Best battery life laptop 2023
If you want to know what the best battery life laptop on the market is, we’ve gathered a selection of machines with the most energy efficient components and longest life batteries currently available.
If you’re looking to both save on energy costs and have your laptop last longer through the working day, these are the laptops for you.
Products at a Glance
Best battery life laptop 2023
- powerful M2 Max chipset
- by far the best speakers of any laptop
- the best battery life of any laptop
- fantastic peak brightness
- great sRGB color accuracy
- superb build quality
- solid webcam
- looks great
- very expensive
- MacBooks not great for gaming
The laptop with easily the best battery life overall is the latest version of the 16-inch MacBook Pro, equipped with M2 Max chipset. Such is the efficiency of Apple’s newest chipsets, that when all battery saving features are enabled and the laptop is only being used for general web browsing etc., this MacBook pro is capable of lasting over 18 hours! For those unfamiliar with laptop duration, this is ridiculously good.
It’s particularly impressive in that the M2 Max chip is quite powerful – ideal for creative rendering tasks and the like. Although it is capable of gaming, most games still aren’t well optimised for MacOS, though you’ll be able to run some less demanding Mac-optimized titles on it, if not the latest AAA releases. The 120Hz maximum refresh rate of the display also helps in this area.
As with virtually every MacBook the aesthetic design and build quality of these laptops are exceptional. The webcam and mic quality are solid, both the keyboard and trackpad are sturdy and of a good build, and the audio quality of the 6 speaker setup is far and above the best you’ll find in any laptop.
The Liquid Retina XDR display the laptop comes with has a resolution of 3024 x 1964 and a 254ppi, and one of the highest max brightness values you’ll find on any laptop: a standard 1,000 nits or around 1,600 nits in HDR mode. It covers 100% of the sRGB spectrum and has a high degree of color accuracy – making it ideal for colo-creatives in this space.
Really the only major issue with this device is the price. Like all MacBook Pros, the markup you pay for the brand is quite significant, however if you can afford it, you can rest assured that you’re getting the most high quality device available.
- fairly powerful M2 chipset
- bright and colorful screen
- excellent battery life
- superb build quality
- solid speakers
- solid webcam
- looks great
- light and portable
The thinner and lighter but not quite as powerful of Apple’s laptop range, the 13.6-inch MacBook Air (2022 version) has a terrific battery life of around 14 hours of non-strenuous use with battery saving settings enabled. Not quite as impressive as the MacBook Pro, but still one of the best available on the market.
Once again, there aren’t a great deal of downsides to this machine, and we can even say (amazingly for an Apple product) that the base-model variant with 8GB of RAM and 256GB storage is actually reasonably priced, though if you want to upgrade either the memory or the storage this does cost quite a bit extra.
The M2 chip is powerful for a general-use, non-gaming machine, and the integrated GPU can handle light rendering tasks for any video/photo/audio editors looking for a portable device. The high resolution (2560 x 1664) is very bright (capping out at around 490 nits) meaning you can use it outside on a bright day, and the 100% sRGB coverage and high color accuracy mean it’s ideal for color-accurate work on the sRGB gamut. The webcam ‘notch’ which cuts intothe top of the screen is a bit irritating at times, but aside from this its a beautiful display.
As with all Apple laptops the build quality and aesthetic design is the best of any laptop out there. Weighing a mere 2.7lbs and with wafer thin dimensions, it’s very easily carried in a small bag – perfect for using on the move. The trade-off is the smaller 13.6” screen but if you’re not fussed about this then it’s ideal.
The speaker quality is good, if not as good as the MacBook Pro line, but it’s still up there with the best of the Windows laptops. The webcam quality is above average, though again not quite as good as the chunkier Pro. All-in-all, a terrific premium machine.
- the ideal typing keyboard
- additional security features
- good build quality
- superb battery life
- poor speakers
- webcam could be better
The laptops in the Yoga series are the 2-in-1 variants of the prestigious Lenovo ThinkPad range, which are a long-running line of laptops targeted at business users. These machines come with enhanced TPM 2.0 data encryption for your files, a fingerprint scanner and Windows Hello, plus one of the best typing keyboards on any laptop on the market. The keyboard feels halfway between a low-travel chiclet keyboard (similar to a MacBook for instance) and a tactile mechanical keyboard, with ergonomically shaped keys of perfect size and spacing to reduce typing errors.
The latest variant of the Yoga line, the Gen 6, comes with Intel 11th gen CPU options, with the Intel Core i7-1165G7 version lasting a hugely impressive 14 hours on battery saving mode during general usage. We can’t say for sure whether the more powerful Intel Core i7-1185G7 model will last quite as long, but the less powerful SKUs should do, if not longer. The i7-variants are certainly powerful enough for general business/office usage. In terms of memory and storage you can equip the laptop with up to 16GB of DDR4 RAM and 2TB of SSD space.
The 2-in-1 convertible hinge design lets you switch between laptop and tablet form factors and the device comes with an included stylus (plus handy stylus slot to store it) that lets you get the most use out of its touchscreen functionality. The 14-inch screen is a decent size for general use, the 16:10 aspect ratio giving you additional headroom for viewing documents, and the 350 nits of brightness is sufficient for a brightly lit room, if not being outside on a sunny day.
The 2-in-1 variants don’t have the rugged design of the regular ThinkPad models, but the build quality is still good. The webcam quality is disappointing, but you do at least get a slidable webcam cover. Finally we would have liked to have seen better audio quality on the speakers, which definitely aren’t the best, however if you’re using headphones this won’t be a problem.
