(Ultimate Guide) 7 Best Laptops for Tails 2021
In the world of technology, being secure and maintaining privacy is much more difficult. So, there is a need for a Best Laptop for Tails. But what are Tails? Tails stand for “The Amnesiac Incognito Live System.”
It is a Linux-based operating system that runs off of a flash drive or CD/DVD. Moreover, there is also some software like Tor, but they are software packages running within your operating system, whereas Tails is a full-fledged operating system.
Tails don’t require a laptop with very high specifications or require low system requirements. Per the official website, Tails minimum requirements are at least 2GB of memory along with a 64-bit x86-64 compatible processor to run it properly.
Tails os requires a minimum 8GB USB stick or a recordable DVD for installation.
Working on the internet is highly insecure work with no proper security on laptops. By using Tails, you can anonymously work with the internet, as all the connections effectively work through the TOR software network.
With the high privacy professional cryptographic tools of Tails, one can quickly secure their emails, files, documents, personal data, and messages.
After the June 2013 Snowden incident, no one wants to leave their personal information and files without encryption, especially agencies and business owners. Everybody has grown a sense of privacy and wants their data to be hidden entirely and secured on the internet.
Now, all these requirements can be tackled down when having such a laptop, which can run Tails properly and effectively.
In this article, we will let you know about the best laptops for Tails in 2021. These laptops will be able to run Tails software with greater responsibility. Moreover, these laptops for Tails are arranged based on their price and specifications. So, without any further delay, let’s move through their features and specs and help you find the best one. Let’s start:
Best Laptops for Tails
| Image | Product | Features | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Dell Inspiron 5481 | Processor: Intel core i3 RAM: 4 GB DDR4 Storage: 128 GB SSD GPU: Intel Ultra HD | Check Price |
 | ASUS Chromebook C425 | Processor: Intel Core M3-8100Y RAM: 8GB LPDDR3 Storage: 64GB eMMC GPU: Intel HD | Check Price |
 | Acer Aspire E 15 | Processor: Intel Core i5-8250U RAM: 8GB DDR4 Storage: 256GB SSD GPU: NVIDIA GeForce | Check Price |
 | LENOVO FLEX 11 | Processor: Intel Pentium Silver N5000 RAM: 4GB DDR4 Storage: 64GB eMMC SSD GPU: Intel UHD Graphics 605 | Check Price |
 | HP PAVILION X360 | Processor: Intel Core i5-8265U RAM: 8 GB DDR4 Storage: 256 GB SSD GPU: Intel UHD 620 GPU | Check Price |
 | Apple MacBook Air | Processor: Intel Core i5 RAM: 8GB DDR4X Storage: 128GB SSD GPU: Intel Ultra HD Graphics 617 | Check Price |
 | HP NOTEBOOK 14 | ✔ Processor: Intel Core i3-7100U ✔ RAM: 8 GB DDR4 ✔ Storage: 128 GB SSD ✔ GPU: Intel HD Graphics 620 | Check Price |
1. Dell Inspiron 5481 ( Best 2-in-1 Laptop for TAILS OS)
The hinge is very smooth and switching between the laptop and tablet mode quickly.
Features and Specifications:
Dell Inspiron 5481 holds a 14-inch HD display that folds up while a touchscreen. The display being HD, you will not get excellent picture quality. Still, the display is good enough for web browsing, sending emails, and some other professional work in a secure way.
Inspiron 5481 has a sensitive touchscreen, and accuracy is up to the mark when given input. This laptop also supports handwriting with digital pens, so if your profession is Illustrator or digital artist, you don’t need to buy a separate tablet.
The keyboard of this laptop is highly appreciating.
The keys allow enough travel to make your typing experience serviceable. Dell Inspiron 5481 comes equipped with an Intel core i3 processor. But this is the 8th generation processor from Intel, which has a maximum clock speed of 3.9 GHz.
This laptop consists of only four gigs of DDR4 RAM, so it is not the right choice for multitasking.
This laptop doesn’t have a lot of space in the 128GB SSD. But when talking about the performance of the laptop, it does help every bit. As it is a solid-state drive, the laptop boots up in a short time, and the performance can be seen as an upgrade in every single action done on the desktop of the operating system.
