The 6 Best Laptops For Battery Life - Spring 2024 Reviews

The best laptop for battery life we've tested is the Apple MacBook Pro 14 (M3, 2023). This premium workstation's battery life is superb, lasting over 15 hours of light use. That's enough to easily get you through a full day, maybe even two, depending on your workload. It has a sharp Mini LED display, a spacious keyboard, and an easy-to-use haptic touchpad. Ports include 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 like video editing, 3D graphics and animation, and programming. 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.

A Windows alternative would be the Dell XPS 15 (2023). It's also a premium laptop with a great user experience and tons of processing power. You can configure it with an Intel 13th Gen H-series CPU and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40-series GPU, up to a Core i9-13900H and RTX 4070, respectively. The RAM and SSD are user-replaceable, so you can easily increase the amount or upgrade to a better-performing memory or faster drive. Unfortunately, its 720p webcam isn't that great, and the keyboard gets uncomfortably hot. Also, you can only get this laptop with a 60Hz display.

Our best upper mid-range pick is the M2 Apple MacBook Air 13 (2022). Like the Apple MacBook Pro 14 (M3, 2023) above, it's also a premium, well-built model that provides a fantastic user experience. It doesn't have as much processing power, so it's better suited for lighter general productivity tasks like text processing, web browsing, and video playback. It can handle some demanding stuff like video editing, but you won't get as good an experience as on the Pro models. It has a bright Retina display, a comfortable keyboard, and a gigantic haptic touchpad. The battery lasts easily through a typical eight-hour workday with plenty to spare. The main downside is that it only has two USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 ports with support for a single external display.

A quick FYI: Apple has released a newer M3 MacBook Air model but still sells the M2 model from 2022 as a more budget-friendly option, giving it a $100 USD price cut. The M3 model has only a few minor upgrades, including Wi-Fi 6E, slightly better performance, and support for two external displays (with the laptop closed). A review of this M3 model is in the works. 

For Windows users, we recommend the LG gram 14 (2023). This 14-inch ultraportable provides a good user experience overall, and its battery lasts around 11 hours of light use. It has a significantly better port selection, sporting two USB-As, two USB-C/Thunderbolt 4s, an HDMI, a MicroSD card reader, and a headphone jack. Its Intel 13th Gen CPU has no problem handling general productivity tasks. There are two main tradeoffs: the display isn't as sharp or bright, and its magnesium alloy chassis doesn't feel as solid or premium as the MacBook Air's all-aluminum build.

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. You can choose between an FHD+ or QHD+ panel; we recommend the latter, as it looks sharper and gets brighter to combat glare. 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.

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 battery lasts a little over 12 hours of light use and charges over USB-C. The only complaint is that the webcam image has an unnatural tint, and the microphone picks up some background noise. Lastly, the display supports pen input, but you may have to buy the stylus separately, depending on the model. The pen uses Wacom AES technology and supports 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity and tilt.

For those on a tighter budget, we recommend the Acer Swift 3 14 (2020), a 14-inch Windows laptop that lasts over 13 hours on a full charge. Acer's Swift laptops are typically more expensive, but since this is a model from 2020, you can get it at a much lower price, making it a great value. Its Intel 11th Gen CPU is also a few years old but still more than adequate for general productivity. It has a great port selection that includes two USB-As, one USB-C Thunderbolt 4, an HDMI, and a headphone jack. You also get a fingerprint sensor for quick logins.

The display looks sharp and gives you just enough room for split-screen multitasking; however, it doesn't get very bright, so glare may be an issue in well-lit rooms. Unfortunately, the webcam's video quality is bad; the image looks underexposed, and the microphone sounds staticky.

The best cheap laptop with long battery life we've tested is the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i Chromebook 14 (2023). This is 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.

The best 2-in-1 tablet for battery life we've tested is the Lenovo Chromebook Duet 5 (2021), a 13-inch Chrome OS tablet with a kickstand and detachable keyboard. This form factor is more comfortable to use as a tablet than 2-in-1s with a 360-degree hinge because you can take the keyboard off when you're just watching videos, making the device lighter and easier to hold, and you can pop it back on when you need to type something out. Plus, the keyboard comes with the device, so there's no need to spend extra. It isn't the most comfortable keyboard to type on; it's fine for a couple of emails but not a long essay.

The great thing about this device is its OLED display, which is rare among Chromebooks in this price range. It's sharp and bright, and like all OLEDs, it produces deep, inky blacks. The speakers get reasonably loud but don't have much bass and sound slightly unnatural. The battery lasts around 10 hours of light use or eight hours of video playback and charges over USB-C. Remember that Chrome OS doesn't support x86 Windows programs, so you must ensure you can do everything through a Chrome browser or Android app.

If you need to install x86 programs or prefer a Windows device, get the Microsoft Surface Pro 8 (2021). It's also a 2-in-1 tablet with a kickstand and detachable keyboard. Its type cover keyboard provides a better typing experience, but unlike the Lenovo, you need to buy it separately, which isn't cheap. You'll also have to buy the stylus separately. Its Intel 11th Gen CPU can handle much more, so it's a better option for heavy multitaskers, but it comes at the cost of a shorter battery life. Also, there's a newer Microsoft Surface Pro 9; it's a minor upgrade to Intel 12th Gen CPUs and is more expensive. You can see it on Amazon here.