They’re slow, loud, and inefficient. Worse yet, with all those mechanical moving parts they’re liable to break, which means you’ll have to replace it.
And have you seen how long it takes for your games to load when you use HDD rather than SSD? It’s ridiculous!
The solution, of course, is to get yourself a laptop with a solid-state drive, which is years ahead of its HDD counterpart.
We’ve been checking out some of the best SSD laptops out on the market today. After much deliberation, we were able to handpick our top 5 favorites, and our reviews on them are coming up very shortly.
But we totally get that choosing a laptop can be tricky, so we’ve also put together a handy buying guide for you, which follows on from the laptop reviews, so be sure to stick around.
A quick heads-up before we start, most of the laptops that made our shortlist are top performing gaming laptops at premium prices, but we have also included one for those who aren’t into gaming and have a budget to think of.
And without further ado…
Reviews of SSD Laptops
Apple MacBook Air
Apple is still pretty much leading the way in modern technology, and at the time of writing this article, this Apple MacBook Air was THE number one best-selling traditional laptop with the online retail giants.
But you should also check out the customer ratings – this beauty earned an average customer rating on Amazon of a full 5 stars out of 5, even after well over 6,000 individual ratings!
It’s available in two different levels of capacity: 256 GB of SSD storage, or 512 GB of SSD storage. Unfortunately, the latter comes at a noticeably higher price.
The rest of the specs are pretty great too. There’s an 8-core CPU which works up to 3.5 times faster than previous Apple laptops. And there’s an 8-core GPU to give you 5 times faster graphics. There’s 16 GB of unified memory, so multitasking is a breeze.
The battery life is just amazing, lasting up to 18 hours on a full charge.
And the screen has an amazing resolution too, coming in at a whopping 2560 x 1600!
And it’s not noisy like gaming laptops tend to be because there’s no fan required.
Amazon occasionally has deals on this particular laptop – simply click on “Check price” to see if there’s a deal on now.
Pros
- Bestseller with phenomenal ratings
- Loads of SSD storage available
- Amazing 18-hour long battery life
- Stunning screen resolution, 2560 x 1600
- Superfast multi-core CPU and GPU
Cons
- Its screen is just 13.3 inches and there’s no numeric keypad
- The Apple operating system takes some getting used to if you’re not already familiar
- Apple-designed M1 chip for a giant leap in CPU, GPU, and machine learning performance
- Go longer than ever with up to 18 hours of battery life
- 8-core CPU delivers up to 3.5x faster performance to tackle projects faster than ever
- Up to eight GPU cores with up to 5x faster graphics for graphics-intensive apps and games
- 16-core Neural Engine for advanced machine learning
Acer Nitro 5 Gaming Laptop
As we mention in our buying guide, gaming laptops tend to have better specs and performance than their more budget counterparts, and as such they frequently cost over $1000…
However, this particular gaming laptop is available at a far more affordable price.
It has had some great customer ratings, and has some really great specs.
First off, it has 256 GB SSD storage, which is about double what you’d get with a regular budget laptop. And there’s 8 GB of RAM for all your multitasking.
It also offers a 9th generation Intel Core processor which goes to speeds of up to a whopping 4.1 GHz.
The screen is also very good – it’s 15.6 inches in size, and has a full high definition resolution. And it has excellent audio too, which makes watching downloaded movies amazing.
It happens to have Amazon Alexa built-in!
And being a gaming laptop, it also of course has an excellent integrated graphics card. And when it’s getting really heavy use, the cooling technology gets going to ensure that the laptop doesn’t overheat.
And if you are into your gaming you can get several gaming accessories that work perfectly with this laptop.
Pros
- Available at a reasonable price
- 256 GB of SSD storage available
- Large 15.6” full high definition screen
- Has everything you need for gaming
- 9th gen CPU does speeds of 4.1 GHz
Cons
- Gaming can really drain this laptop’s battery life
- 9th Generation Intel Core i5-9300H Processor (Up to 4.1 GHz)
- 15" Full HD Widescreen IPS LED-backlit display; NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Graphics with 4 GB of dedicated GDDR5 VRAM
- 8GB DDR4 2666MHz Memory; 256GB PCIe NVMe SSD (2 x PCIe M.2 slots - 1 slot open for easy upgrades) & 1 - Available hard drive bay
- LAN: 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet LAN (RJ-45 port); Wireless: Intel Wireless Wi-Fi 6 AX200 802.11ax
- Backlit keyboard; Acer Cool Boost technology with twin fans and dual exhaust ports
Lenovo Legion 5 Gaming Laptop
Here’s another great gaming laptop from a top brand – except this time it offers a whopping 512 GB of SSD storage, which is 4 times as much as a regular budget laptop.
