These 5 laptops have the longest battery life we’ve ever tested
There’s nothing more heart-stopping than frantically searching for the nearest outlet while your laptop verges on dying. Want to avoid such panic-inducing scenarios? You’re going to need a long-lasting laptop with lots of juicy battery life.
That’s where we come in. We’ve personally tested over 80 laptops so far this year (as of this writing) and many more over the past decade. I can point you to the ones that have the best battery life, period. Here are the five laptops we tested with the longest battery life.
How PCWorld tests battery life:
When it comes to testing battery life for laptops, we loop a 4K file of a short film on screen until the laptop dies. We set the brightness level to 250 to 260 nits, unplug all USB drives, disable Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and plug in a pair of earbuds. We run this test twice per laptop to ensure consistent results.
1. Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 (24 hours)
Pros
- Remarkable battery life
- A great array of ports
- Sturdy, lightweight design
- High visibility display
Cons
- Variable performance trails competitors
- A bit pricier than the competition
The Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 has a 58 watt-hour battery that keeps going, lasting just shy of 24 hours on a single charge (!!!). Excuse me while I pick my jaw up off the floor.
It pummels other laptops with similar hardware like the Asus Vivobook S 15 (which manages a feeble 15 hours of battery life by comparison), and its performance is bolstered by its inclusion of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite X1E-78-100 processor, which is quite power-efficient.
We believe the low-power screen plays a part in this laptop’s runtime, as the battery itself isn’t very big. The 14-inch display has a 1920×1200 resolution and a 60Hz refresh rate, so it’s not very demanding, either. The Vivobook, on the other hand, has a higher resolution OLED display at 2880×1620, which likely impacts the battery life. (OLED displays achieve better contrast and color accuracy, but they can negatively impact battery life, especially when displaying bright content.)
All in all, it isn’t the fastest or flashiest system, but the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 is efficient at a level we haven’t seen elsewhere. It’s an all-around strong machine for general productivity on the go and proves tough to beat on that front.
Read our full Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 review 2. Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge (21 hours)
Pros
- Very thin and light for a 16-inch laptop
- Long battery life
- Beautiful OLED display
- Highest-end Snapdragon X Elite hardware available
Cons
- No facial recognition login
- eUFS storage is soldered to the motherboard
- Limited to 16GB of RAM
- Expensive compared to other Snapdragon-powered laptops
- The top-end Snapdragon X Elite hardware isn't much faster
The Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge has a 61.8 watt-hour battery that died at the 21-hour mark. It’s not the 24-hour result we saw with the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6, but 21 hours is nothing to sneeze at, especially for a 16-inch laptop with an OLED screen.
You’d think the Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge’s 16-inch 2880×1800 OLED would be a drain on the battery, but we believe the long battery life is a direct result of the power-efficient Snapdragon X Elite X1E-84-100 processor. This CPU is a step up from the Snapdragon X Elite X1E-78-100 that’s inside the Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 6, and this higher-tier processor offers better performance for slightly shorter battery life.
Plus, based on our testing, laptops with Intel Core or AMD processors tend to have shorter battery life than those with Snapdragon processors, which are designed to be more power-efficient.
All in all, the Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge is an excellent Snapdragon X Elite-powered PC with a beautiful display, long battery life, and great build quality. But you’re paying extra for the high-end Snapdragon X Elite hardware on the 16-inch model, and it doesn’t deliver the big performance bump you might expect.
Read our full Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge review 3. Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 (20 hours)
Pros
- Attractive, slim, and light
- Class-leading battery life
- Excellent wireless connectivity via Wi-Fi 7
- Good performance in real-world situations
Cons
- Vague keyboard falls short of competitors
- IPS touchscreen's image quality can't compare to OLED
- Gaming performance doesn't hold up
The Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 is another Snapdragon-equipped machine with spectacular battery life: 20 hours, to be exact.
This result is especially impressive because the battery size is only 54 watt-hours, which is small compared to other laptops of its class (like the 84 watt-hour battery in the Dell Inspiron 16 2-in-1). You can thank the power-efficient Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite processor for that. In addition, this laptop also weighs just under 3 pounds, making it a super travel-friendly option if you’re always on the go.
All in all, the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7’s strong processor performance and top-tier battery life prove that Windows’ transition to Arm has staying power, but even the most casual gamers should think twice because gaming on a Snapdragon laptop has its problems.
Note that while we specifically reviewed the $1,999.99 version — a bit pricey for some folks, I know — you can get the base configuration for a much more affordable $999.99.
Read our full Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 (13.8″) review 4. HP OmniBook X (18 hours)
Pros
- Long battery life
- Slim and lightweight
- Decent keyboard and trackpad
Cons
- Dim and glossy display can be hard to see
- Priced too close to better PCs
- Outperformed on many fronts
The HP OmniBook X boasts the same CPU (Snapdragon X Elite X1E-78-100) that’s inside the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6, but it only manages 18 hours. That’s still a fantastic result, don’t get me wrong, but it does fall several hours short of the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6.
That’s likely because of the HP OmniBook X’s 14-inch 2240×1400 touchscreen, a higher-resolution display that consumes more power. According to our review, during day-to-day use it lost “just 9 percent of charge per hour.” Battery life aside, the HP OmniBook X offers reliable performance as well as a robust build.
All in all, the HP OmniBook X is an effective laptop and makes decent use of its Snapdragon processor to run for hours on end, but it doesn’t set itself apart as it skimps in other areas.
Read our full HP OmniBook X review 5. Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 (17 hours)
Pros
- ThinkPad build quality
- Good battery life
- 360-degree hinge with a pen and touchscreen
Cons
- Expensive
- Long battery life comes at the cost of performance
- Slow integrated graphics
- Won't run Copilot+ PC features
Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processors reign supreme on this list, which is why the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 is a notable inclusion: it’s the longest battery life laptop with an Intel processor (so far).
Granted, much like the Snapdragon processor, the Intel Core Ultra 7 155U is also designed with power efficiency in mind. However, the 17-hour battery life definitely stands out, and it’s rooted in its combination of power-efficient processor and lower-resolution display.
The laptop’s 14-inch 1920×1200 IPS touchscreen isn’t all that demanding, and that’s what allows this laptop to beat out the 10.5-hour battery life of the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon, which has the same processor but a higher-resolution OLED display (2880×1800).
All in all, the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 is a quality laptop with a robust build, a nice pen, and serious battery life. But if you’re thinking of buying one, you may want to wait for the upcoming next-gen model that’s going to be powered by Intel’s Lunar Lake hardware.
Read our full Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 reviewFurther reading: Our top picks for laptops in every category