On Inspiron 5481, you don’t get a dedicated GPU, so you’re going to have a worse time if you are serious about high-level performance on this laptop.
Still, the Intel Ultra HD graphics 620 does an appreciable good job, and it can deal with graphics-rich applications properly. The battery life of the laptop is a little below average. You can get from 7 to 8 hours of battery life with a moderate workload, which is much enough for the price.
As it is a 2-in-1 laptop, we would say that the battery capacity overall does a reasonably stable job. When talking about connectivity, the model comes with a wide range of ports and data transfer options.
You get two USB 2.0 ports, one USB 3.0 port, one SD card reader, one headphone jack, and also one HDMI port. With these ports, loading up the Tails operating system must not be a problem.
| Weight | 1.74 Kg (3.84 pounds) |
| Screen size | 14 Inches |
| Battery life | 7 to 8 Hours |
| Dimensions | 4 x 15 x 17 inches |
| Operating System | Windows 10 |
| Graphics | Intel Ultra HD Graphics 620 |
| Processor type | Intel core i3 |
| Processor speed | 3.9 GHz |
| Storage Memory | 128 GB SSD |
| RAM | 4 GB DDR4 |
The best Chromebook for Tails OS might be the Asus Chromebook C425, our best choice among all Chromebooks available on the market. This one is the best Chromebook picked that stands out for several reasons discussed below. Asus Chromebook C425 has a gentle tone of silver and seems super-premium. When you lift the laptop, you will also feel the same premium touch. Getting a well-designed Chromebook at this price point is difficult.
Features and Specifications:
Asus Chromebook C425 has a 14-inch full HD display featured by Nano Edge bezels. With these smaller bezels, an uninterrupted viewing experience can be entertained on the screen. For running Tails, media consumption, and other everyday tasks like web browsing, the display is good enough.
This Chromebook has an Intel Core M3 processor with a starting clock speed of 1.10 GHz. With the help of Turbo Boost, this processor can clock to a maximum speed of 3.4 GHz, the best option to run Tails. It is a dual-core processor and comes with a 4MB cache.
These processing features on this Chromebook are enough for the everyday venture and can handle your daily tasks with no difficulties. In terms of the memory of RAM, it has enough support from the eight gigs.
The processor and RAM together offer a great computing experience from light to mid-range or pro-level uses. The RAM allows multitasking on the laptop with no worries about the performance.
The flash drive storage on this Chromebook is a 64GB eMMC. It is not much space like the other laptops, as it is a Chromebook, and Chromebooks utilizes cloud storage over conventional storage methods mostly.
Also, for the proper running of any software, Chrome OS does not need a lot of storage space. The keyboard on this Chromebook holds a nice physical response to it. For a brilliant typing experience, it offers a decent key travel. On this laptop, the touchpad is bigger enough and has a good built-in feature of palm rejection.
The touchpad is very responsive and accurate to touch, which makes it a good fit for movements. The sound output on this laptop is also a decent, but not a spectacular level. There are several connectivity options on this laptop.
You get a USB 3.1 gen 1 type A port, one USB 3.1 gen 1 type C port, one microSD slot, and one headphone jack. Similarly, just like a regular laptop, it has support for both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. The laptop does not have any dedicated graphics card as it is a Chromebook.
There is an integrated Intel graphics, which is more than enough for the demands of users. If you are the one who plays games, then a Chromebook is probably not a good idea. But it is a good choice for business professionals with high privacy running Tails OS.
When we talk about the battery capacity, it can last for about 12 hours with routine usage. The battery life is impressive and lasts for a minimum of eight hours for a substantial user. For someone who travels a lot like businessmen or anyone who has office-based work, this Chromebook is an ideal companion.
| Weight | 1.3 Kg (2.9 pounds) |
| Screen size | 14 Inches |
| Battery life | Up to 12 Hours |
| Dimensions | 12.6 x 8.2 x 0.7 inches |
| Operating System | Chrome OS |
| Graphics | Intel HD Graphics 615 |
| Processor type | Intel Core M3-8100Y |
| Processor speed | 3.4 GHz |
| Storage Memory | 64GB eMMC Storage |
| RAM | 8GB LPDDR3 |
The Acer Aspire E 15 is the best privacy choice for you, and it is equipped with everything that you want to work with Tails. If you run Tails from the read-only DVD media, then Tails is already secure, and it offers another layer of protection because even willingly, it won’t let you change any Tails files. So, for using this specialty, there must be an optical drive on the laptop that is usually not available in notebooks with a compact and slim design. However, the display quality, battery life, performance, or graphics processing of this laptop are appreciable.
