If you're looking to buy a laptop, then you might have noticed that there's a dizzying range of choice and a large number of manufacturers. We've picked out six of the best laptops for 2021 – we're confident these brilliant laptops won't let you down. Not sure how to choose a laptop? No problem, we also cover the main specs and features you'll need to look out for.

When buying a laptop, your first question should always be, ‘what do I need it for?' The second should be, ‘what's my budget?'

Hybrids are laptops that feature a detachable keyboard, essentially turning the screen into a tablet. Convertible laptops have a screen that swivels all the way around, allowing the operator to use the device in a range of configurations. Some manufacturers are now incorporating 4g/LTE data compatibility and NFC capabilities into their 2-in-1. Leo is a life saver! As a photographer, I keep a lot of work on my laptop. One day, I stupidly put my laptop bag on a chair as I waited for my drink. It fell on and the screen wouldn't turn on. I called Leo, in a panic, and Leo came to me within two hours to help me fix it and back everything up on to an external hard drive. Leo Laptop 15.6 skin — $29. A hand painted skin with a leo pattern for your Laptop 15.6. High quality Leo Valdez inspired laptop sleeves by independent artists and designers from around the world. Protect your laptop and your life in foam-cushioned confidence and custom printed designs. All orders are custom made and most ship worldwide within 24 hours. Lenovo’s Yoga laptops deliver just what the name implies: flexibility. The flagship model of the series, the Yoga C940, is a 2-in-1 convertible that flips over on its hinge to switch at any time from laptop to tablet mode (or tent and stand modes in between). As an added innovation, the hinge on the latest version is one long soundbar, housing a strong set of speakers that pump crisp, high-quality audio in your direction no matter what mode you flip the computer to.

Get the right laptop for your requirements and price point and it will last you a good few years. You won't be constantly eyeing up other new models online wondering if you should have picked them instead.

While you don't want to overspend on a model that is stuffed full of cool-sounding features (that you may never use), it's also important not to go too cheap. That's why we've picked out laptops below that are fast and will last. They may not be the cheapest, but over the years they will prove great value.

Which are the Best Laptops to Buy?

These are the top choice laptops to go for, from under $800 to nearly $2,000:

1. Apple MacBook Pro with Touchbar – an outstanding Apple laptop with a great screen
2. Dell XPS 13– super slim and portable
3. Microsoft Surface Laptop – offers premium feel and performance
4. Lenovo Yoga 920 – a laptop/tablet hybrid with plenty of power
5. Google PixelBook – the best Chromebook on the market
6. Acer Spin 5 – a stunning screen that folds back on itself
7. Acer Swift 3 – a premium-feel laptop that starts from a low price
8. Lenovo Ideapad 330 – modest specs, but great value at around $300

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Apple MacBook Pro with Touchbar

• Price: From $1,799
• Size: 13 or 15-inch
• Processor: 8th gen Intel Core i5 – 9th gen Intel Core i9
• Storage: 128GB – 512GB SSD
• RAM: 8GB – 16GB
• Graphics: Intel Iris Plus Graphics 640/655
• Screen resolution: 2560 x 1600

The must-have accessory for coffee shop regulars everywhere, Apple MacBooks have a long-established reputation for being expensive, yet high quality. If you know someone with a MacBook, chances are they're evangelical about it and wouldn’t consider going back to a (whisper it) Windows model.

There’s a reason for this, too. Spend some time with the MacBook Pro, and this will soon become apparent. Not only is the Pro designed beautifully, but it runs like a dream too, powered by an 8th generation Intel i5 (good) or i7 (great) processor, and up to 16GB of RAM for silky smooth multi-tasking.

The Retina screen is pixel-perfect and crisp. It’ll look stunning whether you’re checking out your holiday snaps or filling in your tax returns.

The Touchbar, introduced in 2016, is divisive, and the jury is still out. Some love the extra element of control the slim screen above the keyboard adds, while others see it as a gimmick. More useful, arguably, is the fingerprint sensor. Coupled with Apple Pay, this means you don’t have to keep adding your password with each purchase, but can simply use a fingerprint instead.

Yes, it’s expensive. The range starts at $1,799 and goes up to $2,700 if you want the most powerful model. However, it’s good value – your MacBook Pro will likely last you many a year, and turn heads practically every day.

