The Toshiba Tecra C50-B1503 ($699.99) is an SMB laptop with solid components and practical looks at reasonable price. Sometimes you just need a laptop to do the job, and that’s what you’ve got here. It’s not too expensive, and it has the power and battery life to suit many office workers, and for that we award it our Editors’ Choice for laptops for small-to-medium-size business.

Design and Features
The Tecra C50-B1503’s chassis is a very dark gray, almost-black polycarbonate, with a ridged pattern molded into the lid for extra grip. While a bit utilitarian, the look of the laptop is still modern, with some tapering to the front edge. You’ll find a good selection of I/O ports on the sides, including an Ethernet jack, an SD card reader, one USB 2.0 port, two USB 3.0 ports, and a VGA port. There’s also a built-in DVD burner. Wireless connectivity comes by way of 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0, letting you connect to a wide variety of the latest wireless hotspots and smart devices.

The 15.6-inch, 1,366-by-768-resolution LCD is LED-backlit for even lighting, and it has an anti-reflective coating. The resolution might seem limited if you’re setting up a Web development business, but it’s perfectly fine for clerical work in Word and PowerPoint. You won’t find a touch screen on this system, but it ships with Windows 7 Professional pre-loaded, so that’s not too much of an issue. Its Microsoft license covers an install of Windows 8.1 Pro on the same machine, and Toshiba includes a restore DVD if you want to use the newer OS.

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The non-backlit keyboard is comfortable, but has keys that are flatter and more slippery than the one on the Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E431( at Amazon)(Opens in a new window). The space bar is also a bit narrow in proportion to the wide keyboard deck. That deficiency is balanced by the extra convenience of a full 10-key numeric keypad, which the Lenovo E431 and other competitors like the Acer Aspire E5-471G-53XG( at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) and Lenovo Z40($699.00 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) lack.

The system has 4GB of memory and a 500GB, 5,400rpm hard drive. That means it’s slower when you launch programs and reboot the system than newer ultrabooks with solid-state drives (SSDs), but it is plenty fast when everything is loaded and active. The hard drive is free of bloatware, and the only extras are a 30-day trial subscription to Norton Internet Security and a one-month trial for Office 365. The removable battery is a good throwback. It will let you replace the battery with a fresh one once it no longer holds a charge. The system comes with a one-year warranty.

Performance
An Intel Core i5-4210U processor with Intel HD Graphics 4400 helps the Tecra C50-B1503 achieve a score of 2,587 points on the PCMark 8 Work Conventional test, well within striking range of the 2,854 points scored by the Lenovo Z40. Likewise, its multimedia scores are good: 3 minutes 43 seconds on the Handbrake video encoder test, and 5:48 on the Adobe Photoshop CS6 test. This was within a minute of the systems to which we compared the Tecra C50-B1503.

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The system trumps the Lenovo E431 in battery life. The Tecra C50-B15043 lasted an excellent 7 hours 20 minutes on our battery rundown test, while the Lenovo E431 lasted 3:55. The Tecra C50-B15043’s battery life is just about enough to last a full 8-hour workday, and certainly enough to last on a cross-country flight.

Sometimes a well-priced, competent laptop is more attractive than, say, a flashier all-metal ultrabook, particularly if you’re buying several for a small startup. With all-day battery life, a newer processor, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, and business-friendly features like a numeric keypad, the Toshiba Tecra C50-B1503 trumps our former Editors’ Choice, the Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E431. It gives small to medium business a reliable utility player.