43 hours battery life: Dell XPS 14 2026 lasts almost 3x longer vs MacBook Air 15

The 40-odd-hour result was only achieved by loading a webpage, lowering the brightness to 150 nits, and doing absolutely nothing else with the device. That’s not reflective of real-world laptop usage, though it is a common trick for devices with always-on displays like phones and smartwatches.

By comparison, if we assume that NotebookCheck’s test protocol attempts to emulate real-world use:

> We measured 16 hours and 45 minutes in our review.

I can’t find any statement of how the 14-inch M5 MBP performed in their own like-for-like tests, despite checking several of the articles linked from their review meta-page: https://www.notebookcheck.net/Apple-MacBook-Pro-14-2025-M5.1...

	▲	PhilippGille 5 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		This is their MBP 14" M5 Max review, with a "Battery life" section and their standard web browsing test: https://www.notebookcheck.net/M5-Max-with-inconsistent-perfo... 15h 10min
	▲	HDBaseT 9 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		[dead]

▲

lukevp 11 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Does anyone believe this? Is it real? Windows laptops always claim crazy battery life figures but when I have the latest, nicest windows machine it ends up lasting like 3-4 hours every time, with a normal coding workload. My MacBooks in contrast will last 8+.

	▲	jyunwai 11 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		> "Moving on, the Dell XPS 14 (2026) endured for around 20 hours and 21 minutes when playing a 4K YouTube video. The MacBook Air 15 M5 lasted for 14 hours." > "Finally, the Apple M5 showed its efficiency advantage under maximum load. The MacBook Air 15 M5 kept going for 4 hours and 10 minutes while gaming. The Dell XPS 14 could only hold out for 2.5 hours." That about fits my personal experience. The dozens-of-hours-long battery life claims for laptops are based on streaming videos, but real-life battery life is always far shorter for me, as I usually use my laptop for more intensive tasks.
	▲	sangel21 11 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		I think these have new LG Oxide 1 Hz displays? That might be why it didn't fair as well in games.

▲

mikestew 11 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I was expecting the Dell to be some 7 lb. all-battery monster, but no, it weighs in at a claimed 3.4 lbs.

Variable refresh rate obviously plays a role, if you don’t mind reading web pages at 1Hz.

	▲	Dylan16807 11 hours ago \| parent [-]
		In general the biggest battery you'll see is 99.9Wh, which is barely over a pound. Since it's nice to be able to take your laptop on a plane.

▲

digitalPhonix 11 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

The XPS build quality (from what I remember) was pretty good and the new one looks like it has a massive trackpad. Maybe a macbook won't be my default next laptop.

Hopefully this is just the start of x86 laptops responding Macbooks. They've been pretty much unchallenged for most use cases (even more now with the Neo) for the past few years.