I’ve tested and reviewed hundreds of laptops—including fancy ultrabooks, cheap Windows laptops, gaming laptops, and Chromebooks—and I’ve written or edited most of Wirecutter’s laptop guides since 2014.

For this guide:

• I combed through hundreds of laptops from every laptop retailer and manufacturer and built an intimidating spreadsheet of all the options.
• In 2024, I’ve tested 35 Windows ultrabooks so far that meet our criteria, ranging from $700 budget options to cutting-edge Snapdragon ultrabooks to $2,000 dual-screen laptops.
• Like all Wirecutter journalists, I review and test products with complete editorial independence. I’m never made aware of any business implications of my editorial recommendations. Read more about our editorial standards.

Ultrabooks are perfect for everyday tasks such as checking and replying to email, editing audio, doing some light photo editing, or collaborating on documents and spreadsheets. But they’re not meant for heavy photo video editing or gaming; if you need a laptop for those tasks, see our guides to the best laptops for video and photo editing and the best gaming laptops. If you prefer macOS, see our guide to the best MacBooks.

If you need a good laptop for less than $500, check out our favorite cheap Windows laptop—though we suggest saving up for our inexpensive ultrabook pick if possible. The ultrabook is likely to last years longer than a sub-$500 laptop due to its better performance and longer battery life.

These are the features we look for in a great ultrabook:

Size: An ultrabook should be thin and light, but a well-built, slightly thicker laptop is better than a thin one that feels flimsy or has poor battery life. We look for ultrabooks that weigh under 3 pounds, have 13- or 14-inch displays, and are compact enough to slip into a backpack.

Battery life: A laptop should last through at least a full eight-hour day of work. But battery life degrades over time—and most ultrabook batteries cannot be easily replaced—so the more a laptop starts with, the better.

Performance: A 13th-generation Intel Core i5 or Intel Core Ultra 5 U-series processor or a 7000- or 8000-series AMD Ryzen 5 processor is fast enough for everyday work. We also tested laptops with all four new Qualcomm Snapdragon X processors in July 2024 and found them all fast enough for everyday workloads—but some apps and peripherals don’t run on them just yet.

We recommend 16 GB of memory for our top pick and 8 GB for our budget pick; a laptop should last at least five years, and RAM is soldered (and therefore not upgradable) in most ultrabooks. Having enough memory will keep everything running smoothly when you’re switching between programs, opening lots of files, and thumbing through browser tabs.

Many ultrabooks now come with a 512 GB solid-state drive (SSD), though 256 GB is a passable amount of storage for a cheaper ultrabook.

Keyboard and trackpad: A high-end laptop’s keyboard and trackpad must be accurate and comfortable to use for long periods of time.

Display: We typically recommend a resolution of around 1920×1080 for a 13- to 14-inch screen, because higher resolutions often aren’t worth the trade-off in battery life. We’ve found that 3840×2160 (4K) screens significantly reduce battery life. Resolutions from 2160×1350 (2K) to 2560×1600 (2.5K) aren’t as hard on the battery, but they don’t provide as much of a noticeable visual improvement on a small display, either. OLED displays have become more common, but they tend to cost more and can be battery hogs.

Webcam: We prioritize models with 1080p or better webcams, and a physical shutter is nice to have.

Build quality: You’re spending a thousand dollars or more—your laptop should reflect that. The lid and hinge should feel sturdy, and no parts should creak or flex.

Ports: We look for ultrabooks with both USB 4 or Thunderbolt 4 ports and traditional USB-A ports to connect older peripherals. Some laptop makers have started omitting the 3.5 mm audio jack, but a strong majority of people we asked still use that port. And because good USB-C chargers are cheaper and easier to replace than proprietary chargers, we prefer that our ultrabook picks charge via USB-C.

Security: We prefer laptops that support Windows Hello login via fingerprint or face, which allows you to log in instantly without having to type in a password every time.

We lived with each laptop for at least a day of work to get a feel for its real-world performance, keyboard, trackpad, and screen. We checked Gmail and Google Calendar, ran Slack, streamed music, worked in large documents and spreadsheets, opened too many tabs for research, streamed video, and chatted on Zoom and Discord. We then lived with each finalist for a few days to gain an intimate understanding of each laptop’s strengths, weaknesses, and quirks.

To test battery life, we set each screen’s backlight to 150 nits and ran a customized version of the Chromium web-browsing battery test. It emulates typical browsing behavior by cycling through web pages, email, streaming audio, Google Docs files, and video.

