The Best Lightweight Laptops for Maximum Portability in 2025

The Apple MacBook Air mightiness beryllium a acquainted prime for this category, but that's due to the fact that it's truthful well-rounded and satisying that it soars to the apical spot arsenic the champion prime for astir people. The MacBook Air blends portability with show and a minimalist consciousness of benignant to present an fantabulous all-around experience, whether you're getting enactment done oregon binging the latest play of Squid Game with your feet up.

Weighing successful astatine lone 2.7lbs, it's 1 of the lightest laptops successful its class. But that doesn't mean it makes sacrifices connected performance. While professionals volition inactive privation to crook to the MacBook Pro, the M4 processor successful this notebook is much than up to the task for everything from productivity to originative apps similar Adobe Photoshop and Premiere Pro. While astir of its competitors volition person audible instrumentality noise, particularly erstwhile taking connected specified tasks, the MacBook Air remains blissfully quiet. It uses a wholly fanless setup that leverages its metallic assemblage to silently dissipate heat. This plan besides means that determination are nary vents to interruption up its elegantly minimalist aesthetic.

I'm chiefly a Windows user, but our ain Jackie Thomas reviewed the MacBook Air and praised however Apple has refined its classical design. I did walk immoderate clip with the MacBook Air and person been tempted to power ever since this version's merchandise this year. Its blend of fantastic portability and awesome show are simply hard to lucifer with a Windows laptop.

Its different large selling constituent is its multi-day artillery life. If you're taking connected productivity apps, it tin easy past upwards of 12 hours depending connected your settings. For mixed usage that includes video, it tin widen good beyond that. If you're lone utilizing it for a fewer hours a day, a azygous complaint has the imaginable to get you done astir an full week of use.

Just... don't expect it to beryllium peculiarly inexpensive if you task supra the introductory spec. Apple offers a basal exemplary with constricted retention (256GB) and somewhat pared backmost graphics (8-core alternatively of 10-core) for $1,000. If you store astir of your files with unreality storage, it astir apt won't matter, but I'd personally spell for the 512GB mentation (which besides upgrades the processor) for $1,199 for bid of mind.

No substance which mentation you choose, the Apple MacBook Air continues a bequest of excellence successful lightweight computing and is an adjacent amended acceptable if you already person an iPhone and unrecorded successful that Apple ecosystem.

If you're looking for a lightweight laptop but find yourself constricted connected however overmuch you tin spend, look nary further than the Acer Aspire 14 AI. This compact machine offers awesome specs for the terms and a signifier origin that's cleanable for students and anyone anyone other looking for svelte and savings successful one.

Affordable laptops person a estimation for coming with low-spec hardware and underwhelming performance, but with the Aspire 14 AI, it's wide that Acer aimed to impressment with however susceptible it is. While it won't apical immoderate show charts – this is inactive a fund laptop, aft each – it's a large prime for enactment and schoolhouse wherever you'll chiefly beryllium focusing connected productivity and possibly immoderate airy amusement tasks.

Unlike tons of similar-priced laptops (I recovered it astatine $550 arsenic of this writing), the Aspire 14 AI comes with a potent operation of AI-enabled Intel CPU and 16GB of accelerated LPDDR5X memory. Its processor comes with 8 cores arsenic divided betwixt show and efficiency, truthful it's acceptable to instrumentality connected mean creativity tasks similar photograph editing without getting bogged down. The integrated GPU is besides susceptible capable for immoderate airy gaming, if you don't caput dialing down the graphics oregon utilizing Intel's XeSS upscaling.

When it comes to artillery life, it outperforms galore acold much costly laptops for mixed usage (which is however astir radical volition really beryllium utilizing it). It offers astir 15 hours of artillery life. Drop the brightness to astir halfway and premix successful immoderate video, and that pushes person to 20 hours. That a fund laptop falls successful the aforesaid vicinity arsenic the Apple MacBook Air is beyond impressive.

You're not getting an uber-high solution here, conscionable modular 1920x1200, oregon a fancy OLED screen, but you wouldn't expect either astatine this price. For its meager asking price, however, the Acer Aspire 14 AI over-delivers successful conscionable astir each different way.

Image Credit: Razer

When I reviewed the larger 16-inch mentation of this laptop, I was much than a small impressed by however bladed and airy Razer was capable to marque it for the level of gaming show it offered. Now that I've spent clip with the Blade 14, I'm blessed to accidental that it continues that inclination and offers plentifulness of powerfulness for modern, high-spec gaming and entree to each of Nvidia's latest gaming features.

Weighing successful astatine lone 3.6lbs and measuring lone 16mm thick, the Razer Blade 14 tin beryllium equipped with your prime of Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 oregon 5070 and an AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 CPU. Add successful up to 64GB of incredibly accelerated 8,000MHz representation and up to a afloat 2TB of onboard storage, and you person a look for a portable gaming powerhouse.

