Best Laptop For Kali Linux
Laptops for Kali Linux are not exactly like other normal laptops. We are considering to buy a laptop for Kali Linux it should help in penetration testing and programming works.
As we all know Kali is a powerful Debian based Linux distribution so it doesn't need so much extra features but some things should be inside the box. Because Kali is made for ethical hackers.
Kali is now (after 2019.4 update) with Xfce4 Desktop Environment and it is very lightweight that can be run with 2GB RAM & 20 GB disk space only, and can run with older laptops also. But who doesn't want a modern laptop in 2022?
Premium Laptops
| Sl No. | Laptop | Best for | Buy |
| 1 | Razer Blade Stealth 13 | High Performance for Kali | Buy on Amazon |
| 2 | Apple MacBook Pro 2020 | Premium and Best Performance | Buy on Amazon |
| 3 | Lenovo Legion 5 | Best Value for Money | Buy on Amazon |
| 4 | Apple MacBook Air | Best for Beginners | Buy on Amazon |
| 5 | Sony Vaio SX14 | Very compatible with Linux | Buy on Amazon |
| 5 | ASUS TUF VR Gaming | High Performance Graphics Card | Buy on Amazon |
| 7 | ASUS ROG Strix G15 | Gaming and Programming | Buy on Amazon |
| 8 | Dell XPS 13 | Portable with Power | Buy on Amazon |
Budget
Laptops
| Sl No. | Laptop | Best for | Buy |
| 9 | Lenovo ThinkPad E15 | Best Performance Laptop in Budget | Buy on Amazon |
| 10 | Dell Inspiron 14 inch Laptop | Best Value for Money | Buy on Amazon |
| 11 | Asus VivoBook 15 | Best Beginner Friendly | Buy on Amazon |
| 12 | Acer Aspire 5 | Best for Students | Buy on Amazon |
| 13 | Acer Swift 3 | Good Battery Backup | Buy on Amazon |
| 14 | GPD Micro PC | Ultra Portable for Red Teaming | Buy on Amazon |
| 15 | Lenovo IdeaPad S150 | Pocket Friendly | Buy on Amazon |
Premium Laptops
Razor Blade Stealth 13
When we use Kali Linux on this laptop this will provide us the best experience. This ultrabook powered with Intel i7 8th generation processor. This is very portable with its 13.3 inch display and tiny form factor. We also get 16GB RAM (that is huge) and a Full-HD display with it. Installing Kali on it will help for programming and cybersecurity auditing.
Build quality of this laptop is good. It comes with aluminum metal body. The chroma keyboard is also comes with very premium quality and a RGB backlit. To run commands and do programming tasks we always need a good keyboard. Glass touchpad is also good.
Battery life is also very good it usually gives around 10 hours+ battery backup on a normal day and cybersecurity tasks. So we can use it whole day without charging.
We got a Thunderbolt 3 port in connectivity and also got USB A ports and USB C port. So this doesn't compromised with connectivity options.
Specifications:
- Quad core 8th Gen Intel Core i7 8565U Processor at 1.8 GHz ( 4.6 GHz on overclocked ).
- 8GB dual channel RAM (2133 MHz).
- NVIDIA MX150 Graphics Card with 4GB GDDR5 VRAM.
- 256GB SSD drive.
- Battery backup is more than 10 hours.
- 13.3 Inch Display.
- Great Key Board.
Pros:
- Best Laptop for installing Kali Linux as a Primary OS.
- Best keyboard.
- Good battery life.
- Display is good.
- Looks so premium.
- Perfect for a cybersecurity guy who runs Kali Linux, as Mr. Robot uses this on season 4.
Cons:
- 8th Gen processor.
- Expensive Machine.
Final Thoughts
Razer has a good reputation for building premium laptops. This Razer Blade Stealth 13 comes with 8th Gen processor which is not fast like newer 10th Gen processors but this laptop gives good performance and portability. Lightweight laptop for on-the-go situations.
Apple MacBook Pro
It comes with new super powerful M1 processor. This processor is also made by Apple so the optimization is superb. 8GB RAM and 512GB SSD storage will give us a lighting speed. Performance wise it is one of the best productivity laptop in market.
Build quality of this laptop is also superb, it comes with aluminum metal body which gives it very high durability. Apple has discontinued the Butterfly keyboard and the new magic keyboard (upgraded version of scissor keyboard) is awesome. This backlit keyboard will help us to typing commands and programming even in low light. Touchpad is also very good.