And that’s not the only spec we were impressed with. It also offers 16 GB of RAM for running several apps at the same time. And again, that’s about 4 times as much as what you’d get with a regular budget laptop.
It has a stunning screen, 15.6 inches in size, and with a full high definition display of 1920 x 1080 pixels. And it’s an IPS display too, which means that if you’re watching a film, you can view it from just about any angle.
It’s powered by the AMD Ryzen 4000 H-Series processor, which offers excellent frame rates.
And being a gaming laptop, it also of course has an excellent integrated graphics card. And when it’s getting really heavy use, the cooling technology gets going to ensure that the laptop doesn’t overheat.
And if you are into your gaming, you can buy a Lenovo headset that works perfectly with this laptop.
But what we really love about this laptop is the superb after-sales service and tech support.
Pros
- 512 GB of SSD storage available
- 16 GB of RAM for multitasking
- Stunning 15.6“ full HD IPS display
- Excellent CPU for excellent frame rates
Cons
- Premium product at a premium price
- There have been some negative reviews with regards to the battery life
- Welcome to the next generation of gaming performance with the AMD Ryzen 7 4800H mobile processor, 16GB 3200MHz DDR4 memory, and 512GB M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD storage
- Enjoy fast refresh and deep colors with a 144 Hz refresh rate and outstanding clarity on a 15.6" FHD (1920 x 1080) IPS display
- The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660Ti GPU is a blazing-fast supercharger for your favorite games and the newest titles
- Get maximum performance via Dual Burn Support, which pushes the CPU and GPU together for improved framerates, and Legion Coldfront 2.0 for thermal tuning
- The Legion TrueStrike keyboard with soft-landing switches delivers hair-trigger inputs
Razer Blade 15 Base Gaming Laptop
If you really want a lot of SSD storage space, how about this laptop – it offers not 258 GB, not 512 GB, but a whopping 1 TB of SSD storage – that’s 1000 GB!
We will be honest however and say that this 1 TB version of the laptop is very expensive (and I’m not exaggerating) so if you didn’t need quite as much as 1 TB of storage space, you could opt for a cheaper version of the same laptop, which just has 512 GB there for you.
And if you need even more storage, there’s an M.2 slot to allow for easy SSD upgrades.
The 1 TB version has an excellent CPU, the 8-Core 10th Gen Intel Core i7-10875H processor to be exact, which can operate at speeds of up to a whopping 5.1 GHz.
The screen is 15.6 inches and in full HD.
And being a gaming laptop, it also of course has an excellent integrated graphics card. And when it’s getting really heavy use, the cooling technology gets going to ensure that the laptop doesn’t overheat.
And if you are into your gaming, you can buy an amazing mouse and charging dock that works perfectly with this laptop.
Pros
- 1000 GB of SSD storage available
- Slot in place for future SSD upgrades
- Incredibly fast CPU processor
- Stunning 15.6“ full HD display
Cons
- Premium product at a premium price (not kidding)!
- GeForce RTX 3080: NVIDIA’s 2nd gen RTX—with new RT Cores, Tensor Cores, and streaming multiprocessors to give the most realistic ray-traced graphics and improved performance
- More Power, More Cores: The 8-Core 10th Gen Intel Core i7-10875H processor provides the ultimate level of performance with up to 5.1GHz Max Turbo
- Thin and Compact: The CNC aluminum unibody frame houses incredible performance in the most compact footprint possible, while remaining remarkably durable and just 0.7" thin
- Innovative Cooling: A unique vacuum sealed, liquid filled copper vapor chamber spans the heat generating components and is the key to getting maximum performance and user comfort in a compact, thin design
- Make It Yours: Customize the backlight color of the keyboard with Razer Chroma, and expand the memory and storage, making the Razer Blade 15 uniquely yours
Newest Dell Inspiron 3000 Laptop
If you just can’t afford an Apple MacBook Air or a fancy gaming laptop, but you still need plenty of SSD storage, then this could be the laptop for you.
