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MagyarThe Best Ultra-Portable Notebooks
Working For Notebookcheck
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News Writer (AUS/NZL based) - Details here
Subnotebooks typically bridge the gap between the performance of large laptops and the mobility of small devices such as tablets or even smartphones. More recently, 2-in-1 devices and convertibles have penetrated the subnotebook market. We categorize subnotebooks as devices that are no larger than 14-inches in screen size and lighter than 1.5 kg (~3.3 lbs) with integrated GPUs. The price range is wide and models from 300 to 2500 USD/Euros can be represented in our Top 10.
Subnotebook or ultrabook? We have created a separate Top 10 Ultrabooks list with devices meeting the Intel specifications from 2013: touchscreen, low-voltage Haswell processor (TDP: 15 W) or higher, battery life of 6 to 9 hours, Intel Wireless Display and USB 3.0. For the time being, however, our subnotebook charts will include ultrabooks and subnotebooks alike.
- The Best Ultrabooks (particularly thin and portable devices)
- The Best Convertibles (notebooks that can be used as tablets)
- The Best Premium Business Notebooks (high-quality and robust office laptops)
- The Best Budget Office Notebooks (affordable laptops for simple tasks)
The Best Ultra-Portable Laptops
Position | Total Rating | Date | Image | Model | Weight | Height | Size | Resolution | Screen |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 91.1 % | 12/2020 |  | Apple MacBook Pro 13 Late 2020 M1 Entry (8 / 256 GB) Apple M1 Apple M1 8-Core GPU 8 GB Memory, 256 GB SSD | 1.4 kg | 15.6 mm | 13.30" | 2560x1600 | glossy |
| 2 | 91.1 % | 12/2020 |  | Apple MacBook Air 2020 M1 Entry Apple M1 Apple M1 7-Core GPU 8 GB Memory, 256 GB SSD | 1.3 kg | 16.1 mm | 13.30" | 2560x1600 | glossy |
| 3 | 90.6 % | 05/2021 |  | Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon G9-20XXS00100 Intel Core i7-1165G7 Intel Iris Xe Graphics G7 96EUs 32 GB Memory, 1024 GB SSD | 1.2 kg | 14.9 mm | 14.00" | 1920x1200 | matte |
| 4 | 90.6 % | 11/2021 new! |  | Lenovo ThinkPad X13 G2 AMD 20XH001KGE AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 5650U AMD Radeon RX Vega 7 16 GB Memory, 512 GB NVMe | 1.4 kg | 18.19 mm | 13.30" | 1920x1200 | matte |
| 5 | 89.8 % | 02/2021 |  | Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano-20UN002UGE Intel Core i7-1160G7 Intel Iris Xe Graphics G7 96EUs 16 GB Memory, 512 GB SSD | 946 g | 16 mm | 13.00" | 2160x1350 | matte |
| 6 | 89.1 % | 06/2021 |  | Schenker Vision 14 Intel Core i7-1165G7 Intel Iris Xe Graphics G7 96EUs 16 GB Memory, 1024 GB SSD | 1 kg | 15.6 mm | 14.00" | 2880x1800 | matte |
| 7 | 88.6 % | 10/2021 |  | Huawei MateBook 14s i7 Intel Core i7-11370H Intel Iris Xe Graphics G7 96EUs 16 GB Memory, 512 GB SSD | 1.4 kg | 16.7 mm | 14.20" | 2520x1680 | glossy |
| 8 | 88.5 % | 05/2021 |  | Asus ZenBook 13 UM325S AMD Ryzen 7 5800U AMD Radeon RX Vega 8 (Ryzen 5000) 16 GB Memory, 1024 GB SSD | 1.2 kg | 13.9 mm | 13.30" | 1920x1080 | glossy |
| 9 | 88.3 % | 05/2021 |  | LG Gram 14Z90P-G.AA79G Intel Core i7-1165G7 Intel Iris Xe Graphics G7 96EUs 16 GB Memory, 1024 GB SSD | 967 g | 16.8 mm | 14.00" | 1920x1200 | glossy |
| 10 | 88 % | 08/2021 new! |  | HP EliteBook 830 G8-i7-1165G7 Intel Core i7-1165G7 Intel Iris Xe Graphics G7 96EUs 32 GB Memory, 1024 GB SSD | 1.3 kg | 18 mm | 13.30" | 1920x1080 | matte |
The table above contains an overview over the best subnotebooks reviewed by Notebookcheck over the course of the past 12 months as well as still relevant and available older products. In cases of identical score the more recent device is listed first. All prices in above table and price comparisons are updated daily and can thus differ.
