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How heavy should a laptop be?
In This Article
Buying a new laptop can be stressful; you need to take into consideration what you will be using the device for, how powerful it needs to be and even how portable you want it.
And while we have guides on thebest budget laptops,best student laptopsand even thebest laptopsof this year, one of the biggest features that sometimes goes noticed is how heavy you want your laptop to actually be.
Keep reading to find out how heavy your laptop should really be, depending on what you need it for.
Intel® Evo™ – Laptops. Evolved.
Looking for a portable lightweight laptop with a large screen? The Intel® Evo™ approved LG Gram is a great choice!
You can shop the range now at Intel.
How heavy should a laptop be?
First and foremost, it’s crucial to know if you will be using your laptop as a portable device that you will take on the go, or if it will live in your office. If you are currently hybrid working or like to take your laptop with you on trips, you may want to stay within the 1kg to 1.5kg range (2.2lbs to 3.3lb).
While it is subjective, you may find that laptops over 2kg are too heavy to carry around with you comfortably. Our review of theHuawei MateBook 16– which weighs in at 1.9kg – notes that the laptop can be used as a portable device, though it is more cumbersome than a device like theDell XPS 13 OLED (2021), which weighs only 1.2kg.
Typically, laptops with a larger screen will weigh more, with devices packing displays of 15-inches or bigger having so much heft that it can be a pain to carry around.
TheHP Envy 16has a 16-inch display and weighs 2.3kg, with our hands-on review noting it’s likely too heavy to be portable. Generally, unless you need a large display to work or game, it will be easier to stick with a laptop that has a 13 or 14-inch screen, since they are usually more portable.
While you can check out ourbest gaming laptopsfor a better gauge of the gaming devices out there, it’s important to note that gaming laptops are usually much heavier than productivity devices.
Gaming and content creation devices will usually have adiscrete GPU, which specialises in rendering advanced graphics and creating high-quality images and scenes. But such GPUs require a dedicated cooling system to prevent overheating and to maximise performance. The cooling system makes the laptop much heavier, with theAlienware m14 R4gaming laptop weighing 2.34kg.
That’s not to say that all gaming laptops are too heavy, as devices like theRazer Blade 14andAsus ROG Zephyrus G14weigh in at 1.78kg and 1.6kg, respectively. So if you want to game or engage in high-intensity content creation, and portability is important to you, it is worth checking out the weight and build quality of a laptop before you buy it.
What portable laptop options are there?
Thankfully, if you are after a productivity laptop that needs to be portable, there are many options out there. The LG Gram range is known for its portability, as theLG Gram 17 (2021)andLG Gram 16 (2021)weigh only 1.35kg and 1.1kg despite having large screens. These device have been approved by theIntel Evoinitiative too, making them a great option for those who need a productivity laptop.
Intel® Evo™ – Laptops. Evolved.
Looking for a portable lightweight laptop with a large screen? The Intel® Evo™ approved LG Gram is a great choice!
You can shop the range now at Intel.
The downside to ultra-portable devices is usually that the build quality is not quite as sturdy, with more flex in the chassis than what you would find in regular productivity laptops. This is because LG uses a magnesium-allow for the design rather than the more conventional aluminium.
You can also check out ourbest ultabook listif you want to find more high-quality laptops that don’t pack too much weight.
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Gemma joined Trusted Reviews as a staff writer after graduating from Leeds Beckett University with a Journalism degree. She’s worked with national outlets, covering breaking news stories to reviews fo…
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Today, we have millions of users a month from around the world, and assess more than 1,000 products a year.
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Why trust our journalism?
Founded in 2003, Trusted Reviews exists to give our readers thorough, unbiased and independent advice on what to buy.
Today, we have millions of users a month from around the world, and assess more than 1,000 products a year.
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
