The 6 best lightweight laptops for back to school

Laptop computers are thinner, lighter, faster, more durable and perform better than ever, yet their prices continue to drop. And the latest laptops now offer cutting-edge artificial intelligence baked directly into the operating system, along with many of the apps you frequently use (like your web browser, email client and word processor).

So, whether you’re a Windows, Apple Mac or Chromebook enthusiast, if you’re shopping for a new laptop that’ll give you an edge during the upcoming school year and beyond, there are some really thin and lightweight options that are available right now — from brands our in-house tech experts know and love.

Pro Tip: Sure, size and weight of a laptop is important for many students, but also focus on other key features, like the laptop’s display resolution, battery life, processor and internal storage, to ensure the computer select will best meet your needs.

Best lightweight laptops for high school and college students

Many of the newest Windows laptops now come with Microsoft’s Copilot + PC artificial intelligence technology built in to the OS, as well as many of the Microsoft 365 and Google apps many students rely upon. 

Meanwhile, the best Chromebook Plus laptops integrate Google AI and Google Gemini that also provide a suite of cutting-edge AI-driven tools. And in September, Apple will release MacOS Sequoia, the latest version of its operating system. It too will include Apple Intelligence — Apple’s collection of AI tools and features.

Best lightweight Windows laptop: Asus Zenbook S 16 (2024)

Out of all the laptops our team has tested lately, the Asus Zenbook S 16 is hands-down the best option for everyday users and students alike. It addition to a sleek and thin design, the laptop’s exterior was inspired by nature. 

For starters, it’s a mere 0.43 inches thick when shut. And the Zenbook S 16 offers a smooth and simple appearance that relies on a durable and water resistant outer housing that’s made from Ceraluminum — a fusion of ceramic and aluminum that’s widely used in the aerospace industry.

Sure, the Zenbook S 16 looks beautiful on the outside, but it’s the inner workings of this laptop that make it to stand out. One highlight is its 16-inch 3K OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate and 500 nits maximum brightness. The laptop is powered using an AMD Ryzen AI 9 processor with a dedicated AI NPU. And for graphics, you get a AMD Radeon 880m GPU.

Combine this with 24GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD for internal storage, along with a quick-charging battery, and the result is a powerful and versatile Windows laptop. The internal six speaker system was co-designed by Harman Kardon. For video calling and other tasks, the Zenbook S 16 has a built-in, 1080p resolution webcam. Plus, the laptop is chock full of ports. 

Even without using the Copilot + PC AI capabilities, this is a standout laptop. However, when you start tapping that AI, this greatly expands how the laptop can be used: composing text, transcribing classes, doing in-depth research, organizing a schedule, making content creation easier, and so much more. The latest AI functionality is just one keypress away, since the laptop has an integrated Copilot key on its backlit keyboard. All this computing power is packaged in a laptop that costs just $1,400. 

Best lightweight Apple MacBook: 2024 13″ MacBook Air with M3 processor

For Apple Mac enthusiasts, you can’t go wrong with one of the newer, 14- or 16-inch MacBook Pro laptops with an M3 Pro or M3 Max processor, but these come with a high price tag. A more affordable and even thinner and lighter option is one of the latest 13-inch MacBook Air laptops. The core configuration of the newest MacBook Air is on sale at Amazon for just $850 (reduced from $1,099).

This MacBook Air is equipped with 8GB of unified memory and a 256GB SSD for storage. Both the memory and SSD can be upgraded for an additional fee at the time of purchase. Choose from four colors — starlight, midnight, silver or space gray.

You can expect up to an 18-hour battery life from the MacBook Air, which is powered using Apple’s own M3 processor. This gives the laptop more than enough power to handle everyday computing tasks. 

The MacBook Air comes with MacOS Sonoma and a diverse collection of apps preinstalled. In September, you can upgrade it to MacOS Sequoia for free. This updated OS will include the latest Apple Intelligence AI functionally. 

Best lightweight Chromebook Plus: Lenovo Slim 3i Chromebook Plus (2024)

A Chromebook Plus looks like a traditional laptop — it’s thin, light and has at least a 10-hour battery life. These laptops are also quite inexpensive. For example, this Lenovo Slim 3i Chromebook Plus is priced under $500.

Why are Chromebook Plus laptops so cheap? They run using the ChromeOS operating system and rely heavily on cloud applications and online storage. So they don’t require the same processing power or storage as a Windows laptop or MacBook. 

If you use cloud applications, like Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Gmail, Chrome, Google Photos, Google Maps, Google Meet, Google Tasks and others, this a Chromebook will handle your everyday computing needs and more with ease. Chromebook Plus laptops also run most Android apps, along with Microsoft 365 apps and all other cloud applications. 

