Laptops with best battery life in 2024 — longest lasting laptop batteries

Laptops with the best battery life are what you need to function as a professional, a student, and a binge-watcher of TV shows. Your battery is constantly draining, even when idle — your laptops, too. So, instead of arriving at something dead and needing charging, let's find you a lively companion. Our list of laptops with the best battery life has survived 13+ hours on a single charge. It'll outlast school, work, and me (before I have to take a nap).

To be 100 percent transparent, our tests won't accurately align with 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 percent brightness. If you find yourself wanting more battery, consider dimming the display.

Despite the variance per use case, our tests have been consistent across all recent laptops, which means the following laptops have the best battery life.

Curated by

Curated by

Rami Tabari

Rami has been swimming in laptops for most of his adult life, which is wild to think about, but excellent for you, those of which that need a new rig in their life. Rami knows that a long battery life can come from the cheapest and most expensive laptops. But it's not just about battery life, is it? The laptop has to be good as well. Rami knows which are the laptops with best battery life to choose.

The Quick List

The laptops with best battery life in 2024

From affordable budget laptops to elite business laptops, there are plenty of all-day-strong notebooks to choose from. 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 CPU, have come a long way in balancing raw power with general mobility. Read on for our top picks!

Best overall

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Even with the latest 16-inch Apple MacBook Pro rocking the company's most powerful CPU, the M3 Max, the laptop blew us away with just over 18 hours of battery life. It just goes to show that high performance and a sharp display don't have to impact battery life the way that laptop makers like to use as an excuse. Battery life isn't the only remarkable thing about this laptop. That high performance wasn't a joke — it beats out all other MacBooks and every competitor we threw at it.

The M3 Max destroyed the Geekbench 6 overall performance test with a score of 20,863. What does that number mean? Consider that the average premium laptop scores 8,241. That means the 16-inch Apple MacBook Pro offers over double the performance of any premium laptop on the market.

One of the things we love the most about the Apple MacBook Pro (16-inch, M3 Max) is that 3456 x 2234 Liquid Retina XDR display. It's stunning, gorgeous, vivid, vibrant — throw all the adjectives at it, and most will stick to the wall. The display covered 81.8 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut on our tests and averaged 560 nits of brightness. You’ll be able to see your screen even if you use this laptop outdoors.

We might’ve been worried about the new MacBook keyboard years ago, but those days are long behind us. Now, we’ve got large bouncy keys with firm feedback. What about the audio? The MacBook reproduced incredible highs, mids, and lows with six speakers.

But let's not get it twisted, this machine is expensive. We're talking about $3,499 starting and $3,999 as reviewed. You have to ask yourself, how much do you need that shiny new 40-core GPU? If you're a creator, it's a question worth asking.

Although the MacBook Pro 16 M2 Max is technically discontinued, it scored a whopping 18:56 on our battery test, so it's worth considering since it's technically available at third-party retailers such as B&H.

See our full MacBook Pro 16-inch (M3 Max, 2023) review.

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Best budget

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The Asus Zenbook 14 OLED (Q425M) is a killer laptop with incredible battery life that offers itself up for an affordable price. The Zenbook 14 banged out a stunning 15 hours and 52 minutes on the Laptop Mag battery test. Asus has been killing it with its laptops lately, and this is a perfect example of that. Battery life isn't the only thing this machine has going on.

Sporting Intel's latest Core Ultra 7 155H, the Asus Zenbook 14 has the power to get you through a modest number of tasks. We threw a couple dozen Chrome tabs, spreadsheets, and even a Photoshop editing session at it. The Zenbook 14 didn’t so much as flinch.

One of the biggest highlights of this affordable laptop is its 14-inch, 1080p OLED display. Covering 79.8% of the DCI-P3 color gamut and clocking in 339 nits of brightness, the Zenbook 14 will be there for you at the end of the day when you want to stream your favorite shows on a gorgeous window.

Meanwhile, the Zenbook 14’s comfortable keyboard will ensure you don't get exhausted throughout your day. Typing across the keyboard felt great, thanks to the 1.4mm key travel, which provided a pleasant click-to-pressure ratio.

Warning—its quality audio will get you headbanging subconsciously. Packed with Harman Kardon and Dolby Atmos-certified super-linear speakers, the Zenbook 14 captures quality mids and highs along with a wide bass.