After a laptop for graphic design? See how the MacBook measures up to the Best Laptops for Designers

Pros:

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• Plenty of power
• Appealing design
• Excellent battery life

Dell XPS 13

• Price: From $999
• Size: 13-inch
• Processor: 8th gen Intel Core i5 – Intel Core i7
• Storage: 256GB – 1TB SSD
• RAM: 8GB – 16GB
• Graphics: Intel Integrated Graphics
• Screen resolution: 1920 x 1080

Dell’s laptop range can be somewhat spotty among the cheaper models, but there’s little doubt that the XPS 13 series is a real contender for those who want a balance of raw power and slim portability.

The XPS range feels like a premium laptop. For Dell, design has been a consideration since day one, and not just an afterthought – these laptops are genuine MacBook competitors.

The Dell XPS 13 is compact, with the company claiming it’s the smallest 13-inch laptop available. An impressive feat, and one that’s helped by the XPS’s impressively small bezel around the screen. We’re not quite at a frameless screen just yet, but this is a good compromise, accentuating the clear and vibrant screen quality.

The battery life has some serious staying power too. While we know not to take manufacturer's statements as gospel, the 19 hours that the company claims shouldn’t prove too far off the mark, depending on what you’re doing. Coupled with the diminutive size (it weighs just 2.67 pounds), this makes the XPS 13 an excellent travel companion.

Pros:

• Impressively slim
• Powerful processor
• Long-lasting battery

Microsoft Surface Laptop

• Price: From $799
• Size: 13-inch
• Processor: 7th gen Intel Core i5 – Intel Core i7
• Storage: 128GB – 1TB SSD
• RAM: 4GB – 16GB
• Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 620 (i5) / Intel Iris Plus Graphics 640 (i7)
• Screen resolution: 2256 x 1504

The Microsoft Surface Laptop is another model that wears its premium price tag on its sleeve – or rather its, Italian Alcantara fabric keyboard.

Yes, as soon as you open this up you can see where your money went. But, this isn't just a smart dressed slouch – there’s lot of power under the hood too that will make short work of your daily tasks.

An addition to Microsoft’s Surface tablet range, The Surface Laptop, as the name suggests, is designed for the people who liked the Surface Pro tablet, but wanted a ‘proper’ laptop. Microsoft has delivered in style here.

The specs are powerful, with the laptop boasting a 7th generation Intel i5 or i7 processor, up to 16GB of RAM and up to 1TB of storage. It’s a genuine competitor to the MacBook, and while it may not be as impressive in a few key areas (the PixelSense screen on the Surface can’t quite match the resolution of Apple’s stunning Retina screen), it’s a viable alternative for those looking for a stylish and powerful machine running the Windows operating system.

Pros:

• Truly portable
• High level of polish
• Specs are impressive

Lenovo Yoga 920

• From: $1,049
• Size: 13.9-inch
• Processor: 8th gen Intel Core i5 – Intel Core i7
• Storage: 256GB – 1TB SSD
• RAM: 8GB – 16GB
• Graphics: Intel Integrated Graphics
• Screen resolution: 1920 x 1080 or 3840 x 2160

The aptly named Yoga range from Lenovo is notable for its flexibility, and is just one of the many hybrid laptops that can flip its screen all the way around to act as a tablet as well as a laptop. We’ve seen a real surge in these products in recent years, and practically every manufacturer has one, hoping to remove the need for you to purchase a separate tablet.

However, the Lenovo Yoga 920 is undoubtedly one of the best. It comes with an 8th generation Intel processor to power it along.

However, it’s the flexibility of display options that really make this Lenovo stand out. You can view it in the classic ‘L’ laptop shape, but if the need takes you, you can flip that screen back on itself and have a 13.9-inch tablet in your hands (yes, it has a touchscreen). There’s also the ‘tent mode’, which is great for watching movies and catching up with Netflix.

Lenovo even includes a stylus with the laptop, for annotating the screen or sketching. While the stylus has made a comeback recently for laptops and tablets (it turns out our fingers just aren’t that precise), few manufacturers actually include them. Given that one can run you to $100, getting one in the box is a great plus point for this Lenovo.

