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5 Best Laptop For Pentesting in 2023 Reviews | Top Security is a Must!

5 Top Picks

4 Reviewers

30 Hours of Research

24 Options Considered

Do you know what pentesting means? It is penetration testing executed manually or through software. Pentesting is mainly used to identify possible security weaknesses or to test a security policy of an organization. To pentest effectively, you should have the best laptop for pentesting.

5 Top Laptops for Pentesting

[Best Overall]

Thanks to the SSD and the HDD hard drive, you will be astonished by the fast speed of this kind of laptop. What makes this Acer laptop different is its ability to be up and running in seconds. 

5.0/5

  • Adequate speakers
  • Good battery life
  • Nice touchpad and backlit keyboard

[Best for the Money]

Its name indicates its unique feature. If the previous laptop, as we said, is not much appropriate for gamers, there are no gaming laptops under $1000 better than this Lenovo one.

4.9/5

  • Nice viewing angles
  • Good brightness and battery life
  • Lightweight

[Best for the Excellent Brightness]

The particular function that you are going to like this “friend” is its automatic brightness. It will be automatically adjusted from low to high mode or vice versa, depending on your places.


4.8/5

  • Easy fingerprint reader
  • Nice keyboard and touchpad
  • Easy connectivity

It is undeniable that this Zenbook 13 has a fast performance that helps you easily handle a variety of works on plenty of applications or tabs at once. It means you could save more time and quickly complete your tasks.

4.7/5

  • Convenient to multitask
  • Colorful display
  • Robust battery life

With the appearance of touch ID, you are able to login to the new Macbook directly just within 10 seconds. Even you could make secure online purchases via Apple Pay.

4.6/5

  • Nice looking machine
  • Fast performance
  • Remarkable graphics

This review will help you deal with your problems.

Best Laptop for Pentesting Reviews

Below is the list of 5 ideal laptops for penetration testing. Let’s dig deep to find out which one is best for you.

[Best Overall]

5/5

First of all, we introduce you to one of the best laptops for pentesting that may blow your mind. Can you guess what it is? That is, without a doubt, Acer Aspire 5 Slim Laptop. Have you ever heard of this name before? Yet? So, we will tell you more about this PC right now.

Thanks to the SSD and the HDD hard drive, you will be astonished by the fast speed of this kind of laptop. What makes this Acer laptop different is its ability to be up and running in seconds. Even when you are downloading large files, you don’t have to wait for minutes anymore.

Another point is that this laptop has ample storage for use, namely up to 8 GB DDR4, and the hard drive is up to 256 GB Flash Memory Solid State. It means that you can feel free to perform any tasks you want without worries about being out of storage, of course, unless you download or accumulate too many files or datum.

Also, this laptop is suitable for graphic designers, photographers, and programming students. With the 15.6" Full HD(1920 x 1080) IPS screen, the HD Webcam (1280 x 720) and an 8th Gen Intel Core i5 processor, you can use VLC to play three HD videos at once with no issues. With a beautiful display, you only need to use about half of the CPU power.

 Acer Aspire 5

Pros

  • Value for money
  • Easy to open the case
  • Adequate speakers
  • Good battery life
  • Nice touchpad and backlit keyboard

Cons

  • The fans are pretty loud when running

The Final Verdict:

This Acer Aspire 5 Slim Laptop is the best laptop for pentesting without doubt, despite many minor drawbacks. If you want to have a fast activated PC this is the one for you. But if you prefer the laptop for gameplay you can find another superior model on the market.

[Best For The Money]

4.9/5

The second best laptop for pentesting is Lenovo Ideapad L340 Gaming Laptop. Its name indicates its unique feature. If the previous laptop, as we said, is not much appropriate for gamers, there are no gaming laptops under $1000 better than this Lenovo one.

The different point of this laptop is its high-quality performance. Because the main object of this Lenovo is to design for gamers, the GTX 1650 can handle a large variety of games, though the most graphics-intensive games will need medium to low settings.

Besides, because of being the ideal laptop for gameplay, this Lenovo has long-lasting battery life. This characteristic enables you to play more favorite games for hours freely. This “guy” runs relatively cool as well, and rarely goes into an overheating mode.