Recommended configuration

The Asus Zenbook 14 OLED (UM3406) has the best combination of what makes an ultrabook great, offering fast performance, all-day battery life, a quality keyboard and trackpad, and a spacious, vivid screen, all in a thin and light body. It’s less expensive than the competition, too. The Zenbook 14 lasted 14.5 hours in our battery-life tests, an excellent result. But this model lacks a 360-degree hinge and a fingerprint reader, its glossy touchscreen is reflective, and its speakers are mediocre.

We recommend the UM3406HA-WS74T model with 512 GB of storage, but the UM3406HA-PS76T model with 1 TB is also a good option if the cheaper version is unavailable.

It’s highly portable. At 2.82 pounds, the Zenbook 14 is light and compact enough for you to slip it into a bag and take it on a plane or to a coffee shop. In our web-browsing battery tests, our recommended configuration lasted 14 hours 30 minutes—that’s more than enough for this laptop to survive a full day of work or classes.

The comfortable keyboard and large trackpad are responsive and satisfying. The Zenbook 14’s backlit keys feel pillowy and don’t make much noise, so your typing won’t disturb others in a quiet office or library. And its trackpad works well for all swipes, taps, and gestures. But this laptop lacks a fingerprint reader, a convenient security feature that has become standard on ultrabooks in recent years.

The touch display is spacious, vivid, and bright. In our tests, the 14-inch glossy 1920×1200 OLED screen produced bright colors and deep, rich blacks, but it produced a noticeable grainy texture on light backgrounds such as in Google Docs. And although the screen was bright enough to see outside, the glossy display was especially reflective.

The 1080p webcam is decent, but not the best we’ve tested. The Zenbook 14’s 1080p webcam was passable for frequent video calls and worked well enough in low light, but it added an aggressive sharpening effect that made me look pixelated at the edges. Our runner-up, the Lenovo Slim 7i Gen 9 (14″ Intel), had a more flattering webcam image, but the other ultrabooks we tested with significantly better webcams cost hundreds more. The Zenbook 14 has a physical webcam shutter and a button on the keyboard to disable the microphone.

It looks and feels like a premium ultrabook, despite being inexpensive. Cheap ultrabooks tend to feel hollow, and their chassis can creak or flex under light pressure; some are so flimsy that you can accidentally click the trackpad by placing your hands on the palm rest. But the Zenbook 14’s stylish aluminum chassis feels solid and has only a little flex in the keyboard deck. The hinge is tight and keeps the screen in place, and the laptop is easy to open one-handed.

The Zenbook 14 can charge only on its right side, and we wish its USB-C ports would either provide identical performance or be better labeled. At least it offers a convenient combination of USB-C and USB-A ports for connecting a variety of peripherals.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

Its glossy touchscreen is notably reflective. If you need a matte screen, consider the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 12 or our repairable pick, the Framework Laptop 13.

The speakers aren’t great. Most laptops have mediocre speakers, and the Zenbook 14’s harsh, tinny-sounding speakers are no exception. The Lenovo Slim 7i Gen 9 (14″ Intel) and the Microsoft Surface Laptop (7th Edition, 13.8 inch) both have better speakers.

Recommended configuration

If our top pick is unavailable, the next-best option is the Lenovo Slim 7i Gen 9 (14″ Intel). Like the Asus Zenbook 14 OLED, the Lenovo Slim 7i Gen 9 offers fast performance, a full workday of battery life, a 14-inch OLED touchscreen, and a reliable keyboard and trackpad. But the Slim 7i costs a couple hundred dollars more, it’s a bit heavier, and it falls more than two hours short of the Zenbook 14 in battery life.

It isn’t quite as portable as our top pick. At 3.15 pounds, the Slim 7i weighs about a third of a pound more than the Zenbook 14, even though the two laptops are about the same size and have 14-inch displays. Our runner-up lasted 12 hours 15 minutes in our battery-life tests—though it can’t match the impressive battery life of our top pick, it’ll still survive a full day of work.

It has a reliable keyboard and a large trackpad, but it lacks a fingerprint reader. In our tests, the Slim 7i’s backlit keyboard felt a bit snappier and more satisfying to type on than the Zenbook 14’s. Neither model has a fingerprint reader.

The 14-inch touchscreen is bright enough for use outside. The Slim 7i’s display—a 14-inch 1920×1200 OLED screen—is the same size and resolution as that of our top pick, plus it gets a bit brighter and doesn’t produce the same grainy texture. Also like the Zenbook 14, the Slim 7i has a glossy touch display that’s notably reflective.

