Best Work From Home Laptops

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.

What laptop specs do I need for work from home?

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.

Recommended work from home laptops:

What is the difference between Intel i3 i5 and i7?

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.

Which processor is best for work from home?

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.

Is 8GB RAM enough to work from home?

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.

How much SSD is good for a laptop?

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.

What features are important in a laptop for working from home?

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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