If you’re someone who’s always out and about, then having a laptop with immense portability is of paramount importance – that’s where the best ultrabooks come in.
As much as the term ‘ultrabook’ was coined by Intel, in recent times it has been termed to mean a laptop that’s light, thin and easy to take with you when travelling. That’s why our ranking includes laptops from all corners that use an AMD, Intel or Apple Silicon chip.
We’ve honed in on options our experts have extensively tested that weigh less than 1.5kg, or are thinner than 20mm. Most of these choices are going to have a screen size of 14 inches or smaller, apart from one or two surprising exceptions that you’ll see when you scroll down.
Our team of experts have reviewed countless laptops that meet these criteria, but we’ve picked out the very best options here to help narrow down your search. Every laptop we’ve reviewed has been tested for at least a week. We’ve not only taken into consideration the design but also tested the performance via benchmark software and measured the screen quality with professional equipment.
If you’re looking for a different type of laptop, though, then it’s worth having a look at our other guides, such as Best Student Laptop, Best Budget Laptop, Best Chromebook and Best Gaming Laptop. Alternatively, if you’re loyal to a specific brand, then we also have dedicated guides such as Best MacBook, Best Asus Laptop, Best Microsoft Surface Laptop, Best Acer Laptop, Best Dell Laptop and Best Huawei Laptop.
Best ultrabooks at a glance
SQUIRREL_ANCHOR_LIST
Learn more about how we test laptops
Every laptop we review goes through a series of uniform checks designed to gauge key things including build quality, performance, screen quality and battery life.
These include formal synthetic benchmarks and scripted tests, plus a series of real world checks, such as how well it runs the most frequently used apps.
We also make sure to use every laptop we review as our primary device for at least a week to ensure our review is as accurate as possible.
Pros
- Super light and stylish
- Beefy performance
- Excellent endurance
Pros
- Lower starting price makes it surprisingly excellent value
- All models have at least 16GB RAM
- Excellent performance
- Fantastic battery life
Cons
- The screen is starting to show its age
- Small port selection
- More fun colours would be nice
Pros
- Easy to assemble and customise
- Decent power with Ryzen AI 7 350 processor
- Solid look and feel
Cons
- Quite expensive for its specs
- Battery life not as strong as key rivals
Pros
- Sublime OLED display
- Lunar Lake supplies decent performance
- Decent battery life
Cons
- Expensive
- Battery life is stronger on comparably-priced rivals
Pros
- Lightweight, sleek chassis
- Decent power for a Chromebook
- Excellent endurance
Cons
- Screen lacks some detail
- Speakers are a little thin
Pros
- Immensely lightweight and portable
- Sublime battery life
- Solid port selection
Cons
- Key rivals can offer more power
- Rather expensive
Pros
- Good looks and build
- Tactile keyboard
- Excellent display
- Solid productivity performance
Cons
- Meagre port selection
- Lower battery life than expected
-
Super light and stylish
-
Beefy performance
-
Excellent endurance
Despite its 16-inch display, the Asus Zenbook A16 is impressively lightweight and surprisingly slim too. Backed up with Qualcomm’s 18-core Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme chip, 48GB of RAM and 1TB of storage, the Zenbook A16 is easily one of the most appealing ultrabooks available.
At its thickest, the Zenbook A16 measures just 16.5mm and drops down to just 13.8mm. Not only is this especially slender, but it hasn’t negatively impacted the laptop’s port selection either, with two USB-Cs, an HDMI, headphone jack, USB-A and a full-size SD card reader too.
Weighing just 1.2kg the Zenbook A16 is impressively light and, as a result, is easy to carry around and doesn’t feel hefty in hand either. This is partly thanks to Asus’ use of its own ceralumium chassis, which is a mix of ceramic and aluminium.