The device is also incredibly portable. It’s not the lightest machine on this list, but it’s remarkably thin at 0.59 inches. You might be able to slot that into a medium-sized purse. Another neat feature is its webcam privacy shutter. We don’t see that on many laptops at this price point, so it’s a nice bonus. 

See our full Asus Zenbook 14 OLED (Q425M) review.

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Best 14-inch

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It's incredible 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. There's a reason that Apple has dominated the top of this page for so long. The company understands how to prioritize battery life in its chipsets, making the MacBook Pro 14 (M3, 2023) last for over 17 hours on a single charge. Listen, I'd love to have any other company at the top of this list, so laptop makers need to step it up.

Even on a 14-inch machine, the M3 pumps out a 4K video transcoded to 1080p in just 5 minutes and 38 seconds. This is the base model we’re talking about. That means even creatives and professionals don’t need to go all out for a more expensive model (unless you’ve got the money).

Then there’s the super bright 14.2-inch, 3024 x 1964 display. With 81.3% DCI-P3 coverage and 558 nits of brightness, nothing won’t look gorgeous on the MacBook’s display. 

I'll say it until I can't breathe, but having a comfortable keyboard in a MacBook again is wild. We loved the generously sized keys, which were clicky enough to satisfy. It's sad to be impressed by, but MacBooks are getting better every year, and the Cupertino-based tech company made the best decision by leaving Intel behind.

While you don’t have to sell your soul to buy this MacBook, price wasn’t our only concern. There’s no Face ID, which seems like an oversight when the competition has used Windows Hello for facial recognition for quite some time. And the notch in the display is distracting enough to drive someone over the edge (it’s me).

See our full MacBook Pro 14 (M3, 2023) review.

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Best MacBook value

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You do not have to pay a fortune to purchase a MacBook. The 13-inch MacBook Air M3 costs $1,099, just like its predecessor. And like the rest of the MacBooks on this page, this machine offers some killer battery life. The Air M3 powered through 15 hours and 13 minutes of battery life testing in our lab.

That battery life is impressive because the most affordable MacBook doesn't back down on performance. The MacBook Air's M3 chip scored 12,087 on the Geekbench 6.2, soaring over the category average in our review. It transcoded a 4K video to 1080p in just 7 minutes and 54 seconds, and its SSD clocked in 3,031/3,059MBps (read/write) performance.

All that power and battery is packed into an incredibly slim body, 11.97 x 8.46 x 0.44 inches, that you can easily lift 2.7 pounds. Whether you're commuting to work or school, this machine will make the ride less cumbersome than most. Between its size and performance, the MacBook Air M3 does what most ultraportable can't.

While it is the most affordable MacBook, $1,099 is a bit pricey, but the Air M3's display is better than laptops I've seen sold for double the cost. At 476 nits of brightness, the MacBook Air's 13.6-inch display is one of the brightest available. It also registered 77.8% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, which is not as colorful as the OLED competition but decent.

The MacBook Air is a great product, but it has its faults. Ports, as you probably guessed, are a bit rare around here. Fortunately, since the MacBook Air features a discrete charging port, you can use the two Thunderbolt 4 ports you have. The price also gets concerning when you think about configuring, with a bump from 8GB to 16GB of RAM costing $200. While we recommend the additional RAM, adding more parts to this machine dwindles its value.

See our full 13-inch MacBook Air M3 review.

Best business

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Lenovo's ThinkPads are the few brands that excel at being business laptops — but the Lenovo ThinkPad Z16 is great for anyone. Yes, the price always gives us pause, as most business laptops get price gauged (because it wants companies to buy in bulk and not ask questions). However, finding the Lenovo ThinkPad Z16 on sale is a killer opportunity to get an excellent laptop with nearly 15 hours of battery life. But that's not the only feature we love about the Z16.

Backed by its AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 6650H processor, the Lenovo ThinkPad Z16 transcoded a 4K video to 1080p in 6 and 37 seconds, beating the average laptop in its class by nearly 2 minutes. That’s pretty impressive for a laptop with a mid-tier CPU. And if you’re a gamer, you’ll be delighted to hear that the AMD Radeon RX 6500M GPU scored 63 frames per second on Sid Meier's Civilization VI: Gathering Storm benchmark.

The ThinkPad Z16 is not only a thin and light business laptop, but it features enough screen space to get your work done without issue. With a 16-inch, 1920 x 1280-pixel display, the ThinkPad covers 81 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut and averages 432 nits of brightness. You'll get enough color and brightness to bring life to your work online. 