I was besides pleased to find that the Blade 14 features an arsenic awesome display. It's an OLED – sadly, not a touchscreen – with a crisp 3K (2880x1800) resolution. Simply put, it looks fantastic, and, similar the Blade 16, is 1 of my implicit favourite laptop screens disposable close now. It besides clocks each the mode up to 120Hz for ultra-smooth, ultra-responsive gameplay.

This sleek small rig doesn't travel inexpensive with a terms that starts astatine $2,000 and extends to $2,600 afloat kitted out. Innovation has a cost, however, and that was decidedly indispensable to connection this benignant of show successful specified a thin, airy signifier factor. If you tin brace yourself against the inevitable sticker shock, this slayer compact packs superior portable gaming power. And it's a large MacBook alternate for gamers looking to play PC games connected the go.

If you're looking for a laptop that tin treble arsenic a tablet, the Microsoft Surface Pro 11 should beryllium astatine the apical of your list. It offers a potent blend of high-spec hardware and a large surface that marque this the champion Surface Pro yet. You'll request to prime up the Surface Pro Keyboard and Surface Pen separately, but arsenic a afloat kit, it's a veritable transformer of a lightweight laptop.

I confess, for years I wasn't the biggest instrumentality of Microsoft's Surface 2-in-1 laptops. Their hardware and displays conscionable weren't the champion and rapidly became outdated. With the Surface Pro 11, however, it's the nonstop opposite.

With this release, Microsoft has outfitted the Surface Pro 11 with immoderate genuinely awesome specs. It comes with your prime of Snapdragon X Plus oregon Snapdragon X Elite processors, up to 64GB of DDR5 memory, and a afloat terabyte of storage. Even astatine its lowest hardware configuration, you tin number connected a usage acquisition that's fast, responsive, and should stay truthful for years into the future.

You tin besides prime either an LCD oregon OLED display. If your fund tin agelong to spend it, I highly urge going for the OLED display, particularly if you program to usage the Surface Pro 11 for entertainment. For movies and streaming games online, it's stunning with heavy blacks, vibrant colors, and enjoyable HDR.

There are 2 important things to cognize astir this procreation of Surface Pro. First, the Snapdragon processors are built connected a antithetic architecture than either Intel oregon AMD presently connection with their laptop CPUs, called ARM. Because of this, programme enactment isn't cosmopolitan (although it is precise bully and supports the immense bulk of fashionable programs astir radical volition usage for productivity, creativity, and entertainment). To beryllium definite your circumstantial apps are supported, I urge checking retired the Windows connected ARM compatibility database earlier pulling the trigger connected a purchase.

Second, arsenic I remarked upon successful my review, it conscionable doesn't enactment good for section gaming. In fact, galore of the games we usage for benchmarking laptops wouldn't tally astatine all. That doesn't mean you can't play games connected it, however. Though it whitethorn not person the horsepower to tally astir games locally, it works good with streaming services similar Nvidia GeForce Now oregon Xbox Cloud Gaming.

For a versatile all-in-one solution, the Microsoft Surface Pro 11 is simply a large option. It's easy Microsoft's champion yet and, astatine lone 1.97lbs, besides truthful airy you mightiness adjacent hide you're carrying it!

What should you prime if you request a lightweight laptop that does a small spot of everything? The Asus TUF Gaming A14. At 3.2lbs, this laptop blends fantabulous portability with awesome show and quieter-than-average operation, adjacent portion moving games. It's well-priced and well-equipped to instrumentality connected each but the astir aggravated tasks.

I reviewed the 2024 mentation of this laptop, and it's the aforesaid plan with a mates of constituent changes worthy highlighting. First, the A14 has received a graphics upgrade and present comes equipped with Nvidia RTX 50-series graphics alternatively of the 40-series. The processor has besides been changed, swapping from the AMD Ryzen 9 HX 370 to the Ryzen 7 350. While this is a downgrade, it remains plentifulness almighty for astir tasks you'll instrumentality connected during the time and should let the laptop to tally cooler and adjacent quieter than past generation's model.

Its RTX 5060 graphics paper is capable to thrust astir games connected its 1,600p IPS show astatine precocious settings. This is doubly existent if you instrumentality vantage of performance-enhancing features similar DLSS and framework generation, though isn't a requirement. If you bash tally into an contented wherever show isn't wherever you'd like, stepping down to 1080p provides large gains portion inactive looking large connected its 14-inch display.

Whether you're typing a report, playing a game, oregon watching a movie, the TUF Gaming A14 offers an enjoyable experience. The speakers are amazingly afloat and adjacent though it doesn't person an OLED display, it inactive gets plentifulness bright. It besides runs astatine a brisk 165Hz refresh complaint for creaseless question during games.

The A14 does a small spot of everything and while, yes, determination are laptops retired determination capable to bash productivity oregon gaming better, fewer bash it arsenic good arsenic this azygous fantastic laptop.