Its 16-inch OLED panel is fitted with a 3K (2880×1800) resolution and 120Hz refresh rate, which is a big improvement over the Asus Zenbook A14. Naturally as an OLED, you can expect fantastic colour accuracy that we found covered 100% of both the sRGB and DCI-P3 gamuts. We even recorded Adobe RGB coverage at 94%, making this screen ideal for more colour-sensitive workloads.
Under the hood is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme processor, which boasts such Geekbench scores that are comparable to Apple’s Silicon. In addition, the chip’s improved Adreno iGPU brings it more in line with recent iGPUs found in x86-based laptops too.
Otherwise, the Zenbook A16 comes with Windows 11 installed and, thanks to its processor, has enough AI power to be classified as a Copilot+ PC. We also especially appreciated the lack of bloatware within the PC.
Equipped with a 70Whr battery, we found the Zenbook A16 could last for 19 hours and 17 minutes before needing a top up, making it easily one of the longest-lasting 16-inch laptops we’ve reviewed. Sure, it doesn’t quite reach the LG Gram Pro 16’s level, but it certainly trumps the Zenbook S 16 and Acer Swift 16 AI.
If you have the budget and want a powerful laptop with a large and vibrant display, that’s still impressively lightweight, then the Asus Zenbook A16 is a hard option to beat.
-
Lower starting price makes it surprisingly excellent value
-
All models have at least 16GB RAM
-
Excellent performance
-
Fantastic battery life
-
The screen is starting to show its age
-
Small port selection
-
More fun colours would be nice
The Apple MacBook Air M4 carries on Apple’s longstanding tradition of offering sublime lightweight laptops, taking it to the next stage of its evolution.
The M4 chip inside provides some fantastic performance that allows for everything from web browsing and multitasking without breaking a sweat, right through to editing 4K video without much trouble. With this and the sustained optimisation of games for macOS, it’s even possible to use this latest-gen MacBook Air for a spot of gaming.
The base MacBook has seen a move to 16GB of unified memory from the 8GB of old, which helps the Air to feel even more powerful and gives more headroom for multitasking and intensive loads. More expensive models can be kitted out with 32GB if you’ve got cash to spare.
Thanks to the move to M4, it yields even stronger battery life out of this new MacBook Air in our testing. During our time with the device, we were able to get through an intensive work day and still have a third charge left in the tank.
The MacBook Air M4 retains the same 60Hz LCD panel as its predecessors, which is a decent one, although it can feel a little long in the tooth against the other options here with high-res OLEDs. In addition, the port selection isn’t too great, so you’ll be carrying around a dongle with you for most of the day.
If you can get past these issues though, the MacBook Air M4 is easily the most complete model in the Air lineup to date, and that’s why it earns a rightful spot here.
-
Easy to assemble and customise
-
Decent power with Ryzen AI 7 350 processor
-
Solid look and feel
-
Quite expensive for its specs
-
Battery life not as strong as key rivals
If repairability and customisation are integral for you, then there is an ultrabook well-suited to your needs – enter the Framework Laptop 13 (2025).
This is a laptop that tips the scales at just 1.3kg and is 15.95mm thick, and is as configurable as you want it to be. The ports are modular, and you can swap them in and out as you see fit, with everything from USB-C to USB-A and Ethernet on offer, while its aluminium frame ensures a solid finish that doesn’t weigh a ton.
The Framework Laptop 13 (2025) either comes pre-assembled or as a kit that takes around 20 minutes to put together, in our experience, with just a T5 screwdriver. It requires you to install the RAM, storage and attach the keyboard tray and bezel before setting it up as a Windows desktop.
You get a choice of operating systems, with either Windows 11, Arch or Fedora Linux distros. Going with Windows with the new Ryzen AI 300 model means you have to use Rufus to create a bootable Windows installer and set it up that way – it took longer for Windows to work than to build the laptop. It means you have an operating system that you can configure, though, which is nice.
