Looking for an ultrabook similar to an MBA M5 Air but on windows.
I bought a Macbook Air M5 before the price rice (1tb) for £1200 from John Lewis. It has everything I need but I'm just struggling to use it as effectively as windows, and this is after trying to get used to it over 3 months after following tutorials as well. I bought parallels which fixes a lot of issues but then what's the point, may as well get a Windows laptop since emulating it drains so much battery anyway.
Anyhow, what I'm searching for :
- Works well without charger and still lives off battery for a while on general tasks. (My XPS from 5 years ago throttles performance like mad and dies in minutes on battery, even with high performance mode). I think recent CPUs are better optimised nowadays like the intel ultra series? Though I've never tried them.
- Has a GPU, doesn't need to be super strong, I need this for light gaming (MMOs with low graphics is fine) and a lot of creative tasks, not expecting to obviously play on battery.
- Light and slim, similar to MBA 13 inch, a bit more weight is fine but nothing above 1.6kg. Any screen size is fine.
- Reliable product with good recognition. I know Thinkpad has a lot of praise for example.
- From some searching I think some variants of the Zenbook fill the criteria but open to more recommendations.
- Budget is £1200-ish, hopefully a bit less. This is what I paid for the MBA and is what I may have after selling it.
- UK vendors of course.
Thanks! Feel free to follow up with questions.
Posted Aug 12, 2026, 11:05 AM UTC