he laptops with best battery life will outlast work or play
Laptops with the best Laptops battery life are what you need to function as a professional, a student, and a binge-watcher of TV shows. Your battery is always draining, even when idle — yeah, your laptops, too. So instead of arriving to something dead and in need of charging, let’s find you a lively companion. Our list of laptops with best battery life have survived 13+ hours on a single charge. It’ll outlast school, work, and me (before I have to take a nap).
To be 100% transparent, our tests won’t accurately line up to how you use your laptop. We attempted to get close to real-world usage with our
Laptop Mag Battery Test 2.0. It involves continuous Web surfing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits of brightness. That’s not very bright — on average, it’s roughly 50% brightness. If you find yourself wanting more battery, consider dimming the display.
Despite the change in numbers, our tests have been consistent throughout all recent laptops we’ve tested, which means that all of the following truly are the laptops with best battery life.
What are the laptops with best battery life in 2024?Why you can trust Laptop Mag Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.
From affordable budget laptops to elite business laptops, there are plenty of all-day-strong notebooks to choose from these days. Even gaming laptops like the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14, which achieved more battery life than the 16-inch MacBook Pro thanks to its AMD Ryzen CPUs, have come a long way in terms of balancing raw power with general mobility. Read on for our top picks!
1. MacBook Pro 16-inch (M2 Max, 2023)
The new king of the MacBooks is here. Long be its reign (which should be about a year). Apple’s coming out of the gate swinging, outfitting the laptop with the company’s proprietary M2 Max chip. It puts competitors to shame while putting a clear gulf between its predecessors. And yes, it is possible to game on this system thanks to the chip. I had a hell of a good time being devastated during Resident Evil Village.
In addition to the powerful chipset, you get a captivating 16-inch display, powerful audio and a super comfy keyboard. But the cherry on the top is the Apple battery life, which lasted nearly 19 hours. In short, the MacBook Pro 16 is an unmitigated beast. But not so fast — there’s always a price. And in the case of MacBook Pro 16 M2 Max, the price is the actual cost ($2,699 starting, $5,299 as reviewed). It’s par for the course with Apple, but it still will give most people, including this reviewer, pause.
But if you want the crème de la crème of Macs, the MacBook Pro 16 sits at the top of the heap.
See our full MacBook Pro 16-inch (M2 Max, 2023) review.
2. Apple MacBook Pro (16-inch, M3 Max)How is it that the MacBook Pro 16 gets better every year? It didn’t make any changes to the design outside of a funky, more fingerprint resistant new color, which is a cool trick in itself. The display, keyboard and speakers and hell even the port offering remains the same. But let’s be real, this is really an Apple silicon party and the M3 Max is deserving of all the praise. In terms of overall performance, it has no peers, not even from its fellow MacBooks.
The next chapter in Apple computing and the company’s bet on custom silicon continues to hit the jackpot. M3 Max is more powerful than its ancestor continues with an 16-core CPU. M3 is also bringing a new 40-core GPU, beating out the previous 16-core GPU. And if that isn’t enough to get you excited, Apple has found a way to improve on the laptop’s power efficiency, delivering over 18 hours of
Apple MacBook Pro 16 battery life. Read on to learn more about Apple’s latest home run .
See our full MacBook Pro 16-inch (M3 Max, 2023) review.
BEST MACBOOK PRO 14 (M3, 2023)
3. MacBook Pro 14 (M3, 2023)
It’s amazing what a new heart can do for a laptop. The latest MacBook Air ushers in a new era for Apple with its custom-made M3 chip. This time Apple claim is that its new chip is bringing a generational leap as opposed to an incremental step.
It’s hard to look for flaws in a consistent notebook that’s rated 4.5 stars, especially when not much has changed. Those bold claims Apple made about the M3? They weren’t exaggerations. This MacBook Pro out-muscles every laptop in its class while lasting a full day on a charge. And it does so with a compact 3.4-pound, 12.3 x 8.7 x 0.6-inch design.
The design, while a bit staid, is still beautiful, the display is bright and colorful, even the speakers and keyboard are great. The new MacBook Pro may have a few faults, but it yet again brings Apple closer to crafting the perfect laptop.
4. Lenovo ThinkPad Z16
I’ve been on the hunt for a really good business laptop, and with the ThinkPad Z16 in my hands, I can finally end my search. It’s got a slick, dual-tone design: silver on the outside and dusky on the inside. And to Lenovo loya lists’ delight, the keyboard features the beloved, striking-red TrackPoint that will catch your eye every time you open the lid.
It’s also the perfect size for a business laptop. It’s not too small (like the compact machines on our best 13-inch laptops page), but it’s not ridiculously unwieldy like the 18-inch laptops that are gaining popularity nowadays — it’s juuuust right.
However, I will admit that the ThinkPad Z16 is a bit heavier than I expected. But to be fair, Lenovo never marketed this laptop as a thin-and-light ultraportable. It’s a business laptop, which means it will likely be sitting on a desk for hours on end before it’s picked up and thrown inside a laptop bag.
The ThinkPad Z16 definitely earned a spot on our best business laptops page, but that doesn’t mean it’s perfect.