Pros:

• Innovate 2-in-1 design
• Stylus is included
• Excellent sound

Google Pixelbook

• Price: From $999
• Size: 12.3-inch
• Processor: 7th gen Intel Core i5 – Intel Core i7
• Storage: 128GB – 512GB SSD
• RAM: 8GB – 16GB
• Graphics: Intel Integrated Graphics
• Screen resolution: 2400 x 1600

The Google Pixelbook is something of an anomaly. Traditionally, Chromebooks have been inexpensive laptops that run the Chrome operating system – a stripped back platform that makes full use of Google’s suite of cloud based applications but is, essentially, based around the Chrome browser. They are fast but low powered, usually incorporating mobile chips to run the show.

The Google Pixelbook takes the concept of the Chromebook, and delivers the most premium version available. It’s super-fast, with the option of a 7th generation i5 or i7 processor, making it one of the most powerful Chromebooks on the market.

It’s also super-slim, with a 10.3mm thick body that means it can slip into any bag almost unnoticed. Plus, it has a 10-hour battery life, making it ideal for working or playing on the go.

Everything about the Pixelbook feels like it has been designed within an inch (or in this case, millimeter) of its life and even suggests overkill for the purposes of a Chromebook. But, the end result is a truly premium Chromebook that looks future-proofed for some time to come.

Pros:

• One of the most powerful Chromebooks out there
• Super-slim
• Excellent battery stamina

Acer Spin 5

• Price: From $799
• Size: 13-inch to 15-inch
• Processor: 8th gen Intel Core i5 – Intel Core i7
• Storage: 256GB – 1TB SSD
• RAM: 8GB
• Graphics: Intel Integrated Graphics / NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050
• Screen resolution: 2256 x 1504

The Acer Spin 5 is one of the cheapest laptops on this list, but don't assume it's under-powered.

It features an 8th generation Intel processor, so you'll be up and running with daily tasks without issue, and the 8GB of RAM means that it can multitask smoothly.

At the top end of the range, you can even opt for an integrated graphics card. While this won't be able to compete with a dedicated gaming rig, it will certainly hold its own, and prove a good portable solution for those who want to do a spot of gaming (or graphics editing) on the move.

The solid state drive (SSD) gives fast load times for your apps and on booting up, and at the top end it offers the best of both worlds with a combination of SSD and HDD, offering fast speeds and loads of storage.

Like the Lenovo Yoga, the screen can be pushed all the way back, flat against the rear of the keyboard, to convert the laptop into a tablet-esque device. Acer is also kind enough to include a stlyus in the box too.

Pros:

• Dedicated graphics card option
• 2-in-1 design
• Good screen quality

Acer Swift 3

• Price: From $479
• Size: 14-inch to 15-inch
• Processor: 8th gen Intel Core i3 – Intel Core i7
• Storage: 256GB – 1TB SSD
• RAM: 4 – 8GB
• Graphics: Intel Integrated Graphics / NVIDIA GeForce MX 150
• Screen resolution: 1920 x 1080

If you want a premium feeling laptop, but don't want to pay a premium price, we think that the Acer Swift 3 is well worth a look.

We really enjoyed our hands on time with the Acer Swift 3, thanks to its solid specs and fast boot up time.

We also were suitably impressed with the battery life, which is around eight hours by our count, more than long enough for a day on the road, whether you're out on business or just taking a break.

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It might seem like a simple thing to praise, but we were also somewhat impressed with the volume of ports. While some laptops (mentioning no names, Apple) are Scrooge-like in the number of connectivity options, this Acer offers up three USB-3 ports, a USB-C port, as well as the usual HDMI and audio out that you would expect.

The whole package makes for an excellent laptop. Sure, it's not the prettiest laptop out there, but it's reassuring solid, and its specs and reasonable price tag will make you overlook some of its minor issues.

Pros:

• Lots of ports
• Feels premium without the price
• Good battery life

Lenovo Ideapad 330

• Price: From $320
• Size: 15.6-inch
• Processor: Intel Core i3
• Storage: 1TB
• RAM: 4GB
• Graphics: Intel Integrated Graphics
• Screen resolution: 1920 x 1080

If you're after a cheaper laptop, but don't want to compromise on size, then look into the Lenovo Ideapad 330. Although it costs around $300, it will net you a large 15.6-inch screen

Sure, the specs aren't the best – with an Intel Core i3 processor and just 4GB of RAM, you won't be playing the latest games on this or juggling too many programs at once, but for the money, it's a great choice for an everyday laptop.

