Best laptops for cybersecurity (Ethical Hacking) in 2023

Cybersecurity is one of the most interesting and in-demand fields. Unlike other fields, cybersecurity and penetration testing are practical fields where you can only learn by practicing and experience. So in this post, we have covered the best laptops for cybersecurity. In our previous post, we covered the best YouTube channel for cybersecurity.

Most of the things can be done using smartphones. You can install Linux and use it. But it feels dizzy to use it on a small screen and it’s time-consuming. So to help you out. we have covered the best laptops for ethical hacking and cybersecurity for professionals and students. We have picked 3 to 4 laptops from each category consisting of one powerful laptop, one value for money laptop, and one affordable laptop in every type ranging from Gaming to Chromebooks.

Minimum Specification Needed for Cybersecurity.

You need a minimum of 8GB( 4GB minimum) of RAM if you want to use dual boot on your laptops or divide RAM among multiple OSs. Coming to processor more the cores, more will be performed. Consider above i5 or i7. i7 would be best. For Ryzen choose the above 5. If you are a Cybersecurity Student you can go with a lower end.

Display won’t matter much. Having a 15-inch display is a sweet spot between a larger 17-inch display and a portable like 13-inch display. For a brighter screen consider at least 400nits of brightness, if you want to use it outside. Both integrated and dedicated graphics works fine consider discrete graphics for high-end computing.

For applications such as brute force or hashing having higher Cuda cores provide parallel computing and faster execution. Graphics processor has thousands of cores compared to CPU having 8 or 16 cores. All the below list of laptops works well in every field of cybersecurity. It may be penetration testing, application security, or computer forensics.

Below are the Best laptops for Cybersecurity and ethical hacking.

Table of Contents

• Best Gaming laptops for Cybersecurity and ethical hacking
  • Asus ROG Zephyrurs G15
    • Reasons to buy
    • Reasons to Avoid
  • Lenvo legion 5ASA
    • Reasons to buy
    • Reasons to Avoid
  • Lenovo Ideapad Gaming 3
    • Pros:
    • Reasons to Avoid
• Best 2-in-1 convertible laptop for Cybersecurity.
  • Asus Rog Flow X13
    • Reasons to buy
    • Reasons to Avoid
  • Hp Envy x360 15
    • Reasons to buy
    • Reasons to Avoid
  • Asus Vivobook Flip 14
    • Reasons to buy
    • Reasons to Avoid
• Best Ultrabook for CyberSecurity
  • XPS 15
    • Reasons to buy
    • Reasons to Avoid
  • ACER SWIFT 7
    • Reasons to buy
    • Reasons to Avoid
  • Accer Swift 3
    • Reasons to buy
    • Reasons to Avoid
• Best Chromebook for Cybersecurity
  • Acer chromebook spin 713
    • Reasons to buy
    • Reasons to Avoid
  • Hp chromebook 14
    • Reasons to buy
    • Reasons to Avoid
• Best powerful workstation for cybersecurity
  • MSI WS65 9TM
  • Hp ZBook Studio G7
• FAQ

Best Gaming laptops for Cybersecurity and ethical hacking

Asus ROG Zephyrurs G15

• Processor: AMD Ryzen 9 5900HS
• Memory: 16 GB
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080
• Battery life: 14 hours
• Storage: 1TB PCIe SSD
• Price: $2000
• Ports:1x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A, MicroSD slot, HDMI, RJ45, USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A, 1x USB3.2 Gen 2 Type-C, 3.5mm Audio Jack

Zephyrus G15 is a well-known laptop for its power and portability. It has a more stylish and stunning design provided with 2 color variants. It has a 180-degree hinge with an anime matrix. It’s the most Preferred laptop for programming and cybersecurity with raw power.

Zephyrus comes with a 15.6-inch WQHD display with a 165Hz refresh rate. It has an adaptive sync technology and a path. It’s packed with a 90wh battery providing 14 hours of battery life. Zephyrus g15 support two graphics variants RTX and GTX. Well, this is equipped with RTX 3080 graphics card. G15 supports a maximum RAM of 48 GB and SSD storage of 16TB with 2 M.2 slots.

It’s the only kind of its own, which weighs just 4 pounds with a 14 Hours battery. Zephyrus G15 could handle any extensive cybersecurity application with ease. It overkills your requirements for cybersecurity. Dedicated graphics has around 8000 Cuda cores which, ease the brute force and other penetration testing applications.

It packs a Ryzen 9 5900HS based on zen 3 which now outperforms intel in both single and multi-core performance. Ryzen 9 has integrated Radeon graphics. so you can choose integrated or dedicated depending upon the task. It comes with many features making it a worth laptop for cybersecurity. It has features like the fingerprint reader, AI Noise Cancellation, 3D Mic array and comes packed with 6 speakers supporting Dolby atoms, many more.

