gen 11 is a near-perfect business laptop. We are currently testing the Gen 12 version, which will likely be just as good, if not better, especially for AI tasks.