Talking about battery life it's great its run's 20+ hour for browsing and programming and normal day tasks.
Specification:
- 8 Core Apple-designed M1 processor.
- 8-core CPU delivers up to 2.8x faster performance and 5x faster graphics.
- 8 GB RAM and 512 GB Ultra
- Brilliant Retina display with True Tone technology.
- Backlit Magic Keyboard.
- Touch Bar and TouchID.
- Intel Iris Plus Graphics card.
- Ultrafast SSD.
- Four Thunderbolt 3 (USB Type C) ports.
- Upto 20 hours+ battery backup.
- 802.11ac WiFi.
- Force Touch track-pad.
Pros:
- Awesome performance (probably best in the world).
- Great display.
- 20+ hour battery life (16+ hour on our testing).
- Very Portable.
- Good silent keyboard.
- Powerful speakers.
- Ultra-fast Type C Thunderbolt USB ports.
Cons:
- Expensive.
- No microSD slot.
- Processor and RAM are soldered with the motherboard and can't be replace or upgrade.
- No "MagSafe" power connector like older Mac Books.
Final Thoughts
MacBook is always a great option for productivity works also for cybersecurity. Awesome performance. MacBook can get the top position in this list but it is so much expensive when we are talking about running Kali Linux. One more thing this is really expensive, but when we use it we will know why it is so expensive.
Lenovo Legion 5
Legion series is a flagship series of Lenovo. This Legion 5 laptop gives an awesome performance with it's AMD Ryzen 7 4800H Processor with 8 ultra-responsive cores. This is s gaming laptop so its performance will be very top notch. We got 16GB DDR4 RAM (3200MHz) which makes our multitasking faster. Also we got a 512GB Solid State Drive, now we all know SSD's are very faster then normal HDD.
We also got NVIDIA GTX 1660Ti graphics card with this laptop. 1660Ti is very good when it's on a laptop. This type of high-performance graphics card will help not only gaming. During penetration testing jobs with Kali Linux these kind of high performance graphics card will help us to boost the speed of brute force. We can get the ultimate speed in password or hash cracking.
Legion 5 comes with 15.6 inch Full HD IPS display with 144 Hz refresh rate. Display is very good. If we need a standard size display then we can go for it. Legion 5 is good but with this bigger size display and big graphics card it is not so much portable like the ultrabooks.
Build quality of this laptop is good, cooling system is really cool. Legion 5 also comes with rapid charge which will charge it from 0-50% in just 30 minutes. 720P HD webcam with privacy shutter will make our privacy safer.
Specifications:
- Octa-core AMD Ryzen 7 4800H Processor.
- 16GB DDR4 RAM (3200MHz).
- NVIDIA GTX 1660Ti Graphics Card.
- 512 GB M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD ultra fast storage.
- 15.6 inch Full HD display (1920x1080) with 144Hz refresh rate.
- Rapid Charge.
- Legion TrueStrike keyboard with soft-landing switches.
Pros:
- Good processing unit.
- 1660Ti Graphics Card is provides high performance.
- Compared to specification price is really good.
- 144Hz refresh rate display.
Cons:
- Battery is below average because of its high power consuming graphics card.
- In comparison to other gaming laptop it is slim and portable but not much when we compare it with productivity ultrabooks.
- Display is only Full HD (no 4K).
Final Thoughts
At this price point this can be considered as good laptop. The GTX 1660Ti graphics card makes its performance better but also 1660Ti is power consuming. If our work is mostly inside home and we have a tight budget then we can consider this laptop. This will be a good choice.
Apple MacBook Air
MacBook Air is now available with Apple's fastest M1 processor. Because from the processor to OS everything is made by Apple so the optimization is ultra superb.
Durability and performance of MacBook Air is outstanding with its metal body. It's comes all new ultra fast octa-core M1 processor, which is 3.5X faster then it's older variant. 8GB RAM and SSD (256GB/512GB).
The new M1 chip set on MacBook is awesome. They are super fast and very good optimized so we can see super stability. 8 core GPU also gives 5X faster graphics performance.
13.3 inch retina display is looks so bright and the True Tone technology makes the display out of the world. Because of its form factor MacBook Air is very portable. Look is smart, stylish and slim. Battery life is also very long lasting. Apple promised an 16+ hours battery life, but in our daily life uses we had noticed 13 to 14 hours battery backup.
Specifications:
- Octa-core Apple M1Processor.