The 1080p webcam is decent. In our tests, it handled low light a little better than the webcam on our top pick. The Slim 7i also has a physical switch to disable the webcam on the right side, and it has a microphone-mute toggle on the keyboard.

The laptop offers excellent build quality. We found minimal flex in the lid and keyboard, and in our tests the laptop’s rounded edges made it comfortable to handle. Thanks to the lip on the lid, it’s easy to open with one hand.

Like our top pick, our runner-up can charge only on one side, but it has a variety of ports to support a range of peripherals.

If you don’t mind paying extra for a lighter laptop with a more comfortable keyboard and a fingerprint reader, get the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 12. Lenovo offers a variety of configurations to meet various budget and performance needs, but if you upgrade to a higher-resolution OLED display, you can expect its battery life to last a couple of hours less. Aside from its high price and its merely passable webcam, the X1 Carbon is a nearly perfect laptop.

It’s a bit lighter than our top pick, and it offers long battery life. The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 12 is about a third of a pound lighter than the Asus Zenbook 14 OLED, though the two laptops are similar in size. The X1 Carbon lasted 12 hours 58 minutes in our battery-life test—not quite as long as our top pick, but certainly long enough to get you through a full day of work or a cross-country flight.

It has the best keyboard of any laptop we’ve ever used. In our tests, the keyboard was bouncy and responsive—a delightful experience. The X1 Carbon also has a fingerprint reader to the left of its arrow keys for quick logins, a feature that our other picks lack. Its touchpad is quiet, comfortable, and accurate. If you prefer, you can use the red TrackPoint nub in the middle of the keyboard to navigate.

The matte 14-inch display is great for getting work done. We tested the model with a 1920×1200 IPS touchscreen. It produced accurate colors, and its matte surface didn’t throw distracting reflections like our top pick’s glossy screen did.

The 1080p webcam in the base model looks fine, but we wish it were better. Higher-resolution webcams have become more common in the past of couple years, but to get one in the X1 Carbon you also have to upgrade to the 2880×1800 OLED touch display, which takes a couple of hours off the machine’s battery life. You can disable the X1 Carbon’s webcam with a physical shutter, and the laptop has a button on the keyboard to disable the microphone.

The laptop is sturdy and reliably built. The X1 Carbon’s lid feels smooth to the touch, its solid body is made from carbon fiber and magnesium, and its palm rest is comfortable. We didn’t feel any flex in its keyboard or its lid, and it’s easy to open with one hand.

We appreciate the X1 Carbon’s port variety, which is similar to the selection on our top pick. Both of its Thunderbolt ports are located on the left side, though, so you can charge the X1 Carbon only from that side.

Recommended configuration

If you’re an early adopter willing to put up with some apps and devices failing to run in exchange for a more compact laptop with exceptional battery life, we recommend the Microsoft Surface Laptop (7th Edition, 13.8 inch). It’s an all-around excellent laptop, with a comfortable keyboard and trackpad and a vivid touchscreen that gets bright enough for use midsummer by the pool. The Surface Laptop offers top-notch build quality as well, and it lasted 16 hours in our battery-life tests. But promised AI features haven’t launched yet, and some apps and peripherals don’t work with it at all.

It may not run all the apps or peripherals you expect just yet. Because the Surface Laptop’s Arm processor does not use the x86 architecture that has been standard on Windows PCs for decades, the industry is currently in a transition period similar to when MacBooks moved to “Apple silicon” processors a few years ago. Microsoft’s x86-to-Arm app-translation layer, Prism, runs x86 apps moderately well—I experienced some delays navigating channels and typing in Discord, but voice calls worked without issue.

But it’s early days, and some apps and certain peripherals that rely on drivers simply won’t work until a developer builds an Arm version of the software. (And we don’t recommend buying a laptop for what it could do in the future.) At this writing, the Google Drive app doesn’t work, Adobe Premiere Pro is blocked while the company works on an Arm version, and many VPNs don’t work. Some printers and scanners are fine, while others that rely on specific drivers for advanced functionality are not. Razer Synapse cannot see or configure my mouse, and my colorimeter and audio preamp don’t work. Many apps work without issue, but at this stage you’re likely to encounter at least one thing that you simply cannot do.