Features and Specifications:
Acer Aspire E 15 provides a 15.6-inch display packed with a resolution of 1920×1080 pixels. It can give the outstanding quality of images and videos on the screen.
This laptop is comparatively heavy, which is evident for this large size and battery. It still has not crossed the limits for the full-size average-weight laptop. The Aspire 15 is equipped with the Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB memory of RAM, and 256GB SSD storage memory.
Moreover, it allows you to operate moderate graphics-intensive tasks with the entry-level NVidia MX150 GPU. Aspire 15 is available in several configurations, which is the most satisfying thing about this laptop.
You can freely choose from the Intel Core i3 processor to the Core i7 processor with memory capacity up to 16GB of RAM. The connectivity counters are limitless as well. A traditional VGA port is also present.
Apart from that, it has HDMI, USB 3.0, USB 2.0, unique Type-C, and LAN port for internet connectivity. As we have mentioned in the beginning, it holds an optical drive as well. The most conquering part of this laptop is the best battery life, which can last up to 15 hours with your private TOR browsing.
| Weight | 2.3Kg (5.27 pounds) |
| Screen size | 15.6 Inches |
| Battery life | Up to 15-hours |
| Dimensions | 15 x 10.20 x 1.19 inches |
| Operating System | Windows 10 Home |
| Graphics | NVIDIA GeForce MX150 with 2 GB of dedicated GDDR5 VRAM |
| Processor type | Intel Core i5-8250U |
| Processor speed | 1.6 GHz up to 3.4GHz |
| Storage Memory | 256GB SSD |
| RAM | 8GB DDR4 |
4. Lenovo Flex 11 Laptop ( Portable and Durable Laptop for Tails OS )
So, a laptop is required that you can take with you everywhere anytime, and it must be offering you all the requirements you need for the excellent user activity. Lenovo Flex 11 Laptop, according to our research, is the best portable and durable laptop for Tails OS.
It has all the features to assure your Tails OS experience remains fluid and seamless and comes with a reasonable price tag having an 11.6-inch display.
Features and Specifications:
Lenovo Flex 11 offers an 11.6-inch display packed with a standard resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels. As it is a portable laptop, so everyone knows the reason behind this option. For most utmost users, this resolution is enough for a screen size that is just 11.6 inches.
Flex 11’s display is more than enough for streaming online videos. The viewing angles you get here are not excellent enough, but the multimedia experience is unique for the price tag. Lenovo Flex 11 comes in a variation of Onyx Black and owns a hard construction.
Lenovo takes design seriously even at this price tag because when you pick up the laptop, it does not appear to be made up of low-quality plastic. Flex 11 laptops come equipped with an Intel Pentium Silver 5000 processor. This processor is dual-core and has a maximum clock speed of 2.7 GHz. Undoubtedly, the processor here from Intel is an entry-level, but the processor manages all your daily essentials without any concerns at this price point.
The Intel chip is much handy as well, as it comes with a cache memory of 4MB. The memory unit has four gigs of RAM, and they complement the Intel chip in the right way. Generally, you need a minimum of two gigs of memory on your laptop to run the Tails OS smoothly. So, here you get four gigs, and it makes your regular use as smooth as possible. Moreover, this laptop is also equipped with a 64GB eMMC SSD.
Flex 11’s keyboard on this laptop is fantastic, tactile, and grants a pleasant typing practice. The only downside here is that the laptop does not have a backlit keyboard here. Also, you might find a few wobbly keys, which in this model, appear to be consistent among the laptops.
The touchpad is not an extraordinary one, and there is nothing special about it. Weighing only 2.75 pounds, you can easily keep this laptop in your backpack and travel along. The speaker is excellent, but nothing exceptional. Flex 11, being a portable laptop, the battery life is about six hours, which makes this laptop a good fit for taking it on the go.