Reasons to buy

• Beast with a perforanace
• Non gaming professional look
• Good battery life for gaming laptop
• Supports 48GB RAM

Reasons to Avoid

• No webcam

Lenvo legion 5ASA

• Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 5800H
• Memory: 16 GB
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti
• Battery life: 5 hours
• Storage: 512GB SSD and 1TB of storage
• Ports: 3x USB 3.2, 1x USB 3.2 Gen 1 , 1x USB-C 3.2, Headphone / microphone combo jack
• Price: $1,050

Lenovo legion 5 is the most preferred gaming laptop. Legion 5 is known for its Keyboard and thermals. It comes with a 15.6″ Full Hd IPS color-accurate display with a 144Hz refresh rate and 300 nits brightness. It supports Dolby Vision. It’s the best value for money laptop for cybersecurity.

It has an AMD Ryzen 7 5800H processor with 32 GB of Memory, 512GB SSD, and 1TB of storage. It uses an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050Ti graphics card with 6GB of Memory. It has a good port selection with features like wifi 6. Unfortunately, there is no USB 4 and fingerprint reader. It provides high performance at lower prices when compared to other laptops in this segment. The present 5000 series performs well in both multi-core and single-core against intel. This is the best computer for cybersecurity.

Reasons to buy

• Most preferedd gaming laptop
• Keyboard is better than Mac
• good thermlas
• good performance

Reasons to Avoid

• No fingerprint reader.
• Lower battery life

Lenovo Ideapad Gaming 3

• Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 4600H
• Memory: 8 GB (max 32)
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650
• Battery life: 6 hours
• Storage: 512GB SSD
• Ports: 1x HDMI port, 1 USB C port, 2x USB 3.2 ports

If you are fixed on a budget or can’t afford higher-end laptops, you can go with either Lenovo Ideapad gaming or hp pavilion gaming. Both laptops have a Ryzen 5 4600H processor. But, Ideapad gaming worth money. you get 1-year of accidental damage protection along with an on-site warranty. Ideapad does not look fancy like Pavillion and can be used in office or college without worrying about looks Since, it looks like a normal laptop from the outside. It even beats intel core i7-10750H with ease.

The Basic variant comes with a 512GB SSD and boots up in 12seconds. it has 1 additional M.2 slot and 1 5400 RPM HDD slot. by removing the hard disk you can insert full-sized 2 SSD’s. Ideapad Gaming has 8GB DDR4 RAM with upgradeable up to 16GB. but the users claim that it can be upgraded up to 32GB. This sub-$800 laptop worth more than its price.

Ideapad Gaming is Good on Performance but lags in Battery life with only a 45wh battery and only lasts around 6 hours. But it can be further increased to more by optimizing battery life. It comes with a Rapid charge. Since it’s a lower-end laptop it’s equipped with NVIDIA GTX 1650 with 896 Cuda cores.

Pros:

• Sub $800 laptop
• dual M.2 slots

Reasons to Avoid

• Battery life
• Low end GPU for Gaming.
• No USB-C charging

Best 2-in-1 convertible laptop for Cybersecurity.

If you are just starting in cybersecurity, convertible laptops are the best choice for you. In the beginning, you need a highly powerful laptop. since you are just beginning these laptops help watch cybersecurity tutorials, reading E-books. 2 in 1 laptops are best for cybersecurity students, since it is easier to watch and learn from tutorials and videos.

Asus Rog Flow X13

• Processor: AMD Ryzen 9 5900HS
• Memory: 32 GB
• Graphics:1650 Max-Q
• Battery life: 8 hours
• Storage: 1TB of storage

Asus is one of the best powerful and lightweight Laptops for cybersecurity. Asus is innovative when it comes to laptops. Rog Flow X13 is the only gaming laptop that comes in the convertible 2 in 1 form factor. If you are interested in gaming but you need a portable laptop then you could not go wrong with this laptop. Asus ROG Flow comes with a sleek design. yet it is a powerful gaming laptop.

It packs an 8 core Ryzen 9 5900HS CPU with a turbo boost up to 4.8 GHz and support for Hyper-Threading. Equipped with 32GB 4266MHz DDR4 RAM and 1TB M.2 SSD breaking the limits that you can use. ROG Flow comes with a 4K color-accurate display, Making with worth even for creators.

The GPU 1650 Max-Q is more suited for creative works rather than gaming. However, you can play Modern Games without a Lag. Every laptop has its downside. similarly, this laptop falls in thermals.

I would recommend this laptop if you need both raw performance and convertible along, with portability then, there couldn’t be any other better laptop than this.

Reasons to buy

• Gaming specs in 2 in 1 laptop.
• Portable.
• Ryzen 5900HS CPU
• 32 GB 4266MHz RAM.

