Best PC for Working From Home
February 21, 2022
The working environment is changing. The traditional 9-5 workday with a commute to an office may not be the best option for everyone anymore.
According to Gallup Poll, only 30 percent of employees are engaged in their jobs. A large number of employed Americans want to work from home, but only 3 percent actually do.
Working remotely requires certain skills, equipment, and preparations. Below we will take a look at the best work from home laptops. We will highlight machines that are suitable for working remotely in nearly any environment – whether it is in the office or on the road.
The laptops and the specs we’ll be suggesting below are mainly used for office work. Tasks like creating and editing documents, using online tools and databases, opening multiple web browsers, researching, editing pictures, and light video editing. Although having the best and latest specs is a good thing, it’s not always ideal when it comes to pricing especially if the previous generation can also handle the same type of work.
We’ve researched some of the most budget-friendly work from home laptops that can handle most office work. We also made sure that the specs are something you wouldn’t need to upgrade for the next 3+ years. These laptops are mainly for productivity rather than gaming thus not having a dedicated GPU. That means these are the best options if you’re looking for a laptop that has a good battery and power efficiency.
Apple MacBook Pro
CPU: Apple M1 8 Core CPU
GPU: 8 Core GPU
RAM: 8 GB
SSD: 256 GB
Screen: 13″ Retina display – 500 nits
Apple MacBook Pro is one of the best laptops for freelancing. It has a fast processor and a great built-in keyboard. The laptop also has a Retina display, which makes it perfect for creative professionals who need to work on high-resolution graphics or videos. Another great feature of the MacBook Pro is that it comes with macOS, Apple’s own operating system. This makes it easy to work with other Apple devices and software. And with its long battery life, you can work all day without having to worry about charging it. Overall, the MacBook Pro is a great choice for freelancers who need a powerful and versatile laptop.
Lenovo IdeaPad
CPU: Intel Core i5-1135G7 4 Cores 8 Threads
GPU: Intel Iris Xe Graphics
RAM: 20 GB DDR4
SSD: 512 GB PCIe NVMe M.2
Screen: 15.6″ FHD – 300 nits
The Lenovo IdeaPad 15.6″ FHD Touchscreen Laptop may be perfect for your work from home and entertainment needs. This laptop is powered by an Intel Core i5-1135G7 Quad-Core Processor and features Intel Iris Xe Graphics. Plus, it comes with 20GB of RAM and a 512GB PCIe SSD. And if you need to type for long periods of time, the laptop has a backlit keyboard to make it easier. You can also keep your data safe with the built-in fingerprint scanner making it fast, easy and secure to access your files.
Are you in the market for a powerful laptop that is also compact and lightweight? If so, you should consider the HP Pavilion 15. This laptop is equipped with an 11th Gen Intel Core i7-1165G7 Processor and 16 GB of RAM, making it perfect for multitasking and heavy-duty use. The 512 GB SSD storage ensures that you’ll have plenty of space to store your files and programs. And if you need to work on the go, the long battery life will keep you productive for hours. Plus, the Full HD IPS Micro-Edge Display provides stunning visuals no matter where you are.
Acer Swift 3 Intel Evo
CPU: Intel Core i7-1165G7 4 Cores 8 Threads
GPU: Intel Iris Xe Graphics
RAM: 8 GB LPDDR4
SSD: 256 GB Flash Memory Solid State
Screen: 14″ Full HD – 300 nits
The Acer Swift 3 Intel Evo Thin & Light Laptop is another great option for working from home. The laptop has a 14″ Full HD display and an Intel Core i7-1165G7 processor with Intel Iris Xe Graphics. It also has 8GB LPDDR4X memory and a 256GB NVMe SSD. This makes the laptop perfect for working on projects, streaming media, and more. Plus, the laptop is thin and light, making it easy to take with you wherever you go.
ASUS ZenBook 13 Ultra-Slim
CPU: Intel Evo Platform i5-1135G7 4 Cores 8 Threads
GPU: Intel Iris Plus Graphics
RAM: 8 GB DDR4
SSD: 256 GB
Screen: 13.3 OLED Nano Edge – 400 nits
The ASUS ZenBook 13 Ultra-Slim Laptop is a great option. This laptop is equipped with an Intel Evo Platform i5-1135G7 processor, which makes it powerful enough to handle any task you throw at it. Plus, it features a 13.3 OLED NanoEdge display, which provides stunning visuals and ensures that you won’t be limited by what you can see on your screen. And if you need to take your laptop with you on the go, don’t worry – it’s also ultra-slim and lightweight, so you can easily carry it with you wherever you go.
