Workstation laptops have rather grim battery life expectations because of the high-end processors and discrete GPUs packed inside these powerhouse machines.
We often consider a battery life of 6-8 hours good for a workstation laptop. Which is what makes the Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 7 such an anomaly.
Configured with an Intel Core Ultra 7 165H processor, Nvidia RTX 1000 Ada Generation GPU, 32GB of RAM, 1TB of SSD storage, and a 16-inch FHD+ (1,920 x 1,200) IPS display, we weren't expecting the ThinkPad P1 Gen 7 to last over 10 hours on the Laptop Mag battery test — our proprietary benchmark that sets a laptop to 150 nits of brightness and sends it surfing through a series of static, multimedia, and video web pages until its battery dies.
The ThinkPad P1 survived an astounding 17 hours and 23 minutes on our web surfing battery test, which puts it up there with the laptops with the best battery life.
Battery life champions: How the Lenovo ThinkPad P1 holds up
The current record holder within the Laptop Mag battery test is the Dell XPS 13 (9345) with the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite processor and a 13-inch FHD display. That XPS 13 lasted 19 hours and 1 minute on our battery test. Coming in just behind is the Dell XPS 13 (9350) with an Intel Core Ultra 7 258V "Lunar Lake" processor, which lasted for eighteen hours and thirty-five minutes.
Behind both Dell XPS 13s is the Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2023) with the M3 Max chipset. Apple's top-of-the-line Mac lasted for 18 hours and five minutes on our battery test. Just behind that is the Apple MacBook Pro 14 (2023) with M3, which lasted for seventeen hours and sixteen minutes.
With its awesome 17-hour plus battery life, the Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 7 slots fourth in our overall rankings. This is honestly an impressive battery life for any laptop, as most don't make it past the 15-hour mark, and workstations rarely last past 10 hours. It's mind-bogglingly good battery life.
Of course, you get less battery life depending on your screen brightness and how you use it. Certain programs will eat more battery life than others, and having multiple programs open will also cost you more power than running just one at a time. That said, scoring 17:23 on our battery test is no mean feat.
How much battery life is too much?
On one hand, no laptop can ever really have enough battery life. No matter how efficient the processor or how large the battery is, all laptops will need to be charged eventually. That's just the nature of portable computers.
While I don't mind charging my laptop at the end of a work day, knowing that a forgotten laptop charger won't mean the end of the world when I have to go for an overnight trip does help cut down on travel anxiety.
We will eventually reach a point where batteries become efficient enough that this measurement is no longer a factor when deciding which laptop to buy. In fact, we may be closer to that point than it seems, considering how efficient the recent Intel, AMD, Apple, and Qualcomm processors have become.
So, while no battery life can ever be "too much," we will eventually find a point where enough is "enough" for most people. And with a workstation laptop getting over 17 hours of battery life, we seem closer to that point than ever.
