For most of the last two decades, a business laptop lived on a worker’s desk and rarely left the building. Today that assumption no longer holds. According to Gallup, more than three-quarters (78%) of employees now work fully or partially remotely.
Gartner expects businesses to keep computing devices roughly 15% longer than in recent years, due to cost, so the hardware that SMBs buy now has to hold up over a longer stretch of use. Gartner also projects that AI PCs will make up more than half of all PC sales in 2026, so durability and mobility increasingly need to coexist with the higher processing power that on-device AI requires.
A laptop designed for a stationary desk job is not built for that kind of movement, so small business owners buying their next round of hardware need a different checklist. Here are five things worth evaluating before the next purchase.
Powerful processing: How many applications and browser windows do you have open at any given time? Probably dozens. Running multiple applications simultaneously requires a powerful processor to prevent laggy navigation and sluggish performance.
Built-in ruggedness: Laptops that travel get dropped, jostled, and occasionally splashed with coffee. Eight out of 10 SMBs say that at least some of their employees drop or roughly handle their devices, and one-quarter frequently experience significant downtime due to hardware malfunctions, according to the ASUS Future of SMB Report. Features that used to be considered upgrades — such as reinforced chassis, spill-resistant keyboards, and components rated for temperature and impact tolerance — should now be considered standard for all business laptops.Additionally, a laptop that leaves the office will be removed and then plugged into many different monitors, docks, and peripherals. Ports that wear out after light use can create serious support headaches, so look for connections built to withstand frequent insertion.