- MUX Switch
- great gaming performance for a smaller laptop
- great response time
- 16:10 screen gives more vertical space
- great color replication & superb peak brightness
- decent keyboard and great trackpad
- superb battery life
- good array of ports, including MicroSD slot
- decent speakers
- light and portable
- refresh rate capped at 120Hz
- keyboard build quality and backlighting could be improved
- difficult to navigate onboard software
- no ethernet caps your internet to 1Gpbs
The ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 (2022 variant) is one of the best gaming laptops on the market if you’re looking for an easily portable device, which can also be used for creatives on the move. It’s often very reasonably priced – being frequently on offer, and has the best battery life of any gaming laptop, which are notoriously poor in this department due to the power-hungry nature of their GPUs and CPUs.
Although a 2023 model of the G14 is available with the latest Ryzen 7000 series CPU and RTX 40-series graphics cards, however these are more power hungry devices, with a battery life a couple of hours lower than you’d get with the 2022 mode, plus cost considerably more money.
The highest powered 2022 G14 comes with an AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS CPU and either Radeon RX 6700S or RX 6800S graphics cards, so it’s an all-AMD affair. Even the more powerful RX 6800S model (which performs about the same as an Nvdia RTX 3070 laptop) has a hugely impressive 10 hour battery life when being used for general purpose tasks on battery saving mode – obviously gaming on battery alone is not recommended (as with any gaming laptop) and will sap the battery life in a fraction of the time.
The Zephyrus G14 looks great, and has decent build quality, even if it doesn’t quite match up to the Mac models on this page. The keyboard is merely okay and the keys can feel a bit loose and cheap, though are still nice to type on, the trackpad is however top-notch. The speakers are definitely above average for a gaming laptop, though admittedly still inferior to those on a MacBook. It has a good array of ports including a MicroSD card reader. The microphone and 720p webcam are pretty rudimentary, but more or less than standard you’d expect in gaming laptop.
The 16:10 1600p screen is generally very good: it is nice and bright, covers 100% of the sRGB gamut, and has a 5ms response time (with Overdrive enabled) which is the best you will find in a laptop of this size, and effectively removes all ghosting at this refresh rate. Regarding the refresh rate we would have liked to have seen something higher than 120Hz for those competitive shooters, however it’s still quite enough for most gamers.
Best battery life laptop & most energy saving laptops : Things to consider
What determines laptop battery life?
Laptop battery life is primarily determined (on the positive side) by the battery capacity (measured in mAh) and on the negative side by the power draw of the CPU, graphics card, and display (other components also draw power, but no way near as much).
If you have a mini-LED or OLED/AMOLED display, these will typically shorten your battery life compared to a standard IPS or LCD screen.
The power draw of a CPU or GPU is commonly quoted as its TDP/TGP, and measured in Watts. Higher TGP graphics cards for instance tend to be the more powerful SKUs, capable of better FPS in games or better rendering speeds in creative software, however sometimes new generations of tech come with greater advances in energy efficiency.
Which are the most energy saving laptop components?
The latest Apple chipsets: the M2, M2 Pro, and M2 Max (which combine a CPU with integrated graphics processing), all have the best energy efficiency currently on the market, and therefore usually have the longest battery life.
AMD Ryzen laptop CPUs tend to have better battery life than the competing Intel models of the same generation. The Ryzen 6000 series had particularly good battery life compared the the Intel 12th gen processors (though this varied depending on the specific chipset/SKU). With the latest generation this gap has narrowed – with AMD 7000 series having shorter battery lives than the previous gen in exchange for greater power, but the Intel 13th gen processors improving in this area.
Looking at laptop graphics cards – Nvidia components have historically had the higher power draw than Radeon GPUs, but also the greater amount of processing power (on average – this isn’t the case with every SKU). The latest Nvidia 40-series laptop range have however reduced their energy draw whilst simultaneously increasing processing power, due to improvements made to the underlying architecture.
Best battery life laptop & laptop energy saving FAQs
What is a good laptop battery life?
What classes as a good laptop battery life depends on the type of laptop you’re interested in: gaming laptops usually have much lower battery lives due to their power-hungry dedicated GPUs, so the best of them can reach around 10 hours of general/non-gaming use on battery saver settings, but most will only manage 4-5 hours.
A general purpose 15-inch laptop with a normal IPS display should last at least 8 hours, though the best can last more than double this. Laptops with larger or more advanced displays (mini-LED or OLED) tend to have shorter battery lives, everything else being equal.
How can I improve my laptop battery life?
Turning down the brightness of your display, turning off Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, closing down all background processes that you don’t need, and minimising the time spent doing more processor/graphically-demanding tasks (gaming, editing, watching videos, etc.) will all increase your laptop battery’s duration.
Most laptops will also have onboard software that you can use to make your laptop’s energy consumption more efficient, at the expense of processing power. These also exist within the system settings of Windows or whichever OS you are using. If you’re only using your laptop for non-demanding general use tasks, then you should turn these on.
Our Verdict
This has been our guide to the best battery life laptop and/or best energy saving laptop models in 2023. The MacBook Pro 2022 (M2 Max version) is far and above the winner in terms of longest battery duration, but some of our other picks may be more suitable for your needs. Do be sure to check out our various other laptop guides in the dropdown menu at the top of this page.