THE PERFECT PORTABLE: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

1 THE CORE HARDWARE

Modern processors are designed to prioritise responsiveness, so Windows feels snappy even on cheap hardware – and if you’re just writing emails and documents then that might be all you need. However, once you start working with chunky spreadsheets or large image files, such systems can grind to a halt, and the benefit of a powerful processor becomes apparent.

Two computers with the same chip won’t necessarily perform identically, however. CPUs need to be kept cool to achieve their top performance, so a laptop with a spacious case and a powerful internal fan will tend to run faster than one that’s designed to be as thin and light as possible. Another variable is the speed of the SSD: the faster this is, the more efficiently the processor can open applications and access data files. Our real-world benchmarks find out how quickly a system handles a specific workload to show you how the system performs as a whole.

Alongside performance, it’s worth thinking about storage capacity. Most of the laptops in this month’s Labs come