Although Historical research and technology are considered the opposite by many but nowadays many people involved in genealogy rely upon or use laptops for advantage.
As you may know, genealogy is the study of families, their history, and the tracing of their ancestries. It requires verbal interviews to identify historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to get information about a family to indicate the kinship of its members.
Now this research can be made reliable by using modern technology such as laptops. Now finding the best laptop for genealogy can be troublesome because not many are aware of how to choose and from which.
To fill the void, I’ve been reviewing the best laptops for genealogy since 2019 to help genealogists like you.
For 2024, I picked 25 laptops that were perfect for genealogy but later the number decreased to 9 best laptops for genealogy because other laptops had reliability issues.
Being genealogists you must select a laptop that is light in weight so you can carry it easily, also having an Intel Core i5 or AMD Ryzen 5 processor for a wonderful working experience without any sluggish multitasking.
Memory also plays a crucial role in multitasking and web browsing. So, it is better to go for at least 8GB of memory for your genealogy research project.
As a researcher, you need storage from 256GB to 1TB to store your databases, articles, documents, and projects. In terms of hard drives, SSD (Solid-State Drive) is recommended.
Also, It is better to go for the touch screen because it makes the work easy. So, these are certainly important factors that should be kept in mind while choosing a laptop for genealogy.
9 Best Laptops for Genealogy
- Apple 2023 MacBook Air (M2 Chip) – Best Laptop For Genealogy
- Dell XPS 13 (9310) – Best Laptop For Genealogists
- HP Spectre x360 Luxury 14T – Best Convertible Laptop For Daily Research
- LG gram 17Z90Q – Best Laptop To Study Genealogy
- Dell Inspiron 14 Plus 7420 – Budget and Lightweight Laptop
- ASUS ZenBook 13 Ultra-Slim Laptop – Portable Laptop
- Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Titanium Yoga – Best 2 in 1 Laptop For Genealogy
- ASUS VivoBook 15 – Best Windows Laptop for Genealogists
- Microsoft DAG-00001 Surface – Reliable Laptop
Apple 2023 MacBook Air (M2 Chip) – Best Laptop For Genealogy
REASONS TO BUY
- The best option for those who don’t want to spend more on the Pro model
- Lag-free performance because of the M2 chip
- Equipped with 1080p FaceTime HD Camera AND Touch ID
- Bigger display
- Comes with the best battery life
REASONS TO AVOID
- Fewer port options
At Amazon:
Specification of reviewed device is: CPU: Apple M2 Chip | GPU: M2 10-core GPU | Display: 15.3-inch Liquid Retina Display (2880 x 1864), 60Hz | Memory: 8GB RAM | Storage: 256GB SSD | Tested Battery life: 1050 minutes | OS: macOS Ventura 13 | Material: Aluminum | Weight: Approximately 3.2 pounds
The first laptop that is best for genealogy and is lightweight is the 2023 Apple MacBook Air.
As a Genealogist, you have to travel a lot and for that having a laptop with 18 hour battery life and weighs around 3.2 lbs is a blessing.
Yes, you heard right! this Apple MacBook Air lasts for 18 hours in a single charge because of its one of the most efficient CPUs in the world and that is 8-core Apple M2 chip.
This M2 chip is the reason behind MBA’s neck-chilling performance which can enable you to open 20 chrome tabs of the census records, without any lag and other Genealogy software including Ancestry, FamilySearch, RootsMagic, and others.
When it comes to GPU performance, Apple 10-core GPU gives much-improved graphics settings as expected from integrated graphics.
Apple is known for doing something different and that’s why they equipped this laptop with a 1080p FaceTime webcam means you can do video conferences with your clients at ease.
The 2023 MacBook Air comes in two sizes but 15-inch variant is recommended as it delivers more beautiful details with its Liquid Retina display with 2560 × 1600 native resolution at 224 pixels per inch, which supports True Tone technology (which changes the color temperature of the display according to the ambient light), and P3 wide color gamut. In short, it is the best future-proof laptop for someone like you whose database is display-based.
With its 8GB/16GB of RAM that can do everything fast and fluidly, you won’t feel any lag. In day-to-day use, it feels fast and pretty responsive.
The storage consists of 256GB/512GB/1TB SSD. But for genealogists, 256GB is preferred. This amount of storage would be sufficient for storing GEDCOM, Pedigree Charts, Records, and many more.
According to my experience, I noticed that while Apple’s iconic wedge-shaped design is no longer part of this new MacBook Air, it retains its distinguished features, including MagSafe charging, Touch ID, and the scissor-switch keyboard with an upgraded 1080p webcam in addition.
With an affordable price and loaded with so many features, the 2023 MacBook Air is the best laptop for Genealogy.