The included 1TB hard drive also means that it'll be a long time before you run out of storage.

Word of warning – this isn't the super-slim laptop you can expect to find at the top end of the market. The Ideapad 330 is somewhat chunky, meaning you won't want to carry it round with you all day, but if you can put up with that, it's a solid choice for those on a budget.

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Pros:

• Large 15.6-inch display
• Intel i3 processor is decent for the money
• 1TB hard drive

Laptop Specs to Look For

When you're choosing a new laptop, it's important to understand the specs and features you'll see listed by each model. That way, you can be sure to choose the right laptop for your own particular needs.

Processor – For the most part, laptops either have Intel chips (i3, i5 or i7 in order of least powerful to most) or AMD processors. An Intel i3 is fine for basic day-to-day browsing, while an i7 is needed for graphic design work.

Screen Quality – You'll see the screen detail listed in pixels, and generally speaking, the more pixels, the sharper the screen. All modern laptops have Full HD screens for ultra-sharp quality, though we're starting to see more and more 4K models appear on the market.

Storage Space – The hard drive or solid state drive (SSD, a modern type of storage that makes the laptop run faster) is where you can store your files, apps, and the operating system itself. If you need to store masses of photos and video files, you'll need at least 1TB (1 terabyte = 1,000 gigabytes) of storage, though you can get by with less (even 128GB) if you save most of your files to the cloud.

RAM – This differs to the hard drive/SSD storage. Instead, it's a temporary type of storage that helps with multitasking or swapping between programs. RAM is measured in gigabytes (GB). These days, 8GB is considered pretty standard, while anything over 16GB is probably overkill unless you're doing design work or gaming.

Graphics Card – For most standard uses (web browsing, watching videos) you shouldn't need a high-end graphics card. These are only essential if you want to do a lot of gaming or graphic design work.

The Best Laptop Brands

There are plenty of laptop brands vying for your attention, but there's only a handful that really deserve it, based on their past reputation and excellent product line-up.

Needless to say, Apple is probably the most notable, and it's hard to argue about the impact this major brand has had on the laptop space with its MacBook range. Apple has always been a leader when it comes to marrying design and function, and it's not surprise that many of the other laptops on our list take their cues from the computing giant. While its MacBook Pro range can be eye-wateringly expensive, its standard MacBook range has become more affordable over the years, and is a good entry point for those curious.

Microsoftmay not be the first name you think of when it comes to hardware, but it has clearly been keeping an eye on the premium laptop market, and the Surface Laptop and Surface Book 2 (a laptop with a detachable screen) ooze quality.

Dell offers a wide range of models for all pockets, from the XPS mentioned here to the more everyday 5000 & 7000 series which may not turn heads but are capable workhorses. In recent years, Dell has branched out from traditional laptop design and now offers a selection of 2-in-1 laptop/tablet hybrids.

Chinese brand Lenovo also has a wide selection of laptop/tablet hybrids, but has also tried to capture the corners of market that some manufacturers can't. It has a selection of laptops starting from under $200 that can run Windows, making them appealing to students and light laptop users.

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The LEO I (Lyons electronic office I) was the first computer used for commercial business applications.

The prototype LEO I was modelled closely on the CambridgeEDSAC. Its construction was overseen by Oliver Standingford, Raymond Thompson and David Caminer of J. Lyons and Co. LEO I ran its first business application in 1951. In 1954 Lyons formed LEO Computers Ltd to market LEO I and its successors LEO II and LEO III to other companies. LEO Computers eventually became part of English Electric Company (EELM) where the same team developed the faster LEO 360 and even faster LEO 326 models. It then passed to International Computers Limited (ICL) and ultimately Fujitsu.