The hinge of this PC is strong enough to bend to 180 degrees. This feature helps you comfortably watch a video in the bed or do anything anywhere else. The device is designed to be good-looking thin laptop and easy to carry around.

 Lenovo Ideapad L340 Gaming Laptop

Pros

  • Nice viewing angles
  • Best laptop for gamers
  • Good brightness and battery life
  • Lightweight

Cons

  • Kind of an awkward trackpad

The Final Verdict:

We hardly doubt you can get any laptop better than this Lenovo, especially for the game field. If you are a gamer, and all the while in need of a device for pentesting, you had better opt for this laptop without hesitation.

[Best For The Excellent Brightness]

4.8/5

The third best laptop for pentesting is this “lovely guy”- Microsoft Surface Laptop 3. Are you curious about the reason why we recommend this laptop for you? Well, it is not hard to explain.

The particular function that you are going to like this “friend” is its automatic brightness. Have you ever been in trouble with changing your laptop’s brightness whenever moving to other areas? If you choose this type of PC, the brightness of this laptop will be automatically adjusted from low to high mode or vice versa, depending on your places.

When it comes to connection, there are more ways to get access to this Microsoft laptop, namely with USB-C and USB-A ports for connecting to displays, accessory charging and docking stations.

In addition, the battery life of this product is robust enough for you to deal with multitasking for many hours per day. More than that, you could recharge this type of laptop up to 80% in about one hour. Amazing, right?

On top of that, this invention is a type of touchscreen laptop. In other words, if you don’t like typing or texting on the screen, you can write or draw anything you want on that touchscreen. That’s so convenient.

 Microsoft Surface Laptop 3

Pros

  • Excellent brightness
  • Easy fingerprint reader
  • Nice keyboard and touchpad
  • Good touchscreen
  • Easy connectivity

Cons

  • Expensive

The Final Verdict:

If this Microsoft laptop possesses your desired features and you are affordable to this “guy,” why don’t you give it a try? But if it doesn’t, you should refer to the next product.

We bet that you must have known about the ASUS brand of laptop at least one time. So, have you ever seen the above picture of this laptop, ASUS ZenBook 13 Ultra Slim Laptop? Maybe this laptop is what you need now.

It is undeniable that this Zenbook 13 has a fast performance that helps you easily handle a variety of works on plenty of applications or tabs at once. It means you could save more time and quickly complete your tasks.

We assure you that this new laptop will not let you down due to its high technology. Not only does this PC have useful specs but also an advanced number pad. When you tap the icon at the top right on the touchpad, a numeric keypad appears, and if you tap again, it will return to normal touchpad mode.

Thanks to being a lightweight laptop, but very sturdy, you don’t have to worry about various movements of this laptop. And with the 3D IR camera and facial recognition, you don't need to login by typing anymore.

 ASUS ZenBook 13

Pros

  • Convenient to multitask
  • Colorful display
  • Fast speed
  • Robust battery life
  • Breathtaking performance

Cons

  • Weird keyboard layout makes you pretty hard to type

The Final Verdict:

This ASUS ZenBook 13 Ultra Slim Laptop is versatile without a doubt, isn’t it? Although this product is kinda unaffordable to many people, its advanced technology highly attracts you from the very first sight. What are you waiting for? Those trivial matters don't concern the superior benefit it provides.

We guess you are familiar with the Apple Macbook brand, aren’t you? Perhaps in the past, you admired many people who owned one Macbook. Therefore, why not purchase yourself this New Apple MacBook Pro to make others admire you instead?

With the appearance of touch ID, you are able to login to the new Macbook directly just within 10 seconds. Even you could make secure online purchases via Apple Pay.

Furthermore, this Macbook also has great performance and portability like the above products. With 9Th-generation 8-Core Intel Core i9 Processor, you will get faster, namely SSD read speed is up to 3.2GB/s. That’s how effective it is to multitask.

With 32GB DDR4 memory, this Mac enables you to work with large files, run multiple apps or virtual machines. That’s why this new Mac provides you the peace of mind about a stable memory.

The new Mac is equipped with an Apple T2 security chip. This is the second-generation custom Mac silicon that brings you more security. This chip brings you a featured voice, Hey Siri, to answer your questions, open files, document, websites as you wish.

