The 5 Best Thunderbolt 3 Laptops Reviewed
Are you looking for the best Thunderbolt 3 laptops? Then look no further than this guide which presents you with the top five Thunderbolt 3 laptops to meet your needs. Whether you require a Thunderbolt 3 laptop for work or pleasure, this guide is here to help you make that informed choice. The guide will take you through our top 5.
Purchasing a Thunderbolt laptop is a great way of ensuring you have flexibility as the Thunderbolt ports allow you to make use of an excellent range of external hard drives, the option to use the best mice and keyboards on the market and you also have the option to add an additional monitor for working on several screens at once. The ports will allow you to use 4k monitors too.
Ideal for photographers, for editing videos, or other professionals who require a multi-screen set up and fast transfer of files or images. Thunderbolt ports have the added benefit of being extremely fast. With the Thunderbolt ports you can achieve incredible speeds of up to four times faster than a standard USB port. This is an important feature for yourself and for businesses to cut down on time spent waiting for files or images to be transferred.
Below you will find the benefits of each of the best Thunderbolt 3 laptops, detailing the specifications, design, and price. Let’s get into the specifics of each of these starting with the Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch…
Best Thunderbolt 3 Laptops
1. Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch
Leading the way is the Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch. Innovation is one of the key traits of all Apple products and having Thunderbolt ports is no exception with Apple choosing to use these first, ahead of all the competition. The Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch is our favorite. It was the first to use the Thunderbolt port, it is ultra-thin making it portable, it is light weight again it is easily transported and let us be honest it is a thing of beauty! The Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch is a delight to use, it has all the latest, up-to-date, fastest components at your fingertips including amazing sound and a sleek keyboard that has been improved for greater ease of use. The battery life of the Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch Thunderbolt laptop has been increased by a 100-watt-hour battery meaning it lasts longer than previous models. This is ideal for those who work on the go and need a battery that will last longer.
If you are looking for great sound, then the Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch has great speakers with excellent sound quality. The screen is an impressive 16-inches with an excellent quality resolution with a density of pixels at 226. As well as the excellent resolution, the whole design and display are stunning. With the new bezels that surround the screen, they have been able to offer a larger screen than previous models. This is an excellent design feature. They have not left anything to chance with the Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch Thunderbolt laptop.
The keyboard is also a thing of beauty. The Magic Keyboard is a welcome addition. This means your fingers glide over the keys; they are responsive and do not stick as with previous models. The feedback from customers also asked for a Touch Bar that was shorter and an Esc key. These have now been incorporated into the Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch Thunderbolt laptop.
No Apple product would be complete without the Touch ID button. This allows the user to log into the Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch or to make Apple Pay transactions. This button is now easier to find on the Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch Thunderbolt laptop.
Another small change has been the directional keys on the keyboard. They are now back where they belong, in the original T shape again. While some of these changes may be small, added together they make up a Thunderbolt laptop that is a pleasure to use. Never underestimate these small changes as it shows that Apple is listening to consumers.
- Ninth-generation 6-Core Intel Core i7 Processor
- Stunning 16-inch Retina Display with True Tone technology
- Touch Bar and Touch ID
- AMD Radeon Pro 5300M Graphics with GDDR6 memory
- Ultrafast SSD
2. Dell XPS 15
Next on our list is the Dell XPS 15 Thunderbolt laptop. The Dell XPS 15 gives you three Thunderbolt 3 ports for use. It also has an SD card reader as well as a jack for headphones. The Dell XPS 15 is a pretty fast Thunderbolt laptop and does look extremely good too. It runs Windows 10 and has a 15-inch screen. It boosts the most up-to-date offering from Intel with its 10th generation core and Intel Iris Graphics which are extremely powerful.
The perfect Thunderbolt laptop for everyday use as well as for editing videos and graphics and it is powerful enough for those interested in gaming too. The Dell XPS 15 Thunderbolt laptop has great sound quality too. This gives you an excellent media experience for whatever you are using it for. The resolution on the screen is top class with a color display that is bright and clear and is ideal for watching movies or working on graphics. You will not be disappointed in the Dell XPS 15 overall look. It is thin, it is light, and the sound quality is excellent. One of the best models for those who prefer Windows.
- 62 percent larger touchpad, 5 percent larger screen, and 5.6 percent smaller footprint
- 16:10 FHD plus edge to edge display equipped with DisplayHDR 400 and Dolby Vision
- Integrated Eyesafe display technology
- Quad speaker design with Waves Nx audio
- High-polished diamond-cut sidewalls
3. Apple MacBook Pro with Apple M1 Chip 13-inch
Apple makes another entry in to your top 5 best Thunderbolt laptops of 2021 with the Apple MacBook Pro with Apple M1 Chip 13-inch. A great Thunderbolt laptop as an entry level with 4 Thunderbolt ports as well as an audio jack port. This is great for an entry level Thunderbolt laptop. The Apple MacBook Pro with Apple M1 Chip 13-inch contains Intel processors making it a powerful beast. This means you do not have to compromise on the MHz because this model is fast and powerful. The graphics will not let you down either with the improved graphics. It has a 13-inch screen and is light weight and sleek.