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LEO series computers were still in use until 1981.^[1]

Origins and initial design[edit]

J. Lyons and Co. was one of the UK's leading catering and food manufacturing companies in the first half of the 20th century. In 1947, they sent two of its senior managers, Oliver Standingford and Raymond Thompson, to the US to look at new business methods developed during World War II. During the visit, they met Herman Goldstine who was one of the original developers of ENIAC, the first general-purpose electronic computer. Standingford and Thompson saw the potential of computers to help solve the problem of administering a major business enterprise. They also learned from Goldstine that, back in the UK, Douglas Hartree and Maurice Wilkes were actually building another such machine, the pioneering EDSAC computer, at the University of Cambridge.^[2]

On their return to the UK, Standingford and Thompson visited Hartree and Wilkes in Cambridge and were favourably impressed with their technical expertise and vision. Hartree and Wilkes estimated that EDSAC was twelve to eighteen months from completion, but said that this timeline could be shortened if additional funding were available. Standingford and Thompson wrote a report to the Lyons' board recommending that Lyons should acquire or build a computer to meet their business needs. The board agreed that, as a first step, Lyons would provide Hartree and Wilkes with £2,500 funding for the EDSAC project, and would also provide them with the services of a Lyons electrical engineer, Ernest Lenaerts. EDSAC was completed and ran its first program in May 1949.^[3]

Following the successful completion of EDSAC, the Lyons' board agreed to start the construction of their own machine, expanding on the EDSAC design. The Lyons machine was christened Lyons Electronic Office, or LEO. On the recommendation of Wilkes, Lyons recruited John Pinkerton, a radar engineer and research student at Cambridge, as team leader for the project. Lenaerts returned to Lyons to work on the project, and Wilkes provided training for Lyons' engineer Derek Hemy, who would be responsible for writing LEO's programs. On 15 February 1951 the computer, carrying out a simple test program, was shown to HRHPrincess Elizabeth.^[4] The first business application to be run on LEO was Bakery Valuations. This was successfully run on 5 September 1951,^[4] and LEO took over Bakery Valuations calculations completely on 29–30 November 1951.^[5][4]

Five files of archive material on the LEO Computer patent are held at the British Library and can be accessed through the British Library catalogue.^[6]

Technical description[edit]

LEO I's clock speed was 500 kHz, with most instructions taking about 1.5 ms to execute.^[7][8][9] To be useful for business applications, the computer had to be able to handle a number of data streams, input and output, simultaneously. Therefore, its chief designer, John Pinkerton, designed the machine to have multiple input/output buffers. In the first instance, these were linked to fast paper tape readers and punches, fast punched card readers and punches, and a 100 line a minute tabulator. Later, other devices, including magnetic tape, were added. Its ultrasonic delay line memory based on tanks of mercury, with 2K (2048) 35-bit words (i.e., 8​³⁄₄kilobytes), was four times as large as that of EDSAC. The systems analysis was carried out by David Caminer.^[10]

Applications and successors[edit]

Lyons used LEO I initially for valuation jobs, but its role was extended to include payroll, inventory, and so on. One of its early tasks was the elaboration of daily orders which were phoned in every afternoon by the shops and used to calculate the overnight production requirements, assembly instructions, delivery schedules, invoices, costings, and management reports. This was the first instance of an integrated management information system.^[11] The LEO project was also a pioneer in outsourcing: in 1956, Lyons started doing the payroll calculations for Ford UK and others on the LEO I machine. The success of this led to the company dedicating one of its LEO II machines to bureau services. Later, the system was used for scientific computations as well. Met Office staff used a LEO I before the Met Office bought its own computer, a Ferranti Mercury, in 1959.^[12]

In 1954, with the decision to proceed with LEO II and interest from other commercial companies, Lyons formed LEO Computers Ltd.

Leo III[edit]

The first LEO III was completed in 1961. This was a solid-state machine with a 13.2 μs cycle time ferrite core memory. It was microprogrammed and was controlled by a multitasking operating system. In 1963, LEO Computers Ltd was merged into English Electric Company and this led to the breaking up of the team that had inspired LEO computers. English Electric Company continued to build the LEO III, and went on to build the faster LEO 360 and even faster LEO 326 models, which had been designed by the LEO team before the takeover. All LEO IIIs allowed concurrent running of as many as 12 application programs through the 'Master program' operating system. Some, primarily producing telephone bills, purchased in the mid- to late 1960s, were still in commercial use with GPO Telephones, the forerunner of British Telecom, until 1981, remaining usable throughout, using parts cannibalised from redundant LEOs purchased by the GPO.^{[citation needed]}