This battery life may be complaining for some users who are used to laptops with long battery life. Flex has versatile connectivity with multiple ports, including USB 3.0, Type C, HDMI, and one 4 in 1 card reader. With these connectivity options, you will be able to hook up to your existing devices with no complaint and no additional purchases.
| Weight | 1.25 kg (2.75 pounds) |
| Screen size | 11.6 Inches |
| Battery life | 6 Hours |
| Dimensions | 11.57 x 8.01 x 0.70 inches |
| Operating System | Windows 10 |
| Graphics | Intel UHD Graphics 605 |
| Processor type | Intel Pentium Silver N5000 |
| Processor speed | 1.1 GHz up to 2.7 GHz |
| Storage Memory | 64GB eMMC SSD |
| RAM | 4GB DDR4 |
5. HP Pavilion x360 ( Powerful Portable Laptop for Tails )
You get a powerful Intel Core i5-8265U and long-lasting battery life in a highly flexible design, which allows your secure and private process with Tails OS. Features and Specifications: The HP Pavilion x360 comes in silver or red color, which is utterly adorable. The entire outside is covered in an apple red matt plastic, with silver all around the keyboard, and has a black bezel display. The Pavilion x360 has an Intel Core i5-8265U processor, 8GB of RAM, and a 256GB SSD storage memory.
If we talk about the graphics side, this 2-in-1 laptop comes with an Intel Ultra HD 620 graphics. All these components are pretty enough for running Tails OS properly. As we mentioned in the introduction, Tails OS requires at least 2 GB of RAM to function optimally, but the HP Pavilion x360 has more than double the minimum RAM size required. So, it is a plus point here to be appreciated.
The speakers on this budget-friendly convertible laptop are outstanding, which can compete well with speakers you will find on most sophisticated laptops. In terms of connectivity, the Pavilion x360 is pretty plentiful with ports. It owns two USB 3.0 ports on the right side with one full HDMI port, one expandable Ethernet port, jacks for the headset, the power cord, and a Windows button.
There is a single USB 2.0 port on the left side with one SD card reader, one secure lock slot, and a button for volume and power. You got a Backlit Full-size island-style Keyboard on this laptop. The keyboard has some space, at least.
In particular, it is a full-sized keyboard. The Pavilion X360 strength is truly the core of the way. During continuous web browsing over Wi-Fi at 100 nit’s brightness, this laptop maintains 9 hours of Battery life.
| Weight | 1.64 kg (3.52 pounds) |
| Screen size | 14 Inches |
| Battery life | Up to 9 Hours |
| Dimensions | 12.70 x 8.8 x 0.8 inches |
| Operating System | Windows 10 |
| Graphics | Intel UHD 620 GPU |
| Processor type | Intel Core i5-8265U |
| Processor speed | 1.6 GHz up to 3.90GHz |
| Storage Memory | 256 GB SSD |
| RAM | 8 GB DDR4 |
The Apple MacBook Air is the best versatile laptop for Tails OS. To get a smooth user activity with the Tails operating system, this 13 inches MacBook Air comes with all those essentials, which you will need. Features and Specifications:
There is a 13.3 inches Retina display on Apple MacBook Air that comes equipped with True Tone technology. When it comes to colour generation, the screen does very well, and it also can get bright enough.
Apple MacBook Air allows you to log in to your user profile with a single touch as it comes with touch-ID. Apple touch-ID on a MacBook Air was introduced by Apple for the first time.
The keyboard has made some up-gradation after some negative reviews from users, and now typing on this laptop is fun. The touchpad is also made excellent on this laptop. If we claim it as the best touchpad on any laptop, then it will not be an extravagance.
When we talk about the performance, the MacBook Air proves blazingly well. Any software can be run pretty much smoothly on this laptop without complaint on any performance. The eight gigs of RAM in the memory unit is good enough when you need to handle bulk work and multitasking. On this laptop, you can run numerous software at a time, and you will realize that there is no retardation to the performance.
In this MacBook Air model, it has only 128 gigs of storage. Though you can get models with more room, we went with this as it brings the cost of the laptop down. This laptop offers you an amazing reading and writing efficiency with a speedy SSD drive.