- 8 core GPU provides 5X faster graphics processing.
- 8 GB RAM.
- 512 GB SSD.
- 13.3 inch retina display with 4 million pixels.
- All-day battery life (14+ hour in our hand).
Pros:
- Super stability and performance with M1 chip.
- Lightweight and portable.
- Very fast speed.
- Good keyboard (same as MacBook Pro).
- 14+ hours battery.
Cons:
- It doesn't have any HDMI ports. We got only 2 thunderbolt USB Type C ports and they are selling bunch of adapters separately.
- We can't upgrade ant hardware.
- It can't play heavy games (even MacBook pro can't), because MacBook is not built for gaming.
Final Thoughts
MacBook Air is really good for programming and cybersecurity jobs. The new M1 chips are really awesome. This laptop is really very portable we can use it any where and carry it with us. At this price point MacBook Air will be a good choice to run Kali.
Sony VAIO SX14
VAIO laptops from Sony are known for their smooth experiences and
good performance. Sony back in the laptop market after long time. Vaio
laptops are very compatible with all kind of Linux distros as well as
Kali Linux. It has a Intel Core i7-10710U CPU. It also have 16GB DDR3
RAM which makes multitasking very faster. 512GB PCIe SSD is really
faster and store a lots of stuffs.
good performance. Sony back in the laptop market after long time. Vaio
laptops are very compatible with all kind of Linux distros as well as
Kali Linux. It has a Intel Core i7-10710U CPU. It also have 16GB DDR3
RAM which makes multitasking very faster. 512GB PCIe SSD is really
faster and store a lots of stuffs.
Build
quality in Vaio series is also very good. Feels premium in look and
feel.The backlit keyboard will help is to type in the dark.
quality in Vaio series is also very good. Feels premium in look and
feel.The backlit keyboard will help is to type in the dark.
This laptop comes with 14 inch display which makes it very portable. Battery life is not so good.
Specifications:
- Intel Core i7-10710U processor.
- 16 GB DDR3 RAM.
- 512 GB PCIe SSD.
- 14 inch 4K display.
- USB C port, HDMI port, VGA, LAN port, USB A 3.0, MicroSD slots are available.
Pros:
- Very compatible with All kind of Linux.
- Intel 10th Gen Processor.
- RAM and processors are optimized.
- Good built quality.
- Backlit keyboard.
- 4K display.
Cons:
- Avarage Battery life.
- DDR3 RAMs are outdated now.
Final Thoughts
Sony Vaio always a good choice for Linux users. Although DDR3 RAMs are older but we don't see any performance issue. The hardwares are well optimized. We can consider this laptop if we are installting Kali as main OS. Battery quality should be better.
Asus TUF VR Gaming
Asus TUF series is popularly known for their gaming experiences then why we listed it here? Because of gaming laptops are giving high level performances which will provide us faster experience in all tasks. This laptop powered with Octa-core AMD Ryzen 7 4000 series(this can beat 10th Gen Intel Core i7-10750H) 4.20 GHz. 8 cores and 16 threads gives us the maximum power when we do any CPU heavy tasks.
NVIDIA RTX 2060 graphics card is a beast on laptop, this will provides the power during brute-force or dictionary based attack. We can brute-force passwords hashes very faster. Using Kali Linux on it will be beneficial for us. 8GB RAM & 512GB SSD makes it much faster in our tasks. Although it is available in 16GB and 32GB RAM variants.
Asus TUF VR comes with a 15.6 inch Full-HD IPS display. Display quality is average and it comes with 60Hz refresh rate. Refresh rate is quite below at this price point.
The build quality of this laptop is not so bad and it's quite heavier to carry all the places. We know that it carries a RTX 2060 laptop, and it can't be lightweight for this heavy GPU and cooling system. It have lots of air vents and good cooling system to keep it cool.
Specifications:
- AMD Ryzen 7 4000 series processor with 8 core and 16 threads.
- 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD.
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 graphics card.
- RGB backlit keyboard.
- Virtual reality hardware and software running compatibility.
Pros:
- High performance latest CPU.
- High performance GPU, RTX 2060 is more than enough for a laptop.
- Good cooling system.
- Good for cracking password hashes.
Cons:
- Display is average.
- Built quality is cheap.
- 60 Hz refresh rate is low at this price.
- No thunderbolt port.
Final Thoughts
This laptop is performs really good. It is able to run Kali Linux very smoothly even in VMware, breaking the hashes will be super fast in primary installation of Kali. This laptop is going to be not much portable. The build quality is not so good for this price.
