5 Laptops With Better Battery Life Than The MacBook Air

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Before releasing the entry-level MacBook Neo that costs just $599, Apple's MacBook Air lineup was the company's cheapest laptop you could get. Besides its thin and lightweight design, another great feature that the MacBook Air has going for it is the incredible battery life, with Apple promising up to 18 hours of screen time on the latest 13- and 15-inch M5 models, the same as the predecessor models powered by M4. We've already done a hands-on review of the M5 MacBook Air, and from our point of view, it can easily last a full day of juggling different tasks as long as you don't push it hard. 

In real-world tests by different publications, the M5 MacBook Air has managed to last for 18 hours and 4 minutes in PC Mag's video playback tests, 16 hours and 11 minutes in Notebookcheck's Wi-Fi web surfing test, 17 hours and 2 minutes in CNET's test, and between 13 and 14 hours in mixed-use tests by The Verge. In other words, the M5 MacBook Air should be able to last at least a full day of work and then retain some charge for the next day. 

However, even though Apple's MacBook series has some of the best battery life on the market, especially in recent years, there are some laptops that outperform the MacBook Air. We've relied on various sources to find laptops that offer better battery life than Apple's M5-powered MacBook Air. You can read the full methodology at the end of the article for more details about our selection process.

Powered by one of Qualcomm's ARM-based Snapdragon X chips, the HP OmniBook 5 14 is one of the laptops with the best battery life you can get as of this writing. According to CNET's battery life tests, the OmniBook 5 14 was able to last for 28 hours and 19 minutes, somewhat close to the company's official rating of 34 hours. In Notebookcheck's Wi-Fi web surfing battery test, this laptop also outperformed the Air. It lasted closer to 17 hours, with 16 hours and 56 minutes of runtime, which is over 30 minutes more than the M5 MacBook Air. HP's OmniBook also bested the Air in PC Mag's test, running for 34 hours and 48 minutes, lasting nearly twice as long as the Air in video playback.

Several factors contribute to the HP OmniBook 5 14 having such incredible battery life, which is even better than the MacBook. One of those factors is the use of Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Plus chip, which has proven to be very power-efficient. Using a lower-resolution OLED panel with 1,920 by 1,200 pixels also helps, although that might be an issue for some who care about how crisp a laptop's display is. However, the best part about this laptop is that it's not as expensive as the Air. You can buy the 14-inch HP OmniBook 5 from Amazon for just $693.86 for the 16 GB RAM and 1 TB SSD variant.

Launched by Lenovo in 2025, the Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition is a laptop that targets those who want a premium convertible Windows machine. Powering the Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition is Intel's Lunar Lake processors, which have proven to offer some of the best battery life on laptops. The model that CNET tested runs on the Intel Core Ultra 7 258V, but you can also pick one with the Ultra 7 256V. In terms of battery life, the Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition lasted for 25 hours and 45 minutes on a single charge in CNET's test, and it ranks as one of the best laptops for battery life in the site's charts as of this writing. In fact, it ranks second behind the HP OmniBook 5 14 that we've discussed above.

It comes with an OLED panel that measures 14 inches with 2,880 by 1,800 resolution and a 120 Hz refresh rate. Although some might argue that touchscreen functionality on laptops is unnecessary, it's handy for some professionals, such as graphic designers, and the Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition meets the needs of such people by having it. It also supports pen input and ships with one out of the box. You can snag the Lenovo 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition from Amazon for $1,650, which comes with 32 GB of memory and 1 TB of storage.

Acer's Swift 14 AI is a portable Windows laptop weighing just 2.95 pounds that falls between the 13-inch and 15-inch M5 MacBook Air, just like its 14-inch screen size. The display is a touchscreen IPS panel with a 1,920 by 1,200 resolution and a 60 Hz refresh rate. Despite evidence that touch input can affect battery life, the Acer Swift 14 AI has better battery life than the MacBook Air due to some choices the company made. Different variants of the laptop are powered by the Intel Lunar Lake, AMD Strix Point chip, or Snapdragon X Elite chipset. The Verge put the Intel and AMD variants to the test, where the Intel-powered model with the Core Ultra 7 258V lasted nearly 17 hours on a single charge, while the one with the Ryzen AI 9 365 managed 15 hours. 