There is also plenty of power under the hood, with our tested sample shipping with the midweight Ryzen 7 AI 350 chip that offers surprisingly excellent single and multi-core performance that hangs with bigger-brand laptops. The RAM and storage config depend on what you select or provide yourself, so you can dial it in to your needs.
You can pay an extra £130/$130 to upgrade the Framework Laptop 13 (2025)’s screen to an option with a higher resolution and refresh rate for more detail and smoother on-screen action. We found it to be a price worth paying, with a panel that provided punchy brightness and fantastic colours, alongside good black levels and contrast for an IPS screen.
The 10 and a half hours measured in our battery life test might not set the world alight, but it means the Framework Laptop 13 (2025) will go all day before you need to plug it into the mains.
The only other small issue is its price at nearly £2000/$2000 for the spec we were sent, which can buy you ultrabooks with innovative materials, OLED screens and longer endurance, as you’ll find elsewhere on this list. However, none of them have the infinite repairability and customisation that this Framework option does.
-
Sublime OLED display
-
Lunar Lake supplies decent performance
-
Decent battery life
-
Expensive
-
Battery life is stronger on comparably-priced rivals
The HP Omnibook Ultra Flip provides you with the flexibility of a compact laptop with a responsive touchscreen on a small, but svelte package.
We’ve got a deep blue metal chassis that weighs just 1.34kg and is equally stylish as it is solid. It might be a little too thin for its own good, though, as it means ports are limited to three Thunderbolt 4 USB-Cs and a headphone jack. As with modern MacBook Airs, you’ll probably need a dongle. At least there is a wonderfully tactile keyboard and slick trackpad.
There is a gorgeous 14-inch 3K resolution OLED screen that delivers the goods when it comes to a striking viewing experience. It’s got virtually infinite contrast and the signature deep, inky blacks we expect from an OLED, while also being colour accurate, and a responsive touchscreen for tablet use.
The Intel Core Ultra 7 256V chip inside has good single and okay multi-core performance in our benchmark testing, and comes with a much more powerful set of integrated graphics against Snapdragon X Elite-powered models. In addition, with a more conventional laptop form factor, it also isn’t throttled in the same way the likes of the Asus ProArt PZ13 are due to their tablet-style chassis.
We also found the Omnibook Flip to last nearly 15 hours in the battery test, putting it right in the mix against its key rivals, and meaning you can spend upwards of two working days away from the mains.
-
Lightweight, sleek chassis
-
Decent power for a Chromebook
-
Excellent endurance
-
Screen lacks some detail
-
Speakers are a little thin
The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus hits all the right notes if you want a laptop that’s as lightweight and agile as its operating system.
Chromebooks remain solid choices if you want a laptop that’s ideal for productivity use and basic multitasking, and Samsung’s Galaxy Chromebook Plus also benefits from even more clever software features. Being a Chromebook Plus laptop also means this Samsung option has some nifty AI features, bringing over the Magic Eraser tech from Google’s Pixel phones as well as live translated captions and auto-framing and background blur tech for the webcam when in Google Meet scenarios.
It weighs just 1.17kg, easily making it one of the most portable Chromebooks we’ve tested. The larger 15.6-inch screen is unusual for a laptop with such a low weight, also giving you the benefit of more screen real estate. For good measure, you’ll also find a competent port selection, a snappy and tactile keyboard, and a smooth trackpad to make navigation a breeze.
The 10-core Intel Core 5 120U processor provides ample power for the kind of work this Chromebook is likely to undertake, and posted fantastic scores in our Geekbench 6 test. In fact, the Galaxy Chromebook Plus’s scores were in line with more expensive Windows laptops such as the Asus Zenbook A14. There is also a decent set of 256GB storage, and while the 8GB of RAM might seem stingy in 2025, it’s fine for the workloads you’re likely to undertake.
In a video loop test, it was also able to last for 15 and a half hours or so before conking out, giving you all-day battery life. Against laptops that are a lot more expensive than this one, it’s brilliant.
