In the first quarter of 2026, worldwide PC shipments were up 4% year-over-year, according to research firm Gartner. Sounds good on paper, but according to Gartner, that figure was not due to genuine demand. It was about boosting PC inventory to beat ongoing “memflation,” the memory price bloat driven by AI data center build-outs.
And as the year has progressed, things have worsened: PC shipments dropped 20% year over year in the third quarter of 2026, according to the research firm IDC. (Typically, Q3 outpaces Q2, but not this year.) This state of affairs, IDC says, “is expected to carry into 2027, with market stabilization not expected before 2028.”
PCMag Readers’ Choice: How Our Surveys Help You Find the Best Products
“We’re in this gray zone of hesitancy around large-scale upgrading, given we’re seeing these historic price rises for RAM, storage, and thus systems as a whole,” says John Burek, PCMag’s executive editor and PC Labs director. “There’s definitely some impetus to buy and upgrade power-user PCs for enterprises that are adopting local AI. But that’s usually for select employees, not at scale.
“Fleet laptop buys are now a gamble,” Burek continues. “Should we do it now, before further price rises, or tough it out with existing hardware for an extra year or two, in hopes of some eventual relief?”
If you’re a business making these tough decisions, our annual Business Choice survey of PCMag readers—many of whom work in IT, handling PC acquisition, deployment, and management—can help. Read on to see which PC makers the people who manage work laptop and desktop PCs recommend.
The Top Laptop Brands for Work in 2026
While a lot has changed since last year’s survey, one thing has not, according to our readers: Apple’s MacBooks are still the best laptop choice for getting work done. Apple has won this category every year we’ve run this business laptop survey—a total of 19 times since 2006, back when we published results in the print edition of PC Magazine.
Apple comes out on top this year for overall satisfaction, with a score of 8.9 out of 10. (Second place in that subcategory goes to Microsoft, which earns an 8.4.) Apple’s other standout scores are for reliability (9.2) and display quality (9.3). The only areas where the brand doesn’t win are value (a first-place tie between HP and Lenovo) and, interestingly, ease of use, where Apple ranks just behind Microsoft and Lenovo.
(Note: Click the arrows in our interactive charts to view various elements of our survey results.)
“I use all sorts of computers for work: Linux on MSI, Windows on MSI, and Mac,” says one survey respondent. “But for reliability and limited distraction, I find any MacBook ideal. Especially now with the performance of Apple Silicon. Display quality is a huge value—I’ve had bad displays, which can be a distraction. Apple never disappoints on quality.”
And here’s another reader rave: “My MacBook Pro is several years old, has had no issues, and has amazing battery life. I almost never bring a power adapter to meetings or presentations. It’s trouble-free, and even when processing large quantities of images or complex designs, it never gets hot. In fact, I can’t say I even remember the last time I heard the fan turn on.”
Not every office can or will support Macs, so we also always feature the top Windows laptop brand for work. For the last three years, Lenovo has led the pack here. But this year, Microsoft itself wins. Its Surface-branded laptops take the crown for the first time since 2020.
Among the Windows laptop vendors in our survey, Microsoft has the highest overall satisfaction score (8.4), outranking the big three PC manufacturers for the workplace: Dell, HP, and Lenovo. As noted above, Microsoft has the top score for ease of use, a tie with Lenovo, the third-place brand overall. Microsoft also ties with Lenovo for likelihood to recommend (8.2) and with HP and Dell for the quality of their touch screens (9.1).
“I use a Surface with Intel, and it is a little workhorse. Great battery life,” says one respondent. “I highly recommend it.” Another reader offers, “My Surface Studio 2 has been a steadfast companion—consistently reliable, effortlessly powerful, and more than capable of keeping pace with the demands of my role as a support technician.”
“While Apple sparked the trend of high-design systems with high reliability, Microsoft rose to the challenge with some equally top-end hardware designs that don’t quit,” PCMag deputy editor Joe Osborne says. “That kind of dependability is paramount for businesses large and small that would love to hold onto hardware resources for as long as possible. When it comes to longevity, it’s about a dead heat between Microsoft and Apple at the moment.”
To see our top picks for lab-tested business laptops, check out The Best Work Laptops for 2026.
The Top IT-Managed Laptop Brands for 2026
When we focus on the laptop preferences of the IT professionals in our survey, the field narrows to the big three. And IT pros’ choices are starkly different than those of workers at large. Whereas Dell came in last place above, here it ties with Lenovo for overall satisfaction (8.2) and likelihood to recommend (8.4), the two criteria we consider first when choosing a Business Choice award winner.
In the end, the title goes to Dell since it earns the highest scores in the most categories, including ease of use (8.9), reliability (8.7), and display quality (8.6). Lenovo is a stellar choice as well, with the highest ratings for durability (8.7), battery life (8.0), and value (8.2). Dell and Lenovo tie for size and weight (8.3).
In third is HP, which only manages to best second-place Lenovo on one rating, ease of use, by a tenth of a point. However, HP comes in second for value and battery life, a full point ahead of Dell.
