Top 25 notebooks with the best battery life
The most important feature of many laptop buyers is battery life, which is right. We take these devices to meetings, classes, airplanes, even at home, from rooms to rooms. The maximum time away from the power outlet allows you to move, let you walk, out of power.
Based on the extensive battery testing conducted in the CNET Labs, these are the current 25 PCs with the longest battery life scores over the previous 12 months, now updated to include systems we tested in March and April, 2017. This list includes Windows and MacOS laptops, Windows 2-in-1 hybrids and Chromebooks running Google’s Chrome OS. (Not included are Android or iOS tablets.)
Editor’s note: This list and the accompanying gallery have been updated with the most recent scores.
The top spot still belongs to the Acer Chromebook R13, a budget-friendly but long-lasting Chrome OS laptop. The top Windows system is still Microsoft’s 2016 refresh of the Surface Book, which benefits from having a battery in its tablet screen and a second battery in its keyboard base.
Apple’s MacBooks are typically thought of as having excellent Apple a1322 laptop battery life, though the 2016 Pro models sometimes require an extra bit of coaxing to overcome uneven battery performance. The highest-ranking MacBook is the version of the 13-inch MacBook Pro without Apple’s new Touchbar, at no. 3. (The 2015 MacBook Air lasts even longer, but it’s an aging model with a lower-resolution screen.)
Two new additions to the top five are the HP EliteBook x360, a business-friendly hybrid, and the LG Gram 13, a very lightweight 13-inch laptop with excellent Hp elitebook 8530w notebook battery life (but still not as excellent as some exaggerated initial claims). Also making the top 25 for the first time are the 13-inch version of HP’s Spectre x360 and Dell’s 15-inch mainstream Inspiron 15 7000.
How we test
We call on our laptops to perform a wide variety of tasks, from playing videos to office work, to web surfing, to games. As a middle ground that’s neither too easy nor too intense, the specific battery test used here streams a private video over Wi-Fi on an endless loop.
Note that these scores reflect the specific configurations we tested, and that screen resolution and CPU choice are some of the major factors that affect battery life. Those factors — and the apps you’re running on the machines in question — mean that you shouldn’t expect identical day-to-day battery life as shown here. But the general trends should hold true.
The top 25 battery life scores are presented below, while this related galleryincludes context for each system and a link to its full review. We update this list regularly, adding new high-level performers as we find them.
TOP 25 BATTERY LIFE LAPTOPS AND 2-IN-1 HYBRIDS
| Position | System name | Battery life in hours:minutes |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Acer Chromebook R 13 | 13:02 |
| 2 | Microsoft Surface Book (2016) | 11:49 |
| 3 | Apple MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2016) | 11:36 |
| 4 | HP EliteBook x360 | 11:34 |
| 5 | LG Gram (13-inch, 2017) | 11:30 |
| 6 | Dell XPS 13 (late 2016, non-touch) | 10:36 |
| 7 | Apple MacBook (12-inch, 2016) | 10:33 |
| 8 | Apple MacBook Pro with Touch Bar (15-inch, 2016) | 10:08 |
| 9 | Apple MacBook Pro with Touch Bar (13-inch, 2016 ) | 10:07 |
| 10 | Asus Chromebook Flip C302C | 9:55 |
| 11 | HP Spectre x360 (15-inch, 2017) | 9:54 |
| 12 | Acer Aspire S 13 | 9:46 |
| 13 | Dell Inspiron 15 7000 | 9:38 |
| 14 | Lenovo Yoga 900S | 9:31 |
| 15 | Acer Chromebook 14 | 9:30 |
| 16 | Samsung Galaxy TabPro S | 9:23 |
| 17 | HP Spectre x360 (13-inch, 2016) | 9:21 |
| 18 | Samsung Chomebook Pro | 8:57 |
| 19 | Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 | 8:56 |
| 20 | Acer Chromebook R11 (Chromebook) | 8:11 |
| 21 | HP Spectre x360 (15-inch, 2016) | 8:03 |
| 22 | Lenovo Yoga 910 | 8:03 |
| 23 | Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga (OLED) | 8:02 |
| 24 | HP Spectre x360 (13-inch, 2017) | 8:02 |
| 25 | Lenovo Yoga Book (Windows) | 8:00 |
Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically to your feed reader.
Comments
No comments yet.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.