Users of LEO computers programmed in two coding languages: Intercode,^[13] a low-level assembler type language; and CLEO (acronym: Clear Language for Expressing Orders), the COBOL equivalent.^{[citation needed]}

One of the features that LEO III shared with many computers of the day was a loudspeaker connected to the central processor which enabled operators to tell whether a program was looping by the distinctive sound it made.^[14] Another quirk was that many intermittent faults were due to faulty connectors and could be temporarily fixed by briskly strumming the card handles.^{[citation needed]}

English Electric LEO Computers, later English Electric Leo Marconi (EELM), eventually merged with International Computers and Tabulators (ICT) and others to form International Computers Limited (ICL) in 1968. In the 1980s, there were still ICL 2900 mainframes running LEO programs, using an emulator written in ICL 2960 microcode at the Dalkeith development centre.^[15] At least one modern emulator has been developed which can run some original LEO III software on a modern server.^[16]

Legacy[edit]

Whether its investment in LEO actually benefited J. Lyons is unclear. Nick Pelling notes that before LEO I the company already had a proven, industry-leading system using clerks that gave it 'near-real-time management information on more or less all aspects of its business', and that no jobs were lost when the system was computerized. In addition, LEO Computers lost money on many of its sales because of unrealistically low prices, forcing J. Lyons to subsidise it.^[17]

In 2018, The Centre for Computing History along with LEO Computers Society were awarded funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund for their project aiming to bring together, preserve, archive and digitise a range of LEO Computers artefacts, and documents.^[18] The Centre for Computing History's museum gallery has an area dedicated to LEO, and they are also working on a LEO VR project.^[19]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

1. ^'Leo III Installations'. Leo Computers Society. Retrieved 28 March 2013.
2. ^Ferry (2003), Chapter 2
3. ^Ferry (2003), Chapter 3
4. ^ ^abcBird, Peter John (1994). LEO: The First Business Computer. Hasler. pp. 84, 86, 228. ISBN9780952165101.
5. ^Ferry (2003), Chapter 4
6. ^LEO Computer Patent, archives and manuscripts catalogue, the British Library. Retrieved 2 June 2020
7. ^The Staffordshire University Computing Futures Museum LEO PageArchived 23 January 2012 at the Wayback Machine
8. ^World's First Business Computer, LEO, Turns 60, TechWeek Europe
9. ^Research, United States Office of Naval (1953). A survey of automatic digital computers. Office of Naval Research, Dept. of the Navy. p. 58.
10. ^Williams, Christopher (10 November 2011). 'How a chain of tea shops kickstarted the computer age'. The Daily Telegraph.
11. ^Frank, Land. 'The story of LEO – the World's First Business Computer'. Warwick University - Modern records centre. Retrieved 7 August 2018.
12. ^'History of computing at the Met Office'. Met Office website. Archived from the original on 9 December 2010. Retrieved 26 September 2010.
13. ^Berry, F. J. (1 February 1959). AMOS - Ferranti Mark I*. 'Intercode, a Simplified Coding Scheme for AMOS'. The Computer Journal. 2 (2): 55–58. doi:10.1093/comjnl/2.2.55. ISSN0010-4620.
14. ^LEO Computers Society website
15. ^Morgan, Tony (2012), THE DME LEO DME STORY(PDF)
16. ^Holdsworth, David, LEO III software preservation
17. ^Pelling, Nick (26 March 2002). 'The Case for the First Business Computer'. Retrieved 25 June 2013.
18. ^McGerty, Lisa (8 October 2018). 'Centre for Computing History and LEO Computers Society win Heritage Lottery Fund support'. Centre for Computing History website. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
19. ^'History in the Making'. Centre for Computing History LEO VR blog. 9 August 2019. Retrieved 30 January 2021.

