The best laptops for everyday use

Screen size: 14.2 inch

Weight: 1.43kg

Battery life: 14 hours upwards

Operating system: Windows

Storage space: 1TB or 512GB

Look, there’s no denying that Huawei Matebook 14S is a great laptop but my mandate in this article is to look at great laptops for everyday use and frankly, at this price you could buy two or three great laptops for everyday use. Unless you’re one of those mythical ‘creatives’ that laptop manufacturers obsess over, you don’t need everything this device has to offer.

It’s a very, very sexy device indeed. The 14.2 inch screen offers 2.5K visuals which is, by some stretch of the imagination, one of the best screens you can get on a laptop. Not only that but it also comes with a 90Hz refresh rate. This is a term which has become more widespread thanks to various phones boasting about it, but it essentially means the action on the screen looks smooth when you’re watching content or event scrolling up and down a webpage.

The keyboard feels handsome and comfortable to type on with a satisfying press to each key, the processor is excellent so the laptop runs incredibly speedily, the speakers offer an incredible surround sound and the microphones have some clever AI to cancel out noise around you so that anyone you’re meeting with can hear you. The battery is solid and should last all day with ease and the charging speed is insane - from 0-50% takes less than half an hour.

But for all these golden features, I keep coming back to the price. There’s no doubt that this fully featured and enjoyable to use but is it enough of a step up from the average laptop to command a price like this? I would say, for everyday use, probably not.

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See also: Telegraph Recommended's review of the best power banks for charging on the go

Frequently asked questions about laptops

How often should you update your laptop?

You need to update your mattress every eight years, your TV every five years, and your phone every two years. So what about laptops? How long should you hang onto your device before it’s officially outdated? Chloe Harris-Williams, tablets & computing buyer at John Lewis says: “We would recommend updating your laptop every three to four years, depending on how much it is used during this time.”

Are there any particular brands who are known as the best in class?

When it comes to smartphones, everyone knows that Apple and Samsung will always deliver a good quality product, regardless of the model. Is it the same for laptop manufacturers? When the Telegraph asked Elford, he said: “All the major laptop brands (HP, Lenovo, Acer, Asus) produce good quality devices. Apple Mac still stands out from a design and quality perspective.”

What is the difference between a laptop and a notebook?

A notebook is just a slim, light laptop. In general, notebooks tend to save space by using SSD storage rather than the traditional HDD storage of older laptops. However, these days most bigger laptops are using SSD storage as well.

The one that is a bit different is a Cloudbook or Chromebook. These are smaller laptops with almost no storage whatsoever. The idea is that you store all your files and data in the cloud and just download them when you need them. All well and good, as long as you’ve got a decent internet connection, but if you’re travelling a lot, these may not be ideal.

What is the best processor for a laptop?

If you’re just buying a laptop for everyday use, you probably don’t really need to worry about the processor as you won’t usually be doing anything that needs much processing power.

The vast majority of laptops use Intel processors. These are split into Core, Pentium, and Celeron, the first being widely considered the best, the last the worst. Most laptops I’ve found through my research use Intel Core which comes in i3, i5, i7, and i9 varieties and each has nine generations which mark slight improvements. Essentially, the higher the numbers the better the processor.

But, again, it depends on your use. If you’re doing very basic stuff, an Intel Core i3 processor will do just fine. Maybe an i5, if you’re going a bit harder. You wouldn’t need an i9 processor unless you were doing very, very high-intensity gaming.

However, Intel do have a new rival whose processors are starting to appear on the market. This rival is AMD who make, from most to least powerful, Ryzen, Athlon, and A-Series processors.

AMD is popular among gamers because they make both graphics chips and processors meaning that the technology has been designed to work together from the off, rather than being fused together at a later stage. Some people claim this means that AMD processors are better for gaming, but it’s a hotly contested area.

Either way, if you’re just doing basic stuff, you really don’t need to worry about it.

Should you consider buying a refurbished laptop?

Absolutely. You can get some serious discounts by picking up refurbished laptops. But remember a few things.

Firstly, you should only buy refurbished laptops from certified sellers. Lenovo and Dell both have official ‘outlet’ websites, where you can pick up refurbished laptops that have been checked over and restored to as good a working condition as possible by certified engineers.

You should be a lot more careful when buying ‘refurbished’ laptops from unofficial sellers as there’s basically no guarantee that you’re not getting some clapped out old hand-me-down.

Do I need any extras when I buy a laptop?

To my mind, the whole charm of a laptop is that it gives you everything you need in one device. That being said, I know that some people find laptop keyboards cramped and trackpads annoying. Thankfully, these days almost every peripheral keyboard and mouse is Bluetooth enabled so all should connect to your laptop with ease. You can find my guides to the best keyboards and best computer mouse by clicking those links. It's also worth investing in anti-virus software.

Glossary of terms:

RAM: Random Access Memory. This is basically the part of your computer which is running a programme at any one moment. The more RAM you have, the more programmes you can run at any one time without the device slowly down or freezing.

Processor: When your computer wants to do something it inputs a line of code and outputs your desired result. The processor is the part which organises that transaction. It’s a bit like a translator between you and your computer. The faster it can process your commands, the faster your computer will be.

SSD: Solid state drive. This is a type of hard drive (the ‘memory’ of the computer where you store your files.) SSD storage is used in a lot of modern laptops because it’s smaller and lighter, ideal for thinner laptops. It’s also faster than HDD, so apps and games load faster. The downside is that it’s generally more expensive so you’ll get less storage for your buck.

Cloud storage: Rather than save your files onto your computer, you save them into a private box on the internet which only you can access from any computer. If your laptop got broken or destroyed, you could easily get your files back. The downside is that if you can’t connect to the internet, you can’t get your files. There are also various privacy concerns around giving your data to a big company like Google, Microsoft, Apple, or Dropbox.

HDD: Hard disk drive. An older method of saving files which is bigger, bulkier, and loads a lot more slowly. However, it does have a major upside. HDD storage is very cheap, so you could easily get a lot of storage space for a fraction of the price you’d pay for the same amount of SSD storage.

OS: Operating system. If you’re buying a new laptop, generally this will be Windows 10, or ChromeOS if you’ve got a Chromebook. There’s also MacOS on Macbooks. The latter is significantly different to the former two, so it’s worth heading down to your local PC shop and testing them out before buying.

TB/MB/B: Short for terrabytes, megabytes, and bytes. These are just units of computer storage from biggest to smallest. The more you have, the more photos, music, and videos you’ll be able to store on your device.

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