As the fastest port available now, Thunderbolt ports are becoming more and more popular among users. In this post, MiniTool Software introduces the top 8 Thunderbolt 3 laptops for you. If you are planning to replace your laptop with a new laptop with Thunderbolt 3 ports, you can take them into consideration.
What is Thunderbolt 3?
Thunderbolt, a hardware interface developed by Intel in collaboration with Apple, allows external devices to connect to a computer. It has four generations now. Thunderbolt 3 is based on the USB Type-C port. It provides superfast speed for data transfer (click here to know more about Thunderbolt 3 vs USB C).
Thunderbolt 3 is capable of transmitting at a rate of 40 Gbps, which is much quicker than USB 3.1 (with the rate of 10 Gbps) and USB 3.0 (5 Gbps). In other words, a device with a Thunderbolt 3 port could read and write data much faster than the device with a USB 3.0 or 3.1 port.
For example, the read/write speeds of a Seagate Barracuda Fast SSD which has a USB 3.0 port is up to 540/500 MB/s, while that of a Samsung X5 Portable SSD which has a Thunderbolt 3 port could be up to 2800/2300 MB/s.
Therefore, when choosing a new laptop, a huge number of users would prefer the one with a Thunderbolt 3 port.
Top 8 Thunderbolt 3 Laptops
Although providing fast transfer speeds, the Thunderbolt 3 laptops are expensive. Most of them cost more than $1,000. In the following contents, the top 8 Thunderbolt 3 laptops will be introduced and some of them are relatively cheap. If you don’t want to cost much, you can consider the following Thunderbolt 3 laptops.
Top 8 Thunderbolt 3 Laptops
- Razer Blade Stealth 13 Ultrabook
- HP ZBook 15 G5
- Alienware AW15R3-5246SLV-PUS
- ASUS ZenBook S UX391
- Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon
- Apple MacBook Air
- Lenovo Yoga 730
- Dell XPS 13
Option 1: Razer Blade Stealth 13 Ultrabook for Gaming
- Hard drive: 512 GB SSD
- Memory: 16 GB
- Processor: Quad-core 8th Gen Intel Core i7 -8565U processor
- Operating System: Windows 10 Home
- Screen Display Size: 13.3 inches
- Color: Black
- Price: $2499.11
If you are a game lover and require high performance, Razer Blade Stealth 13 Ultrabook should be one of the best options you can choose. With the powerful CPU and dedicated GPU inside it, this laptop has an impressive processing speed for daily usage. Its battery lasts for up to 8 hours for regular work. For heavy-duty work, it can last for up to 5 hours.
Besides, it has complete connectivity, including Thunderbolt 3, USB-C, USB-A, Wireless AC, Windows Hello infrared camera, and dual-array mics. It has a 4K Thin Bezel Touch Display, and the keyboard is designed with single-zone RGB lighting which makes it look cool and enables you to work or play games at night.
Option 2: HP ZBook 15 G5 Mobile Workstation
- Hard drive: 1 TB PCle SSD, 2 TB PCle SSD, 1 TB PCle SSD + 1 TB HDD, 2 TB PCle SSD + 2 TB HDD
- Memory: 32/64 GB DDR4 RAM
- Processor: Intel 6-Core i7-8850H
- Operating System: Windows 10 Pro, 64-bit
- Screen Display Size: 15.6 inches
- Color: Silver
- Price: Start at $1,890.00
HP ZBook 15 G5 laptop is 7 pounds. It might not look stylish compared with other Thunderbolt 3 laptops introduced in this post, but it provides optional storage and memory, which means you can configure them according to your needs.
It includes two Thunderbolt 3 ports and three USB 3.0 ports. And with powerful specifications like an Intel 6-Core i7-8850H processor, this laptop can be used for office work, schoolwork, engineering projects, 4K video editing, and other heavy tasks.
Option 3: Alienware AW15R3-5246SLV-PUS
- Hard drive: 1TB HDD
- Memory: 8GB DDR4 RAM
- Processor: Intel Core i5-7300HQ (Quad-Core, 6MB Cache, up to 3.5GHz w/ Turbo Boost)
- Operating System: Windows 10 Home, 64-bit
- Screen Display Size: 15.6 inches
- Color: Epic Silver
- Price: $1699.00
Alienware is another popular brand of gaming laptops. The hardware like NVIDIA GeForce GTX 10-series GPU, 8 GB DDR4 memory, and 15.6-inch display could give you wonderful gaming performance.
With a VR-ready system that passes the Oculus Ready and Vive Optimized certifications, the laptop enables you to enjoy mind-bending virtual reality travel. And its Thunderbolt port provides fast data transfer. Besides, the new Alienware 15 could support up to 11 hours of battery life.
Option 4: ASUS ZenBook S UX391 Ultra-Thin and Light Laptop
- Hard drive: 512 GB PCle SSD
- Memory: 16 GB LPDDR3 RAM
- Processor: Latest Intel 8th Gen Core i7-8565u Processor (8M Cache, up to 4.60 GHz)
- Operating System: Windows 10 Pro, with built-in fingerprint sensor and one-touch login using Windows Hello
- Screen Display Size: 13.3 inches
- Color: Deep Dive Blue and Rose Gold trim
- Price: $1,299.00
ASUS ZenBook S UX391 has a beautiful look and nice specifications at an affordable price. It is designed with a USB-C port and two Thunderbolt 3 ports on the left side. And the keyboard has been featured with a 5.5° tilt so you can type comfortably anywhere.