The AMD-powered option sacrifices a bit of battery life for slightly better multi-core and graphics performance over the Intel model, but despite that, it still lasts more than the MacBook Air, which only managed between 13 and 14 hours in the site's battery rundown test. In CNET's test, the Intel-powered model with the same Core Ultra 7 258V lasted for 22 hours and 13 minutes, over 5 hours more than the 13-inch M5 MacBook Air. PC Mag's video playback tests also reveal the Snapdragon X Elite-powered Acer Swift 14 AI as the better laptop for battery life, with 20 hours and 8 minutes of runtime, roughly two hours more than the Air. The Acer Swift 14 AI is available to buy from Acer for $949.99.

Dell's iconic XPS brand made a surprising return in 2026, roughly a year after the company announced its product rebrand, which aroused controversy among users. To mark the return of the XPS brand, the company released its XPS 14 and 16 laptops that are powered by Intel's Panther Lake processors, making the two powerful and giving them competitive battery life. In fact, the 2026 XPS 14 lasts longer than the MacBook Air, with Notebookcheck's Wi-Fi web surfing test revealing it can run for 16 hours and 45 minutes. That's more than half an hour longer than Apple's Air. The XPS 14 also performed better in CNET's battery test, with 21 hours and 7 minutes of runtime.

For CNET's test, only the model powered by the Intel Core Ultra 7 355 had better battery life than the Air, as it uses an inferior 14-inch IPS panel with 1,920 by 1,200 resolution and 120 Hz refresh rate. The one with the more powerful Core Ultra X7 358H and a better 120 Hz 14-inch OLED panel with 2,880 by 1,800 resolution and touchscreen support didn't even last for 15 hours, which is less than the Air. This means that the best option for you is the one powered by the Core Ultra 7 355 if you need a Windows laptop with better battery life than the MacBook Air. Dell's XPS 14 (2026) starts at $1,700, and you can buy it directly from the company's website.

The Asus ExpertBook P5 is a business laptop. It runs on Intel's Core Ultra 7 258V, the same chip that you've seen on other laptops on this list. Powered by a 63-watt-hour battery, the ExpertBook P5 is one of the best options if you want a laptop that can last longer than the MacBook Air. Wirecutter's battery tests reveal it can last up to 16 hours and 30 minutes, which is better than the 13-inch M5 MacBook Air battery life of 16 hours. The site's battery tests involve setting the brightness at 150 nits and navigating different websites, doing tasks like playing videos in a customized version of Chromium. 

The Asus ExpertBook P5 is also lightweight, weighing just 2.78 pounds, or 0.08 pounds heavier than the 13-inch MacBook Air, so you won't compromise on portability. What's great about the ExpertBook P5 is that it's more repairable than most premium options on the market and comes with nearly the same display resolution as the Air. It has a 14-inch display with a resolution of 2,560 by 1,600 pixels with a higher 144 Hz refresh rate than the Air. You can buy the Asus ExpertBook P5 for $1,299.99 on Amazon or Walmart with 32 GB of memory and 1 TB of storage.

Typically, when a company launches a new laptop, it will provide battery life estimates that you should expect. However, depending on what you're doing with the device, the actual battery life that you get if you buy the laptop will vary. As a result, to find laptops with better battery life than the MacBook Air, we combed through product reviews from different sites that independently review these devices.

Our go-to sites for research included CNET, Notebookcheck, PC Mag, Wirecutter, and The Verge, all of which had reviewed the M5 MacBook Air and published battery life estimates from independent testing at the time of writing. To compile this list, we searched for reviews of different laptops from these sites and shortlisted five that had better battery life estimates than the M5 MacBook Air. We've arranged these laptops in random order.