Who would have thought just a few years ago that the laptops with best battery life would last a full day on a single charge? It has been one of the best advancement in mobile computing in the past years. Now, the best battery life laptops last so long that you can forget the charger at home and when you’ll come back for diner, you’ll still have enough battery to watch a TV show.
We’re far from the days where your laptop had a Nickel-Cadmium battery that would barely last an hour or two. And that was when it was new. After a while – not that long – it basically lasted just enough time for you to move from your office to the conference room.
Nowadays, the laptops with the best battery can easily last a full day on a single charge. That means that you can go to school or visit clients for a full day and you’ll still have power when you get home.
Don’t want the chit-chat?
Jump directly to the Top 20 laptops with the best battery life (on this page)
What to expect from the best battery life laptops?
The laptops with the best battery will last ‘Up to’ 13 hours and in average. For the top 20 laptops with the best battery life you’ll get at least ‘up to’ 10 hours.
That means that, in real life, those laptops will easily last a full day on a single charge if you do normal work (web surfing, word processing, emails, etc.). That’s impressive!
What does ‘Up to X hours’ mean?
When the manufacturer says its laptop will last ‘Up to’ a number of hours, it’s the absolute best length you’ll get out of your battery when you ask as little power as you can. Basically, you’ll almost never reach that number. The rule of thumb is usually that it’ll last 75% of the ‘Up to’ time, on normal use.
Tips to get longer laptop battery life
Before you buy your laptop
Of course, the battery the laptop manufacturer chooses and how the laptop is built will affect to most the battery life: the number of cells, wattage, the overall power required by the notebook, … (see further for more technical info). But here are a couple of things to think about before you buy your laptop if you want the laptop with the longest battery life.
- An Ultra-HD screen (4k) requires more power than its HD counterpart. If battery life if very important for you, choose the one with a lower resolution, it really makes a big difference.
- A good old mechanical hard drive requires more power than an SSD (because of its moving parts). So not only SSD is much faster, it also makes your laptop battery last longer.
- Keyboard backlighting will require battery power. Turn it off or buy one with many levels if you need it often.
When you use your laptop
Batteries and laptops nowadays have systems to protect the battery and make it last longer. But as a user, there are many things you can do to keep the battery running on a long day. To get the longest battery life from your laptop, here are a couple of things you can do yourself to get more battery life.
- The screen is what takes the most battery power, reduce the brightness as much as you can.
- Movies and music streaming requires more battery than regular web surfing
- If you use the processor a lot, this will drastically reduce the battery life of your laptop. Keep your laptop plugged when you do anything that requires a lot of processing (anything 3D, graphic design or anything that requires a lot of mathematical calculations)
- Transferring files from your hard drive will drain the power more quickly than usual
- Keep your laptop power management setting to “economy” even when the battery is full
- Finally, gaming is a battery killer! Just keep it plugged in when you play a game.
Extend the lifespan of your laptop battery
The lifespan of lithium-ion batteries is calculated in ‘cycles’. Each time you completely deplete the battery and charge it again, it’s one cycle (if you only use it until 50% then charge it to full capacity, it’s half a cycle). After the maximum number of cycles is reached – usually around 500 – the battery efficiency rapidly declines.
The best way to protect your battery is to keep your laptop plugged in as much as you can.
So to keep your battery full capacity longer, keep your laptop charged as much as you can. There are debates about other small factors that will influence its lifespan, but this is the best and most important thing to remember: keep your laptop plugged in. And contrarily to common opinion, you don’t have to discharge completely the battery before you charge it again. That was the case will older batteries, but new lithium-ion batteries don’t work the same way.
What makes a laptop battery last longer than another?
Simply put, the number of cell versus the power needed from the laptop influence how long the battery will last on a single charge. The number of charging cycle influences the lifespan of the battery.
Number of cell in your laptop battery
The number of cells is basically the overall capacity of your Lithium-Ion laptop battery. The more cells, the more battery life. But it also affects the weight and the cost, so it’s always a balance between price, portability and having a laptop with the best battery life.
Mainstream laptops will have a 4-cell battery and business laptops tend to have 6. You’ll also see a 9 cells battery sometimes. They’re easy to spot, there’s an extra space at the back of the laptop to contain the battery.
Power required by your laptop
The more power you ask of your laptop, the shorter the battery life will be. For example, an Ultra-HD 4k screen will deplete that battery much faster than its HD counterpart and a 12-inch will require much less power than a 15-inch. Also if you stream a movie or play a game, that requires more power than reading a webpage.
Cycles – What influence the lifespan of a laptop battery?
