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When you’re looking for the ultimate in portability for your next laptop purchase, you want one of the lightest ultrabooks you can get. Ultrabooks are designed to help you be as productive as you possibly can no matter where you are, which means they need to be as light as possible to fit in any style of bag or backpack. But how do you know which ultrabooks are the lightest in 2023? We have some options in our best ultrabooks list, but first, read this guide to know more.
We decided to find out, so we went to the internet to find the best lightweight ultrabooks with the best features and the highest customer sentiment. After that initial research, we bought the top 10 ultrabooks and started testing them out. During testing, we measured performance, screen quality, and overall build quality. With these features in mind, we chose the Lenovo Thinkpad Yoga 11e as the winner of the bunch. With a unique 2-in-1 laptop configuration, great overall performance, and responsive touchscreen, this ultrabook will last you a long time through all of your computer needs. Keep reading to learn more about the Lenovo Yoga and our other top picks.
Award: Top Pick/Best 2 in 1
WHY WE LIKE IT: The Lenovo Thinkpad Yoga 11e is the most versatile and flexible option on our list of the best lightweight laptops. With a unique 2-in-1 form factor, this compact and portable ultrabook is the best choice for students and frequent travelers.
The Lenovo Yoga 11e was designed to be a versatile and portable laptop. With a unique 2-in-1 design, you can use this ultrabook as either a traditional laptop or keyboard-less tablet. Simply fold the display back by 180 degrees and it will automatically convert into tablet mode with a built-in touchscreen. The best part about this is that the Yoga 11e’s touch display is super responsive, a rare find in a world of convertible laptops.
While the display is great overall, it doesn’t offer full HD resolution, but we were still pleasantly surprised at how rich the display colors were, along with how bright the display could get. We were also really pleased with the overall cool operation. Even during heavy usage, we didn’t experience any overheating. The Intel Celeron processor isn’t the fastest or most powerful of the bunch, but it’s still plenty enough for your daily average use. Check out the best portable ultrabook too.
Award: Honorable Mention/Best Display
WHY WE LIKE IT: The Jumper EZbook 2 features an attractive design similar to premium ultrabooks, a really beautiful display, and an extra-affordable price tag. If you don’t want to spend too much on your lightweight ultrabook, this is the pick for you.
There’s something familiar about the Jumper EZbook 2, and that’s mostly because it’s trying a lot to look like premium ultrabooks like the Apple MacBook Air, Surface Laptop, and Surface Pro. It’s doing a pretty good job too, except for being made of plastic instead of aluminum. And really, that’s the biggest difference between the two. The plastic build can feel a little cheaper at times, but it’s durable and reliable overall. However, this is a great option if you’re trying to achieve a MacBook look without spending an arm and a leg to do it.
One of the best features of the Jumper EZbook 2 is its stunning display. With full HD resolution and bright, vivid colors, you’ll have a great time watching videos or viewing photos with this ultrabook. The EZbook 2 can struggle a little with performance at times, considering it uses a limited 64 GB of flash storage and a lower-end processor, but we found it to be enough power for most basic office and home use. It won’t run games very well at all, so keep that in mind during your research. All in all, the Jumper EZbook 2 is one of the lightest weight and most affordable ultrabooks on our list. Check out the best ultrabook under $500 and compare.
Award: Best Touchscreen
WHY WE LIKE IT: The Dell Latitude E7240 features a lightweight and durable design with plenty of performance to boot, making it a great choice for anyone looking to purchase one of the best ultra-portable laptops you can buy. It’s perfect for both home and office applications because of its overall build quality and high-performing speed.
The act of finding a lightweight ultrabook isn’t difficult in and of itself, but finding the right option for your needs is another story, especially when you’re looking for solid design and fast performance. Here to solve that problem for you is the Dell Latitude E7240. You may not get the most premium specifications here, but you’ll still get a powerful Intel Core i5 processor which is more than enough for most office and home applications.