ASUS ROG Strix G15
ROG laptops are known for their gaming experiences and good performance. ASUS ROG Strix 15 has hexa-Core Intel i710th Generation processor provides us the ultimate performance in 2.60GHz, this can be boosted up to 5.00 GHz. It also have 32GB DDR4 RAM which makes multitasking very faster. 512GB PCIe SSD is really faster and store a lots of stuffs.
It also have a big GPU. ROG Strix G15 contains NVIDIA GTX 1650 Ti. Now good graphics cards helps us to faster process when we are performing brute-force attacks in Kali Linux.
Build quality in ROG series is also very good. Feels premium in look and feel. The ROG logo is on RGB which gives "out of the world" feeling.
Display is 15.6 inch in size but the quality of display is very good. This display comes with Full-HD (1920x1080), refresh rate is 144 MHz. At this price point 144MHz display is more than enough.
Keyboard is very good. Keystrokes are perfect and long lasting keys. Also it comes with RGB. That means typing in dark will be more fun.
Specifications:
- Intel Core i7-10750H 2.60GHz Processor.
- 512GB PCIe SSD.
- 16GB DDR4 SO-DIMM RAM.
- NVIDIA GTX 1650 Ti 4GB GDDR6 Graphics.
- Wi-Fi 6 AX201 WiFi, Bluetooth 5.0, Ethernet LAN (RJ-45).
- RGB Backlit Keyboard.
- 15.6" Full HD (1920x1080) 144Hz Refresh Rate Display.
Pros:
- Very good display.
- Awesome looks.
- Good performance.
- Nice keyboard.
Cons:
- Quite heavy and not much portable.
- Battery life is average.
- Audio quality is not so good.
Final Thoughts
This laptop is really very heavy and we can't use it as a "lap top" for a long time. Not much portable but it's performance is really awesome. Battery life could be batter. If we need a laptop for all-round performance then we can consider it.
Dell XPS 13
Dell XPS 13 can be consider for its strong performance with portable option, this is Dell's smallest 13 inch laptop. The best thing of this laptop that it has very this bezel and 13.3 inch display that makes this laptop a good laptop for on-the-go.
We also can't underestimate power, XPS 13 comes with latest 10th generation Hexa-core i7 1065G7 processor. This laptop comes with 16 GB RAM which is more then enough to run Kali Linux, this will help a lot in multitasking. 512 GB Solid State Drive (SSD) helps us to do every tasks faster and don't let run our storage.
Build quality of this laptop is awesome, this laptop is cut from a single block of aluminum which gives it stunning strength and durability. It's very thin bezel makes it 11 inch from factor with 13.3 inch display.
XPS 13 is have done a grate job in display section. It have a 4K Ultra HD display (3840x2160 resolution) with an IPS panel. This also offers a touch screen display with InfinityEdge technology.
Backlit keyboards are also very smooth and gives a premium experience while typing. Also have very good long-lasting battery which gives a all-day service.
Specifications:
- 10th Generation Intel Core i7-1065G7 Processor (8MB Cache, up to 3.9 GHz).
- Display 13.4" 16:10 UHD+ WLED Touch Display (3840 x 2400).
- 16 GB RAM 3733MHz LPDDR4x Memory Onboard.
- 512 GB SSD.
- 2 Thunderbolt 3 ports, one microSD slot, a 3.5mm port.
Pros:
- Latest fast processor.
- 32 GB RAM.
- 1 TB SSD.
- Good quality backlit keyboards.
- 4K very good quality display.
- Very portable
Cons:
- Doesn't have USB A port, we need dock and adapters for connectivity.
- Windows 10 inside it comes with some extra apps pre-installed like, Netflix, Farm Heroes Saga and Candy Crush Saga.
Final Thoughts
Dell XPS 13 is tiny beast with portable features. Probably this is the best ultrabook to run Kali Linux or other Linux Operating system. This laptop have a long all-day battery. But this is expensive. Good GPU will improve the performance. Battery backup and keyboard quality are also top notch.
Budget Laptops
Lenovo ThinkPad E15
This Lenovo ThinkPad laptop have latest 10th Generation quad-core i5 processor which is very good at this price point. The clock speed is 1.6GHz and it can be boosted up to 4.2GHz. Where Kali Linux requires only 2GB RAM this laptop comes with 16GB RAM and we can upgrade this. So this is cool. 512GB PCIe NVMe SSD also provides us faster performance in all tasks.
