You don’t always need a beefy, absolute powerhouse for a laptop; nowadays, the best lightweight laptops offer a brilliant balance of portability and processing power. In recent years, battery technology has improved significantly, too, meaning you can often power through a whole day of commuting, travelling, or just working somewhere without a readily available power source. However, these thin and light clamshells probably won’t be able to offer the same graphical performance as their larger, heavier siblings, as most lighter laptops can’t quite cram in dedicated graphics chips
This particular category of laptops has grown rapidly, meaning it can be pretty hard to choose the perfect lightweight laptop for your needs; that’s where we come in. We’ve included everything from ultrabooks, which are categorized as laptops with an Intel Core i3, i5, or i7 processor, an SSD, and a thickness of up to 1.5cm to non-ultrabooks that still offer lots of computing power for their size.
In addition to performance, we’ve considered the design and value for money, including a wide range of price points to accommodate everyone from students on a budget to hybrid workers. However, if you want a deeper dive into your specific needs, we’d recommend checking out our guides to the best laptops for gaming, the best business laptops, and if you're studying, the best laptops for students.
Quick list
If you're looking for a quick breakdown of the best options available, then we've compiled this quick list for you that gives you a quick-fire breakdown of your options with links to jump down to read more below.
This is the full package for a lightweight laptop: superb performance, capable of intensive editing work, a wonderful screen, and wrapped up in an extremely portable and light design, the ASUS Zenbook S 13 OLED is the lightweight laptop to rule them all. Read more below
Offering superb build quality and terrific battery life, the Dell Precision 5480 model, in its 14-inch design, offers some of the best professional power and capability going in a lightweight laptop. Perfect for those looking at top-tier models that can handle anything. Read more below
The MacBook Air M3 is a wonderful pick for those that need a do-it-all laptop, with excellent specs from battery life to performance, all packed in a super-skinny shell. It's pricey, but at least until the M4 it's pretty future-proofed Read more below
Offering best-in-class versatility, Dell's XPS 13 2-in-1 is a perfect choice for those who want a powerful lightweight laptop that can do it all. Offering dual tablet and laptop use, and some powerful specs to boot, it's a top pick. Read more below
If a large screen is near the very top of your wish list in a lightweight laptop then the LG Gram 17 has to be in contention with its 17-inch display, excellent battery life, and capable specs. Read more below
Offering excellent bang-for-buck value, the Lenovo Pad P12 is a great 2-in-1 Android device with an optional detachable keyboard. It has great battery life too, it's very compact and portable and extremely well built. Read more below
A superb pick for businesses, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon offers great battery life, excellent performance, and decent featureset ranging from top specs, a touch screen panel, and great security features - all in a 1.2kg package. Read more below
Somewhat unbelievably, the Dragonfly G4 comes in at just under a kilogram of weight, which seems wild considering it's got some spectacular specs and features within its small frame and tiny weight. A great pick for business particularly. Read more below
A superb bit of gaming kit for those who like to pay on the go, the ASUS ROG Flow Z13 is an ingenious bit of tech that can offer excellent gaming performance in a relatively lightweight chassis. Read more below
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The ASUS Zenbook S 13 OLED is our top choice for the best lightweight laptops on the market this year. It's not just one of the smallest and lightest laptops I've ever used, but also hugely impressive when it comes to performance. It's on par with bulkier and heavier rivals (such as the Dell XPS 13 and MacBook Air), and the super-sharp 2.8K screen feels much bigger than it is and is a joy to look at and work on.
Extreme thinness comes at a price, though, so video-editing and 3D work will be best left to bigger bricks, but for portability and all-around performance, the Zenbook S 13 OLED is just about unbeatable right now.
Screen: 14-inch QHD+ (2560 x 1600) or FHD+ (1920 x 1200)
Storage: 256GB-1TB
Weight: 1.48kg
Reasons to buy
+
Extremely powerful
+
Highly portable
+
Exceptional battery life
+
Robust, sleek design
Reasons to avoid
-
Limited ports
The Dell Precision 5480 is its smallest mobile workstation, which sets it apart from the competition. The top-quality build, super power and incredible battery life, all packed into such a slim 14-inch design, makes it one of, if not the, in my opinion, best options for taking professional-level performance on the go.
There are, of course, factors to consider. Trade-offs for its portability mean less power than in other larger models, and anyone wanting to run the most demanding, graphics-intensive applications might need to look elsewhere. But when you take everything this little machine has to offer, and how long it can deliver it in one go, it's up there as one of the best mobile workstations available.
