Some laptops are designed to be left at home, where they act like desktop computers that you can lug from room to room. Other laptops place a priority on portability, where they are light enough to be tossed in your bag for daily commutes and regular travel, allowing you to return home at the end of the day without sore shoulders. The picks you see here fall into the latter category, but this isn’t simply a selection of the smallest laptops we’ve reviewed. These are our favorite lightweight laptops we’ve tested in the past year, and they span a variety of screen sizes, from 13 to 16 inches.
What is the best lightweight laptop?
We have a favorite lightweight MacBook and a number of recommendations for the best and lightest Windows laptops, including new Copilot Plus PCs based on Qualcomm's Arm-based Snapdragon X processor. Most are less than 3 pounds, with the heaviest being a 16-inch model that weighs a reasonable 3.5 pounds.
Our experts have decades of experience testing laptops under controlled conditions in the CNET Labs. In addition to benchmark testing to assess a laptop’s performance, we also perform extensive hands-on tests to assess a laptop’s design and features, including getting an official weight for each one that we review.
Best lightweight laptops for 2025
Best lightweight Copilot Plus PC Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 (2.96 pounds) Like Beautiful, durable design
Class-leading battery life
Strong performance
Awesome and accurate haptic touchpad Don't like No OLED option
Upgrades get costly and don't include dedicated GPU
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