MSI Prestige 14 Evo Pro
CPU: Intel Core i7-1185G7 4 Cores 8 Threads
GPU: Intel Iris XE
RAM: 16 GB DDR4
SSD: 512 GB
Screen: 14″ FHD
The MSI Prestige 14 Evo Professional Laptop is the perfect device for working from home. With its 14″ MSI has created a stunning 14″ laptop with the Prestige 14 Evo Professional. The FHD display is beautiful and provides great viewing angles. The Intel Core i7-1185G7 provides great performance and the Intel Iris Xe ensures top-notch graphics. 16GB of RAM ensures that this laptop will handle any task you throw at it, and the 512GB NVMe SSD means that you will have plenty of storage space. This laptop is perfect for working from home, as it is powerful and lightweight. We would highly recommend this laptop to anyone looking for a great work laptop.
Dell Inspiron 15 3000 3501
CPU: Intel Core i5-1135G7 4 Cores 8 Threads
GPU: Intel Iris Xe Graphics
RAM: 16 GB DDR4
SSD: 256 GB SSD + 1TB HDD
Screen: 15.6″ Full HD Anti-glare LED
The Dell Inspiron 15 3000 3501 is a lightweight laptop, and the full HD screen is really beautiful. The 11th gen Intel Core i5-1135G7 quad-core processor makes it powerful enough to do most tasks, and 16GB of RAM ensures that it can handle multiple programs running at the same time. We would definitely recommend this laptop for anyone looking for a good working from home option.
One thing to note is that the battery life on this laptop is not the best. It’s not terrible, but it’s definitely not as good as some of the other laptops We’ve used and seen in the past.
This used to be as simple as the Intel i3 having 2 cores, the i5 with 4 cores, and so on and so forth but recent upgrades with technology allowed these processors to have more cores.
A core is one of the main components that determine how fast a laptop can process certain tasks. Basically, the more cores and power a processor has, the more task it can handle and the faster it can do so. If you end up buying a new laptop it’s ideal to get one with a processor of at least in the 10th gen series.
The best processor for work from home jobs is the one with the most cores and threads which is the i7 or even the i9. But if you’re working on a certain budget then even an i3 processor is already good enough. The sweet spot is an i5 processor which most work from home job requires in laptop specs. Using a laptop with an i5 processor allows you to perform mid to heavy tasks allowing you to find more work from home opportunities.
When you have some extra budget though it’s definitely worth getting an i7 for that extra power especially if it’s only a couple of bucks difference in terms of pricing. This can ensure that you won’t be needing any upgrades for quite a long time even if there are newer models already.
8GB RAM should be enough to work from home, provided that you do not have too many applications open at once. It’s more than enough for Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and your web browser to all be open at the same time AND to work fast.
You might consider upgrading to 16 GB RAM for your laptop if your type of work requires opening a lot of online tools such as web browsers for emails, websites, company tools, and office applications all at the same time. It would be a good investment to have the extra 8GB RAM to ensure that you can switch over from one window to another smoothly.
You need to understand that having a good SSD in your computer is probably the second most important part next to having a good processor. Make sure that the laptop you’ll get has a Solid State Disk (SSD) instead of an HDD. A laptop with an HDD instead of takes a long time to boot up. Having an SSD allows your laptop to start up in a matter of seconds which is perfect when you just woke up a minute before your shift starts.
A good SSD size needs to be at least 256GB to have enough space for your applications and documents. If you can get one with a higher space then the better. An alternative for this is getting a laptop with at least 125GB of space for your applications and operating system and adding an extra HDD for you to store your documents. That way it won’t cost too much but you still get to enjoy a fast boot up with lots of storage space.
Webcam – A good work from home laptop must have a built-in webcam. The goal is to be as portable as possible. Needing to attach an external webcam beats the purpose of having a laptop.
LAN and Wifi – All laptops nowadays already have built-in wifi but some end up not having a LAN port anymore. Having a LAN port allows you a backup way to connect to the internet in case your wifi car becomes defective or if wifi just isn’t available in the area you’ll be working at.
Numpad – This varies from person to person as well as whether you’ll be working on a lot of numbers. It’s good though to have this included instead of needing to also attach an external Numpad.
Finding the best work from home laptops for you can take some time but definitely worth doing research on as this will be your bread and butter towards earning from home. You need something reliable that you can use for many years to come before you end up needing a new one with better specs.
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