Don’t buy it for AI—get it for the exceptional battery life. At this writing, the most hyped (and most criticized) Copilot+ AI feature, Windows Recall, has not yet launched, and there’s no must-have AI feature that is exclusive to these PCs. But the battery-life advantages are real: Many of the Snapdragon-based laptops we tested in July 2024 had long battery life, and the Surface Laptop in particular lasted 15 hours 52 minutes in our test. (The MacBook Air with an M3 processor lasted 14 hours 25 minutes in the same test.) Compared with our top pick, the Asus Zenbook 14 OLED, Microsoft’s 13.8-inch Surface Laptop is a bit more compact for slipping into a bag, and it weighs about the same.

It has a comfortable keyboard and a reliable trackpad, but no fingerprint reader. Typing on the Surface Laptop’s backlit keyboard feels satisfying and snappy, and the large haptic trackpad works well for all taps, clicks, and gestures; I don’t love haptic trackpads, but it felt fine after I turned the feedback up to 100% in the Touchpad settings. This laptop lacks a fingerprint reader, but it supports Windows Hello login.

The 13.8-inch touchscreen looks great, and it gets bright enough for use by the pool. The Surface Laptop’s display isn’t quite as large as that of the Zenbook 14, but it comes close, and I never felt too cramped working in documents and spreadsheets.

The 1080p webcam is flattering. It made me look warm and human on calls, unlike others, which often made me look desaturated, blurry, or aggressively over-sharpened. However, the Surface Laptop lacks a webcam shutter or switch to disable the camera when it’s not in use; it does have a keyboard button to mute the microphone.

The sturdy aluminum chassis looks sharp but feels friendly. The Surface Laptop is on a par with the MacBook Air in build quality, which is to say that it’s top notch—the chassis is sturdy, with minimal flex in the lid and keyboard deck.

It has a useful array of ports. You get two USB-C ports, a USB-A port, a headphone jack, and a Surface Connect charging port. In my experience, that last port has been frustrating—it’s far too easy to not quite plug the cable in, and the cable comes out if it’s even lightly jostled. On the upside, this design protects your device if someone trips over the power cord, and the Surface Laptop can still charge via its USB-C ports if you prefer.

Recommended configuration

If you want a more sustainable option, we recommend the Framework Laptop 13 (Intel Core Ultra Series 1). It’s easy to repair and upgrade—even for a layperson—which means you can make the laptop last longer without replacing the whole thing, theoretically saving you money and creating less e-waste. But this promise depends on the company continuing to exist and to supply parts. The Framework Laptop 13 has a reliable keyboard and trackpad, and long enough battery life to last a full day of work. But its webcam isn’t quite as flattering as the webcams on our other picks.

We advise getting the 16 GB configuration or simply adding another 8 GB of memory to the base model and installing it once your laptop arrives. You can also choose from a wider variety of parts, including a higher-refresh-rate display, with the DIY Edition.

Most laptops—especially thin and light ultrabooks—are not repairable or upgradable. Even if you get past the screws and the difficult-to-pry-open chassis, you might have access to the SSD, but the RAM is likely soldered, and you certainly can’t upgrade the processor. When something breaks out of warranty, when the battery wears out, or when you’re ready to upgrade after five or six years, you have to recycle or dispose of the entire laptop—even if some of its parts are still perfectly good.

It’s particularly easy to repair and upgrade. The Framework Laptop 13 is especially easy to open, and upgrading parts feels more like following Lego instructions than wrestling with a complex electronics project. Inside, every part and screw is helpfully labeled, and handy QR codes near each part direct you to step-by-step replacement guides that also contain links to the exact parts you need. You can add more storage and memory, replace the battery, upgrade the mainboard with a new processor, or repair anything else if it breaks—display, fingerprint reader, keyboard, hinge, you name it.

But if the company goes under, the Framework Laptop 13 is suddenly like any other laptop—when it breaks or outlives its usefulness, you’ll have to replace the whole thing. Other companies have attempted to make upgradable laptops in the past and have failed to follow through with parts. So far, though, Framework has lived up to its promise: Every year since the company launched in 2021, it has introduced upgraded parts.

It’s both portable and modular. The Framework Laptop 13 is similar in size and weight to our top pick, the Asus Zenbook 14 OLED.

It offers long battery life, and the battery is easy to replace. The Intel Core Ultra 7 155H model we tested lasted 12 hours 48 minutes in our battery life tests; we expect the Core Ultra 5 configuration to have similar battery life, now that it comes with the larger-capacity, 61 Wh battery. One of the reasons we like to see long battery life is that batteries degrade over time, and most ultrabook batteries are not easily replaced when they wear out. However, the Framework Laptop 13’s battery is easily replaceable, in contrast to our other ultrabook picks.

