These laptops have the best battery life

Are you tired of having to be plugged in because your laptop’s battery life is average? Fortunately, these best battery-life laptops have enough power storage to get your work or studies done without relying on a power cord.

If you’re buying a laptop, it’s important to consider battery life when narrowing down your options.

Laptops with the best battery life are often built for home, office, or school use, though it is possible to find gaming laptops with decent battery lives as well; though they won’t be nearly as impressive. Many laptops touting long-lasting batteries can give you anywhere between 10 and 12 hours of use on a full charge, which is great for getting through school or work on the weekdays as well as streaming media on the weekends.

If you’re willing to spend a bit more, there are laptops like the Acer Swift 3X that claim to be able to give you almost 18 hours of use. Even budget-friendly options like the Samsung Chromebook 4+ yield up to 10 or 11 hours of battery life when fully charged, giving you a great laptop without breaking the bank.

Here are four laptops with some of the best battery lives available, and other notable features, to help you decide which one aligns with your needs.

Lenovo Yoga 9i

Best overall battery life laptop

pros & cons

pros

Excellent battery life
Stylus included
Decent display

cons

Only 60Hz refresh rate
No discrete graphics card

more details

The Lenovo Yoga 9i is a workhorse of a laptop best suited to everyday home and office use. Its 2-in-1 form factor gives you the best of both a tablet and a traditional laptop, letting you switch between modes quickly to suit your needs. It’s built with an 11th generation Intel Evo i7 CPU, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD for all the power and storage you need for typical projects, web browsing, and streaming. The integrated Intel Iris Xe graphics work with the 1080p display to give you crisp, clean images during video calls, while streaming movies and shows, or working on photo edits. The battery gives you up to 15 hours of use on a full charge, letting you work almost two typical office shifts before you need to even think about plugging it in.

HP Spectre x360

Best 2-in-1 battery life laptop

pros & cons

pros

4K display
Good battery life
Great audio

cons

Older CPU and GPU
Expensive

more details

The HP Spectre x360 is one of the best 2-in-1 laptops out there, especially when it comes to battery life. Even with a 4K display, you can get an impressive 11.5 hours of use out of a full charge. The laptop is built with a 10th generation Intel Core i7 processor, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 Ti GPU, 16GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD. Not only does this configuration make it great for creative professionals, you can also use it as a light gaming laptop. The 15.6-inch display gives you excellent 4K resolution, and the 120Hz native refresh rate produces buttery smooth motion while gaming, animating, or streaming movies and shows. A built-in fingerprint reader and IR camera that works with Windows Hello provide extra security for your work and personal data by allowing for biometric, password-free logins. And if you’re a creative professional who works with audio, the 4 integrated speakers are designed and calibrated by Bang & Olufsen for rich, clean sound even at high volumes.

If you want a more in-depth look at the HP Spectre x360, you can read our full review.

Dell G15

Best battery life laptop for gaming

pros & cons

pros

Great battery life for a gaming laptop
12th gen Intel Core i7 CPU
1TB SSD

cons

No Thunderbolt connectivity
No RGB lighting
Screen is somewhat dim at 250 nits

more details

The previous generation Ryzen edition of the Dell G15 made our list of best cheap gaming laptops, and this new iteration of the G15 (while a bit more pricey) is still one of the best gaming laptops available. Especially when it comes to battery life. A full charge will give you almost 10 hours of use while streaming or browsing the web, which is exceptional considering the top-tier, 12th gen Intel Core i7 CPU and GeForce RTX 3050 Ti graphics card. And while you’re gaming, you’ll get about 2 hours before you need to plug in. And while that seems really disappointing, it’s better than some other gaming laptops out there, and to be expected when putting the G15 under heavy graphics loads while playing games like DOOM Eternal or FIFA 22. The 15.6-inch display produces both a 120Hz native refresh rate and 1080p full HD resolution for a clean, smooth gameplay experience, while the 1TB SSD gives you plenty of storage space for your Steam or Epic Games library.

