PCMag readers know all about our Editors’ Selection award—the gold normal for standout merchandise—however in 2026, we’re elevating the bar. Enter the brand new PCMag Lab Awards, reserved for {hardware} and software program that is not simply best-in-class, however serves up a quantifiable, field-leading technical distinction in our exams. Lab Awards winners push efficiency ahead in ways in which really matter once you’re really shopping for.
Laptops, after all, are a giant focus of PCMag’s protection. (PCs are our namesake, in spite of everything.) So it is becoming that our first laptop-related Lab Award focuses on a vital facet of any machine: its battery life. How lengthy can a laptop computer actually final off the plug? It’s a deceptively thorny query, however one each shopper cares about—and one we’re uniquely geared up to reply.
PC Labs exams greater than 100 laptops a yr, and we’re conserving tempo in 2026, with 200 new fashions in our database since this time in 2024. We take a look at a lot of machines—a wholesome chunk of the sector—and have amassed a deep, constant dataset that tracks how methods carry out over time. And we simply noticed a laptop computer whose numbers shot out of our spreadsheets like a rocket: MSI’s Status Flip 14 AI+, which lasted greater than 40 hours in our take a look at of most battery life. That is a brand new high-water mark.
We’ll get into the nuances of how we take a look at laptop computer battery life in a second. (It is getting extra slippery to check, as we’ll clarify.) However backside line: For those who journey loads, have a protracted commute, or compute in school, battery longevity’s a large deal, and this MSI mannequin is a dream machine for those who are likely to neglect your charger frequently. Provided that consumers today favor sensible options over self-importance upgrades, a laptop computer that merely refuses to die may be the last word flex.
The 2026 Trendline: Laptop computer Battery Life Is on an Upswing
Till not too long ago, our battery-life testing had plateaued for a while. We noticed per-charge working occasions settle right into a predictable vary. Many of the longest-lasting Home windows machines would land at round 20 hours on our take a look at. Just a few of Apple’s MacBooks went nicely past that mark, with a pair topping a (then) eye-popping 30 hours.
Over the past couple of years, nevertheless, we’ve seen the trendlines in battery life going up and to the proper. The introduction of Qualcomm’s environment friendly Snapdragon X chips and Intel’s Core 200V (“Lunar Lake”) and Core Sequence 3 (“Panther Lake”) processor households has resulted in a rash of 25-hour-plus outcomes, with 30 hours not a unicorn. In our 2024-to-2026 take a look at set, we have logged six machines with greater than 30 hours of working time, and in our present battery-life high 10 (extra on these machines in a second), the shortest consequence was simply shy of 28 hours.
(Credit score: Joseph Maldonado)
However 40 hours? That brings us to our first Lab Awards winner for Finest Laptop computer Battery Life. MSI’s Status 14 Flip AI+ is a 2-in-1 convertible laptop computer, and it set a brand new high-water mark for battery life in our video rundown take a look at, with a working time of 42 hours and 6 minutes. The Status 14 Flip AI+ we examined is constructed round an Intel Core Extremely 3 Sequence processor, the Intel Core Extremely X7 358H. (See our full evaluation of the Status 14 Flip AI+, which additionally landed our Editors’ Selection Award.)
The Status 14 Flip AI+ and its 40-plus-hour battery life exhibiting might nicely get bypassed earlier than lengthy, given the now-steady circulate of environment friendly Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 and Intel Core Extremely 3 Sequence laptops passing via PC Labs. (Not lengthy earlier than we launched our awards, we registered a lusty near-35 hours from the HP OmniBook 5 14, primarily based on a Snapdragon X Plus processor.) However this MSI mannequin’s spectacular consequence will take some effort to high.
The Rundown: PC Labs’ Battery Testing Course of, Defined
What goes into measuring battery life, and below what circumstances did our winner obtain this consequence? Extra so than lots of our different exams, measuring battery life is a tough, tough enterprise. It’s simply as a lot about technicalities as about philosophies.
There are various methods you may drain a laptop computer’s battery all through the day, and nobody methodology precisely displays how all of us compute in the true world. Everybody engages in their very own mixture of shopping, knowledge processing, media modifying, gaming, and idling. Plus, everybody’s particular combine varies from everyday.
Some artificial benchmarks goal to approximate a mixture of idle time, simulated traces (work resembling software exercise), and different battery-rundown ways. That may be a affordable method that simulates a typical day within the life with a given laptop computer. That stated, some laptops will carry out sure duties extra effectively than others because of their CPU and GPU make-up, supported firmware, and different components. With so many processes contributing to the rundown in an artificial take a look at, it may be unattainable to unbake that battery-life cake and pinpoint why a laptop computer will get a great or unhealthy consequence.
(Credit score: Joseph Maldonado)
The essential battery take a look at we have run for a few years is a full video-playback battery rundown. To check a laptop computer, we guarantee it’s totally charged and give attention to particular settings. We flip off any keyboard backlighting; we make sure that the display screen by no means goes to sleep, or adjustments brightness by time of day or once we step away (disabling any ambient-light modes or “presence detection”); and we restrict any vendor-specific, bespoke battery-management settings to scale back variables.
