Our pick
The Spectre x360 offers excellent battery life, a tall touchscreen, and a reliable keyboard and trackpad. It’s also thin and light enough to slip in a bag and take anywhere.
Recommended configuration
| Processor: | Intel Core i5-1335U or Core i7-1355U | Screen: | 13.5-inch 1920×1280 touch |
| Memory: | 16 GB | Weight: | 3.01 pounds |
| Storage: | 512 GB SSD | Tested battery life: | 10.5 hours |
The HP Spectre x360 13.5″ has excellent battery life combined with fast performance, a spacious screen, a quality keyboard and trackpad, and the best webcam we tested this year. At 3 pounds, our pick is compact and light enough to take on a plane or to a coffee shop. It also has a 360-degree hinge that allows you to flip the touch display around, and some—but not all—models come with an active stylus. The Spectre x360 does ship with an excessive amount of bloatware, but that’s easy enough to uninstall.
Runner-up
The Yoga 6 is nearly as good as our top pick, but its display is a bit smaller and a bit dimmer, and its webcam isn’t as high-def.
Recommended configuration
| Processor: | AMD Ryzen 7 7730U | Screen: | 13.3-inch 1920×1200 touch |
| Memory: | 16 GB | Weight: | 3.02 pounds |
| Storage: | 512 GB SSD | Tested battery life: | 10.5 hours |
If our top pick is unavailable, the next best option is the Lenovo Yoga 6 (13″ AMD). Like the Spectre x360, the Yoga 6 offers fast performance, long battery life, a reliable keyboard and trackpad, and a 360-degree hinge. But the Yoga 6’s slightly smaller screen doesn’t get as bright, its 1080p webcam isn’t as high-quality, and it’s harder to open with a single hand.
We recommend the Yoga 6 with a Ryzen 7 7730U and 16 GB of memory. But if you’re working with a limited budget and you see the Ryzen 5 7530U model with 8 GB of RAM on sale for cheaper than our budget pick, go for it.
Budget pick
The Zenbook 14 is the best laptop you can get for the price. But its build quality isn’t as nice, and it won’t perform as well in a few years as our top picks.
This version of the Zenbook 14 performs just as well as our top pick, but it costs a couple hundred dollars more than the base model.
Recommended configuration
| Processor: | AMD Ryzen 5 7530U or Ryzen 7 7730U | Screen: | 14-inch 2880×1800 OLED touch |
| Memory: | 8 GB or 16 GB | Weight: | 3.06 pounds |
| Storage: | 256 GB or 512 GB SSD | Tested battery life: | 10.5 hours |
If you want a great ultrabook but don’t have a thousand dollars to spend, we recommend the Asus Zenbook 14″ OLED (UM3402YA-WS51T). This base model of the Zenbook 14″ won’t perform as well for as many years as the Spectre x360, but the UM3402YA-WS74T version with more memory will, if you can spend a little more.
Compared with our top pick, the Zenbook 14″ is bulkier and feels cheaper—though it isn’t as flimsy as other budget ultrabooks—and its webcam isn’t as high quality. But the Zenbook 14″ is still portable, and its battery will last a full day of work or classes. Our budget pick has a fingerprint reader, comes with a USB-C charger, and its touchpad can double as a number pad, which is a fun bonus.
Also great
The Framework Laptop is the best—and so far only—option if you want a laptop you can easily upgrade and repair. And it’s a great ultrabook, too.
The Intel version of the Framework Laptop 13 has shorter battery life, but it’s otherwise identical to the AMD model.
Recommended configuration
| Processor: | AMD Ryzen 5 7640U or Intel Core i5-1340P | Screen: | 13.5-inch 2256×1504 non-touch |
| Memory: | 8 GB or 16 GB | Weight: | 2.9 pounds |
| Storage: | 256 GB SSD | Tested battery life: | 10.5 hours (AMD) |
If you want a more sustainable option, we recommend the Framework Laptop 13 (AMD). Unlike most ultrabooks, it’s really easy to repair and upgrade. This means you can make the laptop last longer without replacing the whole thing, saving you money and creating less e-waste. But if the company goes under, then the Framework Laptop 13 is just like any other laptop—when it gets old or breaks, you’ll have to replace the whole thing. So far, though, Framework has lived up to its promise: Every year since it launched in 2021, the company has introduced upgraded parts.
The Framework is an excellent laptop—it’s sturdy, and surprisingly thin and light for how modular its design is. It also has a reliable keyboard and trackpad and a bright, spacious display. The AMD Ryzen 5 model has battery life in line with our top pick, while the Intel version’s battery life is shorter. And unlike our other picks, you can replace or upgrade the battery when it wears out.
Upgrade pick
The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon has a bigger screen, our favorite laptop keyboard, and a variety of ports. But it costs more than you need to pay to get something great.
Recommended configuration
| Processor: | Intel Core i5-1335U | Screen: | 14-inch 1920×1200 non-touch |
| Memory: | 16 GB | Weight: | 2.5 pounds |
| Storage: | 512 GB SSD | Tested battery life: | 11 hours |
The 14-inch Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11 is the best laptop we’ve tested in the past few years—and it costs hundreds more than you need to pay to get a great ultrabook. But spending more gets you a lighter laptop with a stellar keyboard, larger screen, and more useful array of ports. It comes with a fingerprint reader and a handy webcam cover, too, and like our top pick, its battery will last a full workday.
