Our resident expert on laptops has compiled the best top ten laptops for business. However instead of just giving you the top ten fastest laptops, or the top ten laptops with best battery life, or the top ten budget laptops, we've chosen a mixture of the best laptops in different classes.
So, if you're looking for a laptop that will take any kind of knocks and scrapes, or a laptop to impress your clients, or a laptop that will last all day, or simply a laptop that can do any task you throw at it, then there's something for you here.
For help on choosing an operating system or choosing between Macs and PCs we've included a short guide at the bottom of this article.
In no particular order, here are our top ten laptops for business;
Toshiba Satellite P875-102
Toshiba Satellite P875-102

1/ Toshiba Satellite P875-102

Toshiba
From £1,100
If you're looking for a big screen laptop to dominate your work domain, with enough muscle to power through even the most demanding multimedia tasks then look no further than the Toshiba Satellite P875-102.
An incredibly powerful and slick 17-incher, the P875-102 also looks good and comes with a price-tag that represents great value for money. Featuring a silver embossed chassis along with a spacious isolated backlit keyboard, it may not have the svelteness of the Ultrabook brigade, but it looks and feels reassuringly solid.
It's powered by a quad-core i7 processor, backed up by a whopping 16GB of RAM and discrete Nvidia graphics, and could be the perfect machine for any media-savvy workplace.
The sound quality is also impressive, with the P875-102 boasting SRS Premium Sound 3D software and Slip Stream technology. You can make use of the Harman Kardon designed speakers with the laptop in sleep mode, especially handy if you're on the road a lot and need a decent speaker option for the business hotels you find yourself living in.
Packing a 750GB HDD, and with a Blu-ray player on board too, the P875-102 is a superb option for product demos and boardroom presentations, with the 17.3-inch display sporting a 1,600 x 900 HD resolution.

Samsung Series 5 550P
Samsung Series 5 550P

2/ Samsung Series 5 550P

Samsung
From £700
If you're looking for a machine with a generous display real-estate that makes that intensive number crunching a bit more bearable on the eyeballs, or perhaps you do a lot of graphically-intensive work on your agenda, then Samsung could have the answer for you with the 550P.
Weighing 3kg, this isn't a machine that you'll want to carry around with you for long periods of time, but as a desktop replacement it's pretty much got all of the bases covered. And, at less than £900, you're more than getting your money's worth.
The 17.3-inch display is about as good as we've seen on a big-screen laptop with the matte finish doing a great job of reflecting bright lights, and it also performs strongly in dimly lit situations – so it's perfectly suited for when you're putting extra hours in.
There's a mammoth 1TB of space built in, so storage shouldn't be an issue, even if you are working with huge file sizes and with a third-generation Intel Core i7 processor powering proceedings, load times will be fairly minimal.
And when it comes to hooking up the 550P to a big screen to show off your completed masterpieces, you have the option of both HDMI and VGA output.

Acer Aspire S5
Acer Aspire S5

3/ Acer Aspire S5

Acer
From £1,112
Have you got a client that you want to impress by sporting the skinniest laptop in town? If so, you should be carrying around the Acer Aspire S5 Ultrabook.
The S5 is an Ultrabook of anorexic proportions, that somehow manages to cram a wealth of cutting edge tech into an almost impossibly thin15mm chassis. That's 15mm throughout by the way – there's no tapering going on here, a centimetre and a half is as thick as it gets.
There's an Ivy Bridge i5 CPU running the show, along with a super-speedy 128GB SSD that allows for instant boot up times and incredibly quick program loading – handy when you're trying to impress potential business partners.
There are also a few hidden gems – quite literally. By pushing a button on the right side of the keyboard a wealth of port activity is presented as the MagicFlip I/O panel drops down. The panel, as well as giving you USB 3.0, Thunderbolt and HDMI options, also raises the angle of the S5 - creating a more natural typing position.
With a weight of just 1.1kg and a battery life of up to six hours, the Acer Aspire S5 is a great on-the-go laptop with a 'wow-factor' build that's certain not to go unnoticed.

MacBook Pro with Retina display
MacBook Pro with Retina display

4/ MacBook Pro with Retina display

Apple
From £1,799 - £3,099
There's one laptop that stands head and shoulders above all the rest, both in terms of looks and performance. And, to the annoyance of Microsoft-devotees everywhere, that machine is the recently unveiled MacBook Pro with Retina display.
Not only has it got the most impressive display ever seen in the world of mobile tech – an absolutely stunning 15.4-inch one with an incredible 2,800 x 1,800 resolution – it also has an engine-room that will allow you to edit four streams of uncompressed 8-bit 1080p HD video at once.
If you go for the top model (and why the heck wouldn't you?) then you're looking at 768GB of completely flash storage, Nvidia GeForce GT 650M graphics, a 2.7GHz Intel Core quad-core i7 CPU and 16GB of 1,600MHz RAM, all wrapped up in an incredibly sleek chassis just 18mm thick that weighs just over 2kg.
Put bluntly, this is an absolute monster dressed in the smartest suit on Saville Row.
No other machine can offer such an impressive combination of style and performance, so if your business is looking for a machine to make a real statement then the Apple Store surely has to be your first port of call.

Lenovo IdeaPad U410
Lenovo IdeaPad U410

5. Lenovo IdeaPad U410

Lenovo
From £750
There's no need to break the bank to score your business a cutting-edge slimline laptop; with the Ultrabook revolution now in full swing there are plenty of more affordable super skinny notebooks available.
And our pick of the Ultrabook budget-bunch is the Lenovo IdeaPad U410. Being the flagship machine of the IdeaPad U Series, the U410 offers a 14-inch display and a high-class hardware package in packed into a decent looking chassis.
It's an Ivy Bridge i5 CPU model boasting 6GB of RAM, discrete graphics from Nvidia and a healthy 750GB HDD. Its raw benchmarking score for general performance was as good as we've ever seen on an Ultrabook – proving that this is a PC that offers portability and performance in equal measures.
Using the Lenovo IdeaPad U410 is a pleasurable experience thanks to the naturally cushioned and nicely spaced AccuType isolated keyboard that features individual rounded keys.
These keys aren't backlit, as per the MacBook Air, but they are nicely positioned with a pleasing travel, so you won't have any issues with discomfort while tapping out long emails or reports.
Lenovo is also promising a battery life of nine hours for the IdeaPad U410, with a standby time of a staggering 117 days – although under our intense battery stress it did disappoint slightly. A more realistic general usage lifespan is around five to six hours.