The lifespan of a battery is calculated in cycles. Usually, a battery will last around 500 cycles. That’s means that it can handle 500 complete charge / discharge before it starts losing its capacity. A 50% recharge counts for half a cycle.
After about 2 years, you’ll start seeing a decline in the battery capacity
What does that mean? Keep your laptop charged as much as you can to preserve your battery!
If you want to know more about protecting your battery, this article from Digital Trends will give you a complete explanation.
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Specs for the Top 22 Laptops with Best Battery
Graphics 10 to 15-inch Processor Intel Pentium, i3, i5, i7 and similar RAM 2 to 16 GB Storage 128 to 1000 GB Battery life 10 to 21 hours OS Windows 10, Windows 10 Pro, ChromeOS, MacOS Thickness / Weight 0.32 to 1.2″ / 1.74 to 5.69 lbs
Top 22 Laptops with Best Battery
1 – Lenovo ThinkPad x280 – 12″ HD
“The longest battery life laptop”
Lenovo launched the ThinkPad x270 not so long ago. While you get all the classic ThinkPad business features and look, its most impressive feature is this: Lenovo claims it will last a whooping 21 hours without charging! Of course this is in the ideal situation with the lowest brightness, but still… expect it to last much longer than any other in normal circumstances. Perfect for road warriors or if you often take long flights.
| Graphics | 12.5″ HD screen (1920 x 1080) |
| Performance | Intel i5 with 8 GB of RAM |
| Storage | 180 to 256 GB SSD |
| Battery life | Up to 21 hours |
| OS | Windows 10 Pro |
| Thickness / Weight | 0.7″ / 2.9 lbs |
| Price Range | $$$$ |
Other similar versions (prices may vary)
12-inch non-HD + Integrated2 – LG Gram 13 – 13″ HD
“Light and awesome battery life”
LG did something very interesting here, they’ve managed to build one the lightest laptops on the market, but still give you an astonishing 17 hours of battery life. And they did so without cutting on performance: you still get an i5 processor, an SSD drive and 8 GB of RAM. So you get a fast, light laptop with a long battery life. It’s not perfect, but the quality is there and it’s definitely a contender as a premium ultraportable.
Pros
|
Cons
|
| Graphics | 13.3″ HD screen (1920 x 1080) |
| Performance | Intel i5 with 8 GB of RAM |
| Storage | 256 GB SSD |
| Battery life | Up to 17.5 hours |
| OS | Windows 10 |
| Thickness / Weight | 0.6″ / 2.07 lbs |
| Price Range | $$$ |
Other similar versions (prices may vary)
14-inch HD + Integrated, 
15-inch HD + Integrated
3 – Dell XPS 13 – 13″ HD
“Tiny quality 13-inch that last long!”
The Dell XPS 13 is a great laptop in many ways and the fact that it has a long battery life is only the icing on the cake. It’s so small and light it looks more like an 11-inch laptop, but it’s still powerful enough to easily manage all your multitasking. And it has a battery life of up to 13 hours. Yes, 13 hours. While it may not last that long under normal use, you can easily expect it to last a full work day and then some. Read our full review.
Pros
|
Cons
|
| Graphics | 13.3″ HD touchscreen (1920 x 1080) |
| Performance | Intel i5 with 8 GB of RAM |
| Storage | 256 GB SSD |
| Battery life | Up to 13 hours |
| OS | Windows 10 |
| Thickness / Weight | 0.59″ / 2.9 lbs |
| Price Range | $$$ |
Other similar versions (prices may vary)
Intel i5 + 8 GB RAM, 
15-inch HD + NVIDIA GTX 1050
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4 – Asus Zenbook UX330UA – 13″ HD
“Light & Value notebook”
I’ll keep repeating it, the ZenBook series is one of my favorite on the market right now. And if you’re looking for a quality laptop with a long battery life, it has to be on your list. This 13-inch is a quality, powerful and well-engineered laptop, at a very competitive price. And they didn’t have to compromise on weight or the performance. Asus also produces similar 12 and 14-inch versions if you prefer more or less screen. All of them are great, with a long battery life. Read our full review.