Link: all devices in this class reviewed
1st – Apple MacBook Pro 13
Apple updated its MacBook Pro series, and the new entry-level MacBook Pro 13 is now based on Apple’s own M1 processor, an 8-core SoC with solid overall and a great single-core performance. Native applications benefit immensely from this new chip. Visually, the device is immediately recognizable as MacBook device even though there have been some subtle changes.
The new MacBook Pro benefits immensely from its powerful Apple M1 processor.
Battery life is superb, which turns the Apple MacBook Pro Late 2020 into a faithful everyday companion with a small footprint, good speakers, and low emissions. All things considered the device did very well and therefore deserves its spot in our top 10.
The device can be purchased directly through Apple as well as through the usual retail channels, such as for example Amazon, with prices starting just shy of $1,200.
Pricecompare
2nd - Apple MacBook Air 2020 M1
After years of rumors Apple finally took the plunge and updated its MacBook Air with its own brand-new in-house M1 processor (see review here). The new M1 SoC is based on an ARM architecture and was already able to show its true colors in the MacBook Air 2020, and even the entry-level SKU turned out to be capable enough to easily outperform comparable Intel and AMD processors. However, the switch to a new CPU architecture also means that not all applications will continue to run, which is where Apple’s Rosetta 2 emulation steps in and ensures compatibility. The case and display are identical to its Intel predecessor.
Apple’s new M1 chip is a great fit for the MacBook Air 2020.
The display remains excellent. It runs at a native resolution of 2560 x 1600 (227 PPI), referred to as Retina by Apple. Its passive cooling ensures quiet operation at all times, and yet the device remained surprisingly cool with very low surface temperatures overall.
It continues to feature the same good speakers as well as two full bandwidth Thunderbolt 3 ports. At 16 hours in our Wi-Fi test battery life was very good, even better than on the previous Core i5 model.
Top 10 Laptops
Multimedia, Budget Multimedia, Gaming, Budget Gaming, Lightweight Gaming, Business, Budget Office, Workstation, Subnotebooks, Ultrabooks, Chromebooks
under 300 USD/Euros, under 500 USD/Euros, 1,000 USD/Euros, for University Students, Best Displays
Top 10 Smartphones
Smartphones, Phablets, ≤6-inch, Camera Smartphones
Pricecompare
Pricecompare
3rd – Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon 2020
After last year’s update to the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon this year all we get is a minor refresh (see review here). Performance improvements brought by the new SoC are minor at best, and practically unnoticeable. In return, the Wi-Fi 6 modem manages much higher data transfer rates.
The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon continues to forgo AMD processors, and accordingly we only see a minor update this year.
Despite the minor update this year’s Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon remains a great business notebook with a lightweight high-quality case that does not sacrifice rigidity for the sake of lightness. The low power display remains a gamble as there is still no way to tell what you are going to get – not particularly consumer friendly.
Whether or not the 2020 ThinkPad X1 Carbon is worth the switch can be discovered in our full review.
