Long battery life is crucial for to be named one of the best laptops. After all, you don't want your notebook running out of power while you’re out and about. We’ve reviewed many laptops with impressive battery life this year, but one machine stands as the true battery life champion: The new MacBook Pro 13-inch (M2, 2022).
Don’t let its outdated design fool you, the latest 13-inch MacBook Pro is a monster thanks to the Apple M2 processor. It's currently the most powerful 13-inch laptop Apple has ever released. Though the M2 chip isn’t as performant as the M1 Pro and M1 Max processors, Apple designed it to be more power-efficient. In other words, the new processor provides the MacBook Pro with epic battery life.
On the Tom's Guide Battery test, which involves continuous web surfing at 150 nits of screen brightness, the latest MacBook Pro 13-inch lasted an epic 18 hours and 20 minutes. This obliterates the battery life of any laptop we’ve ever reviewed. In fact, the new MacBook Pro 13-inch seems to have the longest endurance of any consumer-grade laptop on the market.
Below, we’ll compare the MacBook Pro 13-inch to other long-lasting laptops to see how it compares. Note that, while Tom’s Guide reviewed many of these laptops, we used sibling site Laptop Mag’s laptops with the best battery life guide for additional data. Given how both sites use the same testing protocol, we believe it's fair to use their results.
With that said, let’s dive into the results.
MacBook Pro 2022 battery life vs competing laptops
| Header Cell - Column 0 | Header Cell - Column 1 |
|---|---|
| MacBook Pro 13-inch (M2, 2022) | 18:20 |
| Dell Latitude 9510 | 18:17 |
| Dell Latitude 9410 2-in-1 | 16:54 |
| Asus ExpertBook B9450 | 16:42 |
| MacBook Pro 13-inch M1 | 16:32 |
| HP Elite Folio | 16:21 |
| HP EliteBook x360 1040 G7 | 15:45 |
| Samsung Galaxy Book Flex 15 | 15:44 |
| MacBook Air with M1 | 14:41 |
| MacBook Pro 14-inch | 14:08 |
Laptop battery life: Which systems come close?
As detailed in our MacBook Pro 2022 battery life tested: This is the longest-lasting laptop ever article, the only laptop that comes close to the 13-inch MacBook Pro’s epic battery life is the Dell Latitude 9510, which clocked in with an impressive 18 hours and 17 minutes. With only a three-minute difference between them, the laptops effectively have the same battery life. That said, the Dell machine has a lower-res 1080p display compared to the MacBook Pro’s 1600p screen.
The gulf only gets wider after that. The Dell Latitude 9410 2-in-1 (16:54) and Asus ExpertBook B9450 (16:42) each have great battery life that can theoretically last for an entire workday and then some. The HP Elite Folio (16:21) is also in the 16-hour club, as is the previous-gen MacBook Pro with M1 (16:32). The latter still has amazing battery life, but compared to its latest iteration, it’s not as long-lasting.
Other laptops such as the HP EliteBook x360 1040 G7 and Samsung Galaxy Book Flex 15 stay within the 15-hour range. The MacBook Air with M1 (14:41) and new MacBook Air M2 (14:06) provide less battery life — though anything above 14 hours is still great.
We’d go on, but the point is clear: The new MacBook Pro 13-inch delivers unbeatable battery life.
MacBook Pro 2022 battery life: The battery life champ
The M2-powered MacBook Pro 13-inch sets a new standard for laptop battery life. Outside of rugged laptops which are in a class of their own, Apple’s notebook is undefeated in this category. If you don’t mind its dated chassis and touch bar functionality, this is the laptop to get if you prioritize battery life above everything else.
With new MacBook Pro M2 models tipped for an early 2023 launch, we look forward to seeing if their respective battery life matches or exceeds that of the current MacBook Pro 13-inch. But as things stand, the MacBook Pro 2022 is the laptop to beat when it comes to sheer staying power.