You can buy it with different levels of RAM and different types of storage. If you click on “Check price” you will be taken to the product page where the 512 GB of SSD storage is selected, together with 16 GB of RAM. These are your best options
If you need even more storage, however, you can opt for a mix of SSD storage together with HDD storage. For example, you can have 256 GB of SSD storage combined with a whole terabyte of HDD storage.
If you go for lower amounts of storage and RAM, the price goes down slightly.
The rest of the laptop specs are also very good. There’s a 15.6 inch anti-glare high definition screen for example. And it has a fast dual-core Intel Celeron Processor.
It also has an integrated webcam and microphone.
Pros
- Available at an excellent price
- Excellent levels of SSD & HDD storage
- Plenty of RAM for multitasking
- Great 15.6-inch anti-glare HD screen
Cons
- Not cut out for gaming with
- 【Dell Inspiron Laptop】16GB high-bandwidth RAM to smoothly run multiple applications and browser tabs all at once; 512GB PCIe NVME M.2 Solid State Drive for ample storage space.
- 【Processor】Intel Celeron Processor N4020 (2 cores, 2 Threads, 4MB Cache, up to 2.8 GHz)
- 【Display 】15.6-inch HD (1366 x 768) Anti-Glare LED-Backlit Non-touch Display, Intel UHD Graphics with Shared Graphics Memory
- 【Tech Specs】802.11ac 1x1 WiFi and Bluetooth, 1 x SD Card Reader, 1 x USB 2.0, 1 x Wedge-shaped lock slot, 1 x Power, 1 x HDMI 1.4b, 1 x RJ-45, 2 x USB 3.1 Gen 1, 1 x Headphone & Microphone Audio Jack, Win10 Home
- 【Included in the package】Mousepad from PConline365
Best SSD Laptops: A Buyer’s Guide
As promised, here’s our buying guide for you. It makes for a handy checklist to ensure you’ve thought of everything before you buy.
Amount of On-Board Storage
If you’re reading this article, it’s safe to assume that you’ll be wanting some level of on-board storage. This may be because you want to save lots of media files such as audio files and/or movies. Or because you like to play PC games.
Either way, you’ll need at least 128 GB of SSD storage at the very minimum. And the more, the better.
It’s also worth noting at this point that some laptops offer both SSD and HDD storage. And when they offer both, there’s usually up to 1 TB of it up for grabs (that’s 1000 GB!), and we would argue that there’s no harm in having both. Just be sure to save the right things to the SSD drive.
Gaming Laptops
Gaming laptops are top of the range laptops that perform much better than regular or budget laptops. They beat regular laptops for every single spec.
If you’re looking for a laptop to use for gaming, we strongly recommend that you get a dedicated gaming laptop.
But if you’re just streaming movies, using Microsoft Office, or playing music, a regular laptop will do just fine.
Value for Money
Of course, the drawback to choosing a gaming laptop is the accompanying hefty price tag. And while this isn’t necessarily bad value for money, it is if you don’t really need it.
This is why our shortlist of laptops includes both top-end high performance gaming laptops, and a few other good SSD laptops for those of you who have to stick with a more reasonable budget.
Operating System
First off, if you want a good SSD laptop, you can forget about Chromebooks. They’re basically just web browsing laptops that don’t allow you to download anything or save anything via on-board storage.
But other than that, your options are open. You can go for an Apple laptop, or for one that runs on Microsoft Windows. And both these options are both reflected in our shortlist.
Screen
We would recommend laptops with a screen size of at least 15 inches for most users because it’s better for watching movies on, and this size of laptop has a handy numeric keypad.
The drawback to this however is that most 2-in-1 laptops that convert to tablets are usually just 11 inches, or 14 at the very most. So if you go for a 15-inch one, you effectively lose this touch screen functionality.
Anyways, the screen’s resolution is more important than its size. And if you’re going to watch movies, then you’re going to want a High Definition display resolution of at least 1366 x 768, if not 1920 x 1080.
CPU
The CPU is the power behind the computer. You’ll want it to be multi-core, and have processing speeds of up to at least 2.6 GHz, though you can get some well over 5 GHz.
RAM
If you like to have several apps running at the same time, you will need to have sufficient RAM. We would recommend that you go for a laptop with at least 4 GB, though you can get much more.
Webcam & Microphone
If you want to stay connected to people via Zoom, then we would recommend getting a laptop with integrated webcam and microphone, save buying them separately.
Battery Life
Only you can decide how much battery life you need. Sometimes a battery will only last about 3 hours on a full charge, but you can get some that last for a whopping 10 hours or more.
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