Just as the process of evolution can never be stagnant, the breakthrough in technology can never be halted. With the emergence of new technology, laptops today can be categorized into two categories: gaming and non-gaming laptops.
What’s the difference between a simple laptop and a gaming laptop? And what are the best non gaming laptops available in 2022? Let’s dive in! Gaming laptops are designed to deliver high-performance, as their main priority is power and not the ability to be portable. Such laptops possess more efficient hardware, as they must support features of games incorporating high-end graphics.
It’s important to note that such laptops have their own cons as well, as they are bigger and can get overpriced. Plus, as the world is getting technologically advanced, portability and multi-tasking are significant factors that need to be taken into consideration before buying a gadget. Non-gaming laptops feature balanced specifications, allowing the user to carry on with the daily tasks. Whether writing professional documents, preparing presentations, watching DIY tutorials, or enjoying a movie on Netflix, a non-gaming laptop offers almost the same features (minus gaming) as a gaming laptop.
Non-gaming laptops are better than gaming ones as they are compact, space-saving, portable, and lighter in weight compared to gaming laptops. Moreover, they are cost-effective and easier on the pocket. After all, not everyone is a gamer who would like to spend extra bucks only to play games.
In a hurry? Here are our top 3 picks for the best non-gaming laptops in 2022!
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Can I Play Games on a Non-Gaming Laptop?
One can still play games on a non-gaming laptop, but the experience won’t be as enjoyable as on a gaming laptop, as the GPUs of non-gaming laptops are not as potent as those on gaming laptops.
Let’s take a look at the Top 7 Best Non Gaming Laptops in 2022
1. Apple MacBook Air Laptop – Best Overall
The worth of a laptop multiplies when it offers a reliable battery life. The Apple Macbook Air surpasses all others in the market by offering a great battery life, going up to 18 hours once charged fully. Adding to that, it offers excellent performance with an Apple M1 chip that comes with an eight-core CPU that can deliver up to 3.5 times stronger performance than older generations while using lesser power.
Despite being a non-gaming laptop, this laptop excels in everything, including high, action-full gaming. Plus, it comes with a super-fast unified memory of 8GB which expedites the functionality of your complete system. The powerful 8GB memory allows you to open multiple tabs and huge graphic files without compromising speed or becoming unresponsive.
The 2020 Apple Macbook Air laptop comes with an immaculate display, a 13.3” retina display that ensures an unprecedented realism level while displaying images. You almost feel that the digital images have come to life. Moreover, the colors, contrasts, texts, and fonts are more vivid than the older generations.
Another important feature of a good laptop is the smooth functioning of its compatibility. This laptop ensures that all the pre-existing apps work on it, including Google Drive, Microsoft 365, and Adobe Creative Cloud. It also allows you to run your iPhone & iPad apps straight on macOS. It merits mention that almost all the available apps on the App Store will be compatible with this system.
Despite having so many features, it is extremely easy to use. You can easily connect all of your Apple devices with it. For instance, you can answer texts and phone calls directly on your Mac without any hassle, or you can use your iPad to upgrade the workspace of your Mac. This laptop does not bother with a noisy fan-cooling system, as it comes with a fanless design. This means it will stay cool while running the fan silently, no matter how much workload it has.
While buying a gadget, ensuring that it comes with a warranty is a must. One huge advantage here is that all Mac systems have a one-year warranty, covering up to 90 days of technical support. The warranty will save you from costly repairs and stress as well. Last but not least, the MacBook Air is environmentally friendly, as it is made up of a 100% recycled aluminum enclosure, which saves power by using lesser energy for a minimal carbon footprint.
Why is this the best non-gaming laptop in 2022?
This is hands down the best non-gaming laptop as it is easy to set up and learn. The machine is potent. It comes with ready-to-use apps, without extensive technical configurations. The Macbook Air is designed to allow you to work, play, and create in a superior way to the older generations.
2. Lenovo Flex 5 14″ 2-in-1 Laptop, 14.0″ FHD – Runner Up
This 2-in-1 laptop comes with a compact, thin, and aesthetically pleasing design. The stylishly designed system is highly portable and easy to carry as it weighs only 3.64 pounds while being only 0.82″ thick.
It corporates a 360⁰ hinge which allows the user to bring into use the 2-in-1 touchscreen laptop in a way that suits his or her needs. By using it in ‘Laptop’ mode, one can carry out the everyday tasks, the ‘Stand’ mode ensures a comfortable binge-watching, ‘Tent’ mode is ideal for sharing, while the ‘Tablet’ mode ensures a better interaction.
This laptop comes with a digital pen. The outlook of the laptop is covered with durable paint, which creates a great user experience and offers a softer, much more comfortable touch. The display of this laptop incorporates a 10-point, 14-inch FHD (1920 x 1080) IPS touchscreen, which makes this laptop extremely easy to use, while ensuring the comfort of the user. The overall look of the display is immaculate, as it comes with 4-side narrow bezels, which minimizes clutter.