For more information, read our full review of the previous Dell Precision 5470 model with 12th Gen Intel CPUs.
Screen: 13.6-inch (diagonal) 2,880 x 1,864 pixels LED-backlit display with IPS technology
Storage: 256GB – 2TB SSD
Weight: 1.51kg
Reasons to buy
+
Plenty of power
+
Enormous battery life
+
Thin and light
Reasons to avoid
-
Pricey
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Limited screen connection
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No Thunderbolt 4
The Apple MacBook Air (M3, 2024) is a fantastic thin and light laptop, building on much of what we loved about the M2, 2022 model, and comes in both 13-inch or 15-inch sizes depending on your preferences.
It's faster, utilizing clever Dynamic Caching technology to optimize the GPU performance, making it a stellar performer when faced with almost any task – at this point, we're not surprised when it comes to Apple Silicon, but it's still leagues ahead of what many thin and light laptops can offer.
Best of all, the MacBook Air (M2, 2022)'s battery life is amazing, lasting 15 hours comfortably during our tests (though Apple claims up to 18 hours is possible). So, you can work on this throughout the day without worrying about being plugged into a power source.
It's not worth upgrading from the M2 to the M3, if you already have one; the gap between the two models isn't really worth it for the price difference, which is conversely a pretty huge jump. However, if you're currently using an M1 (or older) Macbook Air, the M3 is the best bet for a future-proofed laptop. It's worth checking out both the M1 and the M2 if the M3 model is too pricey for your budget. Find out more in our full MacBook Air (M3, 2024) review.
The Dell XPS 13 9315 is an excellent choice for anyone who wants a powerful and portable laptop that can do it all. It's thin and light enough to easily carry around, and with enough power to handle even most tasks, it’s ideal for students, business professionals and creatives alike.
This machine is ideal for those who can’t choose between a traditional laptop or a tablet. The keyboard is fully detachable, so if you want to use it in tablet mode, then the impressive 13-inch touchscreen display just pulls away. It also comes with a stylus, so is brilliant for taking notes, and creating digital art or graphic design. For more, read our Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 review.
The largest in the latest set of lightweight laptops from LG, the LG Gram 17 (2022) is the new and improved version of 2019's LG Gram 17, which we rated highly for its super-thin, super-lightweight design and impressive performance when handling creative software.
With its large 17-inch display and 16:9 aspect ratio, the LG Gram 17 is a great choice for creatives of all creeds, from music producers to writers and digital artists. While its larger screen makes it a little less easy to stash away and a tad heavier (1.34kg) than some of the other laptops on this list, it does make for a less frustrating experience when you don't need to scroll around so much.
Specs-wise, it's a pretty capable machine, too, which considering the fairly lofty price tag, makes sense. It's got an impressive battery life, too.
If you want something that's both super light and affordable, then the Lenovo Tab P12 is a great choice. It can be had with an optional detachable keyboard, so it's incredibly easy to carry around, and as it's an Android rather than Microsoft Windows device, it's much cheaper than most laptops.
It also boasts a huge 10,200mAh battery that will easily last all day with heavy use and multiple days with lighter use. You could even go away for a few days and not worry about bringing a charger.
There are some inevitable downsides with this type of device, however. The keyboard is small and not as comfortable as a proper laptop. As an Android device, you obviously can't run legacy Windows applications, either. But if most of what you do is browser based, that hardly matters. And it's not as if the Android platform is short on apps. For the money, this is a great little ultra-portable device.
Screen: 14-inch, 16:10 (1920 x 1200p) - (3840 x 2400), touchscreen
Storage: 256GB - 1TB SSD
Weight: 1.12kg
Reasons to buy
+
Great performance
+
Fantastic battery life
+
Just over 1kg
Reasons to avoid
-
Only integrated graphics
The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11 is our choice for the best lightweight laptop for business on account of its fantastic battery life and its great performance. One of the lighter laptops on this list at just 1.2kg, it still has enough room for a 13th-gen Intel Core CPU, a 14-inch screen, and can be fitted with up to 32GB of RAM.
It also houses some great built-in security features, making it a great choice for business users who like to move around. It only comes with integrated graphics, though, so if you need to complete graphic-intensive jobs like animation or 3D rendering, you'll perhaps be better off elsewhere.