Generally, you can use the laptop to do normal work for up to 9 hours. If you play games or edit video, it could last for up to 5 hours.
Recommended article: What’s the Best Time to Buy a Laptop?
Option 5: Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon for Business
- Hard drive: 256 GB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD
- Memory: 8 GB
- Processor: Intel Dual-Core i5-6300U 2.40 GHz Processor
- Operating System: Windows 10 Pro, 64-bit
- Screen Display Size: 14 inches
- Color: Black
- Price: $1022.09
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon is a wonderful laptop for business. It provides two USB-C 3.2 ports and two Thunderbolt 3 ports, which enables users to connect many USB devices to the laptop. It has a 14-inch 4K IPS display with HDR and touch. Besides, the display is designed with X-Rite Pantone color calibration, a perfect feature for graphics professionals.
In addition, Lenovo ThinkPad X1 offers about 14 hours of battery life, and users can work with it for a long day.
Option 6: Apple MacBook Air Laptop with Thunderbolt 3 Port
- Hard drive: 256/512 GB SSD
- Memory: 8GB
- Processor: 1.1GHz quad-core Intel Core i5, Turbo Boost up to 3.5GHz, with 6MB L3 cache
- Operating System: Mac OS
- Screen Display Size: 13 inches
- Color: Space Gray, Silver, Gold
- Price: Start at $902.73 on the Official Apple site
MacBook Air laptop includes two Thunderbolt 3 on the left side, and it’s thin and light. It is designed with a Retina display with True Tone, Backlit Magic Keyboard, and Touch ID. With up to 11 hours of battery life, you can use it to work through all day.
Option 7: Lenovo Yoga 730 Thunderbolt 3 Laptop for Business
- Hard drive: 256 GB PCle SSD
- Memory: 8GB DDR4 RAM
- Processor: 8th Intel Quad Core i5-8250U (16/3.4GHz, 6MB)
- Operating System: Windows 10 Home, 64-bit
- Screen Display Size: 13.3 inches
- Color: Iron Gray
- Price: $780.00
Lenovo Yoga 730 is much cheaper than above Thunderbolt 3 laptops. It is discontinued according to Lenovo, but you can still find it on online stores like Amazon.
It is super portable starting at just 2.47 pounds and 14.1mm thin. With up to 11.5-hour battery life, you can use it without any worries about power issues. It has a Thunderbolt 3 port and 2 USB 3.0 ports. For added security, it offers the fingerprint reader.
By the way, if you want to draw on the laptop, you can buy the Lenovo Active Pen 2 and use the Windows Ink feature, which provides the natural feel of a pen-on-paper experience.
Option 8: Dell XPS 13
- Hard drive: 256 GB – 1 TB SSD
- Memory: 8 GB – 16 GB
- Processor: Intel® Core™ i3 – Intel® Core™ i7
- Operating System: Windows 10 Home, 64-bit
- Screen Display Size: 13.3 inches
- Color: Platinum Silver with black carbon fiber palmrest, Rose Gold with Alpine White woven glass fiber palmrest, and Frost White with Alpine White woven glass fiber palmrest
- Price: Start at $779.99
You can choose different configurations (Up to 10th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-10710U Processor) for this laptop and the price starts at $779.99, according to the official website of Dell. The Dell XPS 13 laptop is equipped with 2 Thunderbolt 3 ports with Power Delivery and DisplayPort and 1 USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type C port.
It’s super thin and slight (starting at just 2.7 pounds). If you choose this laptop, you can transfer files quite fast between the laptop and a portable Thunderbolt 3 SSD, and you can go everywhere with it. This should be the cheapest laptop with Thunderbolt 3 you can find.
Transfer Your Data to the New Thunderbolt 3 Laptop
If you decide to replace your old laptop with a new Thunderbolt 3 laptop, you might need to move your important files, folders, and applications, so you can keep and use them on the new laptop. But how to transfer all your files from an old laptop to a new one at once? You need an external hard drive and a professional tool to copy them.
For the tool, I recommend MiniTool Partition Manager. It’s a disk manager that can help you manage your disks and partitions as you wish. Of course, you can use it to clone your whole disk or only the partitions you need to another hard drive.
As the new Thunderbolt 3 laptop includes a fresh installed operating system, you just need to copy your non-system partitions. Now, let’s download this tool and move your data to your new laptop.
MiniTool Partition Wizard FreeClick to Download100%Clean & Safe
Step 1: Connect your external hard drive to your old laptop and launch MiniTool Partition Wizard and get its main interface.
Step 2: Right-click a partition you want to copy and select Copy. In the pop-up window, select the unallocated space on your external hard drive and click Next.
Step 3: Edit the size and location of the copied partition and click Finish. Then repeat the operations to copy other partitions you need.
Step 4: Click Apply to start copying your partitions.
When the copying process is finished, you can disconnect the external hard drive and then connect it to your new Thunderbolt 3 laptop to copy the partitions to the new laptop. Of course, you can only copy the partitions to the unallocated space on the disk of your new laptop. So, please make sure the disk is large enough to keep all your data.
Bottom Line
What is Thunderbolt 3? How do I choose a laptop with Thunderbolt 3 ports? If you are asking these questions, this post which introduces the top 8 Thunderbolt 3 laptops might be helpful for you. If you are planning to replace your old laptop with a new one, don’t forget to transfer your data.
You can share your ideas with us by posting them in the following comment section. If you encounter problems while using MiniTool software, please don’t hesitate to contact us by sending an email to [email protected].