Laptop with best battery life - single and only criteria?

[PAK]

How about this brand new M1 $379.

Located in China? Says 6 sold but only has 2 feedback? The 2 feedbacks are from the same person, and that person has 0 feedback themselves.

Look for someone local where you can physically check it and verify the cycle count for yourself. Failing that, look for sellers with lots (hundreds at least) of feedback and where it's clear they have a history of selling laptops. Otherwise, I'd recommend avoiding Ebay

[Touch The Universe]

Indeed, I'm seeing now if I can do a local pickup somewhere on facebook marketplace. If not, I might just stick to walmart or amazon. I'll be patient.

That said, is it only the M1 chips that have crazy good battery life, or what about the earlier years of Macbook Air with the i5 processors?

[PAK]

is it only the M1 chips that have crazy good battery life?

Yes. It’s about the differences ARM (etc) makes. Windows on ARM will also have similar battery advantages, but that’s not taking off for now. Intel’s next generation CPU’s may have more competitive battery life too. Otherwise there’s not much else competing, in terms of battery, for now.

[uOpt]

Perhaps not what you want to hear: MacBookPro.

When doing non-taxing things then a charged battery may serve you several days. No moving parts (not even for cooling) means it's very energy efficient.

Macbook Pro has a fan. The Macbook Air is the one without a fan.

The no longer produced Macbok Pro 13" (with a fan that it pretty much never uses) has the longest battery life of pretty much any common laptop ever. You will be able to get a recent example for good money.

[uOpt]

is it only the M1 chips that have crazy good battery life?

Yes. It’s about the differences ARM (etc) makes. Windows on ARM will also have similar battery advantages, but that’s not taking off for now. Intel’s next generation CPU’s may have more competitive battery life too. Otherwise there’s not much else competing, in terms of battery, for now.

I highly doubt that Microsoft can close the gap in energy efficiency in the OS to Apple anytime soon. Apple has a huge head-start in managing arm systems for battery life. Even on identical hardware macOS is likely to be more efficient for quite a while.

That will also hamper the upcoming intel CPUs. Software matters.

[BertKoor]

Macbook Pro has a fan. The Macbook Air is the one without a fan.

I checked it (should have prior to posting) and that is correct. Thx 4 the correction.

Thing is, I use an M2 and an M3. Neither has ever turned on it's fan, afaik. So there's that

[revvy]

My 3-year old M1 MBP is 93% maximum capacity, 123 cycle count.

Seems legit.

(feels like a dongle; I like dongles)

[Touch The Universe]

Ended up grabbing an M1 Air on ebay from a seller with 2400+ sales 98% positive at $427 with 87 battery cycles from New York.

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[chroma]

That’s a good general choice.

Just wanted to add that specifically for writing *only* something like a freewrite traveler or alpha might be a good choice…. don’t have the be personally (yet) but eg the traveler says 4 *weeks* of battery life….

https://getfreewrite.com/products/freewrite-traveler

[Touch The Universe]

That looks perfect, wow. That's on the right track. I'd like to see a standard computer designed only for writing, maximing the battery life. 4 weeks is crazy good, but the screen is too small, even a week on a regular computer with a traditional screen would be ideal.

[BONES]

Yes. It’s about the differences ARM (etc) makes. Windows on ARM will also have similar battery advantages, but that’s not taking off for now. Intel’s next generation CPU’s may have more competitive battery life too. Otherwise there’s not much else competing, in terms of battery, for now.

The thing is, there are plenty of Intel powered Windows laptops with longer battery life than an ARM powered Mac. ARM is no guarantee of longer battery life.

The no longer produced Macbok Pro 13" (with a fan that it pretty much never uses) has the longest battery life of pretty much any common laptop ever.

Not according to Tom's Guide - "... we’ve just reviewed another Windows laptop that lasts longer than any MacBook or consumer laptop we’ve tested — the new Dell XPS 13 (2024)."

For reference, the XPS 13 managed 19hr 41min, against the MacBook Pro 14-inch M3's 17hr 16min (which is the longest ever for any Mac).

Of course, you're not going to find any of these for $250, you'll get a second-hand machine and it will be pot-luck what sort of condition the battery is in when you buy it. I'd suggest any brand new laptop with average battery life is going to be a safer bet than a second-hand one at the same price.

[revvy]

against the MacBook Pro 14-inch M3's 17hr 16min (which is the longest ever for any Mac).

Really? tom's said:

I should note that the MacBook Pro 16-inch with the M2 Max chip was previously the longest-lasting laptop we’ve reviewed, lasting 18 hours and 56 minutes.

Also, the laptop you quote with the current highest battery life runs on Snapdragon X Elite. That's ARM, isn't it?

Finally, in terms of M chips overall versus others:

MacBooks packing M-series chips have been the uncontested battery life champions since 2020. That’s no longer the case as Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite chips are giving Apple’s notebooks serious competition when it comes to endurance. We have a true arms race (pun very much intended) happening, and we’re the beneficiaries.

Apple’s MacBooks might regain their status as the longest-lasting laptops whenever the first batch of M4-driven machines pop up. For now, no MacBook can match the new Dell XPS 13 in battery life.

[mjolnir]

i wouldn't know which is best, but just be careful because some of the new laptops are more like glorified smart phones with long battery life and hardly any power. so don't settle if it has bad reviews for the main other features. and like somebody else said, be careful about monitor screen size being big enough, etc.

[BONES]

Really? tom's said:

I should note that the MacBook Pro 16-inch with the M2 Max chip was previously the longest-lasting laptop we’ve reviewed, lasting 18 hours and 56 minutes.

Yeah, exactly - "previously" but not any longer.

Also, the laptop you quote with the current highest battery life runs on Snapdragon X Elite. That's ARM, isn't it?

Yes, so what? Windows has been running on ARM for a lot longer than Mac. The OP isn't looking for a workstation, even an old ARM powered Windows machine will do the job well enough.

Finally, in terms of M chips overall versus others:

Again, that's all in the past. Mind you, that's just Tom's Hardware, when Engadget first tested the ARM powered MB Air, it didn't last as long as several Intel powered Windows laptops. Unfortunately, Engadget no longer show that table when reviewing laptops, so their figures are out of date. Of course, Intel laptops rely on power-saving strategies to conserve battery, where Macs these days seem to run at full speed all the time, which is probably why they aren't necessarily longer lasting.

While we're on the subject, the other thing to understand is that Intel are still miles behind when it comes to die sizes. If/when they get their process down to 4nm, like Apple and AMD, you can expect them to use a lot less power, too.

[revvy]

Yeah, exactly - "previously" but not any longer.

I know what previously means, mate. I was referring to your post which said

against the MacBook Pro 14-inch M3's 17hr 16min (which is the longest ever for any Mac).

17h 16 mins as 'longest ever for any Mac' which you got wrong, hence I included the correct time -

tom's said:

I should note that the MacBook Pro 16-inch with the M2 Max chip was previously the longest-lasting laptop we’ve reviewed, lasting 18 hours and 56 minutes.

18>17.

BTW

The thing is, there are plenty of Intel powered Windows laptops with longer battery life than an ARM powered Mac. ARM is no guarantee of longer battery life.

ARM's no guarantee, no, but nobody says it is. It just can deliver the current longest battery life.

(You should tell tom's site about the Intel lappies with longer battery life, it doesn't seem to be aware of them)