Dec 19 2018
Hardware

How to Choose a Laptop That's Right for Your Small Business

Laptops give small business owners more mobility and functionality than ever before. Here's how to zero in on the right one.

In the not-too-recent past, the price for using a business laptop was to sacrifice functionality in return for a lighter-weight computer. In the present, giving up processing speed and computing power is no longer the case. Notebooks and laptops have become powerful enough to replace desktop computers as an economically savvy choice for many business people. If your computing needs require the services of a business laptop, consider these points before making your choice.

SEE MORE: Ready to find the laptop that's right for your small business?

Key Considerations of a Business Laptop

Weight is a major consideration when narrowing down your choice for the best laptop for your business. If you travel frequently or work remotely, a lighter-weight laptop may be a good fit for your needs for their ease of portability. For tasks where you need more computing power or larger screen size, your ultimate choice might be a laptop that is a little heavier to meet those needs. 

If your main concern is display size, there are business laptop models that have screen sizes that rival traditional desktop monitors. An HDMI port will be a necessity if you will be using your laptop for high-definition presentations or watching video on a big screen.  

Many laptops are designed with solid-state drives (SSD) as opposed to traditional hard drives, delivering a more substantial and faster storage medium. The average memory size of a median-priced laptop is around 8GB, which is sufficient for light to medium computing tasks such as email, surfing the internet, streaming videos and working in document editors such as Word. If you're going to be running multiple functions that require high usage of resources, a laptop with a minimum of 16GB should fit your needs. Price is also something to consider when choosing the best laptop for small business use, as they tend to be more expensive than desktop computers — the trade-off is that with a laptop, you get to take your office with you wherever you go. 

READ MORE: Check out the full list of considerations for small businesses choosing laptops on CDW.com

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