A business laptop is going to stand on business. The ThinkPad Z16 passed the 12 MIL-STD-810H certification tests, which means it can take a beating from the floor and survive in a desert or tundra (yes, seriously). You get all those neat security features, including a fingerprint reader, an IR webcam with facial recognition, a webcam kill switch, and a dTPM security chip. 

This is one spicy business laptop. But you have to get over dragging a dongle with you because there are no USB Type-A ports.

See our full Lenovo ThinkPad Z16 review.

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Best gaming

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Razer Blade 14 playing Elden Ring.

While the Razer Blade 14's battery life doesn't shoot into the stratosphere like the rest of the laptops on this page, gamers deserve to have a little fun too. For context, the average gaming laptop lasts around 5 hours, so when the Razer Blade 14 pumped out 8 hours and 35 minutes of battery life, we couldn't not be shocked. It's the best gaming laptop for battery life. Most folks can get through a whole workday before you need to plug it in. Naturally, battery life isn't the only feature we loved.

With a powerful AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 GPU, the Razer Blade 14 demolished every game we threw at it. Borderlands 3? 98 fps. Far Cry 6? 85 fps. Red Dead Redemption 2? 73 fps. It clocked in most major titles at above 60 fps, which is excellent. 

We couldn't get enough of its stunning 14-inch, 2560 x 1600, 240Hz display, which covered 114.3% of the DCI-P3 color gamut and averaged 465 nits of brightness. If you read off the specs for this gaming laptop to me, I would have never guess that it could achieve over 8 hours of battery life. The high-res, high-refresh-rate display alone is jaw-dropping. Gamers who play competitively will highly benefit from the 240Hz panel, as you'll witness frames up to 240 fps.

Its tough to find a gaming laptop, or most laptops for that matter, with great speakers. It's a common con we see across the laptops we review, but the Razer Blade 14 breaks that stigma with a pair of bangin' speakers. 

All those excellent features are packed into a gaming laptop that's just 4.1 pounds and 0.7 inches thin. The bow on top is the gorgeous aluminum chassis that's as premium as a MacBook.

Just watch out for the heat. We recommend gaming in a well-ventilated area, as the fans get loud.

See our full Razer Blade 14 review.

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How We Test Laptops with Best Battery Life

We put each laptop through extensive benchmark testing — both synthetic and real-world — before they end up in the hands of our reviewers. We evaluate each aspect of the laptop, including its performance, battery life, display, speakers and heat management.

To test endurance, the Laptop Mag Battery test surfs the web at 150 nits of brightness until the system runs out of juice. Before we do this, however, we run through a checklist. We set the screen to 150 nits of brightness (as determined using ChromaSurf) so we have an even basis for comparison regardless of laptop manufacturer and display panel technology. Uninstall antivirus software. Shut down any programs running in the background. Deactivate Battery Saver mode, Bluetooth, and GPS/location services. Turn off keyboard backlighting and any gaming-specific features. Adjust Windows power settings so the screen stays on for the full duration of the test and battery life is maximized as much as possible. Finally, we run the test three times.

We judge processing power with the Geekbench 5/6 overall performance test and a video transcoder software that converts a 4K video to 1080p. For storage speed, we copy 25GB of multimedia files to determine the transfer rate.

We use a colorimeter to measure screen brightness and color gamut, while other instruments help us determine a laptop's key travel and ambient heat. See this page on How We Test Laptops for more details on our benchmarking procedures.

Why Trust Laptop Mag

Laptop Mag reviews over one hundred different laptops every year, from paperweight ultralights to everyday workhorses to lumbering gaming notebooks that scorch the frame rates of even the hottest AAA games. We're not just experts in the laptop field, as we go one step further by meticulously testing smartphones, tablets, headphones, PC accessories, software, and even the latest in gaming. 

We are 100% independent and have decades of experience to help you buy with confidence. In fact, Laptop Mag has been testing and reviewing products for three decades, and we continue to deliver trustworthy reviews you can rely on. 

Our experienced team of writers and editors scour the available information about the laptop and put it through its paces to determine which is best for you. But before they start, the testing team subjects each system to a rigorous regimen of synthetic and real-world tests to see how a system handles the type of work and games you’re most likely to throw at it. 

Our editorial trustworthiness is enforced by one of the world's largest technology publishers, Future Publishing. As a company, we have unrivaled experience across every tech sector — and we're the group's specialist for all things mobile tech.