I can suggest the M4 MacBook Air just for its battery life.

      In recent months, I have experimented with several Windows on Arm devices. The most significant observation is that if you purchase a slim and lightweight Windows laptop in 2025, you will not need to search for a seat close to a power outlet. The battery life performance I’ve seen from laptops powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon X has been quite impressive.

      For the first time, I believe Windows laptops have achieved a level comparable to the high standards set by the MacBook Air. My latest experience was with the Asus Zenbook A14, following my time with the Dell XPS 13. I appreciated their thin and lightweight designs, as well as the advancements in app compatibility on Windows on Arm.

      However, despite all this progress, if I were to recommend a slim and light laptop, the MacBook Air M4 would be my top choice. Several factors contribute to its advantage, with battery life being the most compelling. I've used every version of the MacBook Air since the M1 model, and I think Apple has finally achieved exceptional power efficiency with the M4 model this year.

      Not a Simple Decision

      Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends

      Choosing the “best” battery life in a laptop isn’t straightforward. There is no universal standard, especially when considering different operating systems, architectures, and hardware variables. Numerous other factors influence this decision, including the applications and workflow the device is expected to manage.

      This is where making a safer choice comes into play, where a balance of performance and battery efficiency becomes the ideal option. In that regard, the MacBook Air is unmatched. Before diving into benchmarks, I'll share insights on why silicon efficiency is important. Look at the numbers below.

      Nadeem Sarwar / DigitalTrends

      Two Chrome windows consumed more energy than a robust photo editing application, while also using nearly four times more memory and a larger portion of CPU resources. Nevertheless, the heavy load is handled by the efficiency cores of the M4 silicon. Only under demanding conditions do the performance cores kick into high gear.

      Another interesting point is that the cores attempt to enter a low activity state as soon as they recognize the system is idle. I observed that the four performance cores enter this state more frequently than the efficiency cores, which remain active if background processes continue.

      Nadeem Sarwar / DigitalTrends

      While the efficiency gains may not be immediately obvious, the M4 chip, with its six efficiency cores, relies on them more than the M3 chip (which has four performance and four efficiency cores). The result is reduced power consumption from the battery and subsequently better battery life.

      This distinction becomes more evident when low-power mode is enabled, either manually or automatically during battery use. In low-power mode, the M4's performance cores often drop into the zero activity state more frequently than the M3’s. I noticed similar behavior among the efficiency core cluster as well.

      Enhanced efficiency is also apparent during demanding tasks. I encoded a video on Handbrake using the 1080p30 Fast preset, with the M4 achieving about 16% greater performance than the M3 MacBook Air, while consuming approximately 13% less power. These numbers are estimated using third-party tools, but the M4’s efficient power usage is clear.

      Real-World Workflows Perform Even Better

      Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends

      My standard workflow often involves the resource-heavy Google Chrome, distributed across three to four windows with an average of 30-40 tabs open. Additionally, I use various applications (and browser instances) like Obsidian, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Apple Music, Gemini, Sheets, Grammarly, and iPhone Mirroring.

      On the more demanding side of my tasks are Photoshop, LumaFusion, and PyTorch. These are where the four performance cores of the M4 chip fully engage, while the remaining tasks are handled by the six efficiency cores.

      When running in balanced mode, I've rarely encountered performance issues. However, I was surprised to find that even under low-power mode, my workflow remained smooth. This contrasts with many ultra-portable Windows laptops I've tested recently.

      Apple

      The Dell XPS 13, equipped with Qualcomm’s top-tier Snapdragon X Elite chip, is quite powerful and even surpassed the Apple M3 in multi-core tasks. However, it experienced more stuttering, freezing, and caused Chrome to lag far more frequently than the MacBook Air.

      It managed to handle short bursts of high-demand tasks like brief video editing, but it didn't provide the same smooth experience for extended work sessions as the MacBook Air. This inefficiency also reflected in its battery life.

      Moreover, Windows laptops tend to throttle performance more aggressively once they enter low-power mode. The performance cores of Apple’s chips, even the older M3, outperform those of Qualcomm’s and Intel’s leading laptop processors.

      Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends

      In our tests, the 13-inch MacBook Air achieved 20% better battery performance compared to a