The precise take a look at consists of enjoying again a video (the Blender demo movie Tears of Metal). We run this quick film on a loop as a customized 24-hour-long video file, with Wi-Fi turned off, the audio quantity set to 100%, and the show’s brightness set to 50% on the laptop computer’s brightness slider.
The battery begins at 100% cost. We disconnect the laptop computer from the charger and instantly begin the playback loop, working it till the laptop computer hibernates with 5% battery remaining. (We designate that 5% mark within the OS’s energy settings throughout setup.)
(Credit score: Joseph Maldonado)
With right now’s excessive battery runtimes, we will’t control a given laptop computer at each second throughout its playback; generally the battery dies in the midst of the night time! (As of late, we set our 24-hour video file to loop when it reaches the top, on condition that some laptops run for longer than a full day.) As soon as the battery hits 5% and the laptop computer shuts down, we plug it again in, boot it again up, and test the video participant to see what number of hours and minutes had elapsed when the video stopped. This determine is our battery rundown time.
How the Subject Breaks Down: Our Battery Prime 10
So, how did this MSI mannequin carry out in contrast with the latest subject? Here is a spec breakout of the highest 10 finishers in our battery life take a look at since mid-2024…
…and this is how they positioned. Notice the daylight between MSI’s Flip and the following contender, from HP’s OmniBook household.
Additionally, discover the wealth of machines with Qualcomm Snapdragon X processors, in addition to comparatively low-resolution (1080p or 1200p) panels; extra on each in a second. But it surely’s additionally value heeding that three of our high 10 are utilizing Intel Core Extremely 3 Sequence Panther Lake processors, and people chips have been available on the market for only some months. Count on to see extra of them rising within the rankings. Laptops with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X2 laptop computer processors are additionally imminent, so this can be a energetic house to observe because the yr progresses.
Battery-Life Nuances to Know (and There Are A lot)
Working a video for greater than 40 hours on a cost is extraordinarily spectacular, indicative of how far the trade has come when it comes to effectivity and battery life. In a subject of more and more enduring laptops, the MSI Status flew previous the opposite contenders. As famous, HP’s OmniBook 5 14 was a powerful runner-up, and we’ve had plenty of 30-hour finishers, however this MSI mannequin made this award a no-contest deal.
This gorgeous consequence does include some caveats, as do all battery exams. No battery take a look at is ideal, and likewise, each laptop computer has its mitigating components. First off, contemplate the very nature of our battery take a look at: Few customers will play a single video for this lengthy, notably with Wi-Fi off. You may equate our take a look at with the expertise of being on a protracted flight, disconnected from a charger and off the web. However today, your airplane will run out of gas lengthy earlier than a well-chosen laptop computer, used only for video playback, will!
Beneficial by Our Editors
Most customers topic their laptops to duties which might be rather more draining than this, and your battery’s working time can be shorter when crunching via, say, processor-intensive modifying duties, streaming motion pictures, or enjoying PC video games off the charger. As a result of how folks use their laptops varies a lot, have a look at our battery take a look at as a measure of relative battery potential between fashions, not an absolute of what you’re assured to get in on a regular basis use. You received’t hit 40 hours with this MSI for those who use it for a mixture of workplace work, informal video games, and Netflix. But it surely ought to last more, in a tough, relative sense, than another laptop computer used proportionally in the identical means.
(Credit score: Joseph Maldonado)
The show is a second large consider any laptop computer battery take a look at. Peak display screen brightness varies throughout laptops, so the precise nit rely at 50% brightness varies, too. (Nits, additionally known as candelas per sq. meter, are a typical measure of display screen brightness.) The MSI Status’s show is an OLED, however it isn’t particularly shiny, so (all else being equal) its decrease nit rely means it’s expending much less power; different fashions could also be brighter at their very own 50% mark. As a result of our testing confirmed the MSI Status’s display screen to be slightly dim, in observe, some folks may increase the brightness, which might drain extra energy. All of it is determined by the place you employ the machine, the ambient lighting in that location…and your eyesight.
One other variable: In our expertise, laptop computer display screen brightness doesn’t all the time scale linearly to 100% inside the laptop computer’s brightness controls. What can we imply by that? The “50%” brightness setting in a laptop computer’s management panel, in observe, just isn’t all the time a mathematical 50% of a laptop computer’s most brightness studying in nits. So why can we use the 50% brightness-slider setting somewhat than busting out a light-weight meter? As a result of most customers won’t ever look at or measure a panel’s nits degree, nor use an instrument on it. They’ll simply twiddle with the slider’s preset phases and eyeball it. We simulate that by all the time utilizing the 50% mark.