-
Immensely lightweight and portable
-
Sublime battery life
-
Solid port selection
-
Key rivals can offer more power
-
Rather expensive
The LG Gram Pro 16 continues the South Korean brand’s penchant for providing lightweight and powerful machines as part of their famed Gram lineup – it seemed a no-brainer to include this well-reviewed latest option in this ranking.
A lot of that is down to the fact that it comes with a magnesium frame that weighs just 1.2kg – for a 16-inch laptop, that’s virtually unheard of otherwise. It can lead to some flexing under pressure, but it isn’t too much. With that weight and the slender 12.8mm thickness in mind, LG hasn’t skimped on ports, with this laptop coming with a pair of USB4 Type-C ports, a full–size HDMI, two USB-As and a headphone jack. The full-size layout keyboard has a snappy, but short travel – some may prefer a longer travel – while the trackpad is decently sized and smooth under finger,
You can get this laptop in an OLED screen variant if you wish, although our sample came with a high-res IPS one instead. It’s a 2560×1600 resolution 144Hz screen with variable refresh rate tech that delivers on a bright and punchy experience with decent depth and contrast alongside fantastic colour accuracy for an IPS panel.
The Intel Core Ultra 7 258V chip inside provides decent performance with strong single-core performance in the Geekbench 6 and Cinebench R23 tests, although again, the lack of any hyperthreading befalls Intel with multi-threaded performance against AMD and Apple’s chips. There is also a fast 1TB SSD and plenty of fast DDR5 RAM headroom on hand with 32GB.
The Gram Pro 16 also wins out in this list for battery life, lasting for 21 hours and 10 minutes in the PCMark 10 battery test. This means it’ll easily last for two days on a charge before needing to be plugged back in, and you can take it away with you and put endurance concerns to the back of your mind.
-
Good looks and build
-
Tactile keyboard
-
Excellent display
-
Solid productivity performance
-
Meagre port selection
-
Lower battery life than expected
Not everyone can afford to splash out on the most expensive productivity laptop, which is why we’ve made sure to include one of the best budget ultrabooks on the market right now: the HP Chromebook x2 11.
This comes with a two-in-one design, allowing it to be used as both a tablet and a laptop. The tablet portion of the Chromebook x2 11 felt very solid to use and the detachable keyboard and rear cover attach via magnets, allowing for a secure connection during use.
The keyboard itself offered solid travel and a decent level of tactility, unlike some more affordable Chromebooks that we have tried. The downside is that it has been squished down to fit into an eleven-inch tablet chassis, so it might be an adjustment for those currently using a larger laptop. Thankfully, the touchpad offered excellent real estate for your fingers and provided some tactile feedback, even if it did feel a little hollow on occasion.
The 11-inch display comes with an impressive Quad HD (1440p) resolution and a quoted 400 nits of brightness. It managed to produce some excellent detail with generally vibrant images and solid colours while streaming video content.
Inside the Chromebook x2 11 is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7c processor. This chip is a couple of years old, but it provides enough power for day-to-day tasks that Chromebooks are designed for; the laptop didn’t falter with multiple tabs open or during our industry-standard benchmark tests.
FAQs
Intel originally coined the word to represent lightweight Windows laptops with a speedy performance provided by Intel Core chips. But the term has since been adopted by the wider market to represent any productivity laptop that is light and slender. For this list, we’ve set our own criteria: every laptop needs to have a screen size 14 inches or smaller, weigh no more than 1.5kg and be thinner than 20mm when closed. Both MacBooks and Chromebooks can be included as long as they meet those criteria.
Ultrabooks are great for on-the-go work since they’re light and small enough to carry around in a compact bag. If you frequently take your laptop to work or university, you’ll want an ultrabook that doesn’t add unnecessary weight.
