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Some users depend on a laptop's battery more than others—but how long a notebook endures unplugged is a measurement no shopper should ignore. Even powerful workstations and gaming laptops, once lucky to last an hour or two away from a wall socket, can now get you through an eight-hour workday. (Ultraportables run anywhere from 12 to 20 hours or more.) At PC Labs, we've been testing laptops for decades, running rigorous, repeatable tests on each of the 100-plus machines we review every year. On each machine, PCMag's expert laptop reviewers run a standardized battery-rundown test, as well as a host of CPU and graphics performance benchmarks and screen-quality trials. The aim? To craft authoritative recommendations and insights before you buy. HP's Dragonfly G4 is our current top battery-life pick for professional productivity, but keep reading for other great, long-lasting choices, a detailed spec comparison, and key buying advice.
Our Top Tested Picks
HP Dragonfly G4
Acer Aspire 3 (A315-24P)
Microsoft Surface Pro 9 (SQ3)
Samsung Galaxy Book3 Ultra
HP Spectre x360 14 (2024)
Razer Blade 14 (2023)
LG Gram Pro 17 (2023)
Getac S410 G5
Apple MacBook Air (M1, Late 2020)
Apple MacBook Pro 14-Inch (2023, M3 Pro)
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Best for Business Travelers
HP Dragonfly G4
- Handsome 3:2 aspect ratio display
- Long battery life
- Full array of ports and available mobile broadband
- Whizbang 5-megapixel webcam
- Sleek and super light
- No SD or microSD card slot
- Expensive, especially when customized
- Slightly awkward keyboard
A sharp-looking 3:2 screen, impressive connectivity, and long battery life make HP's 2.2-pound Dragonfly G4 a worthy challenger for the business laptop championship.
Best for Budget Buyers
Acer Aspire 3 (A315-24P)
- Smooth everyday operation
- Extensive battery life
- Current Wi-Fi connectivity
- Competitive starting price
- Limited performance headroom
- Dated, somewhat flimsy design
- Lackluster display
- Top configuration is outclassed
The Acer Aspire 3 (A315-24P) undercuts the competition with decent performance in its base configuration. It’s basic as bricks, though, and the higher-end configuration just isn't as competitive.
Best for Extreme Portability
Microsoft Surface Pro 9 (SQ3)
- SQ3 model delivers long battery life and 5G connectivity
- Premium metal build
- Best-in-class kickstand and keyboard cover design
- SQ3 supports advanced camera and voice call features
- Superior 1080p webcam
- User-accessible SSD
- SQ3 processor brings the usual Arm-based drawbacks: lackluster performance and compatibility
- Core feature differences between Intel and SQ3 models can be confusing
- No headphone jack
- Keyboard cover still sold separately
- New colors only available on Intel model
Offering Intel- and Arm-based versions of the Microsoft Surface Pro 9 widens both your options and caveats. The Arm-based SQ3 model delivers 5G support and a long-lasting battery at the expense of the overall Windows experience.
Best for Professional Power Users
Samsung Galaxy Book3 Ultra
- Speedy performance with latest components
- Vibrant 3K AMOLED display
- Long battery life
- Decent connectivity for its slim frame
- Helpful Galaxy phone integration
- Super-slim premium metal design
- Comparatively limited power despite latest parts
- Subpar webcam
- Expensive, with a high starting price
Samsung's Galaxy Book3 Ultra is a slim 16-inch desktop replacement laptop with a brilliant screen, long battery life, and the latest parts to please power users, but it can't quite usurp the throne.
Best Long-Lasting Convertible
HP Spectre x360 14 (2024)
- Gorgeous OLED touch screen
- Impressive productivity performance
- Lengthy battery life
- Elegant design
- World-class webcam
- Expensive when fully loaded
- No SD/microSD card slot or cellular internet
- No HDMI port (two USB-C docks included)
- No internal pen storage
The latest iteration of HP's 14-inch, OLED-screened Spectre x360 holds onto its reign as a top-tier laptop/tablet hybrid, especially for frequent video callers.
Best for Mobile Gamers
Razer Blade 14 (2023)
- Exemplary 14-inch gaming performance
- QHD+ 240Hz display
- Long battery life
- Quiet fans
- All-aluminum build
- Shallow keyboard
- Much higher starting price than the original
Razer’s high-style Blade 14 gaming ultraportable screams through today’s titles, thanks to an AI-enhanced AMD Ryzen 9 CPU and high-wattage Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 graphics.
Best for a Big Screen at the Lightest Possible Weight
LG Gram Pro 17 (2023)
- Remarkably light for a 17-inch laptop
- Big, beautiful 16:10 display with variable refresh
- Long battery life
- GeForce GPU suitable for light gaming
- Flexible bordering on flimsy
- Awkward top-row keys
- Poor audio
LG's Gram Pro 17 isn't cheap, but it's the lightest 17-inch laptop you can buy, complete with a handsome screen, impressive performance, and surprising battery life.