Further reading[edit]

Books[edit]

• Bird, P. J. (1994). LEO: The First Business Computer. Wokingham: Hasler Publishing Co. ISBN0-9521651-0-4.
• Caminer, D. T.; Aris, J. B.; Hermon, P. M.; Land, F. F. (1998). LEO: the incredible story of the world's first business computer. McGraw-Hill. ISBN0-07-009501-9.
• Campbell-Kelly, M., (1989). ICL: A Business and Technical History. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
• Caminer, D. T., Aris, J. B. B., Hermon, P. M. R., Land, F. F. (1996). User-Driven Innovation: The World’s First Business Computer. London: McGraw-Hill. ISBN0-07-009501-9.
• Carmichael, H., editor (1996). An ICL Anthology, Chapter 6: LEO, Laidlaw Hicks, Surbiton, UK.
• Ferry, Georgina (2003), A Computer Called LEO: Lyons Tea Shops and the World's First Office Computer, London: Fourth Estate, ISBN1-84115-185-8
• Hally, M. (2005). Electronic Brains: stories from the dawn of the computer age. Washington:Joseph Henry Press. Chapter 5: LEO the Lyons Computer. ISBN0-309-09630-8.
• Land, F. F., (1997). LEO, the First Business Computer: A Personal Experience. In Glass, R. L., editor. In the Beginning: Recollections of Software Pioneers, pages 134–153. IEEE Computer Society, Los Alamitos, CA.
• PEP, (1957). Three Case Studies in Automation, PEP, London.
• Simmons, J. R. M., (1962). LEO and the Managers, MacDonald, London.

Articles[edit]

• Aris, J. B. B. (1996). 'Systems Design — Then and Now'. Resurrection, Summer issue 1996.
• Land, F. F. (1996). 'Systems Analysis for Business Applications'. Resurrection, Summer issue 1996.
• Aris, J. B. B. (2000). 'Inventing Systems Engineering'. IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, Vol. 22, No. 3, July–September, pp. 4–15
• Land, F. F. (2000). 'The First Business Computer: A Case Study in User-Driven Automation'. IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, Vol. 22, No. 3, July–September, pp. 16–26.
• Caminer, D. T. (1958), '...And How to Avoid Them'. The Computer Journal, Vol. 1, No. 1.
• Caminer, D. T. (1997). 'LEO and its Applications: The Beginning of Business Computing'. The Computer Journal, Vol. 40, No. 10.
• Caminer, D. T. (2003). 'Behind the Curtain at LEO: A Personal Reminiscence'. IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, Vol. 25, No. 2, April–June, pp3–13.
• Hendry, J. (1988). 'The Teashop Computer Manufacturer: J. Lyons'. Business History, Vol. 29, No. 8, pp. 73–102.
• Land, Frank (1999). 'A Historical Analysis of Implementing IS at J. Lyons.' In Currie, W. G.; Galliers, R. D., editors. Rethinking Management Information Systems, pp. 310–325. Oxford University Press.
• Savard, John J. G. (2018) [2005]. 'Computer Arithmetic'. quadibloc. The Early Days of Hexadecimal. Archived from the original on 16 July 2018. Retrieved 16 July 2018. (NB. Has information on the LEO III character set.)

External links[edit]

• How a cake company pioneered the first office computer Video interview with Mary Coombs, who worked on the first LEO computer and was the first woman to become a commercial computer programmer
• Oral history interview with John M. M. Pinkerton, Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota. Pinkerton describes his work on Leo computers. In this context he discusses the British computer firms J. Lyons and Company, English Electric, and International Computers Ltd.
• About LEO — From Business Computing: the Second 50 Years, The Guildhall conference for business leaders, 2001. Archived in The Internet Archive on 2012-02-10.
• J. Lyons & Co. LEO Computers. Extract from Peter Bird's LEO — The First Business Computer (2002); at David Lawrence's Lyons website
• LEO Computers Society. Accessed 2018-01-13. Includes LEOPEDIA which is intended to be a comprehensive reference to archive, museum and media holdings and references to LEO computers, and individuals associated with them, updated periodically by Frank Land.
• LEO Computers Collection, National Archive for the History of Computing, University of Manchester Library.
• BBC Science - Electronic Brains BBC Radio 4 Series about early computers, Programme 1 is about LEO
• Hidden Histories of the Information Age BBC Radio 4 series, programme about LEO
• A computer called LEO: Lyons Teashops and the world's first office computer A standard work on the development of LEO
• Obituary of Caminer Daily Telegraph, 2008-06-24
• Pinkerton, J. M. M. (1 January 1961). 'The Evolution of Design in a series of Computers, LEO I-III'. The Computer Journal. 4 (1): 42–46. doi:10.1093/comjnl/4.1.42. ISSN0010-4620.