12 Best Compact Business Laptops For Travel

Business laptops have to be lightweight, compact in size, thin, yet powerful. It might seem like a difficult feat to accomplish, but laptop technology has now advanced to impossibly compact designs, all while keeping cool and fast.
The best luggable laptops are in this list, but look for those that match your priorities the best. Some are perfect for travelling video-editors, others are great for word processing. If you’re looking for durability and keyboard experience, the Lenovo is a popular choice, for example.

#1 Lenovo 20KH002FUS Thinkpad X1 Carbon

Will Ellis from Privacy Australia:

One word: security. With the tech available today, you would be crazy to choose a laptop that doesn’t have an integrated fingerprint reader. Other laptops have fingerprint readers but with the ThinkPad, you won’t break the bank as you would with a Macbook As for actual size and convenience, the laptop is extremely thin and small but still comes with every feature anyone would need. I travel all over Australia with my ThinkPad and the single best thing about it besides being secure is the rapid charging feature. I can charge my computer to 80% in an hour and when fully charged it easily lasts for over 10 hours no matter what I’m doing.

#2 Microsoft Surface Laptop Intel Core i5 7th Gen

Viktoria Altman from Go Travel Tipster:

My favorite travel laptop is Microsoft Surface. Very lightweight, powerful, with a generous 17-inch screen it fits easily into almost any carry-on. This machine is powerful enough to run resource-heavy software such as photoshop. The battery lasts about 8 hours, and the touchscreen makes it more flexible than a MacBook. It is also one of the most inexpensive high-end laptops on the market.

#3 Dell XPS 15 2-in-1 Laptop

Mike Falahee from Marygrove Awning Co.:

Although this is a semi-expensive choice, it is a lot of power and it’s thin, very manageable. One of the really nice features for this is the two in one. Being convertible means that you don’t have to fuss with the keyboard option if you don’t want to. While traveling, saving any sort of space can be a lifesaver and this steadily does that.

#4 Acer Aspire 1 A114-32-C1YA

Arthur Ruth from Memphis Maids:

For the cheap, the best thing you can buy is a Chromebook. This Acer Aspire is a good laptop that can get the bare minimum done, this is only for web browsing and a couple of words documents or excel. You can get a whopping 6.5 hours of battery and it’s a full HD display, you can’t get much better for the price.

#5 Lenovo Thinkpad E590

Arthur Ruth from Memphis Maids:

This is a laptop for someone who uses a lot of programs in their work. It doesn’t have independent graphics but it sure has good RAM, a decent CPU, and a perfect display, it also has decent battery life. This one is the best bang for your buck if you don’t need a graphics card.

#6 Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme

Arthur Ruth from Memphis Maids:

The Extreme in this one is well put, this machine is a beast. Max RAM, 64gb, a decent graphics card, GTX 1050 ti. Powerful at low power consumption, 4 TB of storage. A 4K touch screen monitor. This one is the most powerful and the best laptop for your travels, it’s only lacking a huge battery but you can slap a power bank to it and forget about it. A beast PC in a laptop form.

#7 Apple MacBook Pro

Mikael Uusitalo from Thrillism:

As a founder of an outdoor adventure travel marketplace, I tote my computer across the world, to varying destinations, some on the path less traveled. This means I need something well built (all aluminium) and reliable (quality components). In my case, Apple, and it’s 13” MacBook Pro series has never disappointed and tick those boxes. Every third year an upgrade is due, but in between those moments, I have not had one single issue in the last 15 years.”

#8 Acer Chromebook 15

Matt Benn from Soundplate:

I’ve always been a loyal Apple user but recently I’ve started using a Chromebook when I’m travelling for business. The Acer’s build quality is good and the all-day battery life is amazing. Chomebooks have limitations but I find them perfect for working on the go. If you just need a laptop for emails, docs and working while on the move this is a great option, especially as it costs just a fraction of the price of a macbook!

#9 Asus Zenbook 14

Dale Johnson from Nomad Paradise:

If you’re looking to strike a balance between a lightweight, ultraportable laptop, that also packs plenty of power, then the latest in Asus’ Zenbook series is a pick that won’t disappoint.

Firstly, I simply have to mention its Intel i5-driven processor power, which can be upgraded to a whopping 3.9GHz: unheard of for laptops of this size. That comes with a sizeable 256GB of SSD storage, and up to 8GB of RAM. There’s a reason this laptop is coming among gamers on the go, and if you use the likes of Adobe for image or video editing, Zenbook 14 will have no trouble keeping up with the pace.

Its physical features, too, favour substance over style. It’s 145 degree keyboard is at the scientifically-tested optimum angle for your wrists, while its enhance cooling system will help when charging in high-voltage sockets, particularly in the likes of Southeast Asia.

You also get 2 USB 3.0 ports and, if you need to connect a monitor or a sizeable device, a singular USB 2.0 port. It’s not the lightest, but still light at 3.2lbs, and from $799.99, much cheaper than many ultraportable books on the market.

If you’re willing to trade in state of the art features, such as touchscreen, high definition, and USB-C, to name but a few that the likes of MacBook and Huawei boast, then Zenbook 14 is a great choice for someone on the road who needs to do serious work.

#10 HP Envy 13

Matt Woodley from MoverFocus:

This is my go to travel laptop as it’s light and powerful. It’s also competitively priced at only $968.98 on Amazon which makes it a bargain. I also find the fingerprint scanner great for added security when travelling. It’s also proven to be very durable and the keyboard is great and is actually one of the best laptop keyboards I’ve ever used.

#11 Lenovo Yoga C630

Ronald D’souza from Amazon Blingsoul:

It’s an excellent business and travelling laptop because it’s incredibly light weight and easy to carry. Secondly the long battery life enable you to work long hours with a single charge.

#12 Apple MacBook Air

The Apple MacBook Air is quite a popular laptop for digital nomads and travellers. Because of its lightweight (2.75 pounds), great build quality and operating system. The display is a 13.3-inch Retina display designed to be easy on the eyes. The battery life is average at best lasting 9-10 hours depending on the usage. Performance-wise, you won’t be disappointed thanks to its i5 processor and 8 GB of ram.

The operating system itself is devoid of bloatware which can reduce the performance of the laptop. This makes the performance always smooth. The MacBook Air speaks for itself. A robust machine with an efficient operating system that is able to last for a long time and also the excellent customer support you get from Apple. While the MacBook air leads the pack of the best business laptops for travellers, I think the Dell XPS 9750 and the Lenovo Yoga make for quite compelling laptops too.

The recommendations of products and books within this article where sourced from industry experts. Their names and websites are listed below.