Best for Ruggedized Computing
Getac S410 G5
- Laughs at rough treatment and bad weather
- Epic battery life
- Super-bright screen
- High-res webcam
- Plenty of ports and configuration options
- Deeply expensive
- Heavy
- Rigid, dimly backlit keyboard
- Not as drop- and- waterproof as fully rugged machines
The latest refresh of Getac's 14-inch semi-rugged laptop, the S410, is a pricey but industrial-strength partner for first responders and factory workers.
Best for Mac Users Seeking Peak Value
Apple MacBook Air (M1, Late 2020)
- Good value, especially for a MacBook
- Much-improved performance, thanks to Apple’s new M1 processor
- Exceptional battery life
- Sleek, portable metal design
- High-quality keyboard, touchpad, and display
- Multiple color options
- Port selection limited to two USB Type-C connections
- Still no touch-screen option
No, it isn't the latest version of the Air. (That would be the M2 version.) But the still-available M1-equipped MacBook Air packs fine performance and great battery life for everyday use. And at often less than $999, it’s the best value among macOS laptops.
Best for Creative Pros on macOS
Apple MacBook Pro 14-Inch (2023, M3 Pro)
- Leading M3 Pro performance
- Astonishing 30-hour battery life
- Snappy keyboard and excellent trackpad
- Many helpful connections
- Premium all-metal construction
- New finish and color options
- Too heavy for easy portability
- Configuration prices balloon quickly
- No touch screen
Apple's 2023 14-inch MacBook Pro strikes a winning balance between premium design and M3 Pro-powered performance, for a compact mobile workstation that trounces similarly priced Windows machines.
Modern improvements in laptop battery life are largely thanks to CPUs and other components that are more power-efficient than ever. (It's not just battery technology that deserves the credit.) That's especially true of Intel's 13th Generation Core and AMD's Ryzen 7000 processors, as well as Intel's fresh AI-centric Core Ultra "Meteor Lake" chips, all of which power some of the longest-lasting models on our list. Intel and AMD alternatives, like Apple's M series (and Qualcomm's Snapdragons), demonstrate lengthy battery life, too.
In addition to being a critical specification, battery life is one of the toughest to measure. If you're watching movies all day long, you'll get far more unplugged time than someone who's editing images nonstop in Photoshop. We test battery life based on a very specific scenario: watching a specific test movie on a loop, stored locally, at 50% screen brightness, and with airplane mode turned on. If you're frequently performing more CPU-intensive or graphics-hammering tasks, you'll want to shave an hour or two off of our results.
What Designs of Laptops Have the Longest Battery Life?
Our top laptop list is stacked with traditional laptops and some convertible hybrid designs. Detachable Windows tablets tend to be underrepresented, and for good reason: You have simply no room for a large battery in such a small enclosure. The best of these, like Microsoft's Intel-based Surface Pro 9, tend to run around 12 hours, though the Arm-based version broke the mold at 21 hours. Some convertibles, like the HP Spectre x360 14 (2024), use a rotating hinge rather than a detachable keyboard.
"Traditional laptops" doesn't always mean big laptops, though: You will find plenty of these laptops and convertible picks to be relatively thin and light. Advancements in chassis design, Windows settings, and processor architecture allow for thin-and-light laptops to squeeze more life out of their batteries than ever. A long-lasting battery doesn't have to mean a heavy laptop, even in those with larger screens.
Of course, no matter what kind of laptop you're in the market for, you can always add a few minutes or a few hours to your unplugged time by changing your computing habits. It's a bit like driving more conservatively to save gas. For some ideas, take a look at our tips for improving your laptop's battery life.
Want the Best Battery Life? Also, Consider a MacBook
Apple's MacBook and MacBook Pro lineups have a reputation for excellent battery endurance, and Cupertino's current offerings are no exception. Most of the portable Macs we've tested recently can manage more than 18 hours away from an outlet, but the newest releases last even longer.
The M1 MacBook Air ran for an incredible 29 hours in our battery rundown test. Which one you should choose depends on your budget, your portability needs, and your usage patterns, but you can't go wrong on the battery-life front with either Apple ultraportable. Most recently, the 2023 14-Inch Apple MacBook Pro with M3 Pro raised the bar at more than 30 hours.
Other manufacturers are more hit-and-miss. The top honors for battery life among Intel-based Windows laptops in the last several years went to the first generation of the Asus ExpertBook B9450 (30 hours in our video rundown!), but many competing machines expire much more quickly. We're also seeing an emerging class of "always on" machines based on low-power Qualcomm Snapdragon processors that have outlasted most Intel-based Windows and macOS laptops we have tested. (See for example our review of the Lenovo Flex 5G) But know that these laptops are meant more for lightweight mobile computing with a continuous internet connection, and are far from power-user models meant for CPU muscle work.
Ready to Buy the Right Long-Life Laptop for You?
If you have a long plane flight (of course, that's been way less common for lots of folks since the pandemic upended the world) or a spate of working outdoors ahead of you, or if you're just too busy to linger around a power outlet for long enough, any of these laptops will keep you productive throughout the day and into the evening. For a look at the wider laptop landscape, check out our very latest laptop reviews, as well as our picks for the top business notebooks and the best budget laptops.
