Choosing a suitable processor for your business machines can be a little complicated, but we have a few rules of thumb to bear in mind, whether you're shopping for a personal work machine or upgrading the IT fleet for your whole company.

We recommend choosing the latest processor generation whenever possible. The latest chips will feature newer capabilities and current and ongoing support. Doing so pushes the unavoidable future upgrade back further than if you started with last year's hardware.

Next, it helps to know what class of processor you need. Our guide to choosing a laptop CPU provides our most detailed advice, but for business users, we have some rules of thumb you should know.

The lowest-end processors, like Intel's classic Pentium CPUs (the newest are now just dubbed "Intel Processors," minus the "Pentium"), aren't meant for daily work but would be a decent fit for powering a sales kiosk or running signage. Next-step-up basic processors, like Intel's Core i3, Core 3, and Core Ultra 3, are suited to simple work like writing up documents and browsing the web. If the most demanding program you run is PowerPoint, then a basic processor will suit you just fine.

For more demanding work, you'll look to more productivity-focused options. On Intel, these traditionally were Core i5 and i7 chips, but business machines are gravitating toward the newer Intel Core Ultra 5 and Ultra 7 CPUs). Apple's M-series processors fill out the same category on MacBooks. In contrast, AMD's Ryzen 5 or Ryzen 7 processors are suitable for office users who do light video editing or need to power through large spreadsheets and datasets. (The newest machines may use AMD Ryzen AI 300-series processors.)

If you need more horsepower for intensive tasks such as number crunching, heavier content creation, or workstation-grade processing, consider Intel's Core Ultra 7 and 9 chips, Apple's M4 Max, and AMD's Ryzen 9 CPUs. These will almost always be paired with powerful discrete graphics and plenty of RAM. Check out our guide to mobile workstations to find out what specific considerations you should make when shopping in this category.

Finally, consider the form factor. As a rule, Intel's H- and HX-series chips will deliver the highest power for the most demanding uses and will be found in mobile workstations and creator laptops, while U-series CPUs are made for midrange thin-and-light laptops. (AMD uses similar letters to designate its laptop processors in the same way: H for performance and U for portability.) Ultraportable laptops generally use lower-wattage chips, typically around 15 watts from U-series chips, with wattage driving up to 45W or higher in workstations. But, even with the U-series models, the basic tiers provide good, better, and best in terms of processing power.

PCWorld calls the Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition the best overall laptop. It handles regular stuff pretty easily, the battery can go up to 23 hours if you play your cards right, and the screen's this bright 14-inch 2880x1800 OLED with HDR and a 120Hz refresh rate--it looks top-notch!