Ultraportable laptops are a unique segment. They are small, thin, and light laptops that fit in most bags and can be carried anywhere. They’re great for various use cases, like traveling, working outside your home, and school work. They are also made to have better battery life than other types of laptops, so they last longer without a charger. The result is a good overall option for many people who need a device to perform well across many functions.
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They are not flawless machines, though. They often come with power-saving specs that help the battery life but can affect performance in super heavy tasks like gaming or video editing. Fortunately, not everyone needs those types of things, which makes ultraportable laptops a great option. Here are the best ones we’ve gathered after testing, research, and review, starting with our overall pick, the Asus Zenbook Pro 14 OLED, a favorite among Pocket-lint editors.
Best ultraportable laptops: Our favorite lightweight picks
Asus Zenbook Pro 14 OLED
1. Best overall ultraportable laptop
Everything you need at a price
The Asus Zenbook Pro 14 OLED is a top-of-the-line ultraportable laptop with enough horsepower to do even moderately difficult tasks wrapped in a slim frame.
- Intel Core i9 is a beefy CPU for an ultraportable laptop
- Gorgeous 14.5-inch OLED touchscreen
- Slim design makes it ultraportable
- It’s expensive even if you don’t opt for the dedicated graphics card
- Fans can be noisy
The Asus Zenbook 14 Pro is our choice for the best overall ultraportable laptop, and it has a lot going for it. It has an Intel Core i9 processor, 16GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD, all wrapped in a slim, easy-to-carry chassis.
Asus Zenbook Pro 14 OLED review: A multi-talented powerhouse
The Zenbook Pro 14 OLED is a great laptop for professional users that might want some downtime for gaming and movies too.
The real story, though, is the absolutely stunning OLED touchscreen panel. It’s a 2800 x 1800 resolution screen that our reviewers were quite fond of. The downsides are predictable. This laptop is very expensive. You can spend more and get one with an Nvidia 4060 or 4070, but you’re still looking at nearly $2,000 without a dedicated graphics card.
Although it has beefier specs than most ultraportable laptops, its battery life is also mediocre compared to other laptops on the list. It’s great, but we get it if it’s not for you.
Lenovo Yoga 9i 14
2. Best 2-in-1 ultraportable laptop
Hinge quality is quite nice and functional
$1000 $1400 Save $400
The Lenovo Yoga 9i 14 is a small, thin, and light laptop with reasonably good specs and a neat trick. It folds out and becomes a tablet on command.
- Reasonably good specs and features for its price
- Can be tented or used as a tablet when folded
- Comes with an OLED screen, which is nice
- Intel Iris Xe Graphics will play Minecraft and not much else
- Trackpad isn’t the best
Those looking for a 2-in-1 laptop should put the Lenovo Yoga 9i 14 at the top of their list. It’s not quite as technologically advanced as its more expensive sibling, the Lenovo Yoga Book 9i, but it also costs about half as much, so we’re okay with it.
Lenovo Yoga Book 9i review: Seeing double
The Lenovo Yoga Book 9i’s dual display is undoubtedly innovative, but for its price, who is it aimed at?
The Lenovo Yoga 9i 14 includes the battery-efficient Intel Core i7 1360P, which is the latest generation outside of Meteor Lake. The model listed above also comes with 16GB of RAM, 512GB of storage, and it comes in a nice beige color that Lenovo calls “oatmeal.”
Like most ultraportables, the performance is limited thanks to the battery-sipping CPU, but you can watch videos, do school work, write stuff, and even edit photos if you’re into that. It’ll do everything short of gaming and video editing. It comes with a 2800 x 1800 OLED panel, which is surprisingly competitive considering its price. It’s not flawless, but it’s good. We also have a list of the best 2-in-1 laptops if you want some more options.
Apple MacBook Air 13 (M2, 2022)
3. Best ultraportable MacBook
Apple does it right, no questions asked.
$949 $1100 Save $151
Apple makes excellent laptops, and the Apple MacBook Air 13 is one such laptop. It’s efficient, slim, and powerful enough for most tasks at a lower price than larger MacBook Pros.
- Apple’s M2 chip is efficient and fast
- Beautiful screen is easy on the eyes
- Less expensive than other MacBooks
- You’ll need to invest in more Apple products to take full advantage
- 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage is a tough sell these days
We are big fans of MacBooks around here, and the Apple MacBook Air 13 from 2022 is no exception. It’s Apple’s smallest laptop in their current lineup and works surprisingly well as an ultraportable laptop.
Apple MacBook Air (M2, 2022) review: Mac of all trades
The 2022 MacBook Air ticks all the boxes: it’s light, features a robust design and now comes packed with the M2 processor. Here’s our review.
The M2 chip is capable of things like video editing without sweating too much, and the screen, keyboard, and other parts of the laptop just work. It’s the Apple way. The base model’s specs are a bit underwhelming, and upgrading those specs is expensive. After all, 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage fills up quickly in this day and age, and going upwards means spending hundreds more.