Despite having such distinguished features, the user can still enjoy a 10 hours battery life, along with fast charging, ensuring 80% charging in only 60 minutes. However, it is important to keep in mind that the actual battery life will vary depending on the maximum capacity of the battery, which will decrease with time and use. This laptop may seem minimalist, portable, and lightweight, yet it does not compromise on powerful processing. It is powered by the AMD Ryzen 5 4500U mobile processor with Radeon graphics and multiple cores, ensuring error-free responsiveness that results in a great experience for creating content and gaming as well.
This laptop allows the user to have more creative choices, as it amalgamates connectivity, performance, affordability, and entertainment. It also comes with a physical cover on the webcam which ensures your privacy and saves you from hacking attempts. Additional features include a 2×2 Wi-Fi 5 (802.11 ac) and Bluetooth 4.2 connectivity options, and 2 USB-A, 1 USB-C, and an HDMI port
3. HP 15-inch Laptop, 11th Generation Intel Core i5 – Budget Pick
This laptop offers perfect portability, as it incorporates a sleek design and carries a moderate weight. However, the minimal design does not compromise the features. It has a 6.5-millimeter micro-edge bezel display, with an 82pc screen to body ratio. The crystal clear, full HD display offers an ultra-wide-angle for viewing. Unlike other non-gaming laptops, this laptop offers superlative graphics with the Intel Iris Xe Graphics technology, which offers a heightened level of performance with sharp, astonishing visuals, that too with the comfort of a sleek design.
The 11th Generation Intel Core i5-1135G7 processor allows the user to do processing at a faster rate, ensuring delivery of prompt responsiveness and outclass connectivity. This laptop allows the user to expedite performance 15 times higher than a normal hard drive, as it comes with a 256 GB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD storage, enabling seamless multitasking with greater bandwidth, owing to the 8 GB of RAM.
The battery time of this HP laptop provides up to 7 hours of power. However, the battery life can be elongated by using HP Fast Charge, which allows the user to up the battery percent from 0 to 50% in almost 45 minutes. It runs the Windows 11 operating system, which is familiar to almost all computer users. Additionally, HP also covers the 1-year limited hardware warranty of this product.
Plus, it offers seamless connectivity, as it offers an easy-to-use wireless set up with Wi-Fi 6 (2×2) and Bluetooth 5.2 combination. It merits mention that all the connections established through this laptop are strong and offer 3 times faster file transfer speed than Wi-Fi 5 by using gigabit file transfer speeds. This system also incorporates a completely integrated keyboard, along with a MU-MIMO support for multi-device homes, which allows the user to enjoy unmatched work from home comfort. Additionally, the user can enjoy a great experience of video chat as the system offers vivid clarity because of the HP True Vision 720p HD camera that comes with integrated dual array digital mics.
Lastly, the HP 15-inch Laptop is built with a low halogen display that offers a heightened power efficiency. Adding to that, it is not only Energy Star certified, but EPEAT Silver registered as well.
4) ASUS ZenBook 13 Ultra-Slim Laptop, 13.3” OLED FHD
Want a laptop that is both aesthetically pleasing and offers unmatched visuals as well? Then put your search to a halt. The beautifully designed ZenBook 13 OLED offers the user an excellent visual experience.
The portability is better and improved than the older versions, as it weighs only 2.45lb with a 13.9 mm-thin design. The 13.3 inch OLED display is incorporated with full HD (1920 x 1080) wide view, and NanoEdge bezel technology that delivers fantastic graphics. Although the design is sleek and light, it incorporates all the necessary features, including HDMI, Thunderbolt 4 USB-C, USB Type-A, and a microSD card reader. It also contains a built-in unique IR camera for face recognition to sign in.
Despite being sleek, and portable, this laptop does not compromise on processing and storage, as it offers quick storage & memory that features 512GB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD with 16GB LPDDR4X RAM. Also, it provides a free-of-cost upgrade to Windows 11. The visuals this system offers are as close to real life as it gets, and the system works effortlessly to deliver a powerful performance.
5) Acer Aspire 5 Slim Laptop, 15.6″ Full HD IPS Display
This laptop offers fast processing by using AMD Ryzen 7 3700U Dual-Core Processor 2. 3GHz with Precision Boost up to 4. 0GHz (Up to 4MB L3 Cache).
The display incorporates a 15. 6″ Full HD (1920 x 1080) widescreen LED-backlit IPS Display with AMD Radeon RX Vega 10 Mobile Graphics, which gives life to the digital images and appeals to the user’s sight. It also incorporates a backlit keyboard, which adds to the device’s beauty. It does not compromise on the storage as it incorporates up to 8GB DDR4 of memory, and 512GB PCIe NVMe SSD.