The HP Dragonfly G4 is the lightest laptop on our list, with some spectacular specs and features housed in its small 990g frame. This is another laptop we like a lot as a business device. Although once again it lacks the dedicated graphics you'd need for creative work, it's incredibly versatile in other areas.
With its 2-in-1 form factor complete with the option of a 3K touch display, along with powerful 13th-gen Intel Core chips and Intel Iris Xe graphics, this is a laptop that can handle a lot but can also keep going for a while; our sister site Techradar got almost 11.5 hours battery life on test when using it for video playback.
Graphics: Up to NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop GPU
RAM: Up to 16GB
Screen: Up to 13.4-inch QHD+ 2560 x 1600 touch screen
Storage: Up to 1TB SSD
Weight: 1.18kg
Reasons to buy
+
Makes gaming tablets a reality
+
Fantastic build and features
+
Super versatile and portable
Reasons to avoid
-
ROG XG Mobile connection feels fragile
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Expensive for the specs
Okay, so we're kind of cheating by including the Asus ROG Flow Z13. Without its keyboard folio, it's just 1.2kg, but with it, the weight bumps up to 1.53kg. So it's not quite as light and portable as some of the others included in this list.
That said, it's an excellent piece of kit for gamers on-the-go. So much so that it even ranks among the best gaming laptops we've tested, despite its lightweight nature.
It does, however, suffer from slightly weaker performance than some of its competition. Still, with the ROG Flow Z13, Asus is taking the 2-in-1 form factor in gaming to new heights. It's superbly built, and on-test we were impressed by the quality, though we wished it was a little more ergonomic. Read our full Asus ROG Flow Z13 review for more details.
The best lightweight laptop for you is going to depend on a variety of factors. If you're a student and are just looking for something cheap and easy to use that you can stash away between home, lectures and the library, you'll be perfectly happy with the Surface Laptop Go 2 or the Acer Swift 3, which are cost-effective and capable machines.
If you're looking for something powerful and highly capable, you're looking at the Dell XPS 13 or the MacBook Air (M3, 2024), which come with much higher price tags to account for the greater capabilities.
Ultimately, your best bet is to identify what needs you have in a new laptop, whether it's value, performance and speed, storage, design or even software, and use resources like our buying guides to help you make the most informed decision you can.
Can lightweight laptops be powerful?
The short answer is yes, absolutely. However, it can sometimes come at a cost. Take, for example, the MacBook Air (M3, 2024), which is one of our favourite laptops on this list. While the M3 chip makes for a powerful MacBook Air model and its tiny frame houses an incredibly impressive component set, it can't fit fans, so it can become very hot after sustained use - and the value for money doesn't quite add up when you consider how similar it is to the M2.
Your experience with a powerful laptop is always going to be better with a larger, heavier machine, but if you need something more portable, we're confident some of our top picks can take you there.
What's the benefit of a lightweight laptop?
Lightweight laptops are supremely portable and great for running small to medium-sized tasks when you're away from your desk. If you frequently move between home and your office, school or local café, it's likely you'd be able to appreciate a smaller, easier to carry machine.
With technology advancements allowing for ever-smaller but still powerful machines, lightweight laptops have become an increasingly viable option for students, businesses and creatives alike to help support more flexible and varied work and life.
How do we test
In terms of performance, testing a lightweight laptop is the same as any other. CPU, GPU and storage performance are all in the mix. That said, expectations are different with thinner and lighter laptops.
They tend to use low voltage CPUs for starters. But if there's any component that has to be compromised for smaller form factors, it's the graphics chip. Some thin and light laptops do have dedicated graphics. But even then, it typically won't be the most powerful Nvidia or AMD mobile GPU, they simply aren't compatible with the limited thermal capacity of the smallest laptops.
Storage, however, is different, even the thinnest and lightest laptops are typically compatible with fast NVMe SSDs. Those core specs aside, we assess screen quality, features including connectivity, ergonomics including keyboard and track pack, and build quality. Last but not least, we test for battery life under multiple scenarios from light use to video playback.
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Josephine Watson (@JosieWatson) is an experienced tech journalist with experience writing on a variety of topics from pop culture to gaming and even the energy industry. She is the Managing Editor of Lifestyle on CreativeBloq's sister site, TechRadar, overseeing the Lifestyle vertical (Cameras, Home and Wellness) and How-To's, where she can be found writing across multiple channels including computing, software, homes and gaming.