The Apple MacBook Pro with Apple M1 Chip 13-inch also boasts the new and better performing Magic Keyboard. The new keyboard is a welcome addition as it gives a better performance when typing. Added in to the mix is that the Apple MacBook Pro with Apple M1 Chip 13-inch also has a battery which allows for a longer run time, with the M1 Chip giving this Thunderbolt laptop a faster performance too. This model of Thunderbolt laptop has the same design and sleekness as you would expect with Apple laptops. There is no doubt that these improved specifications make this a great buy.
- Apple-designed M1 chip for a giant leap in CPU, GPU, and machine learning performance
- Get more done with up to 20 hours of battery life, the longest ever in a Mac
- 8-core CPU delivers up to 2.8x faster performance to fly through workflows quicker than ever
- 8-core GPU with up to 5x faster graphics for graphics-intensive apps and games
- 16-core Neural Engine for advanced machine learning
4. ASUS ZenBook S
Number 4 on our list of the best Thunderbolt laptops is the ASUS ZenBook S. The ASUS ZenBook S is another stunningly beautiful laptop. It is lightweight at only 2.3 pounds, and the thickness is only 0.5 inches. The ASUS ZenBook S has Thunderbolt ports, and the latest 8th Generation Intel Core processor. An interesting and unique feature of the ASUS ZenBook S is the ErogLift hinge. This little device allows for the keyboard to be at a different angle to normal keyboards.
It has been suggested that this 5.5-degree angle of the keyboard allows for a more comfortable typing experience or a more ergonomic way of typing. The ErgoLift hinge also allows the user to angle the laptop to make better use of the speakers. This is especially helpful as the sound quality is excellent coming from the ASUS ZenBook S Thunderbolt laptop. This Thunderbolt laptop is perfect for those who prefer a screen that has little or no border. The ASUS ZenBook S is the perfect choice for those looking for a Thunderbolt Ultrabook which contains the latest Intel Core processor, Intel HD Graphics, and excellent storage capacity.
- Crafted from premium aerospace-grade aluminum to create a Unibody all metal finish that is less than 0.5 inch thin, weighs only 2.2 lbs
- Latest Intel 8th Gen Core i7-8550U Processor 8M Cache, up to 4.00 GHz, cooled by copper-alloy heat pipe and liquid-crystal-polymer fan.
- 14” Full HD display that supports Stylus, 300Nits brightness with 178° viewing angles and 85% Screen to body ratio NanoEdge bezel
- 8GB LPDDR3 2133MHz RAM, 256GB SSD, 802.11ac WiFi, Bluetooth 4.1, Latest Thunderbolt 3-enabled USB 3.1 Type C
- Exclusive ErgoLift hinge automatically tilts the keyboard to the most comfortable typing position. Backlit Keyboard.
5. Apple MacBook Air
Apple makes a third appearance in our list of the best Thunderbolt laptops and there is a good reason for this entry. The Apple MacBook Air is the most affordable of the Apple Thunderbolt laptop entries in this guide. The Apple MacBook Air has the Thunderbolt ports you require as well as the 10th generation processor and the new and improved keyboard. The Intel Iris Plus Graphics is also a welcome addition for those professionals working with images and graphics.
The Thunderbolt Apple MacBook Air does is of course the lightest and thinnest Apple model. It has a wonderful array of powerful additions including components and storage space which makes this a great Thunderbolt laptop choice. It is sleek and impressive with its 3 Thunderbolt ports.
The Apple MacBook Air comes with 16GB of RAM, ideal for all your needs. This upgrade from the last model does not impact upon the sleek, thin design of the Apple MacBook Air which we all know and love. The build quality of the Apple MacBook Air remains top quality and it certainly is a Thunderbolt laptop that you can easily carry around with you, wherever you go.
- All-Day Battery Life – Go longer than ever with up to 18 hours of battery life.
- Powerful Performance – Take on everything from professional-quality editing to action-packed gaming with ease. The Apple M1 chip with an 8-core CPU delivers up to 3.5x faster performance than the previous generation while using way less power.
- Superfast Memory – 8GB of unified memory makes your entire system speedy and responsive. That way it can support tasks like memory-hogging multitab browsing and opening a huge graphic file quickly and easily.
- Stunning Display – With a 13.3 inch Retina display, images come alive with new levels of realism. Text is sharp and clear, and colors are more vibrant.
- Why Mac – Easy to learn. Easy to set up. Astoundingly powerful. Intuitive. Packed with apps to use right out of the box. Mac is designed to let you work, play, and create like never before.