It’s enjoyable to type on. The keys are quiet, and their travel feels soft and pillowy compared with the snappy sensation of our other picks’ keys. In our tests, the Framework Laptop’s smooth and responsive trackpad worked well for all taps, clicks, and gestures, and the fingerprint reader on the power button worked quickly for every login.

The matte screen looks good but lacks touch input. The prebuilt model comes with a 13.5-inch, 2256×1504-resolution display with a 60 Hz refresh rate. Framework also sells a 2880×1920 display with a 120 Hz refresh rate with the DIY Edition or as a separate upgrade kit for anyone who bought an earlier model (or if you want to add it later). That’s part of the appeal of a user-upgradable laptop—you can make small upgrades rather than replace the entire laptop.

The 1080p webcam works well in different lighting situations. Framework improved the webcam in this iteration, but the new webcam’s image still isn’t as flattering as that of the webcams on our other picks. We appreciate the Framework Laptop 13’s physical switches to disable the webcam and the microphone independently.

It’s sturdy and well made. It’s possible to open with one hand, but that task would be easier if the lip at the front were more pronounced and easier to get purchase on.

You can choose which ports you want. When you check out, you can select any combination of four USB-C, USB-A, HDMI, DisplayPort, and microSD ports, according to your needs. (They’re available in fun colors now, too.) Framework also offers expansion cards if you want to give up a port for additional storage.

If you’re interested in the next-best Snapdragon-based laptop: The HP OmniBook X is the second-best Snapdragon-based laptop we’ve tested so far, just behind the Microsoft Surface Laptop (7th Edition, 13.8 inch). It lasted 14 hours 20 minutes in our battery tests, plus it has a responsive keyboard and trackpad, a useful variety of ports, and an excellent 5-megapixel webcam. But it costs a couple hundred dollars more than the Surface model we recommend, its speakers aren’t great, and its display doesn’t get as bright.

If you’re looking for a Snapdragon laptop with a big, beautiful display: The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x has a vivid, bright 14.5-inch OLED display and is still svelte and sturdy—the whole laptop weighs just 2.82 pounds and offers excellent build quality. It also had superb battery life of 17 hours 10 minutes in our tests, and it provides a comfortable keyboard and a spacious trackpad. But the Yoga Slim 7x lacks a headphone jack and USB-A ports and doesn’t come with any dongles for its three USB-C ports.

At the IFA 2024 trade show, Intel announced its Core Ultra 200V series of processors, which promise improved power efficiency and AI performance that meets Microsoft’s Copilot+ requirements. These new processors will be available in a wave of new ultrabooks, including the $1,400 Dell XPS 13, the $1,500 HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14, the $1,200 Acer Swift 14 AI (SF14-51/T), and the $1,400 MSI Prestige 13 AI+ Evo (A2VMG), as well as the $1,400 Zenbook S 14 (UX5406), $1,000 Vivobook S (Q423), and $1,100 ExpertBook P5 (P5405) announced by Asus. These devices will be available starting in September, and Intel says they will be eligible for Copilot+ features in November.

Qualcomm has announced cheaper eight-core Snapdragon X Plus processors. They will be available in the $850 Lenovo IdeaPad 5x 2-in-1 (14″,9), the $900 Dell Inspiron 14 (5441), and the $1,000 Acer Swift Go 14 AI (SFG14-01). These models will also be available starting in September, and we plan to test them soon.

Acer also announced the $1,200 Swift 14 AI (SF14-61/T) with an AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 processor. It ships in September.

The Asus Zenbook 14 OLED (Q425MA-U71TB) is similar to our top pick, but we experienced aggressive throttling on this laptop’s processor in our testing.

The Dell XPS 13 (9340) has a finicky touchpad and a limited port selection.

Although the Framework Laptop 13 (Intel) is mostly identical to the AMD model, it lasted about an hour less in our battery tests. Since the two versions cost the same and perform similarly on everyday work, we recommend the AMD model instead.

The HP Envy x360 14-Inch 2-in-1 (14t-fc000) costs more than our top pick and lasted five hours less than that model in our battery tests.

The HP Spectre x360 13.5″ (14-ef2023dx) with a 3000×2000 OLED display costs hundreds more than our top pick, and it falls hours short in battery life.

In our tests, the lid of the LG Gram 14″ (14Z90S-G.ARW3U1) flexed under light pressure. This laptop is not available with 16 GB of memory at this writing, and it comes loaded with bloatware.