Reasons to Avoid

• 1650 Max- Q Graphics
• Thermals issue.

Hp Envy x360 15

• Processor: ryzen 7 5700u
• Memory: 16 GB
• Graphics: integrated
• Battery life: 13 hours
• Storage: 512 GB SSD
• Ports: 2 x USB 2.0 type A, 2 x USB 3.0, 1x USB type C, 1x HDMI port, RJ45, audio combox jack, MicroSD card Slot

Hp Envy x360 is an alternate laptop for specter x360 if you are on a low budget. It is one of the best and high selling value for money 2 in 1 laptop in 2021. It has most of the spectre features and better than Pavillion. It’s ultraportable with just 2 lbs weight. There are no rivals for its build quality in this Price Range. It’s completely made of Aliminium and has a battery life of 13 hours.

Hp has recently launched the 2021 version of envy x360 with a Ryzen 5000 series processor. 2021 version has a better touchpad and performs very well against dell XPS 13 in terms of performance and battery life. It supports 16GB of RAM and 512GB M.2 SSD. As far as display is concerned its has 15 inch 400nits display. so you don’t have to worry about outside use.

Reasons to buy

• Good Build Quality
• Recharagble Stylus.
• 13 hours of Battrey life
• 400 nits display

Reasons to Avoid

• Pricely when compared to rivals.

Asus Vivobook Flip 14

• Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 5500u
• Memory: 8 GB
• Graphics: integrated Radeon Graphics.
• Battery life: 9 hours
• Storage: 512GB SSD
• Price: $629

It’s the best budget 2 in 1 laptop available with the metal finish from the outside and ergo lift -a rising hinge for better typing. It packs a powerful Ryzen 5700u processor based on zen 2. Asus Vivobook is known for its performance. Decorative enter key spots a beautiful look on the keyboard.

laptops have 8 GB upgradable DDR4 memory. However, 4GB is Soldered onboard, which reduces dual channels on further upgrading. It has 250 nits IPS display with an 82% body-to-screen Ratio. Not bad for the price.

Reasons to buy

• 14 inch 2 in 1 laptop
• value for money laptop.
• Good performance.
• Wifi 6 and blueetooth 5 support.
• Ergo hinge
• Outperformane other intel laptops.
• Good ports and storage options.

Reasons to Avoid

• 4GB soldered on board. Reducing dual channel capablity on upgrading.
• Flex on the Keyboard Deck.
• 250 nits Brightness.

Best Ultrabook for CyberSecurity

UltraBooks are professional laptops used by many programmers and security researchers due to their slimmer look and loner battery backup, but they don’t lack ion performance. Their performance rivals some of the best notebooks. Ultrabooks offer a better 4K display, premium look, and smaller chassis. The MacBook is not on our laptop because they aren’t good for cybersecurity. They are good for video editing and programming not for running multiple OS on the virtual box or booting up with Linux.

XPS 15

• Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 4800H
• Memory: 32 GB
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 ti
• Battery life: 10 hours
• Storage: 1TB SSD
• Price: $1,945

XPS is the most powerful ultrabook on our list of best laptops for cybersecurity. XPS 15 offers a 15.6 4K Infinity edge display with good color accuracy. The specs are similar to the 2021 model are slimmer and lightweight with a 92% Screen-to-Body Ratio with 434 nits brightness. The laptop has a good premium look with a high performance and battery backup of over 10 hours. It even has a touchscreen variant. This model comes with a whopping 32GB of RAM expandable up to 64 GB. and the storage of 1TB expandable up to 2 TB

XPS 15 has a good selection of Ports equipped with 2 USB-C thunderbolts, 1 USB C port for the intel variant, and a full-size SD card reader with no USB A port. It weighs around 4 pounds for non-touch and 4.5 pounds for touch.

Graphics are powered by integrated Intel UHD and dedicated Nvidia 1650 Ti cards. Being an ultrabook it still 10 the gen H series processor.

you could consider the envy 15 AMD version it has the same features with a more powerful processor with less pricing compared to XPS 15.

Reasons to buy

• Intel H series processor
• Good stoarge and Memory options.
• Ultra thin and premium look
• 2 thunderbolt ports
• 4k and toiuch display(optinal)

Reasons to Avoid

• Bit Expensive
• No USB A port

ACER SWIFT 7

• Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 4800H
• Memory: 16 GB
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060
• Battery life:8 hours
• Storage: 512GB SSD
• Price:

Acer Swift 7 is the value-for-money ultrabook laptop for cybersecurity and ethical hacking. it has a very sleek design making it weigh only around 890 Grams. However, this form factor has its own cons. one of it is a webcam similar to a Huawei’s MateBook X Pro which, pops up on the keyboard. which is useless. Its keyboard layout is not so good but gives the larger trackpad.