As an added benefit, it runs the True Harmony, and Acer Purified technologies respectively. Moreover, the device comes with two built-in speakers and microphones to ensure seamless connectivity. The connectivity is further made stronger by using 802. 11ac Wi-Fi featuring 2×2 MIMO technology (Dual-Band 2. 4GHz and 5GHz), 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet LAN (RJ-45 port),
This Acer laptop comes with an HD Webcam (1280 x 720), Bluetooth 4. 0, USB and HDMI ports with HDCP support. This laptop uses a lithium-ion battery, which allows one to work up to 7.5-hours on battery.
6) ASUS VivoBook 15 Thin & Light Laptop, 15.6” FHD Display
A minimalist, compact laptop that is at your back, whether you’re at work or home. ASUS VivoBook 15’s latest frameless four-sided NanoEdge display incorporates a sleek 5.7mm bezel, which paves way for an immaculate 88% screen-to-body ratio that delivers superlative visuals and graphics. The classy ErgoLift hinge design allows the user to tilt the keyboard in an upward direction which ensures a comfortable typing experience.
Despite having a sleek design, this laptop offers powerful functionality as it is powered by an AMD R7 processor with AMD Radeon graphics, which offers a seamless working experience. It also incorporates a fingerprint sensor to ensure privacy and security of the user.
7) Lenovo IdeaPad 3 14″ Laptop, 14.0″ FHD 1920 x 1080 Display
The Lenovo IdeaPad 3 is a lightweight, compact 14-inch laptop, which offers robust performance for day-to-day tasks. This practical laptop has been designed to deliver a long-lasting efficient performance. Whether you’re a student for whom portability is a major concern, or you’re working from home, or just need a simple laptop for entertainment purposes, maintaining connections via video chats, or want to carry out other routine tasks, this compact laptop has got your back.
It incorporates the latest Ryzen 5 3500U mobile processors with Radeon graphics, allowing you to multitask in order to expedite the pace of your work. The image clarity of it’s 14-inch full HD screen with 1920 x 1080 resolution is outstanding. Also, the narrow bezels on both sides of the display deliver a neat and aesthetically pleasing look.
The user of the Lenovo IdeaPad 3 not only enjoys great picture clarity but also great sound, as this laptop incorporates two speakers with Dolby Audio. This super-compact laptop can allow the user to move around easily while carrying it to work, listening to music, watching videos, or any other task. It also ensures the user’s privacy with a physical shutter for the webcam.
A distinguishing feature of this laptop is that it comes with a Q-Control, which allows the user to seamlessly switch between ‘Max modes’ to speed up the performance, and “battery saving mode” which can be opted when the workload is not as intense.
How to Choose the Best Non-Gaming Laptop in 2022?
Below are the salient features that must be considered when buying a laptop:
Size
An important factor that needs to be considered when buying a laptop is its size, as the size obviously determines how portable a laptop is. The smaller the size, the greater portability it offers. Generally, laptops are available with a 15.6-inch screen, which is the most popular option. However, if your usage requires you to move a lot, then a laptop with a smaller screen should be preferred.
Display
The display of a laptop incorporates a number of factors. The first thing that needs to be considered is the number of pixels it has, which determines the resolution of the display, such as HD, Full HD, 3K, or 4K resolution. The greater the number of pixels, the sharper the image will be. Moreover, for pristine picture quality, OLED displays are a better option.
Operating Systems (OS)
When buying a laptop, a regular computer user already has a preferred operating system in his mind, and it is usually the one that he is already familiar with. The majority of computer users find Windows easier to use as compared to macOS, Linux, or Chrome OS. However, it totally depends on one’s own preference and which operating system one finds easy to use.
Hardware
The hardware of your system influences the efficiency of your system’s functionality. For casual use, and to carry out regular tasks, processors that are easy on the pocket are Intel Core i3, Intel Celeron, Intel Pentium Gold, AMD Athlon, and AMD Ryzen 3 1200. However, professionals such as programmers or graphic designers require systems with more powerful processors. The common options include Intel Core i7, Intel Core i9, AMD Ryzen 3000 series, AMD Ryzen 4000 series, and AMD Ryzen 5000 series.
Storage
The storage of a system is responsible for deciding the amount of data a system can store. For most users, 1 TB of storage space is enough for regular usage. Another choice has to be made between HDD and SDD. Although an HDD drive will be more affordable, choosing an SSD will expedite your processing speed.
Conclusion
The purpose of laptops is to deliver seamless functionality, be it personal or professional. The priority of non-gaming laptops is power efficiency and to provide the required performance. Such laptops are cost-effective, portable and have more durable battery lives as compared to gaming laptops, which are not only expensive but have a shorter battery life as well, owing to their high-end processing.
Our list of the Top 7 Best Non-Gaming Laptops in 2022 includes laptops that suit most people’s requirements. Do your research and choose one that best matches your taste and needs!
