Ultra Thin Laptops

Buying an ultra thin laptop

Portability is likely to be an important feature to you if you’re shopping for an ultrathin laptop. The good news is that most of the thinnest laptops around are also the lightest and easiest to carry around. There are plenty of ultrathin laptops weighing in at less than 1.5kg although it’s worth pointing out the obvious - the bigger screen models will weigh a little more.

Build quality

As well as being thin and light, ultra thin laptops are invariably tough and solid and are manufactured from premium materials such as carbon fibre, lightweight aluminium or other metal alloys. Made for the road, ultra thin laptops can withstand the inevitable knocks and bumps that go hand in hand with travel. Some models can also cope with the odd splash of liquid as well thanks to spill resistant keyboards.

Battery life

Despite their slimline chassis, ultra thin laptops generally feature long life batteries with many lasting a full working day on a single charge. Ideal for road warriors, they charge quickly, use power saving components such as low voltage processors and can boot up or resume from being idle much faster than normal laptops.

Display & performance

There’s no compromise on performance either. Ultra thin laptops feature bright, high resolution displays and crisp vibrant images with thin bezels for screens that almost stretch the full width of the laptop. For gamers and designers, some models ship with dedicated GPUs for powerful graphics capabilities and fast response times. With Windows 10 or 11, the latest 11th gen Intel core processors and 8Gb or 16Gb of RAM installed, most ultra thin laptops are equipped with the specs to comfortably provide the productivity you need.

Security

Security features may be important if you’re planning to use your laptop on the road a lot. Look for models featuring fingerprint sensors or facial recognition for more secure logins. Additional security related features include encrypted hard drives and screen privacy options that limit the viewing angle to keep your work safe from prying eyes.

Drawbacks

There are some potential drawbacks to ultra thin laptops though. The biggest is likely to be the price. You are buying a premium laptop that’s well specced and assembled using high quality components. The superior build quality and performance comes at a cost and you can expect to pay considerably more than you would for a less capable machine. When assembling the thinnest, lightest laptops, manufacturers have to compromise in some areas to keep the weight and size down. Sometimes this means there are fewer ports and interfaces available which reduces your connectivity choices if you need to hook the laptop up to other devices such as monitors or external storage. Another area where ultra thin laptops can be found wanting is the keyboard which may be cramped, shallow and lacking some keys compared to larger, fatter laptops with full size keyboards.