Perhaps even better than this is the Latitude’s super sturdy design that can handle all the bumps and bruises laptops experience over the years with ease. Unfortunately, the E7240’s battery life is the worst we tested, measuring in at only 5-6 hours of light usage. We were pleased with the touchscreen display though, even in spite of it not being full HD resolution. The touchscreen was responsive and snappy, as well as bright and colorful. With a low price and great features, the Dell Latitude E7240 is a good choice for almost any customer. You might also like the best 2 in 1 ultrabook.
Award: Best Value/Best for Gaming
WHY WE LIKE IT: If you’re looking for sheer power in your lightweight ultrabook, you can’t go wrong with the Latitude E7470. This is the most powerful one we tested and does great with gaming and more process-heavy programs.
Ultrabooks aren’t known for their gaming prowess, and we’re not saying that the Dell Latitude E7470 should be used as your main gaming rig, but it certainly has the guts to take on some light to moderate gaming while you’re on the go. Its ultra-powerful 3.4 GHz Intel Core i7 processor combined with its 256GB SSD, or solid-state drive, makes this ultrabook a force to be reckoned with. It’s no doubt that the Latitude E7470 outpaced all the other ultrabooks we tested on this list.
To top it all off, the Dell also features a beautiful 1080p full HD display. You get a full 14 inches of screen size here (another great option for an on-the-go gamer) with plenty of brightness and colors to make anyone around you jealous. It’s also an anti-glare LCD display, making it all the more valuable for anyone who isn’t using this in the office. But the best part we liked about this Dell ultrabook is its keyboard. We know it sounds kind of funny, but the keyboard can make or break a laptop. The Latitude E7470’s keyboard is responsive and super comfortable. Read about the best value ultrabook for more deals.
Award: Best Budget/Best Battery Life
WHY WE LIKE IT: The HP EliteBook 840 G1 comes from a long line of HP reliability and it’s easy to see that long track record in this lightweight ultrabook. The EliteBook gives you premium build quality and one of the longest battery lives we tested.
Ultrabooks and laptops aren’t necessarily known for their long-lasting batteries, but the HP EliteBook 840 G1 subverts that expectation to give you up to 12 hours of operation. Of course, this battery life can vary depending on the type of usage you experience, but this was the longest battery life of all the ultrabooks we tested on this list. You also get a big more real estate here with a 14-inch display in lieu of the 11 and 12 inches of screen size we see in other models on the list. Unfortunately, the display doesn’t offer full HD resolution, but it still gives you great color accuracy and deep contrast levels.
Now, the added screen size is nice, but it also adds to the HP’s overall weight and bulkiness. This was the heaviest ultrabook we tested, but at 3.7 lbs, it’s still not insanely difficult to lug around. We were ok with the added weight because it gave HP more room to design a laptop that looks and feels like a combination of modernity and tradition. And even better than that is the Intel Core i5 processor you get inside, which is perfect for heavier application usage.
Obviously, the first and most important feature to look for on a light ultrabook is going to be the weight. In general, I prefer anything that’s in the 1.5lb – 4lb range, though none of the ultrabooks listed here go over the high end of the scale.
Other features to keep an eye out for include a high-quality screen, a solid keyboard/trackpad combo, and a roomy solid-state drive to keep all your important files on.
The biggest mistake people can make when trying to go as light as possible and shed all the pounds off their device that they can is sacrificing the actual quality of the device itself as a result.
An Ultrabook doesn’t have to be flimsy or easy to break from a shortfall just because it’s light, which means you should never compromise on cheap plastic shells or low-resolution screens just because you want a device that’s as portable as possible.
Going name brand only can also cause problems since you’re not targeting a solution for your individual needs. Some of the most popular names in the lightweight ultrabook game include the Apple MacBook Pro, Microsoft Surface Book, Asus Zenbook Pro, LG Gram, Acer Swift, HP Spectre x360, and more. While these are good ultrabooks in their own way, the products we tested are best for lightweight and portability.
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