It also comes with an integrated graphics card. When we talk about the handling of graphics software, the Intel Ultra HD graphics 617 produces a stable job. This MacBook Air model is limited in terms of connectivity options, and this is the only downside in this regard.
The laptop comes with only two USB type C ports, so if you own USB 3.0 devices, you need to arrange adapters. However, this port is versatile and allows you to charge the MacBook Air. It is also used to connect the laptop to displays and accessories, and also to transfer data.
The battery life is more than average and probably the best feature of this laptop from Apple. With normal activities, you can quickly get up to 12 hours of battery life that lasts for the entire day with no charging issue. The laptop can still give you a decent battery life even if you have some substantial activities.
The Apple MacBook Air overall is the best laptop for Tails OS because it comes with excellent hardware. It allows multitasking with industry-leading battery life with no problems.
| Weight | 1.25 kg (2.75 pounds) |
| Screen size | 13.3 Inches |
| Battery life | Up to 12 Hours |
| Dimensions | 12.0 x 8.4 x 0.6 inches |
| Operating System | macOS |
| Graphics | Intel Ultra HD Graphics 617 |
| Processor type | Intel Core i5 |
| Processor speed | 1.6GHz up to 3.6GHz |
| Storage Memory | 128GB SSD or 256GB SSD |
| RAM | 8GB DDR4X |
HP Notebook 14
You can never get such a notebook within your budget. It is an ideal piece while considering the performance. This laptop does not have features like the expensive ones, but the provided options are enough to run Tails OS. Now, let’s move to the features of this lightweight and portable notebook.
Features and Specifications:
The HP 14 Notebook comes with 14 inches BrightView micro-edge WLED-backlit and Glossy display. It maintains vivid colors on the screen, whether you are watching videos or running software. Its design is very sleek, compact, and portable.
It can be taken anywhere on a business trip or vacation. HP 14 helps to run your daily tasks faster as it is equipped with a 7th Generation Intel Core-i7 processor with 2.4GHz frequency. It is a smart dual-core mobile processor that provides four-way processing performance. So, it makes sure that you enjoy a persistent computing experience. In the memory part, it is featured with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of SSD.
Both the RAM and SSD perfectly perform productive multitasking. The SSD also helps in decreasing the boot-up time and faster the start-up. It also helps in most web surfing and loads pages even quicker. The HP 14 Notebook is outfitted with an integrated Intel HD Graphics 620 card.
This video graphics card conveys the bright and real colors of the objects. It is not that high standard but makes this notebook the best laptop for Tails OS. HP 14 offers enough connectivity options to connect with other devices. For using Tails OS, you will need to boot from USB. It is armed with a single USB 2.0, one USB 3.0 port with Type-C. Moreover, for connecting to display devices and the internet, it has HDMI and WLAN output.
In terms of battery quality, the HP Notebook 14 surprisingly serves you multiple hours. Even advanced multitasking allows the laptop to give a backup of 9 to 10 hours.
| Weight | 4.3 pounds (1.95 kg) |
| Screen size | 14 Inches |
| Battery life | Up to 10 Hours |
| Dimensions | 32.40 x 22.60 x 2.00 inches |
| Operating System | Windows 10 |
| Graphics | Intel HD Graphics 620 |
| Processor type | Intel Core i3-7100U |
| Processor speed | 2.4 GHz |
| Storage Memory | 128 GB SSD |
| RAM | 8 GB DDR4 |
Final Words:
Well! That’s all about the best laptops for Tails OS in 2021 till now. We hope that this buying guide will prove fruitful for you to buy the best laptop to run Tails OS. All these laptops can run Tails OS, but you also need the best USB for Tails to put in.
We came across through Chromebooks and Mac devices. For running Tails on Chromebook, Asus Chromebook C425 is our best pick among all Tails Chromebooks. Similarly, for running Tails on Mac, Apple MacBook Air could be the best option.
As we have discussed, the Tails system requirements in the introduction, so any laptop with standard specifications can run Tails OS. We hope that this buying guide will help you choose the best laptop for running Tails.
There should be no compromise on privacy if you are running your business or working in a security agency. Make sure to spend your money on the right device. Best of Luck!
How to install tails on USB windows?