Build quality is also very good and we got a backlit keyboard for working in dark. This laptop is quite portable with its 15.6 inch Full-HD display.
We got Type C ports and USB A 3.1 ports with HDMI and card reader. Connectivity will not be a problem on this laptop.
Pros:
- No issue with all kind of Linux as main OS.
- All-rounder.
- Portable.
- 10th Gen processor with SSD is fast.
- RAM is up-gradable.
Cons:
- No backlit keyboard.
- Average display.
Final Thoughts
Lenovo ThinkPads always supports almost all kind of Linux Distro without any issues. This is not a premium laptop, at this price point it offers lots of latest things.We can't accept more than this at this price point. We also can run Kali Linux easily on it. Good quality keyboard will help us on programming works also. We can consider this at this price point.
Dell Inspiron 14
Dell Inspiron series comes with good laptops. But this one is very good. It powered with quad core Intel latest 10th generation i5 processor, which can beat core i7 7th generation. This processor clock speed is 1.20GHz and it can be overclocked to 3.7GHz. It comes with 8GB RAM (also available in 4GB variant). 256GB SSD works superb and give us a faster performance.
This laptop can easily run Kali Linux and also able to do quite heavy CPU tasks. This can easily handle multitasking so we can fun a lot of things together.
It comes with good build quality and the 14 inch form factor makes it so portable. Battery runs 5 to 6 hours depending on our works so we can say that battery quality is decent.
Specifications:
- 10th Gen Intel Core i5-1035G4.
- 8GB RAM.
- 256GB Solid State Drive.
- 14" HD (1366 x 768) Anti-Glare LED-Backlit Non-touch Display.
- Intel UHD Graphics
- Good performance.
- Nice battery.
- Portable.
- Comes with LAN (Ethernet) port.
- Nice sound quality.
Cons:
- No backlit keyboard.
- Only HD display.
Final Thoughts
This laptop could be perfect for Kali Linux users, because they don't care of display resolution they need maximum performance in a budget price and portability. This can be a perfect buy for programming and networking tasks lots of portable and modern laptop brands missed the Ethernet port. If it comes with a backlit keyboard then it would be perfect.
Asus VivoBook 15
Asus ViviBook 15 will be a grate pick for a budget laptop that can help us in our cybersecurity job and it can easily run Kali Linux. It comes with latest 10th generation core i3 processor (also have an i5 version). i3 may not powerful as i5 and i7 but if we wanna run Kali Linux as primary install then it is more then enough. Also it is very good for programming works. VivoBook 15 can easily able to do regular day by day works like office works.
8GB RAM will help us in multitasking and 128 GB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD storage will give us much better speed.
The 15.6 inch Full-HD display with very thin bezel in 4 sides gives nice quality of picture and looks so smart. Build quality is good and durable for this price point. We also get a backlit keyboard which will help us to writing codes in dark.
We got much connectivity options like USB C port, USB A port (2.0 and 3.2), a microSD slot and a HDMI port.
Specifications:
- Intel Core i3 10th Gen.
- 8GB RAM.
- 128 GB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD.
- Backlit Keyboard.
- 88% screen-to-body ratio.
- ErgoLift hinge design also tilts the keyboard up for more comfortable typing.
- Fast charging charges 0 to 60% in just 49 minutes.
Pros:
- M.2 SSD for faster performance.
- Latest generation processor.
- Good display.
- Good quality backlit full-size keyboard.
- Portable
Cons:
- Intel Core i3 is enough for Kali Linux but not so good for CPU heavy tasks.
- Average battery backup.
- Audio is not so much loud.
Final Thoughts
At this price point this laptop is very good with good performance and super fast charging. This is quite portable also so we can use this on-the-go computing. Kali can be easily run on this budget machine. We can consider this if we are tight on money.
Acer Aspire 5
Acer Aspire 5 is a good laptop to run Kali Linux smoothly. With the AMD Ryzen 3 3200U processor we got clock speed of 2.5 GHz and it can be boosted to 3.5 GHz. 8GB DDR4 RAM is enough for multitasking. It have 128GB SSD storage to run our Operating system faster and also comes with 512GB HDD to store files. This can be ideal laptop for students.
Build quality of this laptop is also very good. 15.6 inch display quality is good and the resolution is 1920x1080, i.e. Full-HD. Keyboard got backlit which will be very good for programmers. Battery backup of this laptop is average.
