The 34-Hour Laptop Is Here. Here’s Why Battery Life Has Exploded in Recent Years - CNET

What the report says

CNET reports that laptop battery life has risen sharply in its lab testing, with the most dramatic gains appearing in recent years and especially in the latest batch of machines it reviewed. The publisher says its average tested laptop runtime is now nearly 17.5 hours, about five hours higher than last year and roughly twice the 8-to-9-hour range it saw from 2020 through 2023. It also says it has tested 22 laptops exceeding 20 hours, nine surpassing 24 hours, and one HP OmniBook lasting more than 34 hours in its battery drain test.

According to CNET, Apple’s switch from Intel chips to its Arm-based M-series processors helped start the current battery-life leap, beginning with the M1 MacBook Air. More recently, Windows laptops using Qualcomm Snapdragon X-series processors have overtaken MacBooks in CNET’s rankings, with HP OmniBook models leading for the past three years. The longest-lasting MacBook in CNET’s data ran for 24.5 hours.

The article attributes the gains mainly to more efficient processors rather than larger batteries, noting that airline rules limit battery size and that battery chemistry has not changed dramatically. CNET points to Arm-based designs from Apple and Qualcomm, improved Intel chips, smaller manufacturing processes, mixed performance-and-efficiency core layouts, and neural processing units that can handle some AI tasks with less power.

The finding matters for buyers because battery life is becoming a major differentiator alongside speed, weight and display quality. CNET’s broader conclusion is that modern laptops are increasingly capable of true all-day use, reducing the need to carry a charger for routine work or travel.