How Much Does a Laptop Weigh


I tend to travel quite a bit with my laptop from walking around with it to traveling on planes with it. When I was in the market for a new one, the weight played an important role for me because of how much stress it can put on my back or arms from carrying it.

What is the average weight of a laptop? Laptops can vary in weight from about 2 lbs up to 8 lbs. They are generally classified in these five catagories: Ultrabook/Chromebook (2 – 3 lbs), Ultraportable (2 – 5 lbs), Thin and Light (3 – 6 lbs), Desktop Replacement (4 lbs) and Luggables (8 lbs).

Laptops may differ in size because some laptops are built with more of a certain hardware such as more fans for a person’s particular needs. Another factor that could play into this are the size and dimensions of the laptop. There are many factors to take into account and understanding them can help you choose the right laptop.

A Deeper Dive into Laptop weight

When looking into your next laptop, the weight can impact your decision. Therefore understanding the different categories will be important.

Ultrabook/Chromebook laptops are more so a type of laptop rather than a category. The Ultrabook is was a name Intel came up with for their laptops and uses the Windows OS. The Chromebook is a Google laptop than runs on the Chrome OS. Both were made to be lightweight and keep up with the trends of lighter laptops that people have been gravitating towards.

Ultraportable laptops are pretty lightweight therefore great for transportation from place to place. A few examples of laptops that could be placed in this category are: HP EliteBook, Apple Macbook Air, Acer Swift 7 and HP Spectre Folio.

Thin and Light laptops are as the name suggests and meant to be weigh just a little more than Ultraportable laptops. Some examples of these types of laptops are as followed: 13′ Apple MacBook Pro, Dell XPS 15, Microsoft Surface Book 2 13.5′, Google Pixelbook and Lenovo Yoga 920.

Desktop Replacement laptops are designed to perform as close to a desktop computer while still being mobile. They can be great to use if you need a laptop with more power than the usual laptop. A higher end gaming laptop would be an example of this type of laptop since they usually contain an extra fan for better heat dissipation and a bigger battery to compensate for all the power they use.

The following laptops are examples: MSI GP73 Leopard-209, Alienware 17 R5 17inch Gaming laptop and MSI GT75 Titan 17.3″ 4k Laptop.

Luggable laptops are closer to being a desktop PC rather than a laptop. They do not even currently sell the cases to make these type PC cases currently, but there are people that have created some DIY cases online for people still interested in this type of computer. An example of this laptop would be a Compaq Portable II which is an old computer that weighed over 15 lbs.

The Different Sizes of a Laptop

Now that we have taken a look at the weight of a laptop, it is time to look into its dimensions.

  • Ultrabook/Chromebook tend to come in 9-13.5″ x 8-11″ x <1″
  • Ultraportable laptops tend to come in 9-13″ x 8-9″ * .2-1.3″.
  • Thin and Light laptops tend to come in 11-15″ x <11″ x .5-1.5″
  • Desktop Replacement laptops tend to come in >15″ x >11″ x 1-2″
  • Luggable laptops tend to come in >18″ x >13″ x >1″

Which Hardware Components Increase Laptop Weight

Fans can add quite a bit of weight to laptops, and some laptops are created with more than one fan or just a bigger fan than usual. This is because to make a laptop more powerful the CPU, chipset and graphics need to work at high speeds. The high speeds they work at produces more heat. An example of a laptop that would need such power would be a gaming laptop.

Laptops with more fans also need bigger cases to help with heat dissipation. Larger cases supply larger heat sink, larger vents, more space for air to circulate within the case and better airflow.

Batteries increase weight also. A more powerful laptop with more processing power and larger fans will need a larger battery to help sustain battery life.

A laptop that has more ports will weigh more than the typical laptop. A few of these ports include DisplayPort/mini DisplayPort, DVI, SD Card Reader, USB/USB Type-A and HDMI. To decrease weight there are laptops coming out with the minimum amount of ports such as the 12″ Apple Macbook which comes with only 1 USB type-C port.

The bigger your laptop screen, the more weight will be added to your laptop. Screens can start at 9″ and go up to 18″ or more.

Choosing the Right Laptop for You

Now that you have an idea about how much laptops weigh it is time to figure out which laptop is best suited for your daily needs based on weight.

Ultrabook/Chromebook, Ultraportable laptops and the Thin and Light laptops tend to be a good choice for people who tend to travel a lot, who are students or who do a lot of walking around with their laptop on a day to day basis.

These three laptop categories have screens to about 13″, are lightweight, have dimensions suitable for their weight and come with hardware suited for their size. The smaller the laptop, the less powerful the hardware though such as a smaller battery, less RAM or less hard drive space.

The next category of people would be people who are not walking around with their laptop all day and keep their laptops on the desk for many hours of the day. A good choice would be a desktop replacement laptop. They are heavier to transport around but tend to come with powerful hardware to compensate that.

Luggable computers are a bit of an older type of computer and are not that convenient for transportation. They usually require an outlet to even turn on, therefore the places you can use them are limited. This would be a good choice if you really do not plan on moving around that much. At that point it may be better to get an actual desktop PC since it is a little bigger and will most likely come with more powerful hardware.

Related Questions

What laptops are under 2 lbs? Laptops that are under 2 lbs are as followed: IRULU WALKNBOOK (1.26 lbs), HP ENVY X2 (1.55 lbs), Samsung notebook (1.8 lbs). These laptops are designed as a 2 in 1 which means they are created with a detachable keyboard that turns them into tablet.

How much does a laptop weigh in KG? The average laptop weighs about 2.3 kg or more. The lighter laptops can weigh as low as 1 kg. Laptops weighing this much are manageable enough to commute with on a day to day basis.

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