That is, unfortunately, the downside to buying Apple products in general. The best specs balloon the price significantly. However, other than that, the battery life is excellent, and it’s fanless, so you won’t hear it when you’re making it run hard.
Acer Swift Go 14
4. Best ultraportable laptop with Intel
The Acer Swift Go 14 is a rock solid laptop
The Acer Swift Go 14 is a solid overall laptop with up-to-date specs. In fact, the next generation is confirmed to have Intel’s upcoming Meteor Lake.
- Good specs for under $1,000
- 100% SRGB screen is good for creative work
- All-day battery life if you regulate screen brightness
- Touchpad and keyboard could be better
- Speakers aren’t great either
The Acer Swift Go 14 is a competent laptop at a fairly reasonable price. You can get these for under $1,000 with the Intel Core i7-13700H, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD. That grants it fairly decent performance.
Acer Swift Go 14 review: Good performance but design disappoints
This affordable ultraportable packs plenty of power and a gorgeous OLED screen. But some design quirks hold it back from being truly great.
In fact, it’s enough to do some light video editing work if you need it. Plus, the battery life lasts all day, provided that you don’t need to max out the screen while working outside. We even like the screen on this one, which boasts 100% SRGB, which means it’s good for many types of creative work.
Of course, some corners had to be cut to get the price under $1,000. For the Swift Go 14, that’s the trackpad, keyboard, and speakers. You’ll want to wear some sort of headphones with these, and while you’ll get used to the trackpad and keyboard over time, it’s not as good as some others on this list. The next generation is coming with Intel’s Meteor Lake, so if you hold out a few months, you can also get the most recent chip from Intel.
ASUS ROG Flow X13
5. Best ultraportable laptop with AMD
A 2-in-1 laptop with plenty of AMD power
$800 $1250 Save $450
The Asus ROG Flow X13 is arguably the ultraportable laptop powered by an AMD Ryzen chip. It checks all the boxes and looks good doing it.
- Can be outfitted with a dedicated graphics card
- The Ryzen 9 5900HS is no slouch in the performance department
- Excellent overall battery life
- Even for an ultraportable, it lacks ports
- Dedicated graphics card options are at least one generation old
The Asus ROG Flow X13 is a very nice 2-in-1 laptop with added gaming capabilities. It comes with either an AMD Ryzen 5900HS or a 6900HS, depending on your configuration. Either way, both are powerful AMD mobile chips, and this laptop can do the work.
Asus ROG Flow X13 gaming laptop review: Tiny yet tremendous
A 13-inch ultraportable with a 2-in-1 design style that’s tiny, lightweight and pretty fascinating. Is it a logical gaming laptop contender though?
When outfitted with the optional Nvidia 3050 Ti, it can even do some light gaming, although we would’ve liked to have seen something a bit more modern. With a graphics card, the price goes up to about $1,300. If you don’t need the gaming chops, you can get it with the integrated Radeon graphics for about $800 when on sale.
The laptop isn’t perfect. In our hands-on, we noted that the fans are situated in such a way that the laptop blows warm air into a person’s lap. Plus, we would’ve liked to have seen more ports. They are fairly minor nitpicks, especially if you use this thing on a desk or a table. It’s a solid overall laptop and arguably the best with AMD hardware.
Razer Blade 14 (2023)
6. Best ultraportable gaming laptop
It can game and it’s arguably the best looking Windows laptop
$2000 $2400 Save $400
Razer Blades are ultra-premium laptops; their smaller variants also make for excellent ultraportable laptops. This one comes with full specs and is ready to game, which means it’s ready to work.
- These things look and feel wonderful
- Comes with powerful, modern gaming hardware
- Bright, colorful, 240 Hz display
- Razer Blades are, in general, quite expensive
- Can get a tad hot thanks to its compact size
Razer Blades are some of the premium laptops you can get, and the 14-inch variant is likely the most powerful ultraportable laptop that you can buy. That comes with a pretty hefty price tag, but as they say, those are the breaks.
Razer Blade 14 (2023) review: A superb, truly portable gaming laptop
This lightweight gaming laptop focuses on portability over raw power, but the results are very nice indeed.
The Razer Blade 14 can be configured with several different processors and dedicated graphics cards so that you can choose the best configuration for you. If you have the money, you can spec it out and get something with top-tier specs. With it, you can do virtually anything. Outside its price tag, there’s very little wrong with the Razer Blade 14, which is good news because you’re paying for it.
It doesn’t come with HDR support, and the case material needs consistent upkeep, so it doesn’t look dingy. Other than that, its compact nature makes it a tad difficult to cool, so you may want to invest in a laptop fan if you intend to have intense gaming sessions. I’ve owned one of these in the past, and it was a great laptop.