While you still get some offline functionality and local storage without Wi-Fi, to get the best use out of a Chromebook Plus, we highly recommend you have continuous access to a high-speed connection — both at school and at home.

The Lenovo Slim 3i, as its name suggests, is a mere 0.76 inches thick. It weighs just 3.3 pounds and is equipped with a 14-inch FHD display. The computer is configured with 8GB RAM and 256GB of internal storage. For a processor, it relies on an Intel Core i3-N305.

Best lightweight laptop for creatives: Asus ProArt PX13 (2024)

For anyone, including high school or college students, who use their computes for more creative applications, like graphic design, photo and video editing, content creation and CAD work, the Asus ProArt PX13 is a wonderfully thin and portable laptop solution.

Yes, you’ll pay a bit more for this Windows laptop, but it’s souped up with some high-end technology, like a 13.3-inch, 3K (2,880 by 1,800 pixel) resolution touchscreen display with a 60Hz refresh rate. It’s also equipped with 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD for storage. The laptop runs using an AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor with a Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 GPU. 

The ProArt PX13 supports all of the latest CoPilot+ AI tools and tricks. One standout feature is the Asus DialPad. It provides more intuitive and precise control when running creativity apps, like PowerPoint or Photoshop. 

Yet another standout feature is the laptop’s durability. It’s water-resistant and meets MIL-STD 810H military standards for durability and reliability — even in extra high or low temperatures. We also absolutely love that this laptop weighs a mere 3.06 pounds and is just 0.7 inches thick when closed. This makes is easy to carry around in a backpack.

Best premium lightweight laptop: Lenovo Yoga 9i (2024)

For someone who wants a laptop with a larger, 16-inch display and that runs Windows 11 Pro using an advanced 14th Gen Intel Ultra 9 185H processor, the Lenovo Yoga 9i is the laptop for you. It comes configured with a Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 GPU, 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD for storage.

The 16-inch, 3.2K resolution mini-LED touchscreen display offers a super-fast 165Hz refresh rate and has a maximum brightness of 1,200 nits. From this laptop, you can expect an extremely high level of performance, along with fast wireless connectivity using Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3.

Featuring a traditional laptop design, the Yoga 9i is a mere 0.81 inches thick when shut and it weighs just 5.07 pounds. For a sound system, the laptop has a dual speaker system and a built in subwoofer. While this laptop can handle all of your everyday computing needs if you’re a moderate user, it’s also a great option for online gaming. 

The one drawback to the Yoga 9i is that all of its computing power requires a lot of battery power, so the laptop’s battery life is only up to five hours.

Best two-in-one lightweight laptop: Microsoft Surface Pro Copilot + PC

Microsoft’s own lineup of Surface Pro laptop/tablet hybrids just got better with the release of this 11th generation Surface Pro 2-in-1 device. It has the latest Copilot+ AI functionality built in. The Surface Pro offers an impressive 13-inch touchscreen display and runs using the Snapdragon X Plus (a 10-core processor). 

It comes with 512GB of internal storage, but at the time of purchase, you can equip the device with either 16GB or 32GB of RAM. Battery life is up to 14 hours. Built into the back of the Surface Pro is an adjustable kickstand. However, if you want to use this device as a traditional laptop, you’ll need to attach an optional Surface Pro Flex keyboard (sold separately). Otherwise, you’ll need to rely on the virtual, on-screen keyboard.

Meanwhile, if you use the Surface Pro with the optional Surface Slim Pen, you can easily handwrite, draw or annotate on the screen. This means you can use the device as a digital note-taking tool. However, with its CoPilot+ AI capabilities, you can just as easily create an audio recording of your ideas, classes, lectures or meetings, and then have the Surface Pro create a transcription and summary for you.

Is the latest AI worth it for a student?

In a word, yes. You get instant access to an advanced digital assistant that can help you brainstorm ideas, organize your schedule, compose text, edit text you’ve written, create transcriptions of audio recordings, quickly summarize long documents and webpages, make photo and video editing a snap, almost instantly locate any file on your device or in the cloud, and much more.

Every few weeks, Microsoft and Google are updating their AI tools to introduce new features and more powerful ways AI can be used to streamline work. At the same time, AI works behind the scenes to protect your security and privacy when you’re working online. With the help of the Neural Processor that works in conjunction with a laptop’s CPU and GPU, the latest laptops can perform more than 40 trillion operations per second. 

As you shop for the perfect laptop, be sure to also check out our coverage of the best laptops for 2024, our roundup of the new AI-powered Windows laptops, the best gaming laptops for 2024, the best laptops for college in 2024, the best Chromebooks of 2024, the best laptops for high school grads in 2024 and the best budget laptops for 2024. In fact, all of our continuously updated tech coverage is here to help you make the best buying decisions and save the most money possible.