Pros
|
Cons
|
| Graphics | 13.3″ HD screen (1920 x 1080) |
| Performance | Intel i5 with 8 GB of RAM |
| Storage | 256 GB SSD |
| Battery life | Up to 12 hours |
| OS | Windows 10 |
| Thickness / Weight | 0.53″ / 2.65 lbs |
| Price Range | $$$ |
Other similar versions (prices may vary)
One of my favorite 12-inch 12-inch HD + Integrated, 
14-inch HD + Integrated
5 – Acer Swift 5 (2017) – 14″ HD
“Slim & Stylish”
Acer revealed their Swift series a few months ago and I must say it’s a success. They have a premium sleek design and quality components. The Acer Swift 5 has nothing to envy to the other mid-range laptops in terms of value and quality. And it comes with one of the best battery life possible at up to 13 hours! With that much battery life, perfect power for most people and a sharp 14-inch HD screen, it’s a quality laptop in a perfect format.
| Graphics | 14″ HD screen (1920 x 1080) |
| Performance | Intel i5 with 8 GB of RAM |
| Storage | 256 GB SSD |
| Battery life | Up to 13 hours |
| OS | Windows 10 |
| Thickness / Weight | 0.6″ / 2.9 lbs |
| Price Range | $$$$ |
Other similar versions (prices may vary)
Hybrid version6 – Microsoft Surface Book – 13″ QHD Detachable
“Innovative & high-end”
I already stated that I love the Microsoft Surface Book and that it’s an innovative notebook like we haven’t seen in a while. It’s definitively not a budget laptop, but it’s a powerful notebook with a long battery life. It’s versatile, sturdy and will allow for high-end graphics and CAD, which makes it also a great business laptop. Read our full review.
Pros
|
Cons
|
| Graphics | 13.5″ QHD touchscreen (3000 x 2000) with NVIDIA GTX 965M |
| Performance | Intel i5 with 8 GB of RAM |
| Storage | 256 GB SSD |
| Battery life | Up to 12 hours |
| OS | Windows 10 |
| Thickness / Weight | 0.9″ / 3.34 lbs |
| Price Range | $$$ |
7 – Acer Aspire S13 – 13″ HD
“Great value, slim & long battery life”
If you’re looking an affordable ultra-slim laptop with a long battery life, this should be on your list. It has a very reasonable price and has one of the longest battery life on the market. You get a great value, quality, powerful, thin laptop and long battery life. And it’s available in white if you don’t like the black frame!
| Graphics | 13.3″ HD touchscreen (1920 x 1080) |
| Performance | Intel i5 with 8 GB of RAM |
| Storage | 256 GB SSD |
| Battery life | Up to 13 hours |
| OS | Windows 10 |
| Thickness / Weight | 0.57″ / 3 lbs |
| Price Range | $$$ |
Other similar versions (prices may vary)
Intel i7 + 8 GB RAM
White8 – Acer Aspire E5-575G-53VG – 15″ HD
“Budget laptop with longest battery life”
I recommend this Acer over and over again for many reasons. First it’s a quality and powerful budget laptop that’ll let you play games and multi-tab at will. It has an HD screen, SSD hard drive and enough CPU and RAM for most people. And did I say it lasts very long on a single charge? Acer says ‘up to’ 12 hours, so expect it to last for longer than a full day under normal usage. If portability is not the main factor, you can’t go wrong with this one. Read our full review.
| Graphics | 15.6″ HD screen (1920 x 1080) with NVIDIA GT 940MX |
| Performance | Intel i5 with 8 GB of RAM |
| Storage | 256 GB SSD |
| Battery life | Up to 12 hours |
| OS | Windows 10 |
| Thickness / Weight | 1.2″ / 5.27 lbs |
| Price Range | $$$ |
Other similar versions (prices may vary)
Intel i3 + 4 GB RAM, Intel i7 + 8 GB RAM
9 – Asus Transformer Book T101HA – 10″ HD Detachable
“Value Quality 10-inch”
Don’t expect too much power and storage space, but the Asus T100HA is actually a great deal for the price. You get the proven design of the Transformer book series and enough of everything to do what it has to do. Asus has been the pioneer of the budget 2-in-1 notebooks and it shows.
Pros
|
Cons
|
| Graphics | 10″ HD touchscreen (1280 x 800) |
| Performance | Intel Cherry Trail with 4 GB of RAM |
| Storage | 64 GB eMMC |
| Battery life | Up to 12 hours |
| OS | Windows 10 |
| Thickness / Weight | 0.72″ / 2.28 lbs |
| Price Range | $$ |
10 – Acer Chromebook 14 – 14″ HD
“Quality Chromebook with HD screen”
This small Chromebook won’t revolutionize the world of laptops, but for a laptop that cheap, it actually gives you a lot. You get a good 11-inch Chromebook in a thin and light body – only 2 pounds – and you can forget the charger at home since you get 13 hours of battery. It’s a great laptop for school: you can easily carry it around all day in your bag and you always have a working laptop to check the web or take notes. Read our full review.