Pricecompare
4th – Lenovo ThinkPad X13 G2
The Lenovo ThinkPad X13 G2 offers a fast AMD Ryzen 5 PRP 5650U 6-core CPU with 12 threads, a beast for this compact business notebook. Its input devices continue to impress avid typists although we definitely preferred last year’s keyboard. In our review, this 13.3-inch subnotebook turned out to offer good system performance, high-quality materials, and plentiful connectivity. It shares those positive aspects with its LTPX13G2 Intel sibling.
The Lenovo ThinkPad X13 G2 offers a 16:10 display and long battery life.
The device is readily available in the US and can be purchased among others through Lenovo’s own web store with prices starting at just south of $1,300.
Pricecompare
5th – Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano
The ThinkPad X1 Nano is another 13-inch ThinkPad by Lenovo. It is a powerful and at the same time very compact subnotebook with a weight of less than 1 kg and features a high-quality 16:10 display with full sRGB coverage. Good speakers and long battery life improve its portability even further.
Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Nano is a great 13-inch subnotebook with a very good 16:10 display.
Prices start at $1,200, and a configurator to build your own ThinkPad X1 Nano is available on Lenovo’s product website.
Pricecompare
6th – Schenker Vision 14
The Schenker Vision 14 weighs in at slightly over 1 kg (2.2 lbs) and offers a powerful CPU paired with a very fast iGPU thanks to Intel’s latest Tiger Lake SoC. Schenker equips the Vision 14 with 16 GB of RAM and a 1 TB large SSD, which turns this device into a productivity beast. Instead of the usual FHD panel this particular display features a 3K option. Plentiful connectivity, an optional secondary M2 SSD, and high-quality premium material justify its high overall rating.
Schenker’s Vision 14 offers plentiful connectivity and modular components.
Schenker devices are not sold in North America.
Pricecompare
7th – Huawei MateBook 14s
The Huawei MateBook 14s i7 is a great subnotebook with an overall good total rating. It is based on Intel’s latest Tiger Lake SoC paired with an Intel Iris GPU for solid performance. Its 14.2-inch display runs at a high refresh rate of 90 Hz and includes a touch layer. Its sleek modern design is accentuated by high-quality materials, and the case is very sturdy overall. Decent input devices, acceptable speakers, and long battery life turn the MateBook 14s into a faithful companion.
The Huawei MateBook 14s i7 is a great subnotebook with only a few minor flaws.
Huawei notebooks are not available in North America.
Pricecompare
8th – Asus ZenBook 13 UM325S
The Asus ZenBook 13 UM325 features AMD’s latest 8-core Zen3-based APU paired with a powerful AMD Radeon RX Vega 8 iGPU. Furthermore, the ZenBook 13 is equipped with an OLED display with great color gamut, which renders this particular notebook very interesting for professional photo editors. Its case is modern and robust yet surprisingly lightweight and equipped with decent sounding speakers to boot.
The Asus ZenBook 13 UM325S is a powerful subnotebook based on AMD’s Ryzen 7 5800U with an excellent display.
Our Ryzen 7-equipped review unit is currently unavailable. A lesser-equipped Ryzen 5-based SKU is listed on Amazon for $800.
Pricecompare
9th – LG Gram 14Z90P
The LG Gram 14Z90P is LG’s latest subnotebook based on Intel’s Tiger Lake quad-core SoC with 16 GB of RAM, a 1 TB SSD, and excellent battery life. Compared to its predecessor the new SoC offers significantly better performance, and the device’s extremely long battery life render it particularly interesting for road warriors. It was also very quiet under load.
Thanks to the new SoC the device managed to improve further upon its own predecessor.
The device is widely available with a total of four SKUs listed on Amazon between $1,200 and $1,400. Best Buy is currently selling the Core i5-equipped SKU for $1,200 as well.
Pricecompare
10th – HP EliteBook 830 G8
The HP EliteBook 830 G8 is aimed at enterprises and is based on Intel’s Core i7-1165G7, Intel’s Iris Xe Graphics G7, a whopping 32 GB of RAM, and a large NVMe SSD. Its very good keyboard was a pleasure to use, and we liked its quiet mode of operation.
