Best Laptops for Beginners — Our Top 3 Picks

① Performance: You don't need top-end specs — just enough to last a few years

A laptop that runs smoothly is especially important for beginners

For beginners, "I don't need anything powerful" is something I hear all the time. And fair enough — if you're just getting started, jumping straight to a high-spec machine doesn't really make sense.

That said, going too far the other way is also a mistake. A laptop that's too cheap and underpowered will start to feel sluggish quickly — and if it can't keep up, you'll stop using it. With AI tools becoming genuinely useful day-to-day, having a machine that handles them without grinding is worth thinking about from the start.

Here's the rough spec baseline I'd suggest:

• CPU: Intel Core i5 or higher / AMD Ryzen 5 or higher
• Memory: At least 16GB
• Storage: SSD 512GB or more

Hit those marks and you'll have a genuinely comfortable experience, even as a first-time laptop user.

Here's why memory matters more than most people expect: modern computers multitask constantly. You'll have a browser open with several tabs, something from Microsoft 365 running, maybe an AI tool or a video call alongside. Unlike a phone — where you're typically doing one thing at a time — a laptop juggles all of that at once. 16GB of RAM means it can do so without stuttering, and you'll get several years of solid use out of it.

One more thing on performance: the display. It's easy to overlook, but cheaper laptops still sometimes ship with TN panels, which genuinely look poor. Look for IPS — or better yet, OLED — and you'll get much better colours, sharper readability, and noticeably less eye strain.

Display quality has a real impact on how comfortable it is to use day to day

② Price: Too expensive is wasteful. Too cheap is also a problem.

You probably weren't planning to go overboard on your first laptop — and that makes sense. But here's something worth knowing about how the laptop market works.

Tech moves fast. A chip that's top-of-the-range now will be mid-range in two or three years. So spending a fortune on the absolute best-specced machine today doesn't necessarily pay off. What makes more sense is finding something that hits the right performance-to-price sweet spot right now.

That means avoiding both extremes. The picks in this article cover the spec baseline above while remaining reasonably priced — so if you're unsure, start here.

The right balance matters — not the cheapest, not the most expensive.

Where you buy matters too, and online generally wins on price.

Some people want to try a laptop in person before committing, which I understand — but electronics shops have margins to cover, and the prices reflect that. You can also end up being steered towards whatever the staff happen to be pushing that week.

For online buying, buying direct from the manufacturer is often the sweet spot. Official online stores frequently run sales and bundles, and without a retailer's margin on top, the prices can be surprisingly competitive. Amazon sometimes beats them, but manufacturer direct is usually the better starting point.

If you do save a bit by buying online, that's money you can put towards the extras: a mouse, USB stick, or USB-C hub. These things come in handy sooner than you'd expect.

A small USB-C hub like this one is surprisingly useful to have around

③ Usability: A portable 14-inch model suits beginners well

Finally, usability. With phones, the choice is fairly simple. With laptops, it varies a lot between models — the day-to-day experience of using them can be quite different.

For beginners, I'd recommend something around 14 inches and under 1.4 kg. It's a combination that tends to work really well.

Big enough to work on comfortably, compact enough to carry around.

A 13–14 inch screen gives you plenty of space without feeling cramped, and the smaller form factor means it's genuinely easy to carry — to a café, a library, or the office. Go up to 15 or 16 inches and the display is bigger, but the weight and bulk become a nuisance when you're on the move. Sticking to 13–14 inches and under 1.4 kg keeps things practical.

If you want more screen space at home, the answer is an external monitor. They're not expensive — you can find decent ones on Amazon — and plugging one in instantly transforms your setup.

That's actually how I work: my main machine is a lightweight laptop, but at home I've got it connected to an external monitor with a keyboard and mouse. It works like a desktop when I'm at my desk, and the moment I need to head out, I just unplug and go.

Pairing a lightweight laptop with an external monitor at home is a great setup for productivity

That's the size I'd steer most beginners towards.

Those are the three things I'd focus on when choosing your first laptop. The picks in this article are chosen with all of that in mind, so have a look — you're unlikely to go far wrong.