The first wave of laptops powered by Intel's Lunar Lake chips is here, and our battery life benchmark results paint an intriguing picture of which one is the best.
Intel set the bar high for the first Lunar Lake laptops ahead of their launch, claiming up to 50% lower power consumption along with top CPU, GPU, and NPU performance. Now that we're finally able to test these new laptops, we can see how accurate those claims are. Our lab testers have combined to run hundreds of hours of battery life tests on these laptops to come up with a fair average for each one.
If you're considering buying a Lunar Lake laptop, you should see these results before you make your purchase. They reveal the best Lunar Lake laptop for battery life but also offer a warning about one you might want to avoid.
Dell XPS 13 leads Lunar Lake battery life benchmark — but there's a catch
Of the four Lunar Lake laptops we've tested so far, one is the clear frontrunner on battery life: the Dell XPS 13. In our Laptop Mag web surfing battery life test, which involves surfing a set group of websites with the display set at 150 nits of brightness, it lasted a staggering 18 hours and 34 minutes, which is even longer than the MacBook Pro M3 Max (18 hours and 5 minutes).
There's a catch, though: that's the result for the non-OLED version of the Dell XPS 13, but the OLED version lasted less than half as long!
That's especially noteworthy since the Dell XPS 13 isn't the only Lunar Lake laptop with an OLED display. The ASUS Zenbook S14 also has an OLED panel and lasts significantly longer, with a battery life of 13 hours and 51 minutes.
Laptop Mag's in-house battery life test isn't the only one showing a significant dip in battery life for the OLED Dell XPS 13. The UL Procyon Office Productivity Benchmark battery life test shows longer times across the board, but the OLED Dell XPS 13 still comes in last by a significant margin:
The ASUS Zenbook S14's battery life result isn't breaking any records, but it's still scoring well above average. It offers enough battery life to get through a full workday, and there is a far smaller gap between its battery life and that of the ASUS ExpertBook P5 (which doesn't have an OLED display).
The OLED Dell XPS 13's battery life trails its non-OLED rival's time by over 50 percent and falls short of many non-Lunar Lake laptops. It could be a fluke in the Lunar Lake line-up, though. We won't know for sure until we get more models in for testing.
Considering the ASUS Zenbook S14 had much longer battery life with its OLED panel, it's too soon to say whether the OLED Dell XPS 13's lackluster result is due to its Lunar Lake processor or some flaw in Dell's software optimization for that display specifically.
Which Lunar Lake laptop is best for battery life?
If you're considering a Lunar Lake-powered laptop and want the best battery life possible, the obvious choice is the Dell XPS 13, but make sure you opt for the non-OLED version. With 18 hours and 34 minutes of battery life, you won't have to worry about bringing a charger along to have enough power for a full day at work or school.
If an OLED display is a must-have, then go for the ASUS Zenbook S14. It could have scored better on our display tests, reproducing just 82 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut compared to the OLED Dell XPS 13's score of 144 percent. However, the battery life trade-off with the OLED Dell XPS 13 is not worth it unless you mainly use your laptop at home. The ASUS Zenbook S14 gets you a much longer battery life. Plus, it received Laptop Mag's award for best laptop design at IFA Berlin 2024.
We'll be unpacking all of our benchmark results for the first wave of Lunar Lake laptops and sharing our full reviews soon, so stay tuned for more details.
