( Credit: René Ramos; Shutterstock-Pixelsquid/Shutterstock.com)
Mobile workstation sales are a tiny part of the overall laptop market—just 2.1%, according to numbers at Statista—but if you use the word workstation in its generic sense rather than referring to professional design and engineering apps, the numbers become a lot larger. Notebooks of all shapes and sizes are used to for work, at home as well as in the office. In our survey, 19.6% of respondents say they have a single laptop for both personal and business use.
Every year in our annual Readers' Choice survey we ask about the laptop brands people use for work in both home offices and company headquarters, as well as which models IT managers prefer. This year's results are similar to last year—showing some phenomenal consistency in the quality certain brands bring to the work laptop experience.
The Top Work Laptop Brands for 2025
Apple’s and Lenovo’s overall satisfaction scores for work laptops drop this year. Yet both are still the leaders in this category, with the best satisfaction and recommendation ratings in the bunch.
Apple is in a class by itself: The MacBook maker has won every Business Choice award for laptops since 2006. Its highest scores date back to the aughts, when it hit a 9.3 for satisfaction, and it came close again last year at 9.2. Nevertheless, a drop back to 9.0 this year still keeps Apple on top. MacBooks also exhibit excellent numbers for ease of use, reliability, tech support, and display quality.
Lenovo is the Business Choice winner among Windows-based brands, scoring ahead of Asus, Acer, Dell, and HP. Its best rating is for the quality of its touch screens, but Lenovo also rates well for ease of use. This is the third year in a row that Lenovo has been the top business pick among Windows systems.
(Note: Click the down, left, and right arrows in our interactive charts to view the various elements of our survey results.)
Of those other brands, Asus and Acer make for the best follow-on Windows systems, according to respondents using them at the office or for work-at-home. Asus has the standout score for cost and repairs, even better than the overall winners above. Dell and HP don't stand out this year, except for Dell displaying the best score for ease of laptop setup, slightly ahead of Lenovo.
For our current top-rated, lab-tested business laptops, read The Best Work Laptops for 2025.
Business Laptop Operating Systems
Since the origins of computing, we have debated the merits of operating systems, particularly Windows versus macOS. That battle continues today. Last year was the first time we asked about laptop OSes for work, and Apple's macOS won handily. This year, it does so again, with even better scores. Apple’s notebook OS outpaces Microsoft Windows on every measure, sometimes by an entire point, as it does in reliability, security, and included software. The gulf is even wider for tech support.
Apple has fewer users—only 12% in our survey. Compare that with 15.2% global market share across laptops and desktops, according to Statcounter. Yet those using macOS for work feel more satisfaction in every way. The combination of hardware and software in Apple's ecosystem remains an unbeatable choice for getting work done.
For our expert's opinion, read Which OS Is Best?
IT-Managed Laptops
This is our third year of asking IT managers to rate the brand of laptops they prefer to deploy. HP has won this category every time. Admittedly, last year we saw a pretty tight tie with Dell on so many key factors we had to give the award to both. But for 2025, HP manages to stay just ahead of Dell for overall satisfaction, enough to take the win.
According to Statista, the big three PC brands are Dell, HP, and Lenovo, so they obviously come to the fore in IT-centric questions. All three match up exceptionally in our results. It makes for a tough decision—Dell takes the lead in several categories such as value, tech support, repairs, and remote management, all areas that are key to the success of an IT department. Even bronze medalist Lenovo claims the lead in ease of use, satisfaction with laptop size and weight, and laptop durability.
But only HP can claim three years of the highest ratings in overall satisfaction with IT.
It's interesting to see the flip-flop between Lenovo-loving end users (above) and the IT managers who prefer HP. Presumably the office rank and file care less about deployment and manageability extras such as HP's Wolf Security suite.
For more, check out our list of The Best Mobile Workstations for 2025.
The PCMag Business Choice survey for Laptops was in the field from November 11, 2024 to February 3, 2025. For more information on how we conduct surveys, read the survey methodology.
PCMag Readers' Choice: How Our Surveys Help You Find the Best Products
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