Best workstation laptops in 2024 (2024)

Sharp visuals are key. Workstation laptops often feature stunning, color-accurate displays that make your work a joy to behold. Be prepared to invest: these top-of-the-line machines come with a hefty price tag.

We'll guide you through the options. We understand that needs and budgets vary. This guide highlights different workstation laptops across various price ranges. Remember, prioritize your needs – don't splurge on unnecessary features. Wait for a sale if needed! Also, we update our best pages as we get in and test new laptops, so if you're in the market for a workstation, our site is a great resource, and bookmarking our page is a good idea.

From dazzling displays to budget-friendly powerhouses, we've got you covered. Let's find the perfect workstation laptop to supercharge your workflow.

The quick list

Best overall

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The HP ZBook Fury 17 G8 may be two years old now, but with an Intel Xeon processor and Nvidia RTX A5000 GPU, it's still the best workstation we've gotten our hands on. It has the raw power to stand up to any task, and is overkill for most laptop users.

In terms of performance benchmarking, we ran the ZBook Fury 17 G8 through our standard Geekbench 5.4 testing. The ZBook Fury 17 averaged a multi-core score of 9,716 which is well above the premium laptop average of 4,753. It did lag a bit behind the Dell Precision 5470's 11,040 average but blew past the Asus Zenbook Pro Duo 15's 7,028 Geekbench 5 average.

Unfortunately all that power comes with a hefty price tag, grim battery life, and a 7 pound form factor that is heavy enough to use as a weapon. However, if what you need is the most powerful and semi-mobile machine on the market, the ZBook Fury 17 G8 is your best bet.

In terms of display quality, the 17-inch 4K touchscreen on the ZBook Fury 17 G8 was astoundingly accurate, displaying 161.7% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, which is nearly double the premium laptop average of 84.4%. So for any tasks requiring a high degree of color accuracy, you can't do worse.

It pairs benchmark crushing power with a stunning 17.3-inch touchscreen, enough ports to power your peripherals, and an integrated finger print reader for extra security.

See our full HP ZBook Fury 17 G8 review.

Best value workstation laptop

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While not everyone can replace a workstation laptop with a gaming laptop, gaming hardware is more than sufficient for most content creators' needs. So as long as you aren't designing bridges or working on the latest Pixar film, the MSI Katana 15 will do the job for a fraction of the price.

The Katana 15 leverages the Nvidia RTX 4070 with the powerful Intel Core i7-13620H, which allows this mid-range gaming laptop to keep pace with it's more expensive competitors. The Katana 15 is a more understated gaming laptop, with an all black aluminum chassis and engraved MSI logo on the top lid. While the keyboard does come with customizable RGB lights, you can always tone those down or turn them off if you need to take it to a business meeting or two.

All that power even makes it into the benchmarks. The MSI Katana 15's Geekbench 5 scores are some of the best on this list with a multi-core average of 11,581 which is well above the premium laptop average of 4,753. It also beats out the HP ZBook Fury 17 G8's 9,716 score and the Asus Zenbook Pro Duo 15's 7,028 average.

The biggest downside with the MSI Katana 15 is its massive 8.8 pound weight. You will absolutely need a bag with sturdy straps to cart this machine around. The only other downsides are a dim, lackluster display that only covered 46.1% of the DCI-P3 color gamut. So if you need high color accuracy, a proper workstation may be a better choice.

See our full MSI Katana 15 review.

Best long lasting workstation laptop

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The Dell Precision 5470 is a premium laptop that doubles as a casual gaming platform and ad-hoc workstation. It was billed as "the world's smallest, thinnest, and most powerful 14-inch workstation" when it launched, and while that record may no longer stand the Precision 5470 is still the workstation with the best battery life we've seen.

The Precision 5470 packages the same colorful WLED 4K touchscreen and beefy specs as the Precision 5760 in a smaller, more mobile package. With a 12-th gen Intel Core i9-12900H, Nvidia RTX A3000 GPU, 32GB of RAM, and 1TB of SSD storage, this laptop is more than capable of keeping up with a demanding workload.

With a multi-core average of 11,040 on Geekbench 5.4's overall performance test, the Precision 5470 is well above the premium laptop average of 4,753 as well as the HP ZBook Fury 17 G8's 9,716 average and the Asus Zenbook Pro Duo 15's 7,028 score. It isn't quite as snappy as the MSI Katana 15 with its 11,581 average but the Precision 5470 has more than enough power for even the most strenuous workloads.

As for battery life, the Precision 5470 lasted a whopping 11 hours and 39 minutes on the Laptop Mag battery test. It's an impressive battery life for any laptop, but especially a workstation. So if you need a mobile, long lasting workstation the Precision 5470 is the very best choice.

See our full Dell Precision 5470 review.

Best dual-display workstation laptop

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More and more dual-display laptops are hitting the market, but few are designed as workstations. The Asus ZenBook Pro Duo 15 is unique in that sense still, though it may see some competition in the near future. The specs on the Pro Duo are a bit on the older side, but still pack quite a punch. The Intel Core i9-10980HK CPU and Nvidia RTX 3070 GPU combo had excellent build quality at launch and those specs still hold up today.

While it may not have the slickest performance on this list with a Geekbench 5 multi-core average of 7,028 it is still well above the premium laptop average of 4,753. While the HP ZBook Fury 17 G8 may outperform the Zenbook Pro Duo with a Geekbench 5 multi-core average of 9,716, the best feature of the Zenbook Pro Duo is its dual-screen setup which none of the other workstations on this list can match.

The secondary display on the Pro Duo is perfectly functional unlike previous iterations, and between the two monitors you have a solid amount of screen space to manage your workloads. The main display is a 15.6-inch 4K OLED touchscreen with high color accuracy and 143.8% coverage of the DCI-P3 color gamut. The secondary display also ranked high on the DCI-P3 gamut, with 101.9% coverage. So you can use that lower screen for highly creative tasks as well.

