If you’re always on the go, carrying around a beast of a laptop that weights a ton and a half is not really fun. Instead, you should go for an Ultrabook: a lightweight laptop that is thin and easy to carry around. It should have a long battery life – and in today’s article we’re also looking at budget options and recommending lightweight laptops that cost under $1,000.
Battery life is also extremely important when you’re on the go, as you can’t always find a power socket to fill up your laptop’s battery. Therefore, you should also put this on the list of must have things for your ultrabook.
But with thousands of models available out there and so many specifications to look at, you could always be worried that you’re not making the right choice.
That must not be the case anymore as we did all the research for you. We’ve scanned through all the available products and found the best lightweight laptops with a long battery life to share with you. And to keep your budget under control, we’re also looking at laptops that cost less than $1,000. Because, yes, you can still find a great, thin, light laptop with great battery life that’s under this budget.
Please note: the prices are correct at the moment of writing this article and they’re all under $1,000. Prices can change in time, although it rarely happens for a laptop’s price to actually increase. But do your own due diligence and check out the actual prices of the products you’d like to buy as there is a slight chance they will cost more (or less).
If you don’t care to read all the specification and our comments for each of the models we’ve found, you can simply click the links below and check each of them on Amazon, then buy your favorite:
Please note: We get commissions for purchases made through links in this article.
– Acer Chromebook 13
– ASUS P-Series P2540UA-AB51
– Dell Inspiron
– Dell Latitude 5280
– Macbook Air 13
We now know which are the best lightweight laptops with a long battery life, all under the $1,000 price range. Now let’s find out more about them below and why they made it to our list! Here are all the details about the best laptops with long battery life in 2018 (under $1,000):
Acer Chromebook 13
The cheapest entry on our list is a Chromebook. These extremely lightweight laptops are intended mostly for online usage. They also can’t run Windows, but Chrome OS which is created by Google. We have already talked more in depth about them here – and also shared a few great ones.
The Acer Chromebook 13 is an extremely solid Chromebook and one of my favorites. It’s extremely portable, weighting just 3.3 pounds and offering a decent display size: 13.3″ with Full HD resolution.
When deciding to purchase a Chromebook, you must make sure that you can indeed do most of your work online, because this is how they’re meant to be used. This means that the storage capacity is pretty low: just 16GB of SSD space and no optical drive unit, but you can make things better in this area by using free online cloud storage options (there’s a list shared here by the nice folks at Techosaurus Rex).
In terms of performance, it has enough processing power to run web apps and perform regular tasks like editing documents, streaming movies and so on. So for the right person, this is an extremely good choice: cheap, fast, lightweight and with long lasting battery life: 11 hours on one charge. So definitely one to consider!
Click here to check it out on Amazon
ASUS P-Series P2540UA-AB51
Described as a “business laptop” by its manufacturer, this lightweight laptop sells at a great price and offers a lot in return. For example, one of its biggest selling points is the battery life: up to 9 hours under regular usage!
It is very thin and light (just 2.3 lbs) even though it offers an impressive 14″ Full HD display. Great stuff here, and fortunately the goodies don’t stop at its design.
It is powered by a strong Intel i5 processor that runs at 2.5GHz (but can be turbo boosted all the way to 3.15GHz) and it has 8GB of RAM. The storage space offered is really good for this price range: 512GB of SSD storage, which means that all your programs and apps will load extremely fast.
It comes with Windows 10 pre-installed, so you’ll feel exactly at home when using it if you’re familiar with the most popular OS on the planet… And you will use it for a long time since it’s durable and nicely built. The keyboard itself is pretty large thanks to the slightly larger build of the laptop, which is also a bonus.
It won’t be able to do very resource-demanding stuff (like running current generation games) mostly because it doesn’t have a dedicated graphics card, but it’s sold as a business laptop for a reason: you have to work, not play games! You’d still be able to cheat a bit and play games as well, plus do anything you’d expect a modern laptop to allow you to do.
One of the best options on the list in my opinion if you take in account the price, the quality, battery life, weight and size.
Click here to check it out on Amazon
Dell Inspiron Flagship 15.6-Inch
If you want a laptop with a large display, then this Dell Inspirion model is the one you should choose. With a full HD display of 15.6″ (which can be considered the regular screen size for laptops nowadays), it only weights 5.35 lbs. Not insanely impressive if you compare it with others listed here, but pretty impressive for its size.
In terms of performance, it also delivers high quality stuff! It is powered by an Intel Core i5-6200U processor running at 2.3GHz, as well as 8GB of RAM and plenty of storage thanks to its 1TB HDD. It has a DVD unit as well, if you still use those for whatever reason. And if you want even better performance, a model with a better processor is also on sale (but also costs more).
This laptop comes with some nice extra goodies: backlit keyboard (which can prove to be extremely useful under specific circumstances), touchscreen, and a decently-sized keyboard that will feel extremely comfortable when writing.
All in all, this is a product you should choose if you are interested in a larger screen, with decent battery life: up to 7 hours on average use, but expect it to start from about 5 hours actually and go down depending on the programs you’re using.
Click here to check it out on Amazon
Dell Latitude 5280
Unbelievable battery life, thin, light and beautiful: these are the main characteristics of the Dell Latitude 5280, one of the most popular choices out there for those looking to buy an Ultrabook that doesn’t break the bank. And at just 0.8″ thick and weighting 3 lbs, you know you can easily carry it around even for longer periods of time!
It is powered by an Intel Core i5-7300U processor running at up to 3.5 GHz when Turbo boosted, and also has 8GB of RAM. The storage space is not its strongest point: just 500GB of traditional HDD storage is offered.
It’s a small laptop, with a 12.5″ display, but it still offers HD resolution (1366 x 768 pixels). So even though it’s not a full HD ultrabook, the images and video will still look really good because they’re on a smaller screen.
All in all, this is a great choice if you are looking for a small laptop that’s extremely easy to carry around and can run for up to 12 hours on regular usage. Perfect!
Click here to check it out on Amazon
Macbook Air
Apple’s products are usually considered extremely expensive and not really worth the money. I tend to disagree: even though they are indeed pricier than most of the products offered by the competition. But they’re extremely reliable, durable and easy to use.
They are also extremely lightweight, thin and have great battery life – which is exactly what we’re looking for today.
The Macbook Air, even though not as impressive as its bigger brother, the Macbook PRO, is cheap in Apple terms (and still under $1,000). It also runs on an 1.8 Intel i5 processor with Turbo Boosdt up to 2.8GHz, and it’s also powered by 8GB of RAM. It only offers 128GB of Storage, but that’s what you have to deal with if you want that nice Apple logo on your laptop.
The recommended model comes with a 13″ display that can deliver beautiful images and a resolution of up to 1440×900 resolution. Its battery life also goes for up to 12 hours on a single charge, which exactly what we need.
It’s true that the Macbook Air costs more than the other laptops recommended in this article, but it’s also a really good product. And if you’re an Apple fan and you simply MUST own a lightweight Macbook with great battery life without breaking the bank, then this product is the one for you!
Click here to check it out on Amazon
You now have all the details you need to make an educated choice and purchase the best ultrabook with a long battery life to fit your needs. I am sure that you will find the perfect product on our list and you’ll also save a ton of time when it comes to researching through thousands of products.
It’s a lot easier when you only have a few to choose from, and it’s even better when you know that no matter what choice you make, you’re getting an amazing laptop for a really good price.
If you have any questions or other recommendations, don’t hesitate to share them with us in the comment section below.