Workaholics, social media junkies and others who spend endless hours in front of a screen need a laptop that won’t let them down. So, they might want to log on to Amazon or head over to Best Buy to check out the HP Spectre Folio.
That laptop’s battery can last for nearly 19 hours between charges, earning it top honors in a recent Consumer Reports test of laptop battery life.
Consumer Reports ran a slew of laptops through their paces to determine which batteries last longest. According to the publication:
“We start by setting the brightness of the computer’s display to 200 nits, a level that works indoors and out. Then, with the battery fully charged, we cycle the laptop through a series of 10 web pages, downloading them continuously until the laptop shuts down.”
The good news is that Consumer Reports says it’s easy to find laptops that will hold a charge for at least 13 hours. However, it’s also possible to get stuck with computers that will fizzle after as little as four hours of activity.
The laptops that fared best in the Consumer Reports test are:
- HP Spectre Folio: 18.5 hours of battery life
- LG Gram 13 (eighth generation): 16.25 hours
- Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch (2018): 16 hours
- Microsoft Surface Book 2: 16 hours
- Dell XPS 15 (2019): 14 hours
Consumer Reports notes that exactly how long a battery lasts will depend on the tasks you perform on your laptop. But since each laptop the publication tested was put through the same regimen, you can be confident that the test results offer a true “apples-to-apples” comparison.
Also, note that these tests were performed on the most recent version of each laptop. Battery life may be better — or in the case of the 2019 Apple MacBook Pro, a little worse — than on previous editions of these laptops.
Before you go replacing a laptop due to poor battery life, though, be sure that you aren’t contributing to the problem unwittingly — check out “This Common Practice Will Slowly Kill Your Laptop Battery.”
Can you recommend a great laptop? Share your tips in comments below or on our Facebook page.
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