“I’ve managed fleets for 15 years, and Dell’s 2026 lineup—specifically the XPS 14 and the Pro 14 Premium—is the first time I’ve felt a brand actually respects the IT budget,” says one respondent. “The standout feature is the modular internal design. Now, our internal team can swap the port module in minutes. From a deployment perspective, Dell Command Suite [management tools remain] the gold standard. Dell isn’t just selling laptops anymore; they’re selling a low-maintenance ecosystem that actually lasts.”
“Dell is one of the most prolific providers of computers in the business world, having been in the game for more than 40 years,” Osborne says. “While hardware is a large piece of that, software and implementation are even more important, and that’s where Dell’s support for fleet managers and other IT pros excels.”
For more, check out our list of The Best Mobile Workstations for 2026.
The Top Desktop PC Brands for Work in 2026
In our highly mobile work world, desktops don’t sell as well as laptops, as illustrated by IDC data. But powerful workstations still have their place. The three major PC makers, plus Apple, all show up in our results again this year, as they typically do, but with numbers that differ from last year’s.
Recommended by Our Editors
In 2025, Dell, Lenovo, and HP tied for overall satisfaction. Ultimately, Dell came out on top with workers. This year, there’s another tie for satisfaction—between Lenovo and Apple. But Lenovo has the superior recommendation score, thereby taking the prize. This is Lenovo’s fourth time winning a Business Choice award for desktops since 2021.
There are a few subcategories where Apple comes out on top, like value (which is surprising, since Apple doesn’t have a reputation for competitive pricing), and for graphics capabilities. In fact, Apple’s graphics score (9.2) is the only number on the entire desktop chart that exceeds 9.0.
HP, which ranks third overall, narrowly beats Lenovo in reliability, with an 8.6. Dell, which won for business desktops last year, brings up the rear. (Dell ties HP for overall satisfaction, but slips to fourth because of its recommendation score.)
“Business desktops are a tricky area to make blanket judgments in, because models vary so much from product family to product family,” Burek says. “But Lenovo’s desktop operation obviously benefits from its synchronicity with the dominant, heavily adopted ThinkPad laptop brand. Procuring all your PCs from a single manufacturer can obviously appeal to some buyers.”
Lenovo, which is based in Beijing, has “better overall quality and workmanship, and efficient layout, than most USA brand computers,” says one survey respondent.
To see which desktop PC currently leads in our lab testing, read The Best Desktop Computers for Business in 2026 and The Best Desktop Workstations for 2026.
The Top IT-Managed Desktop PC Brands for 2026
In another marked departure from last year’s results—when Lenovo dominated in this category—the award for IT-managed desktop PCs now goes to Dell. (Lenovo didn’t earn enough responses this year to make the cut.) This is Dell’s first win in the category since 2023, when it shared the award with Apple.
Dell triumphs over HP in every subcategory except reliability, where the brands tie. Still, none of the scores are particularly high; the best rating in the chart is Dell’s 8.4 for ease of use.
“Our transition to the Dell Tower Plus as our standard workstation has been a silver bullet for our IT department,” says one respondent. “The standout experience has been the whisper-quiet thermal performance of the new 120mm fan design. Even when our data scientists push the Intel Core Ultra 9 chips to the limit with local AI models, the acoustics remain a library-level hum.
“We’ve seen a 20% reduction in downtime this year because ProSupport Plus often detects hardware anomalies, like a stuttering fan, and automatically creates a support ticket before the user even notices a performance dip. And the ability to schedule a preventative repair instead of reacting to a crash is a huge win.”
Full Results
The PCMag Business Choice survey for business PCs was in the field from Jan. 26 to July 13, 2026. For more information on how we conduct surveys, read our methodology.
About Our Expert
Eric Griffith
Senior Editor, Features
Experience
I’ve been writing about computers, the internet, and technology professionally since 1992, more than half of that time with PCMag. I arrived at the end of the print era of PC Magazine as a senior writer. I served for a time as managing editor of business coverage before settling back into the features team for the last decade and a half. I write features on all tech topics, plus I handle several special projects, including the Readers’ Choice and Business Choice surveys and yearly coverage of the Best ISPs and Best Gaming ISPs, Best Products of the Year, and Best Brands (plus the Best Brands for Tech Support, Longevity, and Reliability).
I started in tech publishing right out of college, writing and editing stories about hardware and development tools. I migrated to software and hardware coverage for families, and I spent several years exclusively writing about the then-burgeoning technology called Wi-Fi. I was on the founding staff of several magazines, including Windows Sources, FamilyPC, and Access Internet Magazine. All of which are now defunct, and it’s not my fault. I have freelanced for publications as diverse as Sony Style, Playboy.com, and Flux. I got my degree at Ithaca College in, of all things, television/radio. But I minored in writing so I’d have a future.
In my long-lost free time, I wrote some novels, a couple of which are not just on my hard drive: BETA TEST (“an unusually lighthearted apocalyptic tale,” according to Publishers’ Weekly) and a YA book called KALI: THE GHOSTING OF SEPULCHER BAY. Go get them on Kindle.
I work from my home in Ithaca, NY, and did it long before pandemics made it cool.
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