Ultrabooks are usually not built for gaming, as dedicated GPUs generally weigh a lot. There are of course exceptions, such as the Asus ROG Flox X13, but you still not going to get a high-end gaming performance by opting for an ultrabook. You can still use cloud-streaming services such as GeForce Now, Google Stadia and Game Pass Ultimate though.
Test Data
| Asus Zenbook A16 (2026) | Apple MacBook Air M4 | Framework Laptop 13 (2025) | HP Omnibook Ultra Flip | Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus | LG Gram Pro 16 | HP Chromebook x2 11 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCMark 10 | – | – | 7291 | 6431 | – | 7243 | – |
| UL Procyon photo editing | – | – | – | – | – | -4 | – |
| Cinebench R23 multi core | 14569 | 11863 | 11948 | 8189 | – | 9583 | – |
| Cinebench R23 single core | 1579 | 2159 | 1949 | 1655 | – | 1927 | – |
| Geekbench 5 single core | – | – | – | – | – | – | 602 |
| Geekbench 5 multi core | – | – | – | – | – | – | 1694 |
| Geekbench 6 single core | 3711 | 3748 | 2887 | 2733 | 1947 | 2756 | 793 |
| Geekbench 6 multi core | 21940 | 14664 | 12935 | 10999 | 7080 | 10939 | 1876 |
| 3DMark Time Spy | 4317 | – | 2719 | 3824 | – | 4262 | – |
| CrystalDiskMark Read speed | 7101.27 MB/s | 2833.5 MB/s | 7002.83 MB/s | 7040.38 MB/s | – | 7133.66 MB/s | – |
| CrystalDiskMark Write Speed | 5739.05 MB/s | 2728.6 MB/s | 6308.00 MB/s | 5570.52 MB/s | – | 6487.43 MB/s | – |
| Brightness (SDR) | 467.4 nits | – | 500 nits | 369.9 nits | – | 419.5 nits | – |
| Brightness (HDR) | 1000 nits | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Black level | 0.01 nits | – | 0.25 nits | 0.01 nits | – | 0.21 nits | – |
| Contrast ratio | 34100:1 | – | 1390:1 | – | – | 1380:1 | – |
| White Visual Colour Temperature | 6600 K | – | 7100 K | 6600 K | – | 7300 K | – |
| sRGB | 100 % | – | 100 % | 100 % | – | 100 % | – |
| Adobe RGB | 94 % | – | 77 % | 93 % | – | 87 % | – |
| DCI-P3 | 100 % | – | 81 % | 100 % | – | 98 % | – |
| PCMark Battery (office) | 19.25 hrs | – | 10.5 hrs | 14.75 hrs | – | 21.2 hrs | – |
| Battery discharge after 60 minutes of online Netflix playback | 2 % | – | 11 % | 6 % | 7 % | 5 % | – |
| Battery recharge time | 95 mins | – | 106 mins | 85 mins | 112 mins | 108 mins | – |
| Cyberpunk 2077 (Quad HD) | 16.69 fps | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Cyberpunk 2077 (Full HD) | 28.24 fps | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Cyberpunk 2077 (Full HD + RT) | 4.33 fps | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Returnal (Quad HD) | 24 fps | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Returnal (Full HD) | 31 fps | – | – | – | – | – | – |
Full Specs
| Asus Zenbook A16 (2026) Review | Apple MacBook Air M4 Review | Framework Laptop 13 (2025) Review | HP Omnibook Ultra Flip Review | Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus Review | LG Gram Pro 16 Review | HP Chromebook x2 11 Review | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK RRP | £2099.99 | £999 | £1974 | – | £749 | £1799.98 | £499.99 |
