The 6 Best Laptops For Battery Life - Fall 2024

The best laptop for battery life we've tested is the Apple MacBook Pro 14 (M3, 2023). This premium workstation's battery life lasts over 15 hours of light use, enough to easily get you through a full day, maybe even two, depending on your workload. It has a sharp Mini LED display that's suitable for color work like video editing, a spacious and tactile keyboard, and a large, easy-to-use haptic touchpad. The port selection is excellent, and it includes three USB/Thunderbolt 4 ports, an HDMI 2.1, and a full-size SD card reader. You can configure it with an M3 Pro or Max SoC (System on Chip); both are fast enough to handle demanding workloads. There's also a base M3 chip option if you don't need a lot of processing power but still want the 'Pro' features like the display and up-firing speakers.

For Windows users, we recommend the Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 7 (2024), a 16-inch workstation. Like the MacBook Pro, it provides an amazing user experience overall, and while its battery life isn't quite as impressive, it's still more than enough to get you through the day, lasting around 12 hours of light use. You can configure this laptop with high-performance Intel Meteor Lake CPUs, up to a Core Ultra 9, paired with an NVIDIA GeForce or Ada Generation Laptop GPU. However, you can only get up to 64GB of RAM (user-upgradeable to 96GB), whereas the MacBook Pro is configurable with up to 128GB, so it might not be ideal if your work requires a lot of memory. Another downside is that it gets hotter and louder under load.

If you don't need the raw processing power of a workstation but still want something premium for everyday, general productivity tasks, check out the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7th Edition 15 (2024). This 2024 model is a huge departure from its predecessors, as it now sports an ARM SoC, the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite. This chip performs better and is incredibly efficient, resulting in a whopping 17-hour battery life in light uses. Other improvements include a significantly brighter 120Hz display, a haptic touchpad, a wider port selection, Wi-Fi 7 support, and a 1080p webcam.

The most important thing about this laptop is that many programs don't run natively on an ARM processor. Microsoft has introduced a new emulation layer to improve compatibility; however, you should still check that the apps you use are compatible or run well enough to get your work done. App compatibility will undoubtedly improve over time, but as with almost all major changes, there will be some growing pains.

A worthy mention is the Apple MacBook Air 15 (2024), also a 15-inch premium ultraportable. This popular ultraportable needs very little introduction. It has a remarkably sturdy build, a gorgeous—albeit 60Hz—Retina display, an industry-leading haptic touchpad, and amazing-sounding speakers. App compatibility is better, as it has been a few years since Apple switched to its in-house ARM-based SoC, and Apple's Rosetta 2 emulation is more mature at this time. As for battery life, while it can't quite match the Surface Laptop's 17 hours, it can still last comfortably through a typical school or workday, averaging around 12 to 13 hours of light use.

If you want a more modest mid-range model, check out the Lenovo Yoga 7i 16 (2023). It has a large 16-inch display that's well suited for split-screen multitasking, and since it's a 2-in-1, you can flip the screen around and use it as a tablet. The battery lasts a little over 12 hours of light use and charges over USB-C. You can choose between an FHD+ or QHD+ panel; we recommend the latter, as it looks sharper and gets brighter to combat glare. You can configure it with Intel 13th Gen U- and P-series CPUs, which are plenty fast for general productivity tasks like text processing, web browsing, presentations, and spreadsheets.

The keyboard feels great to type on and includes a Numpad, which is great for those working with lots of numbers. There's a fingerprint sensor and a facial recognition camera to log in quickly. For ports, you get two USB-As, two USB-C/Thunderbolt 4s, an HDMI, and a MicroSD card reader. The only complaint is that the webcam image has an unnatural tint, and the microphone picks up some background noise. The display supports pen input, but you may have to buy the stylus separately, depending on the model. Final note: this laptop is discontinued and may be hard to find, so you might have to get it through a third-party seller on marketplaces.

For those on a tighter budget, we recommend the ASUS Vivobook 16 M1605 (2023), a 16-inch Windows ultraportable. While its battery life isn't as impressive as the other picks on our list, it'll last around eight hours of light use throughout the day. This model is all plastic, but it feels sturdy and is easy to carry around despite its size. You can configure it with an AMD Ryzen 5 or Ryzen 7 CPU, which are more than adequate for everyday tasks like web browsing or video playback. While its standard 8GB of RAM configuration can be a bit limiting, models with 16GB are available through some retailers, or you can add more yourself since the RAM is user-replaceable.

The overall user experience is good. It has a comfortable keyboard, a large, responsive touchpad, and a decent 720p webcam. Its 1080p display looks reasonably sharp, and at 16 inches, it's a great size for general productivity work or media consumption; however, it isn't the brightest, so visibility may be an issue in well-lit rooms. You get Wi-Fi 6E wireless connectivity, a fingerprint sensor for quick logins, and a decent port selection with three USB-As, a USB-C, and an HDMI. Unfortunately, the USB-C doesn't support video output, so you'll have to use the HDMI port to connect an external display.

The best cheap laptop with long battery life we've tested is the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i Chromebook 14 (2023). It's a great option for younger students or anyone needing a simple device for web browsing and video playback. You can often find the Core i3 configuration—paired with an FHD display, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage—on sale for around $400 to $500 USD on Lenovo's website. Cheaper configurations exist; however, we don't recommend them unless you have an extremely light workload and don't mind compromising on the display quality.

The FHD touch-sensitive display looks sharp and gets bright enough for use in well-lit settings. If you're often on video calls, you'd be happy to know it has an excellent 1080p webcam. As for the keyboard and touchpad, the former feels spacious but a tad mushy, and the latter is small and sometimes unresponsive, unfortunately. On the upside, its battery life is outstanding at around 13 hours of light use. One last thing: Chrome OS is limited in the type of applications you can install, so make sure you can do everything through a Chrome browser or Android app.

If you like 2-in-1 tablet PCs with a detachable keyboard, check out the Microsoft Surface Pro 11th Edition (2024). This 2024 model is very similar to its predecessors, as the form factor hasn't changed much over the years. You're still getting a well-built, premium-feeling tablet with a sturdy kickstand, an industry-leading front-facing camera for video calls, an IR facial recognition camera for added security, and a back-facing 10MP that you can use to scan documents on the spot. While this model is compatible with the Surface Pro 8 and Pro X's type cover keyboard, Microsoft has released a newer version, the Flex keyboard. It has a larger haptic touchpad that's easier to use, and it now supports Bluetooth, allowing you to use the keyboard even when detached from the tablet. Unfortunately, you must purchase the keyboard separately; the same goes for the stylus.

Thanks to the new power-efficient ARM-based Snapdragon SoC, the battery lasts around 11 hours of light use. That said, like the Surface Laptop mentioned above, it's best to check that the apps you use are compatible. There are technically two display options, though you don't really have a choice, as the display is tied to the choice of SoC: the Snapdragon X Plus model comes with an IPS panel, while the X Elite model has an OLED panel. The latter will give you deeper blacks, as all OLEDs do; however, its digitizer is visible, creating a grid pattern known as the 'screen door effect.' If this bothers you, getting the X Plus model is best.