The Best Laptops for Realtors of 2021 Find the best laptop for realtors that moves as fast as you do.
By Entrepreneur Deals Edited by Jason Fell
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There's no denying that real estate can be a lucrative business, even as a part-time side hustle. But without a good laptop for working on the go, you might just be limiting yourself to the sluggish pace of your current devices. The housing market moves quickly, and so should your laptop. As you move from house to house to meet with potential buyers, you'll need something portable to close sales on the run.
To help you sort through the options, we've prepared a list of the best laptops for realtors in 2021. Bear in mind that the prices listed are all starting prices, meaning you'll have to spend more for premium features, but each model is nevertheless competitive regardless of configuration.
Best Overall: HP Spectre x360 ($1,630), also at other retailers
Best Under $500: Acer Aspire 5 ($429)
Best 2-in-1: Microsoft Surface Pro 7 ($824), also at other retailers
Best for Photo Editing: Apple MacBook Air M1 ($999), also at other retailers
Best Touch Screen: Dell XPS 15 ($1,060)
Best for the Money: Lenovo IdeaPad Duet Chromebook ($250), also at other retailers
Best Battery Life: Samsung Galaxy Book Flex2 Alpha ($999), also at other retailers
HPBest Overall: HP Spectre x360 ($1,857)
Powerful yet portable, the HP Spectre x360 (also at other retailers) is an exceptional laptop for realtors. It's a great 2-in-1 that lets you easily transition from laptop to tablet mode. The included stylus is perfect for taking notes. With a 15.6-inch 4K touchscreen, displaying images and videos to potential buyers will present pure eye candy.
Under the hood, HP's Spectre x360 packs up to an 11th-gen Intel i7 CPU. It's available with Intel Xe graphics for a bit more oomph. And with as much as 16 GB of DDR4 RAM and a 2 TB PCIe SSD, you've got ample multitasking capabilities along with storage space for important files. A lengthy battery life of up to 14 hours means all-day lasting power.
There's excellent connectivity with an HDMI 2.0 port, headphone jack, microSD card slot, a pair of USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C ports (one with Thunderbolt 3) and a USB 3.2 Type-A. The HP Spectre x360 looks professional with its sturdy aluminum chassis, and comes outfitted with premium specs to help you complete the sale.
AcerBest Under $500: Acer Aspire 5 ($429)
For agents seeking the best budget laptop to meet their needs, the Acer Aspire 5 is a serviceable choice. An aluminum chassis makes it appear more luxe than it is while a relatively powerful AMD Ryzen 3 3200U processor does all the heavy lifting.
At 15.6 inches, the screen is larger than that of most laptops these days, and with a full HD native 1080p resolution, you'll be able to read and create listings without putting too much strain on your eyes. Connectivity is pretty solid with an HDMI output, USB ports, an Ethernet jack and headphone port (but a USB-C port is noticeably absent).
Pictures and videos of properties will look stunning on the 1080p IPS display. With an almost eight-hour battery life, the Acer Aspire 5 is made to keep up with your busy lifestyle.
MicrosoftBest 2-in-1: Microsoft Surface Pro 7 ($824)
If its recent marketing campaigns are any indication, Microsoft desperately wants you to know that the Surface Pro 7 (also at other retailers) is a real laptop, unlike the iPad Pro. And as much as it hurts to admit, to some extent the company is right. Part tablet, part laptop, this 1.7-pound 2-in-1 runs Windows 10, making it compatible with the applications you might use on a desktop PC, such as the full versions of Microsoft Office 365 and Adobe Photoshop CC. With a high-resolution screen that falls somewhere between full HD and 4K, along with a 10th Gen Intel Core processor, the Surface Pro 7 is indeed as ultra-light and versatile as its manufacturer claims.
AppleBest for Photo Editing: Apple MacBook Air M1
Think you need a MacBook Pro for pro-level performance? Think again. The latest MacBook Air (also at other retailers) features the same M1 processor found in the MacBook Pro as well as the same 8 GB of RAM, 256 GB of SSD storage and 13.3-inch Retina display as its "professional-grade" sibling. The only major difference is that instead of the four USB-C ports you'll find on the MacBook Pro, the MacBook Air has only two.
Boasting up to 18 hours of battery life, the Apple MacBook Air is sleek, portable and powerful. Its M1 chip delivers plenty of processing power. Capable of housing up to 2 TB of SSD storage, you can hold all of the pictures and videos you need. As long as you can live with using an adapter to transfer your real estate photos to and from your source camera, the MacBook Air's powerful new guts, combined with its gorgeous screen, make for a nice little touch-up station.
DellBest Touch Screen: Dell XPS 15 ($1,060)
While shopping around for laptops, you may find that most of them treat the touch screen as an afterthought. In other cases, the core laptop functionality might take a backseat to gimmicky touch controls. The Dell XPS 15 bucks this trend by delivering a happy medium: a responsive touch screen on a traditional laptop that won't interrupt your workflow.
The display itself can be customized to a resolution slightly higher than 4K, which Dell dubs UHD+. If you need the extra pixels to accurately create mockups, develop your website or make other types of content related to your trade, you can't go wrong with the XPS 15.
With up to 64 GB of DDR4 RAM and as high as a 2 TB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD, Dell's XPS 15 affords ample multitasking capabilities along with storage capacity. An available Intel i9 CPU and NVIDIA GTX 1650 Ti deliver excellent processing power.
LenovoBest for the Money: Lenovo IdeaPad Duet Chromebook ($260)
Considering how little it costs, the Lenovo Chromebook Duet (also at other retailers) is an exceptional, affordable alternative to the Surface Pro 7. Equipped with a 10.1-inch full HD touch screen and a detachable magnetic keyboard, its design is unusually sophisticated for a 2-in-1 at this price.
A textured fabric material wraps its aluminum alloy chassis for a striking dual-tone aesthetic that makes the Duet seem more expensive than it is. Inside, you'll find a 128 GB SSD mated to 4 GB of RAM. The only potential downside is that, despite its improvements in recent years, Chromebooks are still limited to Chrome OS, which has its limitations when compared to Windows 10 or Mac computers. Nevertheless, there are some amazing budget Chromebooks to keep you entertaining clients from anywhere.
SamsungBest Battery Life: Dell Latitude 9510 ($1,319)
Sporting a 13.3-inch full high-definition touch screen, the Samsung Galaxy Book Flex2 Alpha (also at other retailers) is slim, portable and long-lasting. At under four pounds and with an over 18-hour battery life, the Galaxy Book Flex2 features all-day power.
There's excellent connectivity including Wi-Fi 6 802.11ax, Bluetooth 5.0, a microSD card slot, HDMI port, a pair of USB 3.0 hosts, a USB-C jack, plus a headphone jack. Add an Intel i7 processor, Intel Iris Xe graphics and up to 16 GB of RAM with as much as 2 TB of SSD storage space and the Galaxy Book Flex2 Alpha really flies.
