What makes a good laptop?

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Everyone in your life asks you questions about laptops all the time, which is one of the things about this job. One of the more difficult questions to answer is, "What makes a good laptop?"

It's sad that my dear question is subjective, as it is with so many answers in life. Sometimes I don't like a laptop that my fellow reviewers like. I am always the one who is correct. Don't pay attention to them.

This question has prompted me to do a bit of soul searching. Is there a difference between a laptop that is good and one that is not?

It is easier to think of what makes a laptop bad. How long is the battery life? It's not good. One port, and it's all done. It's not good. It takes 12 minutes to start. It's not good. How much do you think it costs? Unless it comes with a free car, it's probably not good. I could rattle these off all day long.

The question of what is good is hard because there are so many different devices. It's not a requirement for a good gaming rig to have a seven-hour battery life. For a business-oriented convertible, a good gaming laptop with a good graphics card is not necessary.

There are a lot of features that people will disagree on the value of. There is a set of things that a general-purpose laptop should have in order to be good. I don't want to recommend an ultrabook that doesn't meet these requirements. If you are shopping for a general-purpose laptop, make sure you choose one that is compatible with these criteria.

• A display of at least 1920 x 1080. There are still high-profile models with lower resolutions than this being sold, and in today’s market, those models are not good. (And I’m souring on 1080p on screens that are 16 inches or larger — you can really see the pixels on those.)
• At least two ports and a headphone jack. I wish I could put a way higher number here, but many of the best laptops on the market today are being sold with exactly two USB-C ports and a headphone jack. This has gone far enough. I am declaring it now: I don’t care how much you love your Thunderbolt dock, a laptop with fewer than two ports is not good.
• Fans that work and are also not too loud. It’s the year 2022, people. If my five Chrome tabs are turning your chassis into a toaster and your fans into a symphony orchestra, your laptop is not good.
• Keyboard backlighting. This is necessary for late-night work and especially helpful for visually impaired folks. Good laptops need it.
• Keys with at least 1mm of travel. I know there’s a contingency out there who (inexplicably, to be clear) loves flatter keyboards. However, even if you fancy yourself a flat-keyboard-er, I promise you that you do not want keys with less than 1mm of travel. That’s Butterfly Keyboard territory, and nobody wants that. We in the laptop community just don’t like to remember that period of our lives.
• Battery life of seven hours or more for general-purpose use. There is just no longer any excuse for five-hour battery lifespans in this category, even at low prices. If anyone tries to recommend a laptop to you that reviewers are getting less than seven, or maybe six and a half hours on, tell them they are wrong and send them this article. You’re welcome.
• A usable processor. Yes, I am coming for the Celeron: It’s time to stop putting those in laptops. Even for folks with a pretty light workload, they are too slow — and even if you are highly budget-constrained, I promise you will save money in the long run by buying a chip that will last longer. Sorry, Celeron. You had a good run.

Not all of these items will apply if you are shopping for a specific purpose. Other use cases are listed here.

• What makes a good laptop for college? Portability. A good student-focused laptop should be under three and a half pounds, give or take. Backpack space is prime real estate in school, and you’re going to be carrying this thing around a lot.
• What makes a good laptop for business? Build quality. This is something folks on a budget can compromise on for lower price points in the general-use space, but business laptops are, as a category, expensive, and they need to withstand the test of time to earn their value. A good business laptop should be made of aluminum, carbon fiber, or other non-plastic materials, and they shouldn’t be bending all over the place when you torque the screen or press down on the keyboard deck. Generous storage and excellent security features also make for a good business laptop (and laptops marketed to the business space, in general, do have these elements).
• What makes a good laptop for gaming? Frame rates. Things like keyboards, touchpads, and battery life are less fundamental and more subjective here — many people may want good ones, but there’s room for reasonable disagreement about how important they are. The one thing that objectively makes or breaks a gaming laptop is good frame rates for its price — and that’s what reviewers and buyers should focus on when evaluating these products.

Whether a laptop works well for you is more important than whether a laptop is good. I have enjoyed using a laptop that doesn't meet all of the criteria. Gadgets are no different than what we like.

I think there's value in keeping strict definitions in our heads when we're making recommendations. They don't have the context for the products we do.

I have heard horror stories of friends who were convinced to pay $600 for a Celeron machine on the Best Buy floor, or of their kids buying a 1366 x 768 machine that only lasted a year because it was flimsy. It is important that affordable machines are made, but it is also important that those machines are able to deliver on the promise of a laptop. Keeping that in mind is a service to all, even though some parts of the business are subjective.