Lightweight Laptop Recommendations (Macbook Air Rivals)

[Rexxar]

I'm looking for a rival to the macbook air. Mainly because i want to stick with windows, or this would have been a really easy choice!

I'm not in the apple ecosystem at all , so the benefits of that also don't apply.

I'm looking for something that's reasonably light, good on battery life, has a decent screen, and won't get too hot - because i want to be able to use it actually on my lap.

I've been looking at the Thinkpad T series (Maybe a Gen 2 or Gen 3) and also Dell Latitudes (5440) - Both run intel chips , 1345u is one i've seen in both, but there are others, all U chips.

Is there something else i should be looking at? I'd quite like to keep a proper ethernet port if possible, but i already have a dongle so it's not that big of a deal.

Any recommendations please? Or Reasons For/Against the two i've already looked at above?

 

[Philtor]

Dell XPS series. Just because great machines!

 

[sg0]

Not sure on the battery life but the samsung notebook range could be interesting.

 

[Andre]

LG Gram - I've got the 12th gen 16". More than happy, less than 1.2KG! Decent 16:10 16" screen

 

[dave28]

Lenovo X1 Carbon ( get one with at least 8th Gen intel to get Quad core instead of dual core )

 

[agw_01]

I'll echo comments on the Dell XPS and Lenovo X1... I have both.

Granted they aren't new models (the X1 is 5th Gen with an i7 7500U and the Dell is an XPS 13 7390 with a 10510U) but as portable, pick up and go machines they are brilliant. Lovely to use, wonderful keyboards. The Dell has the better screen being a 4K model if that takes your fancy but at the expense of battery life.

I use the Dell more frequently than the Lenovo as it's a bit quicker, but the X1 is the better built. The XPS has noticeable flex if you pick it up at the edge. I bought the 7390 because it was the last model to feature a replacable nVME drive... the later models are all soldered SSDs. I'm not sure what the score is with the later X1s. The RAM is soldered to the board on both. Just something to be aware of if thinking about long term ownership/component failure.

 

[Scrutinize]

@Rexxar @agw_01 Dell are way behind this year's offerings from other manufacturers.

For a Macbook Air Windows counterpart with slim, light, portable and battery life then:

Imo the Dell xps 13/14 / Lattitudes with the Intel Ultra 7 and 2.8/3k touch screen are double the price of the Asus 13 or 14 ZenBook Ultra 7 or Ultra 9 for example. Dell even make the Samsung Galaxy Book4 look cheap. I've been on the same journey this year having gone MS Surface last year as my enterprise slim/portable solution.

There is no sense in looking at anything less than the new Meteor Lake Intel Ultra 7 155H or Ultra 9 185H now. Compared to the previous gen 1360P/13700h/13900h performance to battery life ratio are notably improved. The Arc GPU also significantly boosts gaming/creativity over previous gen's integrated offer.

I went with a Samsung Galaxy Book4 Pro 14 with Ultra 7 155H this year (now £1249) as the zenbooks weren't fully in stock.

At £1399 my money would go on the ZenBook S 13 OLED Laptop, Intel Core Ultra 7 Processor, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD, 13.3” 3K OLED, Blue which is only 1kg and 1cm thick.

Or also at £1399 ASUS Zenbook 14 OLED UX3405MA-PZ306W Ultra 9, 32GB Ram which is 1.28kg and 1.5cm thick

Galaxy Book4 Pro 14 or ZenBooks with the Intel Ultra 7/9 do give 10-14 hours battery in real world productivity use too.

Also, compared to the 12/13th gen ultra low power chipsets, the Ultra 5 125 is a more cost effective option.

 

[Django x2]

@Rexxar @agw_01 Dell are way behind this year's offerings from other manufacturers.

For a Macbook Air Windows counterpart with slim, light, portable and battery life then:

Imo the Dell xps 13/14 / Lattitudes with the Intel Ultra 7 and 2.8/3k touch screen are double the price of the Asus 13 or 14 ZenBook Ultra 7 or Ultra 9 for example. Dell even make the Samsung Galaxy Book4 look cheap. I've been on the same journey this year having gone MS Surface last year as my enterprise slim/portable solution.

There is no sense in looking at anything less than the new Meteor Lake Intel Ultra 7 155H or Ultra 9 185H now. Compared to the previous gen 1360P/13700h/13900h performance to battery life ratio are notably improved. The Arc GPU also significantly boosts gaming/creativity over previous gen's integrated offer.

I went with a Samsung Galaxy Book4 Pro 14 with Ultra 7 155H this year (now £1249) as the zenbooks weren't fully in stock.

