What these laptops are for
Each group below is picked by a rule read from the listings, not by hand. The rule is printed on its page, and on this one, so it can be argued with.
- Gaming laptops 225
- Laptops whose listing states a separate graphics card and a screen that refreshes at 120Hz or faster.
- Laptops for video editing 195
- Laptops whose listing states a separate graphics card, at least 32GB of memory and a screen of 15 inches or more.
- Laptops to carry to work 31
- Laptops whose listing states a Pro edition of the operating system and a weight under 2kg. Only a fifth of listings state a weight at all, so this is the portable machines we can prove, not every portable machine.
- Light laptops to carry 92
- Laptops whose listing states a weight under 1.8kg and no separate graphics card. Only a fifth of listings state a weight at all, so this is the light machines we can prove, not every light machine.
- Big screen laptops 98
- Laptops whose listing states a screen of 17 inches or more.
- Laptops for AI work 69
- Laptops whose listing states a graphics card with 12GB of memory or more, which is what decides the size of model that fits on the machine.
- Laptops for programming 276
- Laptops whose listing states at least 32GB of memory and a terabyte of storage, which is what a container stack and a few checkouts ask for.
- Laptops for writers 33
- Laptops whose listing states a screen of 14 inches or less and a weight under 1.8kg. Only a fifth of listings state a weight at all, so this is the portable machines we can prove, not every portable machine.
- Laptops with room for everything 179
- Laptops whose listing states two terabytes of storage or more.
- Laptops for making music 178
- Laptops whose listing states at least 16GB of memory and 512GB of storage, and no separate graphics card, because a sample library wants memory and disk rather than a GPU.
- Laptops for engineers 85
- A mobile workstation: dedicated graphics with 8GB of its own memory, 32GB of system memory, a screen of 16 inches or more and a terabyte of storage. CAD, simulation and BIM software asks for all four together, which is why all four are in the rule.
- Laptops for architects 40
- The largest screens with real graphics behind them: 17 inches or more, dedicated graphics with 8GB of memory and a terabyte of storage. Drawing is done at a distance you cannot fake on a 14 inch panel.
- Laptops for students 84
- Laptops whose listing states a weight under 2kg and at least 256GB of storage.
- Laptops for data work 33
- 64GB of memory or more, on machines built without a gaming screen. A dataset that does not fit in memory is the thing that stops the work, and a high refresh rate does nothing for it.
- Laptops for trading 80
- A wide screen of 16 inches or more with 16GB of memory and no gaming graphics. Charts want screen area and steady memory rather than frame rate. Note what this rule cannot see: how many external monitors a machine can drive is not stated on these listings, so it is not part of the rule.
- Laptops for company fleets 202
- A professional edition of the operating system, 16GB of memory and 512GB of storage. The professional edition is what domain joining and disk encryption need, and it is the line most purchasing departments start from.
- Laptops that last the day 31
- A battery of 70Wh or more, as the seller states it. It is the only battery figure these listings carry: nobody publishes a measured runtime, and a runtime we invented would be a number with our fingerprints on it.
- Laptops for photo editing 42
- Dedicated graphics, 16GB of memory, a screen up to 16 inches and no gaming refresh rate. Photo work wants the graphics and the colour, not the frame rate, and the machines built for frame rate are on the gaming page instead.
- Laptops for everyday office work 114
- Between 8GB and 16GB of memory, 256GB of storage or more, a screen of 14 to 16 inches and no dedicated graphics. Documents, mail and a browser with thirty tabs, on a machine nobody is paying a graphics premium for.
- Laptops for travelling 12
- Under 1.3kg. Lighter than the lightweight group, because a machine that is carried through an airport every week is a different question from one that is carried between two rooms.
How a group gets its members
Every rule above is read from the specifications the seller stated, then applied to all laptops at once. Nothing is tagged by hand, so a laptop joins a group the day its listing says it belongs and leaves the day it does not. That also means a group can be empty, and an empty one gets no page.
Groups overlap on purpose. A machine with a big screen and plenty of memory belongs in more than one, because people arrive with more than one question. What no group does is rank by what it pays us, and the order inside each is the measured price.