The 14-inch display comes with touch support but touch response is slow. you can’t expect much from affordable laptops. However, it stills worths every penny you pay. It comes with 16GB of RAM, 512GB of NVMe M.2 SSD storage. There are 2 USB C ports with thunderbolt support.

Reasons to buy

• Thinnest laptops of al
• Weights only 890 grams
• Woth every penny
• Fanless Design makes it quiet.
• 2 usb thunderbolt

Reasons to Avoid

• Older processor

Accer Swift 3

• Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 4700U
• Memory: 8 GB
• Graphics: Radeon Graphics
• Battery life: 6 hours
• Storage: 512GB SSD and 1TB of storage
• Price: $1099

Being a budget laptop it outperforms many other laptops. It’s the most affordable RYzen 7 laptop for $620. Its equipped with 14 inches Full HD LED display with 250 nits Brightness. It boosts Ryzen 7 4700U CPU with 8 cores and 8 GB of LPDDR4 RAM and 512 GB OF SSD Storage making it a worth laptop for cybersecurity.

Its made of thin aluminum lightweight chassis weighing only 2.65 pounds. it supports wifi 6 and Bluetooth 5 increasing its connectivity. it has a USB C port without a thunderbolt. The battery backup provides around 6 hours of use.

Reasons to buy

• Afforadble
• good storage compared to price
• soild build quality

Reasons to Avoid

• only 6 hours of battery backup.
• Average Speakers for daily use.

Best Chromebook for Cybersecurity

Chromebook has started replacing tablets as they provide versa; it and priced similar to that of tablets. Chromebook could be your best choice since you could dual boot along with Linux OS. They also come in 2 in 1 Form factor and with a lighter design. however, Chromebook is not for penetration testing.

Acer chromebook spin 713

• Processor: intel pentnium
• Memory: 4 GB
• Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 505
• Battery life: 12 hours
• Storage: 32GB

Acer Chromebook is a powerful Chromebook out there for cybersecurity and ethical hacking. It has an incredible battery backup of 12 hours. these Chromebook computers can run Linux thereby helping you save your budget for higher-end laptops. it has a beautiful design and a 15 inch full had a screen

its equipped with a 1.1Ghz Intel Pentium processor with 2MB cache and turbo boost up to 2.5Ghz. Graphics are provided by Intel HD Graphics 505. its equipped with 4GB RAM and 32Gb eMMC storage while costing only $399 (£279). Making it an affordable laptop for cybersecurity.

Reasons to buy

• longer Battery life
• Touch display
• usb c carging support
• fan less and attractive design

Reasons to Avoid

• lags on load.
• bluetooth 4.0
• ways over 4 pounds
• Trackpad responiveness is low

Hp chromebook 14

• Processor: Intel Celeron N3350
• Memory: 4 GB
• Graphics:Intel HD Graphics
• Battery life:15 hours
• Storage: 32GB SSD
• Ports:

Hp Chromebook is the affordable Chromebook for ethical hacking and cybersecurity costing only $250. it is packed with an Intel Celeron N3350 processor. it has 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM and 32GB of flash storage.

Reasons to buy

• Comfortable keyboard
• Good Build Quality
• good battery backup
• Full HD display
• Attractive and Beautiful chassis

Reasons to Avoid

• It lacks performance
• Average Display.

Best powerful workstation for cybersecurity

MSI WS65 9TM

• Processor: 9th gen i9 processor
• Memory: 32 GB (64 max)
• Graphics: Nvidia Quadro RTX 5000 with 16GB GDDR6
• Battery life: 8 hours
• Storage: 2 TB SSD
• Ports: 1x Type-C Thunderbolt 3, 2x Type-A USB3.2 Gen1, 1x Type-A USB3.2 Gen2, 1x RJ45, 1x HDMI, 1x Mini-DisplayPort

MSI WS65 is a mobile workstation designed specifically for non-gaming beast performance. It is equipped with Quadro RTX 5000 graphics Card with 16GB of GDDR6 memory. It has 32 GB RAM upgradeable up to 64 GB and a whopping 2 TB M.2 SSD.

It has a 4k Ultra HD display with 72% NTSC color gamut and

Hp ZBook Studio G7

• Processor: Intel Core i9-10885H Processor
• Memory: 32 GB
• Graphics: intel UHD and NVIDIA Quadro RTX 5000
• Battery life: 14 hours
• Storage: 2TB SSD
• Ports: 2x USB Type-C port with Thunderbolt, 1x USB 3.1 Gen 1 port, 1x Audio combo jack.

hp Zbook studio is the best Mobile workstation by hp. It even has 2 in 1 variant. It’s budget-friendly when compared to others. It supports both integrated graphics and dedicated NVIDIA Quadro RTX graphics. Well packed with battery life lasts around 14 hours.

FAQ