Specifications:
- 15 inch Full HD display with IPS panel.
- AMD Ryzen 3 3200U (2.60 GHz, up to 3.50 GHz with Turbo Boost, 4 MB Cache, 2 Cores).
- 8 GB DDR4 RAM.
- 128 GB SSD with 500 GB HDD.
- Backlit keyboard.
- 1 USB 3.1 Gen 1 Port, 2 USB 2.0 Ports & 1 HDMI Port with HDCP support,802.11ac Wi-Fi.
Pros:
- Good Performance.
- Nice display.
- SSD+HDD.
- Backlit Keyboard.
Cons:
- No USB Type C port.
- Average battery backup.
Final Thoughts
This laptop is really good to run Kali Linux as primary installation. A friend is using it without any issue. Only problem is battery life average but that will not a problem if we not stay outside home/office for a long time. This laptop stores much big data in HDD also gives us good operating speed with SSD that's why it will be great option for students.
Acer Swift 3
Acer Swift 3 is a great laptop to run Kali Linux 2020 versions as a primary installation as well as Visual installation. This laptop have a powerful Octa-core AMD Ryzen 7 4700U processor 2. 0GHz with Precision Boost up to 4. 1GHz. It comes with Radeon graphics. 8 GB DDR4 RAM on the board will give us the power when we do multitasking on it. 512 GB PCIe NVMe SSD provides fastest speed and good data storage.
We have even run Windows under Kali Linux. Where Kali Linux is host and Windows as guest OS.
Build quality of this laptop is also very good. With 14 inch display, very thin design and lightweight this laptop becomes much portable. Display is also good with 1920x1080 resolution with Full-HD.
Battery life is really very good it usually runs a work day with Kali Linux. It also comes with a good quality backlit keyboard.
On the connectivity option we got 1 - USB Type-C port USB 3. 2 Gen 2 (up to 10 Gbps) DisplayPort over USB Type-C & USB Charging, 1 - USB 3. 2 Gen 1 port (featuring power-off charging), 1 - USB 2. 0 port, 1 - HDMI port. So connectivity will be endless.
Specifications:
- AMD Ryzen 7 4700U processor.
- 8 GB RAM.
- 512GB PCIe NVMe SSD
- Backlit Keyboard.
- All-day battery backup.
- 14 inch Full-HD display.
Pros:
- Very portable (weight is only 2. 65 lbs. / 1. 2 kg)
- Good quality backlit keyboard.
- Super battery life.
- High performance latest processor.
Cons:
- Color accuracy is not so good, but bright display with IPS panel.
- RAM is not upgrade-able it is soldiered on the motherboard.
Final Thoughts
This laptop would be a great choice for using Linux. The pre-installed Windows comes with lots of bloatware preinstalled. It will be better to uninstall Windows and install Kali Linux on it as primary OS. The battery life of this laptop is so nice, and it is portable too. Also it's performance is awesome. For this price point its a very good deal.
GPD Micro PC
Now this is not a full sized laptop, this a industry level mini laptop. It has 6 inch display that is too much small that we can hold and use it on our hands. From factor is too, even smartphones are now comes with 6 inch display. This laptop can run Kali Linux easily and smoothly. For this compact size we can carry it on our pocket and carry everywhere. This can be a perfect portable hacking machine for red team attackers.
GPD MicroPC has a Strong Performance with Ultra Low Power Consumption: Intel N4100 processor, four cores, four threads, and thermal design of 10W; Graphics: lntel HD Graphics 600, Up to 700 MHz. It have 8 GB RAM and 128 GB M.2 SSD storage.
GPD MicroPC have a very good build quality, its rugged exterior gives it more durability. It comes with a tiny keyboard but the quality of keyboard is good and also have backlit. The 6 inch display comes with HD resolution.
GPD MicroPC can beat every laptop ins this list in case of portability and connectivity. This laptop have lots of ports like LAN port for wired connections. This have a RS-232 port also have HDMI cable to connect modern displays. One USB Type C port and 3 USB 3.0 Type A ports, this is not end it also have a 3.5 mm port and a slot for MicroSD cards. So we should not think about connectivity and portability. The 6100 mAh battery lasts longer.
Specifications:
- Intel N4100 processor, four cores, four threads.
- 8 GB RAM.
- 128 GB M.2 SSD, which is removal and we can expand it to unlimi.
- 6 inch display.
- One USB C port, and 3XUSB 3.0 ports.
- Backlit qwerty keyboard.