Dell XPS 13 Plus
7. Best touch-screen ultraportable laptop
Futuristic and minimalist
$1599 $1692 Save $93
The Dell XPS 13 is a premium ultraportable laptop. It has a striking design, good performance, and excellent build quality. This is one of the nicest laptops you can buy.
- Great design that is futuristic and minimalist
- Great specs that can do most types of work
- The best keyboard of any ultraportable laptop on the list
- Its thin design makes it hard to cool
- Fewer ports than most ultraportable laptops
There just wouldn’t be a list of ultraportable laptops without a Dell XPS somewhere on the list. So, we’re fulfilling the obligation by adding the Dell XPS 13 Plus. There is a lot to like about what is probably the most solidly built laptop on this list.
Dell XPS 13 Plus review: Gorgeous, futuristic and hard to live with
The XPS 13 Plus is a brave redesign of a firm favourite and we’ve been putting it to the test.
It comes with great, modern specs, including 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD. The laptop isn’t great for gaming but is good at almost everything else. We can sing its praises all day, and we did in our review. The keyboard, screen, and design are all fantastic.
However, being a very thin and light laptop has its drawbacks. The laptop has some issues cooling itself so that it can get pretty hot. Additionally, a lack of ports will make connecting your accessories mildly frustrating. It’s also expensive, and you can find several great ultraportable laptops in its price range. Even so, this one is hard to beat if you want a great-looking and feeling laptop.
Microsoft Surface Pro 9 (Wi-Fi)
8. Best small-size ultraportable laptop
It’s a tablet with a keyboard, hugely travel-friendly
$1100 $1600 Save $500
The Microsoft Surface Pro 9 is technically a tablet, but it runs Windows, and you can attach a keyboard to make it a laptop. This makes it one of the most portable laptops you can buy if that matters to you.
- Great design
- Good battery life
- Plenty of power
- More powerful variants can get up there in price
- Thicker and heavier than other tablets-turned-laptop
The Microsoft Surface Pro 9 is worthy of consideration if portability is a big concern for you. The Pro 9 has a 13-inch screen, and it’s essentially a tablet so that you can carry it anywhere. Microsoft sells a keyboard separately that you can attach and turn it back into a laptop. It also comes with decent specs for a device, its size, and good battery life, and we think the design is pretty snazzy. Plus, it comes in a few different colors.
Microsoft Surface Pro 9 review: A master of versatility
The Surface Pro gets equipped with 12-gen Intel Core hardware to give you more power on the move.
To get the full laptop experience, you’ll need to get yourself the detachable keyboard, which adds a bit onto the price. Plus, variants with lower specs come with as little as 8GB of RAM, which just isn’t doing it these days. We recommend looking into the 16GB options at the very minimum.
Other than that, what you see is what you get with this device. It’s not technically a laptop, but one accessory purchase turns it into one while also giving you the option to use it as a tablet.
The bottom line: What are the best ultraportable laptops?
There are several laptops that cover a variety of use cases. That said, we think the Asus Zenbook Pro 14 is about as good as it gets for casual use, but the Razer Blade 14 is the most powerful ultraportable laptop overall. The Lenovo Yoga 9i 14 and the Asus ROG Flow X13 are two of the best 2-in-1 laptops that money can buy. Obviously, Apple fans have the MacBook Air as a perfectly reasonable macOS choice.
If those don’t work, the Microsoft Surface Pro 9 and Dell XPS 13 Pro are notable options, especially if you like good, futuristic designs. Finally, the Acer Swift Go 14 is us calling our shot a little bit. The next generation is coming soon with Intel’s latest chips, so it’ll be an interesting option when it comes out.
Asus Zenbook Pro 14 OLED
Editor’s Choice
How did we choose these devices?
Experience, mostly. We have reviewed every laptop on the list, so in this instance, our expertise helped us make the decisions. As per the norm, editors checked the list before, during, and after writing to ensure accuracy, and everybody agreed that the list was good.
Plus, as a tech blogger of over 15 years, I have used a laptop or two in my time, including the Razer Blade, so it’s not like I’m blowing smoke over here.
What are the benefits of an ultraportable laptop?
Mostly, portability, hence the ultra. These laptops are smaller than average, which makes them easier to transport. To be perfectly honest with you, the ultra part of that word is marketing jargon, but it is what it is. In addition, ultraportable laptops have better battery life than typically sized laptops thanks to their power-saving CPUs and smaller screens. Overall, they make good laptops for collegiate use or on-the-go work where a charger isn’t always available.
What are the downsides of an ultraportable laptop?
There are only a few, but they are notable. For starters, they tend to be thinner than standard-sized laptops, and the thinner a laptop is, the more difficult it is for the laptop to cool itself. Additionally, larger laptops and gaming laptops tend to have higher-end specs, although the Razer Blade 14 proves that isn’t always the case.
In any case, the need for enhanced battery life usually means less powerful, more efficient specs. In general, on average, ultraportable laptops aren’t designed for things like hardcore gaming or heavy tasks like 3D modeling or video editing.
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