If you want a great laptop to accomplish everyday laptop tasks, get an ultrabook. Ultrabooks are powerful, thin-and-light laptops with long battery life, which means many of them are good. But not all of them are worth buying.
It’s more difficult than ever to decide which laptop will do what you need for the best price. Laptop companies are making a big push toward AI functionality and have released a flood of new models with new features. But you shouldn’t buy a laptop for AI.
After testing hundreds of laptops over the past decade and evaluating 35 ultrabooks so far this year, we’ve found that the Asus Zenbook 14 OLED (UM3406) is the best Windows ultrabook for most people. And if you’re curious about the wave of new AI laptops, we recommend the Microsoft Surface Laptop (7th Edition, 13.8 inch), with some caveats.
Top pick
The Zenbook 14 offers excellent battery life, a vivid touchscreen, and a reliable keyboard and trackpad, all in a thin and light body. It’s comparatively inexpensive, too.
Recommended configuration
| Processor: | AMD Ryzen 7 8840HS | Screen: | 14-inch 1920×1200 OLED touch |
| Memory: | 16 GB | Weight: | 2.82 pounds |
| Storage: | 512 GB or 1 TB SSD | Tested battery life: | 14.5 hours |
The Asus Zenbook 14 OLED (UM3406) combines impressive battery life with fast performance, a spacious screen, and a quality keyboard and trackpad, all in a thin and light body. It’s comparatively inexpensive, too. Weighing 2.82 pounds, our top pick is compact and light enough for you to take it on a plane or to a coffee shop, and thanks to its excellent 14.5-hour battery life, it will last through a full day of work or class and then some. But the Zenbook 14 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.
Runner-up
The Slim 7i is nearly as good as our top pick, but it costs a bit more, it’s a bit heavier, and its battery doesn’t last quite as long.
Recommended configuration
| Processor: | Intel Core Ultra 5 125H | Screen: | 14-inch 1920×1200 OLED touch |
| Memory: | 16 GB | Weight: | 3.15 pounds |
| Storage: | 1 TB SSD | Tested battery life: | 12 hours |
If our top pick is unavailable, the next-best option is the Lenovo Slim 7i Gen 9 (14″ Intel). Like the Zenbook 14, the Slim 7i offers fast performance, a full workday of battery life, a bright 14-inch OLED touchscreen, and a snappy keyboard and reliable trackpad. But the Slim 7i costs a couple hundred dollars more, it’s about a third of a pound heavier, and it falls more than two hours short of our top pick in battery life.
Upgrade pick
The ThinkPad X1 Carbon is lighter than our top pick, and it has our favorite laptop keyboard and a fingerprint reader. But it’s expensive.
Recommended configuration
| Processor: | Intel Core Ultra 125U | Screen: | 14-inch 1920×1200 (touch optional) |
| Memory: | 16 GB | Weight: | 2.47 pounds |
| Storage: | 512 GB SSD | Tested battery life: | 13 hours |
The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 12 is a nearly perfect laptop. Though it has a 14-inch screen, it remains compact and light, plus it has long battery life, a stellar keyboard, and a convenient fingerprint reader. But it costs hundreds more than you need to pay to get a great ultrabook—and, considering how expensive the X1 Carbon is, we expect its webcam to be better than passable. Lenovo offers a variety of configurations to suit your budget and performance needs, but if you upgrade to a higher-resolution OLED display, you can expect to sacrifice a couple of hours of battery life.
Best for
You get exceptional battery life in an all-around excellent laptop, but some apps and peripherals don’t work with this model.
Recommended configuration
| Processor: | Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus (X1P-64-100) | Screen: | 13.8-inch 2304×1536 touch |
| Memory: | 16 GB | Weight: | 2.96 pounds |
| Storage: | 256 GB or 512 GB SSD | Tested battery life: | 16 hours |
The Microsoft Surface Laptop (7th Edition, 13.8 inch) is an all-around excellent compact laptop with exceptional battery life, but we recommend it only if you don’t mind that some apps and peripherals don’t function properly (for now). The Surface Laptop is thin and light, with a comfortable keyboard, a reliable haptic trackpad, and a vivid touchscreen that’s bright enough for you to use it outside during the summer. It also has top-notch build quality, and it lasted an impressive 16 hours in our battery-life tests. But be aware that promised AI features haven’t launched yet, and some of the apps and peripherals you rely on won’t work at all unless developers build new versions to work on the type of processor used in this laptop.
Best for
The Framework Laptop is the best—and so far only—option if you want a laptop that you can easily upgrade and repair. And it’s a great ultrabook, too.
Recommended configuration
| Processor: | Intel Core Ultra 5 125H | Screen: | 13.5-inch 2256×1504 non-touch |
| Memory: | 8 GB or 16 GB | Weight: | 2.9 pounds |
| Storage: | 256 or 512 GB SSD | Tested battery life: | 13 hours |
If you want a more sustainable option, we recommend the Framework Laptop 13 (Intel Core Ultra Series 1). Unlike most ultrabooks, it’s really easy to repair and upgrade, so you can make the laptop last longer without replacing the whole thing, saving money and creating less e-waste. Keep in mind that if the company goes under, the Framework Laptop 13 becomes just like any other laptop—when it gets old or breaks, you’ll have to replace the entire thing. So far, though, Framework has lived up to its promise: Every year since the company launched in 2021, it has introduced upgraded parts.
The Framework Laptop 13 is an excellent laptop—it’s sturdy, its battery will last a full workday, and it’s surprisingly thin and light for how modular its design is. It also has a reliable keyboard and trackpad, as well as a bright, spacious display. Unlike with our other picks, you can replace the battery when it wears out.