The LG Gram 14″ 2in1 (14T90S-G.AAB4U1) is a decent thin and light laptop with excellent battery life, but its lid has a concerning amount of flex. It also has a ton of bloatware, and it’s more expensive than our picks at $1,300.

The Microsoft Surface Laptop 5 is bulky due to its large bezel. Its 720p webcam and its battery life aren’t as good as those of our top pick.

The build quality of the MSI Prestige 13 AI Evo failed to match that of our top pick. On top of that, its display is smaller and lacks touch, and its keys are small and cramped.

Budget options

The Acer Aspire Vero (AV14-51-59UW) is heavy, its screen has a sickly greenish cast, and the chassis material feels rough and cheap.

Compared with our top pick, the Acer Swift Go 14 (SFG14-72-53BP) costs more and lasted five hours less in our battery tests.

The Asus Zenbook 14 OLED (Q415MA-U5512) costs as much as our top pick but has less memory, and we experienced aggressive throttling on the processor in our testing.

The HP Pavilion Aero (13z-bg000) has poor battery life, falling six hours short of our top pick. And although it’s super light at 2.2 pounds, it feels flimsy.

At 3.55 pounds, the Lenovo Yoga 7 2-in-1 (14″ AMD) is very heavy. And its display doesn’t get as bright as those of our picks.

The Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 3 has a small, low-resolution display, and its battery life isn’t long enough to survive a full day of work or classes.

Upgrade options

The Asus Zenbook 14 OLED (UX3405) is similar to our top pick but has an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H processor and 32 GB of memory. We experienced aggressive throttling on this processor, and this laptop had about four hours less battery life than our recommended AMD model.

The Asus Zenbook S 13″ (UX5304VA-XS76T) is a 2.2-pound laptop with an elegant brutalist design and powerful specs. It offers a comfortable keyboard, a spacious trackpad, and a variety of ports. But it’s expensive, its battery life is inferior to that of our top picks, and its glossy, non-touch screen is very reflective.

The HP Spectre x360 (14t-eu000) is heavy at 3.19 pounds. It falls hours short of our picks in battery life, and it’s expensive. We experienced intermittent throttling on this model as well.

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 3 is available only with P-series processors, and as a result its battery life fell hours short of what we got from our top pick. The X1 Nano is wonderfully light and compact, but our picks provide more of an upgrade in screen size, port selection, and battery life.

The Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 (13″ AMD) is an excellent laptop with long battery life, but compared with our picks, its display is small, it lacks port variety, and its haptic trackpad feels unsatisfying on its default setting.

For such an expensive laptop, the Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 (14″ Intel) has abysmal battery life, lasting just 9 hours 25 minutes in our battery test. (We test laptops at 60 Hz, and the Yoga 9i’s default refresh rate is 120 Hz, which takes another hour or so off.) The Yoga 9i has an excellent screen, superb build quality, a 5-megapixel webcam, impressive speakers, and a 360-degree hinge. But none of those features are useful if your laptop dies in the middle of your workday.

The P-series processor and 4K OLED display in the Lenovo Yoga 9i Gen 8 made for worse battery life in comparison with our picks. It’s also on the heavy side at 3.1 pounds.

The Samsung Galaxy Book4 Pro (14″) is a perfectly cromulent laptop, but it costs hundreds more than our top picks and isn’t an upgrade in any meaningful way. Compared with our picks, its battery life is hours shorter, it comes with a ton of bloatware, and its speakers are mediocre.

Snapdragon options

The Dell Inspiron 14 Plus (7441) has excellent battery life and is a decent laptop, but compared with the other Snapdragon-based laptops we tested in July 2024, it’s heavier, it doesn’t feel as premium, and its speakers aren’t great.

The Acer Swift 14 AI (SF14-11T) has similarly excellent battery life, but its keyboard and trackpad feel mushy, it comes with a ton of bloatware, and it has a distracting and unnecessary illuminated AI logo on its trackpad.

The Dell XPS 13 (9345) has ridiculous battery life—it lasted 21 hours 31 minutes in our tests—and it’s a thin and light laptop with excellent build quality. But its haptic trackpad continues to be finicky (an issue we’ve experienced on other recent iterations of the XPS 13), and it still lacks a headphone jack.

The Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge (14″) is more expensive than comparable Snapdragon-based laptops we tested, and its 11.5-hour battery life was no match for the superb results we saw from other Snapdragon machines. We also experienced throttling on this model, something that we didn’t encounter on other Snapdragon-processor ultrabooks.

This article was edited by Caitlin McGarry and Arthur Gies.