The HP EliteBook 830 G8 offers good security features and a very bright 1,000 nits display.
The HP EliteBook 830 G8 is available among others through Amazon with prices starting at $2,000.
Pricecompare
Top 10 Subnotebooks in Comparison
Test Results
| Apple MacBook Pro 13 Late 2020 M1 Entry (8 / 256 GB) | Apple MacBook Air 2020 M1 Entry | Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon G9-20XXS00100 | Lenovo ThinkPad X13 G2 AMD 20XH001KGE | Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano-20UN002UGE | Schenker Vision 14 | Huawei MateBook 14s i7 | Asus ZenBook 13 UM325S | LG Gram 14Z90P-G.AA79G | HP EliteBook 830 G8-i7-1165G7 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Display | ||||||||||
| Display P3 Coverage | 98.56 | 76.08 | 70.1 | 70.43 | 75.4 | 67.8 | 99.95 | 97.55 | 69.2 | |
| sRGB Coverage | 99.97 | 99.88 | 99.4 | 99.92 | 99 | 98.3 | 100 | 99.91 | 94.5 | |
| AdobeRGB 1998 Coverage | 85.91 | 77.71 | 71.3 | 71.98 | 76.4 | 70.1 | 99.72 | 85.25 | 71.1 | |
| Response Times | ||||||||||
| Response Time Grey 50% / Grey 80% * | 48 ? | 31 ? | 62.4 ? | 34 ? | 46.8 ? | 32.8 ? | 37.6 ? | 4 ? | 45 ? | 45 ? |
| Response Time Black / White * | 25.2 ? | 26.1 ? | 34.8 ? | 22 ? | 28 ? | 20.4 ? | 21.6 ? | 4 ? | 23 ? | 30 ? |
| PWM Frequency | 122000 ? | 118000 ? | 27780 ? | 60 ? | ||||||
| Screen | ||||||||||
| Brightness middle | 510 | 417 | 396 | 309 | 460 | 390 | 419 | 370 | 352 | 1007 |
| Brightness | 491 | 395 | 397 | 297 | 434 | 387 | 407 | 378 | 332 | 985 |
| Brightness Distribution | 94 | 91 | 90 | 81 | 92 | 94 | 93 | 96 | 91 | 87 |
| Black Level * | 0.29 | 0.39 | 0.23 | 0.26 | 0.27 | 0.29 | 0.23 | 0.05 | 0.22 | 0.34 |
| Contrast | 1759 | 1069 | 1722 | 1188 | 1704 | 1345 | 1822 | 7400 | 1600 | 2962 |
| Colorchecker dE 2000 * | 1.3 | 1.12 | 3.7 | 1.6 | 1.1 | 2.8 | 1.9 | 4.33 | 2.89 | 4 |
| Colorchecker dE 2000 max. * | 3 | 2.71 | 7.6 | 3 | 4.5 | 4.4 | 3.6 | 7.04 | 4.66 | 8.9 |
| Greyscale dE 2000 * | 2 | 1.7 | 5.2 | 2 | 1.6 | 3.5 | 2.9 | 0.92 | 6.9 | 4.3 |
| Gamma | 2.23 99% | 2207 0% | 2.11 104% | 2.24 98% | 2.2 100% | 2.24 98% | 2.14 103% | 2.38 92% | 2.34 94% | 2.1 105% |
| CCT | 6933 94% | 6870 95% | 6252 104% | 6315 103% | 6475 100% | 6174 105% | 6733 97% | 6394 102% | 7904 82% | 6462 101% |
| Color Space (Percent of AdobeRGB 1998) | 88.3 | 70.4 | 65.7 | 76.4 | 89.4 | 76 | ||||
| Color Space (Percent of sRGB) | 100 | 99.9 | 99.9 | 99 | 100 | 100 | ||||
| Colorchecker dE 2000 calibrated * | 0.77 | 1.7 | 0.8 | 1 | 1.8 | 0.9 | 4.14 | 2.7 | 2.4 | |
| Noise | ||||||||||
| off / environment * | 29.2 | 24.17 | 24.9 | 25 | 24.3 | 29.6 | 26 | 26 | ||
| Idle Minimum * | 29.2 | 24.17 | 24.9 | 25 | 24.3 | 30.5 | 26 | 26 | ||
| Idle Average * | 29.2 | 24.17 | 26.3 | 25 | 24.3 | 30.5 | 26 | 26 | ||
| Idle Maximum * | 29.2 | 24.17 | 31.8 | 26.9 | 28.4 | 30.5 | 26 | 27.5 | ||
| Load Average * | 32.1 | 29.92 | 34.3 | 38.6 | 31.7 | 35.7 | 30.5 | 35.4 | ||
| Load Maximum * | 41.9 | 31.52 | 37.5 | 41.2 | 46.8 | 37.2 | 30.5 | 35.3 | ||
| Witcher 3 ultra * | 34.3 | 41.2 | 31.7 | |||||||
| Heat | ||||||||||
| Maximum Upper Side * | 41 | 44 | 43.7 | 42.2 | 46.2 | 41.1 | 42.6 | 47.2 | 41.7 | |
| Maximum Bottom * | 40.4 | 44 | 38 | 47.5 | 52.2 | 45.4 | 43.6 | 45.8 | 39.1 | |
| Idle Upper Side * | 23.6 | 27 | 25.8 | 24.3 | 30.6 | 25.3 | 36 | 23.8 | 30.1 | |
| Idle Bottom * | 23.6 | 27 | 26.2 | 25.3 | 33.6 | 26.5 | 32.8 | 22.9 | 30.3 | |
| Battery Runtime | ||||||||||
| Reader / Idle | 1394 | 2925 | ||||||||
| WiFi v1.3 | 1223 | 960 | 700 | 556 | 596 | 366 | 618 | 551 | 854 | 480 |
| Load | 86 | 98 | 95 | 234 | 219 | 107 | ||||
| Power Consumption | ||||||||||
| Idle Minimum * | 1.67 | 1.9 | 3 | 3.82 | 3.3 | 9.8 | 4.4 | 7.4 | 2.5 | 6.5 |
| Idle Average * | 6.7 | 6.4 | 5.2 | 5.74 | 5.7 | 12.5 | 8.7 | 10.4 | 5.3 | 8.4 |
| Idle Maximum * | 7.4 | 7 | 5.9 | 7.65 | 9.1 | 13.7 | 9.6 | 11.1 | 9.5 | 10.3 |
| Load Average * | 28 | 25 | 42.8 | 35.79 | 29.6 | 39.3 | 46 | 35.7 | 26.2 | 34.6 |
| Load Maximum * | 47.5 | 30.3 | 65.7 | 45.04 | 55.1 | 72.8 | 87.6 | 37.2 | 42.8 | 33 |
| Witcher 3 ultra * | 35.6 | 27.7 | 44.8 | 42.2 | 34.4 |
* ... smaller is better
Benchmarks
| 3DMark | |
| 1280x720 Ice Storm Standard Score (sort by value) | |
| Asus ZenBook 13 UM325S | |
| HP EliteBook 830 G8-i7-1165G7 | |
| 1920x1080 Fire Strike Score (sort by value) | |
| Lenovo ThinkPad X13 G2 AMD 20XH001KGE | |
| Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano-20UN002UGE | |
| Schenker Vision 14 | |
| Huawei MateBook 14s i7 | |
| Asus ZenBook 13 UM325S | |
| LG Gram 14Z90P-G.AA79G | |
| HP EliteBook 830 G8-i7-1165G7 | |
| PCMark 8 - Work Score Accelerated v2 (sort by value) | |
| LG Gram 14Z90P-G.AA79G | |