One other display screen issue is the panel’s native decision. We all the time take a look at the battery on the display screen’s native decision, since laptop computer customers seldom dial that down in most day-to-day situations. What does that imply for battery life, although? All else being equal (brightness settings, display screen expertise, and so forth), a higher-resolution display screen (say, a 4K panel) with extra pixels to push will drain your battery quicker than a lower-resolution one (say, 1080p). Like with brightness, you may’t unbake this issue from a given laptop computer. And once more, as a result of most patrons will use a laptop computer as designed and supplied, that’s how we measure. In fact, that may put a laptop computer with a lower-res display screen better off when it comes to battery life versus a higher-res one.
Lastly, as we hinted at above, processor energy consumption and up to date tendencies in CPU design play large roles. Most of the newest laptop computer processors have included so-called “effectivity” and “very low energy” cores, and these newer chips relegate less-demanding duties to these power-sipping, purpose-built cores, conserving the battery. Video playback is, in lots of circumstances, a first-rate candidate for shunting to these cores. In distinction, multitasking-heavy productiveness work and gaming will hit these cores much less usually and depend on the full-power ones, drawing extra juice. So once more: Consider our battery take a look at as a relative best-case situation for comparisons, not an absolute.
Hitting 40: Even With Caveats, This Check End result Is a Milestone
Nonetheless, we’ve discovered our battery-rundown take a look at to be a more-than-effective software for measuring battery life, and have run it on laptops for years to standardize our outcomes. Crucial factor about any testing routine is being constant in your methodology, in order that outcomes are 1:1 comparable throughout gadgets. Conserving to that methodology for years permits you to see the trendlines, too. With sufficient knowledge, a long-lasting laptop computer is straightforward to differentiate from one with low stamina.
Certainly, some producers, in their very own specs, report their battery projections as “video rundown” occasions, as we do. When producers present them, our outcomes typically align with these rankings. Their settings might differ barely, however our methodology gives a constant rubric for each the producer and the reviewer.
(Credit score: Joseph Maldonado)
Within the coming years, given the developments we’re seeing with low-power cores and different silicon efficiencies, we might have to contemplate shifting to, or augmenting our testing with, an artificial, user-simulation battery-life take a look at. (One thing, maybe, like UL’s Procyon Battery Life Benchmark.) The video-rundown methodology might result in battery runtimes which might be simply too impractically lengthy, or too out of sync with demanding real-world utilization. However these alternate exams have their very own pitfalls, as we famous: No one’s workload is similar, web connectivity can differ and have an effect on the take a look at, and these exams say much less concerning the most battery potential than a straight-through rundown take a look at does.
In brief, no single battery-testing methodology can fulfill everybody. Regardless, the MSI Status 14 Flip AI+ has set a brand new bar—by hours!—and that’s value celebrating. The celebrities aligned on this machine: a nice-enough OLED display screen that’s not too shiny, a 1080p decision that’s not too battery-demanding, and a cutting-edge Intel chip that stretches the battery taffy so far as anybody has. Maybe one other system will usurp it earlier than lengthy, on this new world of hyper-efficient silicon. However for now, the MSI Status 14 Flip AI+ holds our first Lab Awards battery crown. Hail to the monarch.
About Our Consultants
John Burek
Govt Editor and PC Labs Director
Expertise
I’ve been a expertise journalist for nearly 30 years and have lined nearly each sort of laptop gear—from the 386SX to 64-core processors—in my lengthy tenure as an editor, a author, and an recommendation columnist. For nearly a quarter-century, I labored on the seminal, gigantic Pc Shopper journal (and later, its digital counterpart), aka the cellphone e-book for PC patrons, and the nemesis of each postal supply individual. I used to be Pc Shopper’s editor in chief for its ultimate 9 years, after which a lot of its digital content material was folded into PCMag.com. I additionally served, briefly, because the editor in chief of the well-known hard-core tech web site Tom’s {Hardware}.
Throughout that point, I’ve constructed and torn down sufficient desktop PCs to equip a metropolis block’s value of web cafes. Below race circumstances, I’ve constructed PCs from bare-board to bootup in below 5 minutes. I by no means met a screwdriver I did not like.
I used to be additionally a duplicate chief and a reality checker early in my profession. (Enhancing and sharpening technical content material to make it palatable for shopper audiences is my forte.) I additionally labored as an editor of scholarly science books, and as an editor of “Dummies”-style laptop guidebooks for Brady Books (now, BradyGames). I am a lifetime New Yorker, a graduate of New York College’s journalism program, and a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
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Matthew Buzzi
Principal Author, {Hardware}
Expertise
I’ve been a shopper PC knowledgeable at PCMag for 10 years, and I really like PC gaming. I’ve performed video games on my laptop for so long as I can bear in mind, which ultimately (because it does for a lot of) led me to construct and improve my very own desktops to this present day. Via my years at PCMag, I’ve examined and reviewed many, many dozens of laptops and desktops, and I’m all the time blissful to suggest a PC on your wants and funds.
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