- Rugged exterior.
- 6100 mAh Battery.
- LAN and RS-232 ports.
Pros:
- Very very portable.
- Lots of connectivity options.
- 8 GB RAM and SSD makes it faster.
- Backlit keyboard.
- Long lasting battery.
- Very lightweight, not more than 1.03 lbs.
- Easily fits into inner pockets.
Cons:
- Processor is not so much powerful, but it's enough to run Kali Linux.
- Not for day to day works.
Final Thoughts
During penetration testing jobs if we walked in a corporate area with a laptop, it looks suspicious. We can use this pocket laptop in that case. Probably this is the best device for Red Team attackers. This laptop runs Kali Linux smoothly, no issue to running commands. The only thing we can say that it is really a good laptop if we need real portability.
We don't recommended this as a primary device, this can be considered as a secondary laptop for portable
jobs. This is far batter then Kali NetHunter.
Lenovo IdeaPad S150
This is really a budget laptop. IdeaPad S150 comes with AMD A6-9220e 1. 60 - 2. 4GHz Dual-core Processor with 4 GB RAM. Where Kali Linux runs with 2 GB RAM, 4 GB RAM will be a good choice. It's also have high speed 64 GB eMMC SSD storage, so storage might be an issue but performance not.
Lenovo IdeaPad S150 comes with a 14 inch HD display. This laptop is quite portable for it's slick design. This laptop have a HDMI port to connect bigger external display.
In connectivity option we got a HDMI port and two USB Type A 3.1 ports and a card reader. Although in this low budget this laptop comes with a webcam for video calling, that's great.
The keyboard quality of this laptop is average. Battery drains out in 4-5 hours, that is also average.
Specifications:
- A6-9220e 1. 60 - 2. 4GHz Dual-core Processor.
- 4 GB RAM.
- 64 GB SSD.
- 14 inch HD display.
- One HDMI port, 2X USB 3.1 ports.
- Card reader, WiFi and Bluetooth.
Pros:
- Very low budget.
- Portable.
- HD display.
Cons:
- Very less storage.
- CPU heavy task is not possible.
- Average build quality.
Final Thoughts
This laptop can be good for those who have a very tight budget and looking for small projects. Cybersecurity and programming tasks are not CPU heavy tasks and doesn't require much storage, that's why we recommend this laptop. But the build quality is not so good. Lenovo ThinkPad Laptops are best for running Linux.
Things Need to Care Before Buying a Laptop for Kali Linux
1. What Kali Linux Requires
Kali Linux is a Debian Based Linux distribution used by cybersecurity experts and digital forensics. Previously Kali Linux comes with default GNOME Desktop Environment, but after 2019.4 update Kali's Default DE is Xfce4. XFCE is very lightweight then GNOME. For this now these days Kali is even faster than previous.
Kali Linux requires 2 GB RAM and 20 GB Storage for the default Xfce4 desktop environment installation.
If we install Kali Linux as a basic SSH server with no Desktop then it will take 128 MB of RAM (512 MB recommended) and 2 GB storage. So we can see that we can install Kali Linux on devices with low resources.
2. Processor
A high performance processor will provide us a powerful system here every CPU is compatible with Kali Linux we can use at least dual core processors from Intel and AMD. Even Kali have some images for ARM devices.
So processor is not an issue but when we are buying a brand new laptop in 2020 we should make sure that we have the latest and powerful processor. That will help us to do CPU heavy tasks if we encountered with them.
3. RAM
As we know that Kali can be easily run on at least 2 GB RAM but if we want a laptop for cybersecurity jobs and our other works too, then we should not go below 8 GB DDR4 RAM. We also need to check the speed of RAM, high speed means high performance.
4. Storage
Kali Linux is a lightweight distribution it doesn't eat a lot of space like Windows if we installed it as a primary OS. Penetration testing doesn't requires high storage, almost all the tools are very lite. Even we have used 64 GB disk space laptop with Kali primary install for a long day. If we have some movies or projects we can use external storage to store them.
We recommended at least 128 GB SSD storage on a laptop higher will be better. But we shouldn't buy a HDD laptop because SSD is several times faster then HDD. The days of HDD is over now.
5. Graphics Card
We don't require graphics card for Kali Linux laptops. But if we want high speed brute-force attacks then we need a graphics card. Here we should remember that we doesn't require very high level GPU (graphics card) to do this, any mid range GPU will work good.
