3 Best Laptops for Pentesting in 2024
From this article, you will know what are, in our opinion, the best laptops for pentesting in 2024.
Pentesting (penetration testing, often called ethical hacking as well) is an activity to simulate attacks on a computer system to evaluate its security. In this activity, people who do it act like real attackers so they can find the weakness of the computer system’s security and strengthen it based on their findings.
To do pentesting, a laptop is an essential thing to have and use. A laptop can help us to run the tools needed to simulate the attacks on the computer system’s security we want to evaluate, create reports based on the simulation results, and do other things needed to strengthen the security system centered around our pentesting activities.
If you want to do pentesting too but you don’t have a laptop to support what you do yet, it is probably the right time for you to buy a new laptop. However, it can be confusing to find the right laptop for pentesting activities from many laptop choices out there. This is why Compute Expert has created a list of the best laptops for pentesting that you can make as your laptop-buying reference.
Want to know what laptops we recommend and the reasons why we recommend them? Let’s start digging into the list right away.
Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links from which we earn commission from qualifying purchases/actions at no additional cost for you. Learn more
| Image | View on Amazon | Product |
|---|---|---|
| Lenovo ThinkPad T14 | ||
| Dell XPS 15 | ||
| Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 |
Table of Contents:
What are the Best Laptops for Pentesting?
Now, let’s see the laptops we think are excellent to use to support pentesting. Using one of these laptops should give you the laptop support you need to test the security of a computer system more optimally.1. Lenovo ThinkPad T14
Lenovo ThinkPad T14 is the first laptop we recommend when it comes to a laptop to buy and use for pentesting. It is an excellent laptop from the popular Lenovo ThinkPad series with high-quality specifications to support your pentesting activities.This laptop has a 13th Gen Intel Core i7 processor and 32GB RAM capacity. These are great specifications to have for a laptop and should be able to run the software and virtual machines you need to use for pentesting well. The processor has 10 cores and a quite fast speed to manage tasks in each tool you utilize during your work process.
The ThinkPad keyboard is one of the best around for a laptop and should make you feel comfortable when you type on it to make notes about the results of your pentesting. To help you get connected online, there is Wi-Fi 6E technology that can give you optimum internet connection speed from your Wi-Fi network.
There is an Ethernet port too on this laptop that you can use to support your pentesting activities. All in all, this Lenovo ThinkPad T14 can be the ideal laptop for you to do your pentesting activities optimally.
Key Features
- Screen Size, Resolution: 14 inches, 1920 x 1200 pixels
- Processor: 13th Gen Intel Core i7 with 10 cores and speed in the range of 1.7-5 GHz
- RAM Capacity: 32GB
- Storage: 1TB PCIe NVMe SSD
- Battery Life (Estimation): up to 8 hours of usage capacity
Pros
- Excellent specifications to support pentesting
- Quite sleek and lightweight
- USB-A, Thunderbolt 4 USB-C, HDMI, and Ethernet ports
- Friendly-to-the-eye display
- Stretchable hinge (up to 180 degrees)
- A full-HD webcam
- Comfortable keyboard to type on
Cons
- No SD card slots
2. Dell XPS 15
Dell XPS 15 is another laptop you might want to take a look at deeper. This is a Dell laptop that looks nice in terms of design and has the powerful performance to handle the tasks you need for your pentesting work.The processor of this laptop is 13th Gen Intel Core i7-13700H which should be adequate for pentesting. As for the RAM capacity, there is 32GB RAM available on this laptop. This relatively large RAM capacity should serve you well when you need to use a few virtual machines to simulate the attacks on your computer system.
This laptop is sleek and has a solid build so it shouldn’t be too much of a burden for you to bring it around in your bag or hold it in your hand. As pentesting often needs you to be mobile in your work, this laptop’s design should support you in that aspect. The battery on this laptop seems to be good as well and can last a whole day before you have to charge it again.
The keyboard on this laptop has nice quality so you can input things to the software you use comfortably. Overall, this Dell XPS 15 is an excellent laptop that should be suitable to support pentesting work.
Key Features
- Screen Size, Resolution: 15.6 inches, 1920 x 1200 pixels
- Processor: 13th Gen Intel Core i7 with 14 cores and speed in the range of 2.4-5 GHz
- RAM Capacity: 32GB
- Storage: 2TB PCIe NVMe SSD
- Battery Life (Estimation): up to 9 hours of usage capacity
Pros
- Excellent specifications to support pentesting
- Premium build
- Sleek and professional-looking design
- Two Thunderbolt 4 ports
- Great speakers
- Comfortable keyboard to type on
Cons
- No USB-A and HDMI ports
- Average webcam quality
3. Asus ROG Zephyrus G15
Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 is the next laptop that can be great for pentesting in our opinion. Looking at the specifications in place, this laptop should be able to run all the things you need to do your pentesting sessions well.This laptop uses an AMD processor with AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS in place. It is a stable and powerful processor with a fast base clock speed (3.3 GHz) and eight cores to deliver the performance level you need for your work. There is a 40GB RAM capacity to manage your software programs, virtual machines, and their memory consumption needs.
For a gaming laptop, this laptop has a quite portable design and good battery life to support the mobility of your work. There is also a full range of ports with an Ethernet port to use on the sides of this laptop so you don’t have to worry about connectivity.
There is a quality dedicated GPU too in NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 to process graphics smoothly should you need it during your attack and hacking simulation. All in all, this Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 is a laptop you might want to consider buying and using too for your pentesting-related activities.
Key Features
- Screen Size, Resolution: 15.6 inches, 2560 x 1440 pixels
- Processor: AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS with 8 cores and speed in the range of 3.3-4.9 GHz
- RAM Capacity: 40GB
- Storage: 1TB PCIe NVMe SSD
- Battery Life (Estimation): up to 8 hours of usage capacity
Pros
- Excellent specifications to support pentesting
- A quite portable design for a gaming laptop
- A full range of ports with an Ethernet port
- Good battery life for a gaming laptop
- MUX switch technology
- Comfortable keyboard to type on
Cons
- Average webcam quality
What are the Things We Should Consider When We Want to Buy a Laptop for Pentesting Work?
Here are the things we think you should consider when you want to buy a laptop to support pentesting.- Processor. The laptop you buy needs to have a good processor so it can run the tools you need to do your pentesting well. We recommend a laptop with at least a late-generation i5 or Ryzen 5 processor with a lot of cores (probably at least 6 cores) for this
- RAM capacity. Pentesting usually needs you to use virtual machines which can eat up a lot of memory space on your laptop. Therefore, the laptop you buy needs to have a large RAM capacity. We recommend a laptop with at least 16GB RAM for this
- Storage. You may need to store some files related to your work internally on your laptop so you can access them much easier. Therefore, the laptop you buy needs to have adequate storage space to accommodate those files. We recommend a laptop with at least 256GB SSD storage space for this
- Battery life. You may sometimes need to do pentesting in places where there are no power outlets nearby to charge your laptop. Therefore, the laptop you buy better has good battery life. We recommend a laptop with at least 6-8 hours of normal usage capacity in its battery so you have enough power to do pentesting on the laptop for a full day of work
Wrap Up
When you want to buy a laptop, you may want one that can help you to do pentesting optimally. However, it can be confusing to find the right laptop for pentesting from many laptop choices available out there. This is why Compute Expert has come up with its list of the best laptops for pentesting to help you.To summarize, here are three laptops we think can be excellent for pentesting.
We hope our list can help you buy the best laptop to support your pentesting work!
Read also:
