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\u2019t simply a selection of the smallest laptops we\u2019ve reviewed. These are our favorite lightweight laptops we\u2019ve tested in the past year, and they span a variety of screen sizes, from 13 to 16 inches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We have a favorite lightweight MacBook and a number of recommendations for the best and lightest Windows laptops. Most are less than 3 pounds, with the heaviest being a 16-inch model that still weighs less than 3.5 pounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The new MacBook Neo<\/a> is incredibly affordable and portable. The Asus ZenBook A14<\/a> is still the lightest 14-inch laptop I’ve tested; it weighs barely more than 2 pounds and supplies a battery life of more than 24 hours. The HP OmniBook 5 14<\/a> weighs a bit more but offers even longer battery life at nearly 30 hours. And the Acer Aspire 16 AI<\/a> is proof that a 16-inch laptop can be ultraportable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our experts have decades of experience testing laptops under controlled conditions in the CNET Labs. In addition to benchmark testing to assess a laptop\u2019s performance, we also perform extensive hands-on tests to assess a laptop\u2019s design and features, including getting an official weight for each one that we review.<\/p>\n\n\n\nBest lightweight laptops for 2026<\/h2>\n\n\n