Best desktop replacement laptop in 2023 – our top picks

Things to choose the best desktop replacement laptop

As we said, there are a bunch of things you need to consider before making the switch from desktop to laptop. The major reason is that laptops have to lower the power consumption of desktop equivalent components. If you had full-powered desktop components inside a high-end laptop, you’d need a car battery to keep it powered for longer than 20 minutes and a charging brick the size of a cinder block.

The components we need to take into consideration are the CPU, the GPU, the screen, the memory and storage, and extra features like the cooling system, keyboard, build materials, etc.

CPU

The CPU is essentially the brain of your PC; it is the thing that controls all actions and is responsible for carrying out your every command. How powerful your CPU is determines how smoothly the computer runs as a whole. As we said above, laptop components are usually underclocked and underpowered to reduce their overall power consumption. The obvious downside to this is that this also reduces performance.

Thankfully, with CPUs, it is normally only the base performance that is reduced, and with adequate equipment, it is definitely possible for you to gain almost desktop levels of performance without having to overclock it.

There are 2 measures of how ‘powerful’ a CPU is: the clock speed and the core count. The clock speed is a metric measure of how fast the processor is. It does this by measuring how many cycles/calculations it can do in a second; this is why it is measured as a frequency in Hz. There are 2 different clock speeds that a CPU is advertised with, its base clock and its boost clock.

The base clock is essentially the lowest possible speed of the processor regardless of power draw or temperature. The boost clock is the speed at which the CPU is capped across all cores. The boost clock is hugely dependent on the temperature and power draw, if you have adequate cooling and enough of a charge the laptop can tell the CPU that it’s safe to ramp up. Increasing the speed also increases the thermal output so a CPU cannot sustain its boost clock without amazing cooling.

The core count is exactly how it sounds; it is a count of how many cores your processor has. A CPU core is basically a mini-processor that comes together with other mini-processors to make a whole CPU. The more cores you have, the more programs and applications the computer can allocate to them, increasing efficiency and performance. The issue with more cores is that the more cores you have, the higher your thermal output, meaning the better your cooling needs to be.

Finding the best laptop CPU is as much about finding a good balance as it is finding the most powerful, balls-to-the-wall processor you can possibly find.

GPU

The GPU or Graphics Processing Unit is a normally forgotten part of a good laptop. Your GPU controls what is shown on your screen; if it’s on the screen, it has been processed by the GPU. Most CPUs and motherboards have a version of integrated graphics that they use to simply show things on screen, but they normally aren’t powerful enough to run any type of games or graphics-intensive software like Premiere Pro or Blender.

Desktops that have been purpose-built for graphics-heavy software or gaming will always have a dedicated GPU that can be removed and upgraded as you need to. These are vital for smooth production in Blender, for speedy renders in Sony Vegas, and decent playable frame rates in games.

Similar to CPUs, the mobile/laptop version of a GPU is often underclocked and undervolved to increase efficiency. The newer generations of GPUs have been able to retain a large portion of their performance whilst still being relatively power efficient. Again, it’s important to find the right balance between power and performance with mobile graphics cards.

They are also measured by their clock speeds and core counts, but GPUs have the unique problem of having thousands of cores and cores of different types. To make it simple, we’re going to set a recommendation based on the VRAM which is the cacheable memory of a graphics card and impacts resolution production. We’d say 3GB of VRAM should be a minimum to get a reasonable amount of performance out of a laptop; in previous generations, this would not have been enough, but newer graphics cards can do a lot with less.

If you’re not planning on running any visual software, then a graphics processor isn’t going to be that useful to you, but as we said, to achieve the same versatility as a desktop, it’s worth having a GPU anyway as it will boost visual performance all around especially if you like watching high res content. We recommend checking out the best gaming laptops under $3000 as they feature some of the most powerful GPUs.

Screen

The monitor of your laptop is a fairly obvious one. The biggest difference between a laptop and a desktop is that you can’t change your monitor. You’ll most likely always be able to power an external display with your laptop, but the screen it comes equipped with is the one you’re going to use while you’re on the move, so it’s very important to make sure you have a good monitor.

We judge our screen by 3 different metrics: its resolution, its panel type, and its size. If we were solely looking at gaming laptops, then the refresh rate would be important, but we’re looking at all-rounders, so we’ll just say that the higher the refresh rate, the better.

The resolution is how sharp the image is overall, the panel type determines the color accuracy and viewing angles, and the size is subjective to you. If you want a bigger screen, then a 17.3” laptop is going to be your best bet, but if you’re looking for portability, then a 15.6” or 13” one would be best. All of these metrics are subjective to you, but with most, the higher the number, the better it is. In case you want to explore even bigger options, check out our top picks for the best 18-inch laptops.

With panel types, however, there are 2 main types that we’ve looked at: VA and IPS. VA can be run at higher refresh rates easily and offers decent color accuracy. IPS panels are brighter and have way better color accuracy, so it’s completely up to you which is better.

Memory and Storage

The memory is the amount of RAM your system has and acts as the short-term memory of the laptop. The more you have, the more things you can have going on concurrently. There is no hard limit on how much you should have, but the standard user will never need more than 16GB, and even enthusiast-level builds will have a max of 32 GB.

The storage is the total long-term memory of your laptop and determines how many things you can save onto the laptop directly or how many programs you can have installed at the same time. The more you can have, the better, but a laptop is limited by the amount of space the chassis has; newer storage modules have been able to shrink down to 40mm NVME chips, and you’ll usually have a free slot for expansion later on down the line.

The memory and storage are usually the only upgradeable parts of a laptop.

Extra Features

These aren’t necessarily vital features but features that improve the quality of the laptop nonetheless. Things like a gaming-based cooling system or a large I/O can make a big difference to the versatility of the laptop.