When you are buying a laptop, whether it is for yourself, or a gift for someone else, knowing what you are looking for helps. There’s a huge range with many price points that can make decisions difficult especially if you’re not technically savy or laptop-brand conscious.

Will the laptop be mostly portable? How much memory will you need? How will the laptop be used? And will this laptop be for an individual or used for a business where more features will be needed? Or will it be a gaming laptop or are you on a budget and looking for student laptops?

This buyer guide on the best laptops will briefly explain the capabilities of the laptop when compared to buyer’s needs and how efficient the laptop is. Also, the number one priority is the cost which is usually the most important factor when you deciding on the best laptop for you.

The Best Laptops Online

When you understand and know the best laptops for the year 2014, it will help you in your search for the best laptop. Please only use this as a guide as laptops are continually released and we do try our best to review laptops as they come out but there will always be some that slip through the cracks.

The best 2014 laptops per category include: the Apple MacBook Air (13 inches) for the best laptop overall, the Toshiba CB35-A3120 Chromebook 2 as the best Chromebook, the Alienware 17(2014) as the best gaming laptop, the Dell XPS 13 as the best windows laptop/ultrabook, the Asus Transformer Book T100TAM as the best laptop/tablet, the Acer Aspire E1-572-510P as the best cheap laptop, the Lenovo Thinkpad T440s as the best business laptop, the Lenovo Thinkpad X240 as the best battery life laptop, the Toshiba Satellite Radius P55W as the best home laptop, the Dell Inspiron 11 3000 as the best small laptop and the Apple Macbook Pro 15 inch with Retina Display as the best video editing laptop.

Dell Laptops

Dell Laptops have always been trusted in the industry. Many of the Dell laptops have won best overall in categories for many years. The Dell XPS 13 won for best windows laptop/ultrabook and the Dell Inspiron 11 3000 won for best small laptop for the year 2014. Dell laptops are as varied as your needs. Many businesses use Dell because of the trusted name of making the best laptops that are both able to perform well and are sturdy for everyday mass use by businesses.

Hewlett Packard Laptops/(HP Laptops)

Hewlett Packard laptops are also considered to be some of the best laptops in the world. Their costs are varied from the lower end pricing that are offered in the three hundred range to the more upper end pricing of HP laptops that may cost one thousand dollars or more. These computers are also used in many businesses because of the many features and capabilities their laptops offer.

Acer Laptops

For the more inexpensive laptops, a name that is known is Acer. Many people say that the Acer laptops perform just as well as the higher end laptops and brand names. Acer is recognized this year in 2014 as having the best cheap laptop, which is the Acer Aspire E1-572-510P. If you are on a budget, but still need a computer that can perform above average functions, then Acer would be one of the best choices for a laptop buy.

Asus Laptops

Asus is also a low end and cheaper laptop that can offer basic functions. While Asus does not have some of the top laptop functions, if there are basic things that you need a laptop for, like checking emails, sending messages, or just general administrative work that does not require a lot of capability, then Asus laptops might be the best choice.

Again, the price tag is cheap and the functions and capabilities of Asus may not be the best that you will find in laptops. It will, however, offer basic functions and capabilities that a laptop should have.

Other Laptop Brands

Also worth mentioning are Sony laptops, as well as Toshiba laptops which are proving to be a great business solution this year as well at Lenovo laptops.