At £1399 my money would go on the ZenBook S 13 OLED Laptop, Intel Core Ultra 7 Processor, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD, 13.3” 3K OLED, Blue which is only 1kg and 1cm thick.

Or also at £1399 ASUS Zenbook 14 OLED UX3405MA-PZ306W Ultra 9, 32GB Ram which is 1.28kg and 1.5cm thick

Galaxy Book4 Pro 14 or ZenBooks with the Intel Ultra 7/9 do give 10-14 hours battery in real world productivity use too.

Also, compared to the 12/13th gen ultra low power chipsets, the Ultra 5 125 is a more cost effective option.

They aren't. Dell have consistently won all of this years laptop awards for 13 plus, 14 and 16 XPS models (as comparable to Mac, which to be fair, I see as a fairly stupid comparison anyway). The only other manufacturer that can hold them on overall performance and capability is the MS Surface offerings, and next to that something from HP (and I'm being kind there). All others are just "also rans" which includes Asus and Lenovo. Certainly for gaming, other good laptops exist, but you'd consider Alienware (DELL) or Razer for those.

However, would I buy this years XPS for example? No. Because I absolutely detest the aesthetics of the integrated trackpad. Can't beat their screens though, but then that is largely pointless if you consistently plug into an external monitor.

 

[Scrutinize]

They aren't. Dell have consistently won all of this years laptop awards for 13 plus, 14 and 16 XPS models (as comparable to Mac, which to be fair, I see as a fairly stupid comparison anyway). The only other manufacturer that can hold them on overall performance and capability is the MS Surface offerings, and next to that something from HP (and I'm being kind there). All others are just "also rans" which includes Asus and Lenovo. Certainly for gaming, other good laptops exist, but you'd consider Alienware (DELL) or Razer for those.

However, would I buy this years XPS for example? No. Because I absolutely detest the aesthetics of the integrated trackpad. Can't beat their screens though, but then that is largely pointless if you consistently plug into an external monitor.

The equivalent Dell xps' are £2.3k to £3k specced up with the 3k touchscreen and Ultra processors etc.

Doesn't mean they aren't good but have priced themselves out.

New Surface 10 Pro / Laptop 6 with the Intel Ultra 7/9 look nice and will be the ones to beat but aren't out yet.

Current gen Surface / Laptop are now severely laying behind on performance and battery life.

Even the Thinkpad X1 is pretty well priced to its true xps counterparts.

 

[Django x2]

The only upside to the Dell, if that is anyone's choice, is that they are routinely heavily discounted over other brands. They haven't outpriced themselves if they are consistently better than the opposition, which they are. Just because two laptops from different manufacturers both have the same processor and an OLED screen does not make them comparable.

Still, I think the XPS, as an example, has been strongly aimed at Enterprise for the last decade (first XPS was 2015 ) and therefore, the price is insignificant.

 

[Rexxar]

Thanks for the replies so far, I should have said i'm looking at buying a used/refurb unit at between £6-900 which rules out the likes of meteor lake etc.

Only reason for comparison to a macbook air is because they run cool and have good battery life.

Surface may be worth a look , I'm deliberately avoiding anything with an integrated touchpad as there's something i don't like about them, maybe i'm just a dinosaur!

I'm surprised to see so many positive recommendations for dell. Looking at the Dell Outlet, Their pricing is pretty competitive.

 

[Scrutinize]

Thanks for the replies so far, I should have said i'm looking at buying a used/refurb unit at between £6-900 which rules out the likes of meteor lake etc.

Only reason for comparison to a macbook air is because they run cool and have good battery life.

Surface may be worth a look , I'm deliberately avoiding anything with an integrated touchpad as there's something i don't like about them, maybe i'm just a dinosaur!

I'm surprised to see so many positive recommendations for dell. Looking at the Dell Outlet, Their pricing is pretty competitive.

There weren't really any genuinely close Windows counterparts to Macbook Airs until last year. If you'd said Macbook Pro then maybe a broader segment.

The performance, screen, battery life, silent running, weight, form and size of the MBA has consistently pulled ahead of Windows offerings.

Until the latest iterations of the ZenBook (esp S13), Windows devices only ticked a few of the boxes often really sacrificing heat, battery life and fan noise. Most were closer competitors to the Macbook Pro.

The Thinkpad X1 as an example whilst a good machine has a very different styling and design philosophy to the MBA.

Challenge is in your budget, older/refurbs are likely even further away from the MBA.

Best bet would be an Xps 13 with i7/16GB RAM from Dell outlet.

Although, this is decent spec for £799 at the mo as 16gb Ram and 2.8K OLED touchscreen. ASUS Zenbook 14 UX3402VA 14" Laptop – Intel® Core™ i5, 512 GB SSD, Blue

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