The Dell Inspiron 14 5490 is the ultimate stylish workhorse PC for the work-from-anywhere entrepreneur, the mature student or the mobile home user. It’s strikingly beautiful at first glance, standing just 17mm high, with matching aluminium lid and plastic body, and with the cooling vents cleverly concealed in the hinge. And the beauty is not just skin deep either. In fact, the most interesting innovations on this laptop are under the skin.

It switches on automatically when you lift the lid and boots extremely fast (just 12 seconds in our real world test). There is a fingerprint sensor built into the power button for added security and convenience. The cooling system dynamically figures out your work modes, slowing down your CPU marginally to keep things cool while it’s on your lap, then coming back to full power when its sitting level on a table. You can also control the CPU power and fan noise through Dell’s built-in power management software.

All of these models are running Intel’s 10th generation chips and our review unit also had the optional Nvidia MX230 gaming graphics: not the hardcore gamers choice but still effective. It’s very light at 1.4kg and the full set of ports make it easy to dock with a full size monitor, mouse and keyboard to work in comfort.

i7, 14″ screen, 8GB RAM, Nvidia Geforce MX 230, 512GB SSD, 1.4kg, R20,000

Dell’s built-in Mobile Connect software lets you pair your PC with your phone to check your messages, share its screen, copy files over and eve use its apps.