Acer Swift 3X

pros & cons

pros

Great price
Excellent battery
Thunderbolt 4 connectivity
Wi-Fi 6

cons

No discrete GPU
Only 60Hz refresh rate

more details

The Acer Swift 3X isn’t exactly a “budget” laptop, but it is one of the more affordable on this list and available overall. And even though it has a more budget-friendly price, that doesn’t mean that it has skimped out on features and components. It’s built with an 11th gen Intel Core i7 processor, integrated Intel Iris Xe Max graphics, 16GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD for plenty of power, memory, and storage for work projects, browsing the web, and streaming movies, shows, and music. Acer claims that the Swift 3X’s battery can give you an astounding 17.5 hours of use on a full charge, but our testing got us closer to 14 hours; which is still very, very impressive. A built-in fingerprint reader gives you added security for your work and personal data, while Thunderbolt 4 connections allow for ultra-fast data transfers, device charging, and external display connections when you need more space to work. It also supports Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth for faster wireless internet speeds and wireless peripheral connections so you can stay up-to-date with work, in contact with friends and family, and up-to-speed on the latest Netflix and Prime Video releases.

What is the best battery life laptop?

The best battery life laptop is the Lenovo Yoga 9i since its 2-in-1 form factor gives you the best of both a tablet and a traditional laptop, while giving you a battery life of 15 hours.

Laptop	Price	Battery life	CPU
Lenovo Yoga 91	$1430	15 hours	Intel Evo i7-1185G7
HP Spectre x360	$1141	11.5 hours	Intel Core i7-10750H
Samsung Chromebook 4+	$196	10.5 hours	Intel Celeron N4000
Dell G15	$1100	10 hours	Intel Core i7-12700H
Acer Swift 3X	$1043	14 hours	Intel Core i7-1165G7

Which laptop is right for you?

Once you’ve hammered out a budget for a new laptop, you then need to figure out how long you will need the battery to last once it’s unplugged. For students and mobile professionals, you’ll want to err on the side of caution, opting for models with longer battery lives than what you actually need; just in case classes or work runs long and you can’t get to a wall outlet right away. Gamers looking for a new laptop need to temper their expectations on battery life and go into the shopping process knowing that the absolute most you’ll get out of a full charge while playing games is 3 to 4 hours, but the average is closer to just 2 hours. However, gaming laptops can have much longer battery lives when used for things like browsing the web and streaming media.

Choose this laptop…	If you want…
Lenovo Yoga 9i	The best overall option
HP Spectre x360	A 4K display with 11.5 hours of battery life
Samsung Chromebook	A long-lasting laptop for classwork
Dell G15	A gaming laptop
Acer Swift 3X	A laptop with 14 hours of battery life for under $1000

How did we choose these laptops?

Aside from price and battery life, I tried to choose a variety of laptops to suit different work and entertainment needs. I chose models from brands like HP, Dell, Samsung, and Acer because they tend to be not only affordable, but reliable as well.

How many hours of battery life is good for a laptop?

It all depends on what you’re going to use the laptop for. Gaming laptops are considered to have “excellent” battery lives when you can get 3 or 4 hours out of them while playing games. For laptops intended for home, school, or office work, it’s reasonable to expect your battery to last between 8 and 10 hours. Though it is possible to find models with significantly longer battery lives, which are great if you want to use your laptop while on a business flight or watch a movie in bed.

Can I use my laptop while it’s charging?

Absolutely! You can do everything on a laptop while it’s charging that you can when it’s unplugged. My advice would be to not leave it plugged in after the battery reaches full charge, since this can actually damage the battery and lead to a diminished battery life.

How to improve laptop battery life?

If you want to get more use out of a battery charge or extend your laptop’s standby time, you can take a variety of steps to do so. One of the quickest and easiest is to simply reduce your screen’s brightness; by reducing screen brightness, it won’t draw as much power and extend your battery’s life. You can also enable a power save mode, which automatically disables unused ports and programs to reduce power consumption. Or you can keep your laptop’s operating temperatures lower with a cooling pad. By improving airflow and waste heat dissipation, your laptop won’t have to work as hard to run programs, further improving battery life.

What is the best battery life laptop for gaming?

The best battery life laptop for gaming is the Dell G15 since its 15.6-inch display produces both a 120Hz native refresh rate and 1080p full HD resolution for a clean, smooth gameplay experience while providing you with 10 hours of battery life/gaming time.

Are there alternatives to consider when shopping for laptops with the best battery life?

There are plenty of options out there if you’re prioritizing battery life over other features when shopping for a new laptop. Here’s a short list of other products I thought were great choices:

These laptops have the best battery life