I'm looking for a laptop with reasonable sized screen that will last for days on battery. Ideally could watch 3-5 movies and still have some juice left. Am I searching for a unicorn?
Which 14"+ Laptop has Longest Lasting Battery?
figarow on 11/09/2019 - 12:37
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Didn't think of that. Thank you. Any ideas on how to find laptops that support power delivery? Also the best type of power bank to get for such a task? I have never used a power bank before.
Any laptop that charges through a USB Type-C port will be using Power Delivery.
You're going to have to compromise between screen quality and battery life though - one of the biggest power draws is the screen, and generally the better the screen (higher resolution, brighter colours, higher contrast, faster refresh rates, etc) will also mean shorter battery lives.
Would you say the approximate difference between 720p and 1080p screen is double the battery life watching movies? I might have some hard compromises to make. 720p also gives me a huge selection of cheaper laptops.
@figarow: Oof, that's a hard one. It wouldn't be double, but definitely be (all else being equal) significantly longer battery life. But 720p on a 14" screen…. go in store and make sure you can live with that. Personally I wouldn't - 1080p would be the lowest res I'd settle for. No point in any amount of battery life if you can't enjoy it.
@HighAndDry: Yep you are right tech has advanced too far for me to settle with 720p now that I think of it. Thanks for the wisdom… Now how do I search for type C laptops. I mean type C is most commonly data delivery right? Makimg it difficult to fimd and compare online models of type C charged.
@HighAndDry: Just to add a little voice of dissent. I too would prefer a FHD screen, but also still have a laptop that's 720p. With a 14 inch screen, the only thing I notice is I need to scroll more. And that a FHD screen at the same diagonal makes things more squinty. If I change to zoom level, then they're decently comparable.
It's definitely not in the same league as the difference between 320x200 to 1024x800
@tebbybabes: Windows scaling I find is good with getting the right size, but you can scale up for readable icon/text size with higher res, you can't do the same to get better picture quality if the monitor is lower res.
Plus, OP mentioned "Ideally could watch 3-5 movies" so I'm using that as the main use-case.
720p is completely usable, just… not worth the compromise imo.
As far as power banks go - you'll want one that has a PD profile that matches your laptop - probably 15V or 20V (make sure it's PD and not QC - just because it's USB Type-C doesn't mean it's PD). Keep in mind amperage will likely be limited to 2A for 15V and 1.5A for 20V, so a higher-powered laptop under load may drain its battery faster than it charges.
Suitable power banks come up on Ozbargain every week or so - I use the Aukey PB-Y7, which I bought when it was still difficult to find Aliexpress shops that would ship batteries. Note that some airlines require you request permission for any 30000 mAH power banks in your hand luggage (not that they seem to check).
You find out and let us know :)
The XPS 15 WITH THE 8300 FHD 97WHR, can get you like 14 hours of battery with power-saving and moderate brightness(which is still very fast and fairly bright). Additionally, you have options like the LG Gram, Surface Book 2, etc. Check out notebookcheck.com for a fairly comprehensive overview of various laptops and their respective battery lives.
For example, https://www.notebookcheck.net/LG-Gram-15Z980-i7-8550U-Full-H… gets 16hrs of 1080p media playback. What you're looking for exists, but you won't find a laptop that can last 20hrs at full volume, 4k streaming, full brightness. Not for at least a few years. This is simply due to the power draw of modern processors and hardware components, and the maximum battery capacity of 99whr. Advances in lp cpu's like windows on Snapdragon are the only thing (basically) that can advance this probability for the foreseeable future.
Really nice but I'm a cheap lowly homeless bum. That LG is just too expensive but very nice. I'm in the sub 1k or even sub 500 bracket.
tablet might be a better option, processors are built for mobiles, so power conservation is a big thing … get more bang for buck that way (and external battery things will be compatible)
Not interested hate them. Screen too small and prefer laptop format and periferals.
laptop that will last for days on battery
sub 1k or even sub 500 bracket.None
Sub $1k…. buy $500 netbook, buy $500 worth of power banks. Right now, $50 for 20,000mAH? Could get 200,000mAH worth of powerbanks for $500.
Mission impossibru.
Lenovo X1 Carbon (6th gen) has been good to me for battery life.
Just make sure you buy Intel. Battery life is far better.
Don't neg me, I love AMD and have had 2 Ryzen laptops in the past 2 years. Far poorer battery life than my previous Lenovo with an 8250u.
Why not get a laptop that supports Power Delivery and use a 30000 mAH power bank to top it up when it gets low?