Pros
|
Cons
|
| Graphics | 14″ HD screen (1920 x 1080) |
| Performance | Pentium N3160 with 4 GB of RAM |
| Storage | 32 GB eMMC |
| Battery life | Up to 12 hours |
| OS | ChromeOS |
| Thickness / Weight | 0.67″ / 3.42 lbs |
| Price Range | $ |
11 – Asus C201PA-DS02 – 11″
“Light Budget Chromebook”
This small Chromebook won’t revolutionize the world of laptops, but for a laptop that cheap, it actually gives you a good working 11-inch Chromebook in a thin and light body (only 2 pounds). And you can forget the charger at home since you get 13 hours of battery. It’s a great laptop for school: you can easily carry it around all day in your bag and you always have a working laptop to check the web or take notes.
| Graphics | 11.6″ screen (1366 x 768) |
| Performance | Rockchip with 4 GB of RAM |
| Storage | 16 GB eMMC |
| Battery life | Up to 13 hours |
| OS | ChromeOS |
| Thickness / Weight | 0.7″ / 2.1 lbs |
| Price Range | $ |
Other similar versions (prices may vary)
Red & Gold
Navy Blue# 12 to 22 Laptops with Best Battery
12 – Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon – 14″ HD
“The long-lasting business laptop”
If you want a business laptop with the best battery life, this is it. The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 is not only an awesome, sturdy and lightweight business laptop, it’s also one that has a battery life that will make the others of its category blush. While with most business laptops you’ll often need a secondary battery, this one comes with a long battery life out of the box. Now you don’t have any excuse for not working late!
| Graphics | 14″ HD screen (1920 x 1080) |
| Performance | Intel i7 with 8 GB of RAM |
| Storage | 256 GB SSD |
| Battery life | Up to 11 hours |
| OS | Windows 10 Pro |
| Thickness / Weight | 0.65″ / 2.6 lbs |
| Price Range | $$$$ |
13 – Asus Transformer Mini T103HA – 10″ HD Detachable
“Best Mini Laptop”
If you’ve looked for mini budget notebook before, you’ve certainly seen this transformer book. The fact that is has a battery life of 11 hours is only the icing on the cake. Not only you get a quality 10-inch mini notebook at a budget price, but you get one of the best in its category. It has a good screen quality and enough power & storage space in a thin and light format. Read our full review.
Pros
|
Cons
|
| Graphics | 10.1″ HD touchscreen (1280 x 800) |
| Performance | Intel Cherry Trail with 4 GB of RAM |
| Storage | 128 GB eMMC |
| Battery life | Up to 11 hours |
| OS | Windows 10 |
| Thickness / Weight | 0.32″ / 1.74 lbs |
| Price Range | $$ |
Other similar versions (prices may vary)
White & Orange14 – Apple MacBook – 12″ HD
“The Apple classic with long battery life”
One of the best things about this MacBook is that it’ll last at least 8 to 9 hours under normal use. It’s already a classic with it’s all metal look, great quality screen and user friendly operating system and this one has enough power for most people. It’s so thin and light you won’t believe it. It doesn’t have the best value due to its high price and I don’t like what they did with the keyboard, but otherwise it’s of course a great purchase.
Pros
| Cons
|
| Graphics | 12″ HD screen (2304 x 1440) |
| Performance | Intel m3 with 8 GB of RAM |
| Storage | 256 GB SSD |
| Battery life | Up to 10 hours |
| OS | MacOS |
| Thickness / Weight | 0.52″ / 2 lbs |
| Price Range | $$$$ |
15 – Acer Aspire F5-573-58VX – 15″ HD
“Budget Gaming laptop”
Acer offers a great value low-cost laptop that’s going to please casual gamers and designers that don’t want to spend too much. This Acer Aspire is a pretty good budget gaming laptop that has enough battery to last all day and enough power to run pretty much any software. The Graphic card is not the most powerful, but it actually gets the job done.
| Graphics | 15.6″ HD screen (1920 x 1080) |
| Performance | Intel i5 with 8 GB of RAM |
| Storage | 1000 GB HDD (5400 rpm) |
| Battery life | Up to 12 hours |
| OS | Windows 10 |
| Thickness / Weight | 1″ / 5.29 lbs |
| Price Range | $$$ |
Other similar versions (prices may vary)
16 – Samsung Notebook 9 – 13″ HD
“High-Quality & Ultra-light”
Samsung is a small player in the laptop market, but its Notebook series is a quality one. The 13-inch Notebook 9 is light and thin with a battery life that will last a full day. It deserves to be part of the list of laptops with best battery life!
