The best lightweight laptops you can buy: Expert tested

The best lightweight laptop in 2024 is the Apple MacBook Air M3. Portable, powerful, and with a long-lasting battery, the MacBook Air M3 is a versatile workhorse that you can throw in a bag and take with you anywhere you go. The M3's 8-core CPU and 10-core GPU is armed to take on almost anything you throw at it, and the entire package weighs just 2.7 pounds.

The best lightweight laptop for you depends on what you want to get out of it. Laptops packed with powerful gaming hardware like the Asus Zephyrus G14 are going to weigh a little more, while extreme lightweight machines like the LG Gram Pro 17 will have some design tradeoffs that go along with their compact size.

We use a combination of methods to test laptops here at ZDNET. First, we acquire data from benchmarking software to analyze a system's metrics under the hood, and compare those to advertised numbers. Then, we spend an extended amount of time with the laptop (usually a week or two) using it the same way a normal consumer would, in order to analyze its portability, form factor, and how well the battery actually holds up, among others. For an extensive breakdown, check out our comprehensive laptop testing methodology.

• Benchmarking: First, we run a series of tests to put the computer's hardware through the wringer in order to see what it's capable of. Cinebench is one of the most commonly-used hardware testing suites, which tests the laptop's rendering performance on single and multiple CPU cores. PCMark 10 is another powerful program that covers a wide variety of tasks performed in the workplace, and there are many others that we use in tandem to gather as much data as we can. Some components we run tests on include:

• Processor: The "brain" of the laptop, and one of the most important factors that determines performance. The four biggest manufacturers that make most of the CPUs found in laptops today are Intel, AMD, Qualcomm, and Apple (in their own machines only). This is tested in benchmarking software.

• The display: The size of the display (measured diagonally from corner to corner) is also what dictates the laptop's overall size, and play a big role in the laptop's cost. Brightness is measured in "nits", and color spectrums are tested in benchmarking software.

• The graphics processor (GPU): Whether it's integrated into the CPU or a dedicated graphics card, how well the machine handles graphics is a key factor when it comes to demanding visual tasks like video editing, rendering, and of course, gaming. We test the GPU with a combination of benchmarking software, gaming, and media playback. 

• Physical form factor: Finally, the laptop's overall appearance and physical form factor encompasses its weight, thickness, how the keyboard and trackpad feel, and whether or not it has a display that can be folded back to form a tablet. We carry the laptop around for at least a week and note how well it commutes.

• Battery testing: We test a unit's battery in a few ways. A handful of benchmarking programs have their own battery testing components, but we also will just let the laptop run for as long as it can under a medium load. We ensure screensavers and hibernation mode are turned off, set the display's brightness and audio at 50%, load up a livestream on YouTube in Chrome, and wait 'til the end.

• The human element:  As we mentioned earlier, metrics and system data is important, but numbers alone don't give you the full picture. This is where we weave in our personal experience with the device and tap into the practical use cases that consumers actually care about. 
  

Ultimately, our goal is to break down the capabilities of each and every laptop we test into digestible terms that real people can find useful. There is a lot of noise and confusion when it comes to navigating the laptop and computer consumer market, so we hope to bring an intuitive element to the whole process by leveraging our team's decades of experience. 

These laptops all offer solid performance in their own right, but paired with their lightweight design, bring a new level of convenience with their portability. Keep in mind that the differences in their weight here are broken down to tenths of a pound, while most people won't even notice much of a difference between two and three pounds. These other factors went into the decision making process: 

• Display: All of the laptops evaluated here are the 14" versions, except the Gram Pro 17 of course, which is 17-inches and still one of the lightest.
• Battery life: In order to be considered for this list, I considered machines with better-than-average battery life. This is one metric that will vary significantly based on use case, but all of these laptops will easily last an entire workday (eight hours) on one charge, even while undergoing demanding workloads
• Price: Cost is an important factor and will make or break many consumers' choices. The reality is that ultraportability does come at a cost, as none of these laptops would be considered "budget" by any rate. The Acer Swift Go 14, however, is still quite affordable, starting at $800, though upgrades will move that number more in line with the others on this list.
  

The answer to this question is simple: laptops are made to be carried around, and no one wants to carry a heavy computer. Having a thin, lightweight machine opens up its usability and lets you take it places you normally wouldn't consider possible.

Ultraportability does come with tradeoffs, however, both in terms of design and cost. When talking about design, the constraints on manufacturers to squeeze value out of every square inch of space in the laptop means that certain elements may be smaller, lighter, or in non-conventional locations. This especially refers to the laptop's battery, its display, or the laptop's keyboard. 

In terms of cost, ultraportable laptops are often made with high-end, special lightweight materials that are going to cost more to produce and manufacture than simple plastic or aluminum. All of the laptops on this list were chosen for their well-designed, functional form factors and use of lightweight materials.

While every computing platform has its loyal supporters, most people end up using a particular operating system because of key applications running on it, employer preferences, or budgetary constraints. Windows, which ranges from budget to premium, and Apple's MacOS, which is exclusive to premium devices, cover a broad spectrum. Chrome OS is mostly limited to mid-range devices.

Also: Comparing the best Macs: Is a MacBook or Mac Studio right for you?

All Windows devices listed here meet the requirements for Windows 11. If you purchase a device with Windows 10 installed, you will be able to upgrade to Windows 11 if you choose to do so. Note that after October 14, 2025, Windows 10 support will end, and there will be no further security patches or feature updates.

Laptop technology is getting better all the time, and manufacturers are pushing the limits to what is not only possible, but accessible and affordable. As such, there are quite a few alternative options out there for lightweight laptops that weren't included on this list, but need to be mentioned.