 Apple MacBook Pro

Pros

  • Nice looking machine
  • Fast performance
  • Remarkable graphics
  • Great sound
  • Sharp resolution
  • Large screen size

Cons

  • Sometimes overheating

The Final Verdict:

Well, does this final product meet your demands yet? You can see that these benefits outnumber significantly the disadvantages. Hence, opting for this new Macbook is the right choice for you.

How to Get the Best Laptop for Pentesting?

To get the best laptop for pentesting, it is necessary to consider many essential factors as follows.

1. Performance

One of the most vital elements you need to notice is the performance of the laptop for pentesting. In general, at least you need a laptop that has an i5 processor for penetration testing. However, it would be much better if it had its own i7 processor because it can make a big improvement.

The cause is that these i7 processors with adequate and high-quality core make sure that your pentesting works well. If you are on a tight budget, a laptop with an i5 processor is OK. If you have enough money, an i7 laptop is recommended since it will give you stable battery life.

putting ram card into a laptop


2. Graphics Card

Many people usually pass this factor when buying the best laptop for pentesting. But they are wrong. It is essential that you check out the graphics card. Nvidia card is the dominator of the laptop industry and you can get the best of it.

3. Storage

It goes without saying that different people require different storage. Nonetheless, we recommend that at least you must have the storage of 250GB. You may already know that SSD is highly advised to laptop buyers. Or else, if you can’t afford that, the HDD is accepted, too.

If you opt for SDD, you can obtain a rapid boot-up. In contrast, HDD will come with a bit lower one. There are several laptops with various hard drives as well. If you go for this choice, please assure the weight and battery runtime of the laptop.

4. Wi-fi

Besides, you could make a wi-fi chip requirement for monitoring and infection. If you have a right wi-fi support card, why not find another external support?

modem for wifi


5. Price

Last but not least, budget is always a crucial factor that can not be ignored. Even though you are the one who has the right to decide, we suggest you opt for an average-priced laptop with standard features. If you opt for a more expensive one with high-quality features, nothing would be better than that.

6. High SSD and RAM Storage Capacity

Working with a ton of complex security software that demands a laptop with lots of storage is a requirement for getting a career in cyber security. For pentesting needs, laptops with SSD sizes between 256GB and 512GB are ideal. In order to boost capacity, you can also choose laptops with external storage connections and other features.

7. Battery

Processing-intensive applications like ethical hacking and cyber security software demand a lot from your laptop. A decent pentesting laptop must have a long average battery life so you may use it continuously with just one charge. A strong battery in the ideal laptop helps prevent overheating. A laptop with an integrated thermal design and cooling fan system is something else you ought to buy.

8. High Definition Screen Resolution

Another crucial aspect to consider when selecting a laptop for pentesting is a high-definition screen quality. For programming and testing, an HD screen is a necessary component. Additionally, you can select laptops with large displays that measure between 14 and 17 inches.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What are the different types of pentesting?

There are four types of pentesting, namely:

  • Applications
  • Networks and infrastructure
  • Physical security and social engineering
  • Red teaming

2. How much does pentesting cost?

Actually there is no overall price for a pentest. A superior provider will supply free advice to know more about an organization’s targets and determine a threat model before providing a quote.

3. What should I need to do to prevent troubles when pentesting?

To be more specific, you should follow our instructions to avoid mistakes when proceeding with a pentest.

  • Choose the right provider.
  • Have an information security mindset.
  • Keep away from complacency.

4. How much RAM do I need for pentesting?

How much RAM will I need to do a penetration test. There is no required minimum for RAM, but the more you have, the more you can do at once, especially when running applications and virtual machines (VMs).

Final Call

In the end, we finish a detailed but beneficial review about the top 5 ideal laptops for penetration testing.

Now, after these mentioned instructions, you did select your best laptop for pentesting as you wish, didn’t you? We hope that you will feel satisfied with your pick.

Leave your comments into the box below if you have any questions and we will respond to them as soon as possible to assist you further. Good luck!

About Dusan Stanar

I'm the founder of VSS Monitoring. I have been both writing and working in technology in a number of roles for dozens of years and wanted to bring my experience online to make it publicly available. Visit https://www.vssmonitoring.com/about-us/ to read more about myself and the rest of the team.