Pros
|
Cons
|
| Graphics | 13.3″ HD screen (1920 x 1080) |
| Performance | Intel i5 with 8 GB of RAM |
| Storage | 256 GB SSD |
| Battery life | Up to 10 hours |
| OS | Windows 10 |
| Thickness / Weight | 0.53″ / 1.9 lbs |
| Price Range | $$$ |
17 – HP Spectre X2 – 12″ HD Detachable
“Well-built Detachable”
The detachable HP Spectre X2 is a surprising quality budget laptop. It’s equipped with a vivid HD 12″ touchscreen and equipped with a SSD drive. For a budget laptop, it delivers a lot of value.
Pros
|
Cons
|
| Graphics | 12″ HD touchscreen (1920 x 1080) |
| Performance | Intel m3 with 4 GB of RAM |
| Storage | 128 GB SSD |
| Battery life | Up to 10 hours |
| OS | Windows 10 |
| Thickness / Weight | 0.52″ / 2.68 lbs |
| Price Range | $$$ |
18 – Dell Inspiron i7559 – 15″ HD
“Gaming laptop a lot of battery”
Please don’t buy this laptop to carry it around in your backpack every day, at more than 5.5 pounds you’ll get tired of it, but use buy it as an affordable gaming laptop with a long battery life and you’ll love your Dell Inspiron i7559. It’s powerful thanks to its i7 core, hybrid hard drive and NVIDIA graphic card.
Pros
|
Cons
|
| Graphics | 15.6″ HD screen (1920 x 1080) with NVIDIA GTX 960M |
| Performance | Intel i7 with 8 GB of RAM |
| Storage | 8GB SSD + 1000 GB HDD (5400 rpm) |
| Battery life | Up to 10 hours |
| OS | Windows 10 |
| Thickness / Weight | 1″ / 5.69 lbs |
| Price Range | $$$ |
Other similar versions (prices may vary)
15-inch QHD + NVIDIA GTX 960M19 – Acer Swift 3 – 14″ HD
“Thin Affordable 14-inch laptop with long battery life”
Its big brother is already part of the list, but this one is a more affordable quality laptop that still lasts long with an ‘up to 10 hours’ battery life.
Pros
| Cons
|
| Graphics | 14″ HD screen (1920 x 1080) |
| Performance | Intel i5 or AMD with 8 GB of RAM |
| Storage | 256 GB SSD |
| Battery life | Up to 10 hours |
| OS | Windows 10 |
| Thickness / Weight | 0.71″ / 3.31 lbs |
| Price Range | $$$ |
20 – Asus Transformer Book T300 Chi – 12″ HD Convertible
“12-inch Detachable with HD screen”
The T300 Chi is actually a quite good detachable small laptop that has a great battery life for the size. I would have put it higher on this list, but it loses some points due to a few annoying flaws. Purchase this one if you want a solid detachable 12-inch with HD screen.
| Graphics | 12″ HD screen (1920 x 1080) |
| Performance | Intel m5 with 4 GB of RAM |
| Storage | 128 GB SSD |
| Battery life | Up to 10 hours |
| OS | Windows 10 |
| Thickness / Weight | 0.86″ / 3.2 lbs |
| Price Range | $ |
21 – HP Pavilion x360 – 11″ Convertible
“Low-Cost Hybrid with a lot of battery”
It’s not my favorite 2-in-1 laptop, but if you’re looking a hybrid laptop with the best battery life, this one has to be on the list. I would prefer a full HD screen and I think the other x360 series from HP deliver more value (the Envy x360 and Spectre x360), but for the price it’s actually not a bad purchase.
Pros
| Cons
|
| Graphics | 11.6″ touchscreen (1366 x 768) |
| Performance | Celeron N3350 with 4 GB of RAM |
| Storage | 64 GB eMMC |
| Battery life | Up to 11 hours |
| OS | Windows 10 |
| Thickness / Weight | 0.8″ / 3 lbs |
| Price Range | $ |
22 – Lenovo Miix 320 – 10″ HD Detachable
“10-inch cheap laptop”
The Lenovo Miix 310 is mini budget laptop that’s made to be used as a second computer. The quality is quite ok for the price, but you cannot ask too much of it. But, if you are looking for a cheap laptop with a good battery life, this one has to be on your list. I would use it as a second laptop for the road or when I want to take notes at clients. Read our full review.
Pros
| Cons
|
| Graphics | 10.1″ HD touchscreen (1920 x 1080) |
| Performance | Intel Atom with 2 GB of RAM |
| Storage | 64 GB eMMC |
| Battery life | Up to 12 hours |
| OS | Windows 10 |
| Thickness / Weight | 0.68″ / 2.2 lbs |
| Price Range | $$ |
Erik is the owner and main editor of lptps.com. He has been working in computers and information technology for more than 20 years. He’s a business analyst, developer, and avid traveler.