6. Battery Life
Sometimes we trapped in to specifications and performance and ignored the battery life, but battery life is most important feature of a laptop. Without battery laptop becomes very similar to desktop. We always need to have a laptop with good battery backup.
In the budget section we may need to compromise with battery life. In this category laptops usually runs 4-5 hours. We found MacBooks are really good in this point, XPS 13 also have a very good battery (lasts 10+ hours).
7. Portability
The main difference between a desktop PC and a laptop is the portability. A laptop should be portable but in some recent years we have seen many gaming (large GPU) laptops are in the market, they are heavy and thick. Notebooks are good in portability but they don't have enough power.
In cybersecurity fields portability is really matters a lot. We can go anywhere and test networks. Kali on mobile (like NetHnter) can't tool the space of laptop. Trust us, we have used both NetHunter and Laptops in different situations.
So if we want a powerful laptop with portability option we can go for any ultrabook. In our list we found that GPD MicroPC is very portable, but it is not a full sized laptop, for a full size ultraportable laptop we should look into XPS 13 and MacBook.
8. Build Quality
Did we need to talk about build quality? because everyone knows that good and durable build quality will be better. But we need to share something in this section. We should choose a laptop having grate build quality also we need to check the quality of keyboards.
Working in Kali Linux as a security researcher we need to type a lot. We need to type commands and programs everywhere so a good quality keyboard make it easier. We also go with a backlit keyboard if we want to type in dark.
Display quality doesn't matters in cybersecurity fields but if we are getting a good quality display that will be not a bad idea.
Display quality should not consider for cybersecurity jobs. Good display can improve media consuming and media creating/editing works. To run Kali Linux we just need a laptop display that works fine with good viewing angels. We also need to avoid touchscreen laptops because Kali Linux is not working perfectly with touchscreen.
9. Brand
Seriously? Brand matters?
A little bit, because we check the specification and price before buying and we also gets the warranty then we can say that 'Brand doesn't matters.' But we can't judge MacBooks by its specifications, MacBooks (both Pro and Air) works magically better then its specs. Also Razer, Lenovo, Dell, Asus they all have good brand value in the market. GPD works super in the pocket sized PC market.
10. Installation Type
Before 2020 we suggests everyone to install Kali Linux in a virtual machine but things are totally changed now. After Kali's 2020.1 version Kali added a non-root user as default. That means more stability, and more security. So we can install Kali Linux as primary install, we also can use it for our day by day works (Know More).
If we want to install Kali Linux on our laptop through VirtualBox or VMware then we need a laptop that can share at least 4 GB RAM with the Virtual Machine for a speedy work and multitasking.
Installing Kali through WSL2 is also a good option but by that way we still be in Windows system and Kali will be a subsystem of Windows then we can't call it our Kali system.
Dual boot is also a good option for new comers, but to learn Kali Linux we suggest to install it primarily.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs):
Can Kali Linux run under Windows?
Yes, Windows has released WSL Windows Subsystem for Linux and it is really very good for using Linux on Windows. But now it is in the initial stage and have some networking issue. Still VMWare is a good option.We have even run Windows under Kali Linux. Where Kali Linux is host and Windows as guest OS.
Is Kali Linux Illegal?
Kali Linux is just a Operating System it can't be Legal or Illegal. It is created for cybersecurity experts and ethical hacker. Purpose of using it might be legal or illegal. When a ethical hacker used it, it will be totally legal, but when we did illegal works with it then it our responsibility.Just like a gun. Gun is for self defense not for killing. If we kill then it's our responsibility.
Does Kali Linux requires high-end Laptops?
Nope, Kali can be run even in Raspberry Pi 4, a tiny credit card sized low powered computer.
But a powerful laptop with Kali Linux will make our life easier. We can run more than one virtual machines and brute-forcing speed also will be high.
11. Final Talk
We have listed some best laptops for Kali Linux but we can run Kali Linux on any modern laptop. We can add much more laptops in this list but then it will be very confusing to choose. We will try to update the list when good laptop arrives in the market. Before listing a new laptop we need to test it.
We have listed with types like best performance, best battery, most portable in two categories one is premium and another is budget. If we are ready to give money for the best one then we should go for premium laptops. Otherwise if we have a tight budget then we can buy a budget laptop.
Got any problem to buy new laptops? Any suggestion? Please feel free to ask us by commenting down in the comment section. We always happy to help by choosing right laptop and we always reply. Also ask us trough Twitter or Telegram group to get assistance to choose right laptop for Kali Linux.