We love testing battery life here at Laptop Mag. Personally, it's my favorite test. After all, isn't it important to know which laptop will keep you untethered from outlet prison? I don't know about you, but getting the "battery low" message too often gets to me!
Since Apple ditched Intel for its own in-house chips, MacBooks have been on fire with their battery runtimes. I mean, have you seen our "Laptops with best battery life" page? Half of that list is all MacBooks!
However, some MacBooks last longer than other configurations, depending on the chip, battery size, and other variables. This year, we had the privilege of testing five MacBook Pro configurations, and yes, one reigns supreme on the battery front. Which one? Stick around to find out.
Which MacBook Pros did we test?
Before we reveal the battery-life winner, let's dive into the configurations we tested:
1. MacBook Pro - 14-inch - M2 Pro (12-Core CPU, 19-Core GPU)
Memory: 16GB of RAM
Storage: 1TB
2. MacBook Pro - 14-inch - M2 Pro (12-Core CPU, 19-Core GPU)
Memory: 32GB of RAM
Storage: 2TB
3. MacBook Pro - 14-inch - M2 Pro (10-Core GPU, 16-Core GPU)
Memory: 16GB of RAM
Storage: 512GB
4. MacBook Pro - 14-inch - M2 Max (12-Core CPU, 38-Core GPU)
Memory: 64GB of RAM
Storage: 2TB
5. MacBook Pro - 16-inch - M2 Max (12-Core CPU, 38-Core GPU)
Memory: 96GB of RAM
Storage: 4TB
Which MacBook Pro lasted the longest?
No surprise here! The monstrous, beastly 16-inch MacBook Pro, packed with an unfathomable 96GB of RAM and 4TB of storage, is our longest-lasting configuration.
After all, The 16-inch MacBook Pro has a 100-watt-hour battery while the aforementioned 14-inch models have a 70-watt-hour battery. Apple claimed that the 16-inch MacBook Pro lasts a whopping 22 hours on a charge, and it wasn't far off from its assessment.
On the Laptop Mag battery test, which involves continuous Web surfing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits of brightness, the Herculean MacBook Pro lasted 18 hours and 56 minutes -— just 4 minutes short of 19 hours!
Keep in mind that we tested the 16-inch MacBook Pro twice. The first time, it lasted 19 hours and 5 minutes; the second time, it survived for 18 hours and 47 minutes. Our final battery runtime figure is the average of the two.
Curious about the battery lives of the remaining models? Check out the chart below.
Interestingly, the M2 Pro chip with fewer cores netted better life in our testing. The more powerful M2 Max chip did the worst, only lasting 12 hours and 51 minutes. Gross! It's like a Windows machine.
Bottom line
Truth be told, no matter which MacBook Pro configuration you get, you'll be in good hands when it comes to battery life. The best you can get is nineteen hours with the 16-inch MacBook Pro, but even if you get the M2 Max 14-inch MacBook Pro, 12 hours is still pretty darn impressive. To put it into perspective, the average laptop lasts 10 hours on a charge, so with a MacBook, you'll get two extra hours — at the very least.
If you're looking for something other than an Apple laptop, check out our laptops with best battery life page for more options.