Of course, those two powerful displays come at the cost of the ZenBook Pro Duo's battery life. Lasting only 5 hours and 1 minute on the Laptop Mag battery test with both screens enabled, you can eek out an additional 1 hour and 49 minutes by disabling the second display for a total of 6 hours and 50 minutes.

While that isn't great battery life, it is better than some options on this list. And you get the benefit of dual screens without sacrificing an integrated keyboard.

See our full Asus ZenBook Pro Duo (UX582L) review.

Best single-display workstation laptop

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The HP ZBook Studio G8 holds on the award-winning G7 series styling with more power to tackle increasingly difficult creative projects. With an 11th-Gen Intel Core i9-11950H and Nvidia RTX 3070, the ZBook Studio G8 packs a rather powerful punch. But it's biggest selling point is its gorgeous 4K OLED touchscreen.

The HP ZBook Studio G8 may be recommended for its display, but it does have the specs to drive solid performance numbers. While not the most impressive Geekbench 5 scores on this list, the Zbook Studio G8's multi-core average of 9,034 is well above the premium laptop average of 4,753. It has a substantial lead on the Asus Zenbook Pro Duo 15's 7,028 average and is just a bit behind the ZBook Fury 17 G8's 9,716 score. So while the 4K OLED panel is the key selling point, you aren't sacrificing much performance for that fancy display.

The 4K OLED looked great to our eyes, but it also incredibly color accurate to our lab's colorimeter. Covering an impressive 142.5% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, the ZBook Studio blows past the competition, and easily beats the premium laptop average of 84.4%.

Unfortunately, all that screen power and performance comes with a tendency for overheating. Which isn't helped by how thin (0.6 inches) the ZBook Studio actually is. BUt at only 3.3 pounds, it's hard to find a more portable workstation.

The ZBook Studio G8 combines a stunning 4K display, powerful overall performance, a comfortable keyboard, and good audio in an incredibly portable package.

See our full HP ZBook Studio G8 review.

Best performance workstation laptop

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The 16-inch 4K display covered 83.1% of the DCI-P3 color gamut with 524-nits of peak brightness. It's not the most impressive display here, but it is more than enough for most tasks.

All that power naturally impacts the ThinkPad P16's battery life. So the laptop only lasted 6 hours and 36 minutes on the Laptop Mag battery test.

But if you can deal with the limited battery and slightly sub-standard display, the ThinkPad P16 Gen 1 is one of the best workstations we've reviewed.

See our full Lenovo ThinkPad P16 Gen 1 review.

How much does a workstation laptop cost?

Workstations start around $1,000, but many models at that price lack the discrete graphics card you'll need to take on tasks like video editing or 3D modeling. And it'll most likely have a 1080p display at that price range, so you might want to spring for a 4K model if your work involves editing high-res photos and videos.

You can get some work done with one of the top cheap gaming laptops, which has a GPU like an Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti or greater, but they're not optimized specifically for media creation like Nvidia's Quadro GPU is. If you're looking to get some real work done, you'll need a workstation with a Quadro GPU and a colorful, high-resolution display, which will most definitely run you over $2,000. While it's not necessarily a workstation, theAsus ZenBook Pro Duo can handle rigorous tasks with multiple screens all for $2,999.

How to choose the best workstation laptops for you

Choosing the right workstation for you comes down to why you need it in the first place. You can pick up an affordable workstation to do some heavier work than your average laptop, but if you need a straight up tank to handle taxing programs, you’re going to pay a hefty price. If it’s the former, we recommend looking at something like the Lenovo ThinkPad P1 or Dell Precision 5540.

If money is no object, you can pick up some beastly workstations like the MSI WS65 9TM and the HP ZBook Studio x360 G5, which are incredibly powerful and durable machines that can withstand most tests that you’ll throw at them. The WS65 9TM is great if you want your display to be super colorful and bright, but the ZBook Studio x360 is better if you need a stylus to get into graphic designing or something else.

How we test the best workstation laptops

We put each laptop through extensive benchmark testing — both synthetic and real-world — before they end up in the hands of our reviewers. We evaluate each aspect of the laptop, including its performance, battery life, display, speakers and heat management.

In our benchmark testing, we use a Klein K10 colorimeter to detect the brightness and sRGB color gamut of the laptop's display. For performance testing, we run the laptop through a gauntlet of benchmarks, including Geekbench 4.3 and 5.0 and 3DMark professional graphics tests.

To determine real-world performance, we task the laptop to convert a 4K video to 1080p resolution and to duplicate a 4.97GB multimedia file. Our real-world graphics test is the Dirt 3 benchmark with medium settings at 1080p resolution.

We also run heat tests by playing a 15-minute full-screen video and measuring temperatures in different areas of the laptop. Last but not least, our battery test consists of continuous web surfing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits of brightness. For MacBooks and premium Windows 10 laptops, a runtime of over 9 hours is considered a good result whereas gaming laptops and workstations that can stay powered for longer than 5 hours deserve praise.

These tests are complemented with extensive hands-on testing from our reviewers who critique everything from the laptop's materials to the feel of its touchpad.

Why Trust Laptop Mag

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We are 100% independent and have decades of experience to help you buy with confidence. In fact, Laptop Mag has been testing and reviewing products for three decades, and we continue to deliver trustworthy reviews you can rely on.

Our experienced team of writers and editors scour the available information about the laptop and put it through its paces to determine which is best for you. But before they start, the testing team subjects each system to a rigorous regimen of synthetic and real-world tests to see how a system handles the type of work and games you’re most likely to throw at it.

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