| USA RRP | $1999.99 | $999 | $1953 | – | $700 | $2299.99 | – |
| CPU | Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme | Apple M4 | AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 | Intel Core Ultra 7 256V | Intel Core 5 120U | Intel Core Ultra 7 258V | Qualcomm Snapdragon 7c |
| Manufacturer | Asus | Apple | – | HP | Samsung | LG | HP |
| Screen Size | 16 inches | 13.6 inches | 13.5 inches | 14 inches | 15.6 inches | 16 inches | 11 inches |
| Storage Capacity | 1TB | 256GB, 512GB, 1TB, 2TB | 2TB | 512GB, 1TB, 2TB | 256GB | 1TB | 128GB |
| Front Camera | 1080p webcam | 12MP | 1080p webcam | 1080p | 1080p webcam | 1080p webcam | 5MP |
| Battery | 70 Whr | 53.8 mAh | 60 Whr | 59 Whr | 68 Whr | 77 Whr | – |
| Battery Hours | 19 17 | – | 10 31 | 14 46 | 15 25 | 21 10 | 8 16 |
| Size (Dimensions) | 353.5 x 242.4 x 16.5 MM | 30.41 x 21.5 x 1.13 CM | 296.63 x 228.98 x 15.85 MM | 313.7 x 216.2 x 14.9 MM | 225.8 x 355.8 x 9.8 MM | 357.7 x 251.6 x 12.9 MM | 252.5 x 176.8 x 7.62 MM |
| Weight | 1.2 KG | 1.24 KG | 1.3 KG | 1.34 KG | 1.17 KG | 1.2 KG | 1.03 KG |
| ASIN | – | B0DZD958Z8 | – | – | – | – | B0999LTYSL |
| Operating System | Windows 11 | macOS | Windows 11/Fedora/Arch Linux | Windows 11 | ChromeOS | Windows 11 | ChromeOS |
| Release Date | 2026 | 2025 | 2025 | 2024 | 2024 | 2025 | 2021 |
| First Reviewed Date | 27/03/2026 | 16/04/2025 | 01/06/2025 | 24/09/2024 | 15/03/2025 | – | 04/08/2023 |
| Resolution | 2880 x 1800 | 2560 x 1664 | 2880 x 1920 | 2880 1 1800 | 1920 x 1080 | 2560 x 1600 | 2560 x 1440 |
| HDR | Yes | – | – | Yes | – | – | – |
| Refresh Rate | 120 Hz | 60 Hz | 120 Hz | 120 Hz | 60 Hz | 144 Hz | 60 Hz |
| Ports | 2x USB-C, 1x HDMI, 1x 3.5mm headphone jack, 1x USB-A | MagSafe 3 charging port, 3.5mm headphone jack, 2x Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C) ports with support for: Charging DisplayPort Thunderbolt 4 (up to 40Gb/s) USB 4 (up to 40Gb/s) | 3x USB-C, 1x USB-A | 2 Thunderbolt 4 with USB Type-C | 1 HDMI 2 USB Type-C 1 USB3.2 MicroSD Multi-media Card Reader 1 Headphone out/Mic-in Combo | 2x USB4 Type-C, 1x HDMI, 2x USB-A, 1x 3.5mm combo jack | USB-C x2, Micro SD |
| Audio (Power output) | – | – | 4 W | – | – | 6 W | – |
| GPU | Qualcomm Adreno | Apple M4 | AMD Radeon 8060 iGPU | Intel Arc 140V | – | Intel Arc 140V iGPU | – |
| RAM | 32GB | 16GB, 32GB | 32GB | 16GB, 32GB | 8GB | 32GB | 8GB |
| Connectivity | – | Wi‑Fi 6E (802.11ax), Bluetooth 5.3 | Wifi 7 | – | Wifi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3 | Wifi 7, Bluetooth 5.4 | WiFI 6, Bluetooth 5.0 |
| Colours | Sandstone | Sky Blue, Silver, Starlight, Midnight | – | Atmospheric blue, Eclipse gray | Blue | – | – |
| Display Technology | OLED | LED | IPS | OLED | OLED | IPS | – |
| Screen Technology | – | IPS | IPS | IPS | – | IPS | – |
| Touch Screen | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| Convertible? | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes |
