10 Best Travel Laptops of 2023: The Ultimate Buyer’s Guide
In your travels, whether for leisure or business a laptop surely comes in handy when your phone or tablet does not suffice.
There are times where there are no other options but a good laptop for you to work while you travel. Mobile devices and tablets are not handy while multitasking as you face limitations working on a touch interface.
Professional tools are a hassle to use in a tablet or mobile interface. These tools in a tablet or mobile interface may be limited in function or unavailable altogether.
Editing photos, coding, or video compilation work happen a lot faster using a good laptop. The reason being a laptop’s top-end processing power which mobile or tablet cannot compare to.
While researching for your best travel laptops you may want to pay attention to the price and the hardware specification.
Whether you have a tight budget to follow or are affluent enough, travel full, or want something for casual travel we have got it covered.
Before we get into our list of best travel laptops, we can understand the things to consider while buying your best travel laptop to take while you are on a vacation.
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What To Look For to Purchase A Good Travel Laptop
What’s the purpose:
During your travel, consider the kind of work that you will do. Laptops generally are divided by:
Light use: For browsing the internet, email, social media or organizing digital photos, etc.
Medium use: Streaming movies, TV-series, using spreadsheets, and creating documents.
Heavy use: Using the laptop to multitask opening multiple tabs, coding, advanced graphic work, photo, and video editing.
When you are traveling and working, you shouldn’t forget to carry a WiFi router. Here is our another top article on the best wireless travel routers to travel and work.
Operating System
A software that helps manage all other software and hardware in your laptop. It helps you interact with your laptop through a visual interface. According to your use and preference, you may choose the best-suited OS for you.
The popular choices of OS in best travel laptops would be:
Mac OS: Mac is installed only on Apple computers, with an easy-to-use interface as well as very few issues with viruses and malware. With a sleek look and feel and impressive battery life support a Mac OS is a choice to consider.
Windows OS: This OS was designed to support a seamless touchscreen interface that helps you with more navigation options. The Windows OS has high security and is supported in a large selection of laptops, unlike the Mac.
Chrome OS: All Chromebook laptops run on Chrome OS. The interface is fast but simple to use.
The Chrome OS shines in the area of leveraging the Google Play Store, to download and run apps from their huge selection.
This caters to your travel needs of downloading photo edits or document creation apps at a moment’s notice.
Screen Features
Touch Screens
Using a touch interface gives us the navigation ease of a tablet or smartphone whereas the powerful hardware gives you great processing speed. You may tap to select, drag it to move, pinch to zoom in and out increasing your mobility while doing your tasks.
The best laptops for travel and photography generally avail of the touch screen feature for greater navigation options.
Screen size
Laptop screens when measured diagonally their sizes have a range of 11 to 17 inches approximately. You may choose the screen size as per your use. Gaming, movies, photo and video editing can be done on a larger screen.
Whereas emails or light work documentation or keeping track of your business metrics can happen over a smaller screen as well.
Resolution
A laptop with a higher resolution will display better picture quality. You have a choice on the resolution you prefer, here are a few choices to consider.
- 4K Ultra HD: 3840 x 2560 and 3840 x 2160 resolutions with four times pixels of full HD. Great for viewing and editing high-end images.
- QHD (Quad HD) and QHD+: With 2560 x 1440 and 3200 x 1800 resolutions, with a high pixel density that creates crisp and sharp detail, ideal for professional graphics work and watching high-definition videos.
- Retina display: 2560 x 1600 and 3072 x 1920 resolutions are found in Mac 13 inch and 16-inch laptops.
- Full HD: 1920 x 1080 resolution, can play movies and videos in Blu-ray, and have good detail while playing games.
- HD+: 1600 x 900 resolution is good only for casual gaming and watching movies.
- HD: 1366 x 768 resolution is the standard followed on mainstream laptops. It’s great for web surfing, email as well as consume less battery
Processors
The laptop’s processing power is decided on the kind of processor you will be using.
The advantage of good processing power is the smoother and faster functioning of critical software, graphic work, or multitasking on different software.
The most popular processors belong to Intel, which gives you the widest choice among the laptops you will choose.
The AMD Ryzen processors deliver great multitasking performance, stunning visuals, and good battery life.
The Apple M1 chip designed for Mac is found in the latest generation of Apple laptops. It is known to integrate CPU, GPU, and more to deliver on a good performance and power efficiency.
The best gaming laptops for travel consider processing power as one of their key selling points.
Memory
The Random-access memory commonly known as RAM helps your processor tackle multiple tasks at once. A 12 Gb RAM or more is recommended if you have advanced graphic design to do whereas a 2 Gb RAM is sufficient for casual web browsing and emails.
Internal Storage
If you intend to store high-resolution photos and videos on your laptop, you should at least have a storage drive of 512 GB. 4K movies and high-def games will require 1 TB at the least.
Any laptop with good internal storage will come quite handy as a laptop for travel vlogging as it helps you store your massive amount of raw footage to edit, at your convenience.
Battery Life
Battery life is one of the most important factors to consider while traveling. Laptops that have higher specs generally have a higher consumption of battery charge so it’s important to balance specs with usage to ensure healthy battery use.
A solid-state drive is preferred to a mechanical hard drive to improve power efficiency.
Now that you have an idea of what to look for while buying a travel laptop, we can now get into the List of the 10 Best Travel laptops.
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List of 10 Best Travel Laptops: Which One to Choose?
1. Acer Aspire 5 Slim Laptop for Business Travel
As per Acer the Aspire 5 features an AMD Ryzen 3 3200U Mobile Processor which can tackle complex jobs easily.
It has sharp and crisp visuals on the 15.6” Full HD IPS screen providing a Clear HD viewing experience for you.
The thin bezel provides you more space to work with, making it a perfect companion to take with you while you travel.
The battery life lasts a good 7.5 hours and the 128 GB hard disk will help store those memorable photographs during your trip.
All of these simple yet important features make the Aspire 5 as one of the best laptops for travelers.
Features
- Weight: 3.97 pounds
- Dimensions: 14.31 x 9.74 x 0.71 inches
- Battery Life:7.5 Hours
- Storage:128 GB Flash Memory Solid State
- RAM:4 GB DDR4
2. ASUS L210 Ultra-Thin Budget Travel Laptop
To be productive all day while on the move is what the ASUS laptop L210 is built for. This lightweight and compact 11.6-inch laptop is perfect to carry around to watch your emails and business metrics while traveling.
Entrepreneurs can easily catch up on work due to the good processing power provided by the latest Intel processor.
The L210 has a standing battery life of 12 hours which lets you work free from the worry of power backups.
With eMMC storage, your data is safe and secure. The Windows 10 in S mode offers great compatibility with a variety of software and applications you may use for your work, all such features making it one of the best and cheap travel laptops for air travel.
Features
- Weight: 2.31 pounds
- Dimensions: 11 x 7.5 x 0.67 inches
- Battery Life:12 Hours
- Storage: 64 GB
- RAM: 4 GB DDR4 SDRAM
3. Apple MacBook Air with Apple M1 Chip
The Apple MacBook Air has the Apple-designed M1 chip which provides a faster CPU, GPU, and machine learning performance.
This laptop has one of the highest-rated battery life extending to 18 hours.
The 8-core CPU that delivers 3.5x faster processing and 8 GPU cores which provide 5x faster graphics performance contribute greatly to the fluid navigation across multiple tabs.
The laptop is very adept at handling complex work which requires high processing power.
Featuring Superfast SSD storage and 8 GB of memory (RAM) the MacBook Air has all the features to deliver a powerful and portable performance.
Additional Apple features like one-touch security, Wi-Fi 6 enabled and the thunderbolt USB are also available for your use.
All these amazing features make the MacBook Air one of the best travel laptops for business.
Features
- Weight: 2.8 pounds
- Dimensions: 11.97 x 0.63 x 8.36 inches
- Battery Life: 18 Hours
- Storage: 512 GB SSD
- RAM: 8 GB
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4. Lenovo Ideapad Flex 5
The Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 gives you tons of creative choices by blending in performance with affordability and a sleek design and feel to boot.
With the AMD Ryzen 5 4500U mobile processor and Radeon graphics, this laptop offers you great all-around performance, graphics, and productivity during your travels.
The laptop also offers privacy features like a physical shutter on the webcam ensures you are safe from unwanted attention.
This laptop can be used in multi-modes such as the Tent mode or Stand mode or the Tablet mode.
Each mode corresponds to a task like Tent mode can be used for sharing things, Stand mode for binge-watching, or the Tablet mode for more intuitive interaction.
With such great features brought to the table, the Lenovo Ideapad is for sure to be on the list of best travel laptops for either business or leisure.
Features
- Weight: 3.63 pounds
- Dimensions:12.66 x 8.56 x 0.82 inches
- Battery Life: 10 Hours
- Storage: 256 GB Flash Memory Solid State
- RAM: 16 GB DDR4
5. Acer Chromebook Spin 311 Portable Laptop for Travel
The Acer Chromebook Spin 311 can easily transform into any mode as per your needs. It is versatile to rotate to an angle of your desire, transforming this laptop into a notebook or tablet easily. The laptop also has a stand-up display or the tent mode.
Its 360-degree hinge lets you do all of these without any complications allowing for a cool laptop that you can take anywhere and use everywhere.
The laptop features a wide-angle HD Webcam that supports HDR imaging enhancing your video calling experience during your travel. The battery backup extends to 10 hours which is quite sufficient for your work.
The flexibility of using the Acer Chromebook as well as the availability of a wide variety of app choices places the Acer Chromebook as one of the best lightweight travel laptops on the list.
Features
- Weight:2.62 pounds
- Dimensions: 11.65 x 8.11 x 0.79 inches
- Battery Life: 10 Hours
- Storage: 32 GB embedded multimedia card
- RAM: 4 GB LPDDR
6. Dell Inspiron 15 5502: Best Lightweight Travel Laptop
Dell Inspiron 15 is thin and light, engineered with the 11th gen Intel i5 processor and a 15.6-inch Full HD with anti-glare LED Backlight Narrow Border WVA Display.
The 8 GB 3200 Mhz DDR4 RAM helps run complex tasks seamlessly.
The platinum silver color is an elegant touch that brings modern aesthetics to the laptop.
The ExpressCharge will help recharge your battery in a flash making the Dell Inspiron one of the best laptops to take traveling.
A multifunctional USB type-C port gives great compatibility with other laptop accessories.
Other features in the Dell Inspiron 15 5502 include a lid-open sensor that will turn on the laptop even when completely off, as well as the fingerprint reader that provides hassle-free yet secure log-in.
Features
- Weight: 3.78 pounds
- Dimensions: 9.23 x 14.02 x 0.7 inches
- Battery Life: 8 Hours
- Storage: 512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe Solid State Drive
- RAM: 8 GB DDR4
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7. Acer Swift 3: Best Laptop for Travel Blogging
This Ultra-thin and lightweight laptop sports a magnesium-aluminum metal chassis with a high screen-to-body ratio and a long-lasting battery.
One of the best laptops for travelers, weighing only 2.65 pounds it is not cumbersome to carry at all.
The ultra-notebook features an AMD Ryzen 7 4700U processor for fast and smooth workflow and a silver-colored chassis to complete the look.
The 14-inch FULL HD IPS display will surely give you an amazing multimedia experience, along with features like dual-band Intel® Wi-Fi 6 (GIG+) (802.11ax) which provides 1,700 Mbps download speeds and the Thunderbolt 4 USB for ultra-quick data transfer (40 Gbps).
All of these features will surely make your work experience pleasant during your travels, making this laptop one of the best lightweight travel laptops.
Features
- Weight: 2.65 pounds
- Dimensions: 12.73 x 8.62 x 0.63 inches
- Battery Life: 17 hours
- Storage: 512 GB Flash Memory Solid State
- RAM: 16 GB LPDDR4
8. Dell Inspiron 5000: Best Travel Laptops
The Dell Inspiron 5000 sports a high 32 GB RAM to run multiple software smoothly while browsing the web, giving you a perfect multi-tasking experience.
The 1 TB solid state drive has ample space to store your high-spec media files.
The Intel i5 processor helps you switch between tasks without lag and the 15.6 inches FULL HD display is a visual treat while editing your media files.
With the newer Intel processor and a docking station, it’s much easier to edit videos and perform cloud computing tasks.
This laptop was built to help you do those heavy-duty graphic edits or run software that will not lag even with multiple tabs open.
Such great computing capabilities make the Dell Inspiron one of the best laptops for travelers.
Features
- Weight: 3.78 pounds
- Dimensions: 14.02 x 9.23 x 0.7 inches
- Battery Life: N/A
- Storage: 1TB PCIe Solid State Drive
- RAM: 32 GB DDR4
9. HP Pavilion x360 Convertible Touchscreen Laptop
The HP Pavilion x360 can easily convert into four versatile modes. Drawing or note-taking feels as natural as on paper.
The laptop easily supports online video meetings with its solid Wi-Fi 6 connection, the wide vision HD webcam, and dual-array microphone gives a wide-angle clarity which makes things look closer.
Equipped with BIOS recovery and protection which automatically checks the health of the laptop and protects against unauthorized access.
HP Pavilion has a 14 inch FULL HD IPS, micro-edge, WLED-backlight, multi-touch enabled, edge to edge glass touch screen display, which gives an amazing viewing experience.
The battery life lasts up to 9 hours and 15 minutes at normal usage. Amazon Alexa voice service is also one of its trendy features to use making this laptop one of the best laptops for travel and photography.
Features
- Weight: 3.5 pounds
- Dimensions: 12.76 x 8.78 x 0.81 inches
- Battery Life:9.25 Hours
- Storage: 512 GB Flash Memory Solid State
- RAM: 8 GB DDR4
10. ASUS VivoBook
The ASUS VivoBook is one of the best lightweight travel laptops you can purchase with equal attention to performance. The RAM is upgraded to 12 GB DDR4 memory for adequate multitasking and a smooth running of applications.
The internal storage is ample enough with the 1 TB variant to store your important digital data whereas the 15.6-inch FULL HD LED nano edge bezel display gives you an amazing visual experience.
The AMD Ryzen 5 3500U processor provides maximum high-efficiency power to run all work tasks smoothly.
The Asus VivoBook is the best laptop for travel blogging with great internal storage and a powerful processing unit it will make your blogging and vlogging edits as easy as it can get. All such features make this laptop a sure feature in the list of top 10 best travel laptops.
Features
- Weight: 3.51 pounds
- Dimensions: 14.1 x 9.1 x 0.8 inches
- Battery Life: N/A
- Storage: 1 TB Flash Memory Solid State
- RAM: 12 GB DDR4
These top 10 travel laptops here will surely fulfill your needs while traveling.
The things you need to take note of are generally the weight, processing power, and battery life to make your travel hassle-free in terms of using a laptop.
The laptops featured in have a lot more to offer though. Travel laptops in this list offer you choices in the higher and lower price ranges.
The laptops with a slightly lower price may offer less processing power due to hardware restraints but they do not compromise in the quality and are great for emails, checking business metrics, browsing the web, etc.
The laptops with high-end specifications do not compromise processing power giving you a seamless navigation experience while editing your media files, however, the battery backup may not be as great as the lower priced models. The trade-off here will depend on your usage.
All the laptops featured here have high-security measures, a few also have the finger touch verification enabled ensuring security while you travel.
With Wi-Fi 6 enabled in almost all laptops, the connectivity will also not be an issue. All of these features were designed for a great travel experience and hopefully, the list of the best laptops for travelers will help you choose yours.
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Thanks for sharing the ultimate guide on travel laptops. Keep blogging!