“What’s the most impressive battery life you’ve achieved with your ultrabook during a workday? How did you optimize your usage and what’s your top power-saving tip?”
Here is what 14 thought leaders had to say.
ThinkPad X1 Reaches 14 Hours Through Strategic Adjustments
During tax season, I managed to stretch my ThinkPad X1’s battery life to 14 hours by making some strategic adjustments to my workflow. I discovered that using keyboard shortcuts instead of trackpad gestures saved a surprising amount of power, especially when navigating through multiple spreadsheets and financial documents. My biggest power-saving revelation was limiting my open browser tabs to just essential ones – each active tab consumes power, and as a financial advisor, I used to keep dozens open.
Gregory Rozdeba, CEO, Dundas Wealth
ASUS Zenbook Powers 13-Hour Workday Without Recharge
Running Edstellar means long hours on the move, and the ultrabook has to keep up. The most impressive battery life experienced was nearly 13 hours on the ASUS Zenbook during a full day of travel, strategy sessions, and remote meetings. The device held up through video calls, spreadsheets, and even a couple of pitch deck reviews—without a single recharge. That kind of endurance isn’t accidental; it’s a result of disciplined usage and understanding how different workflows impact power consumption.
The biggest optimization came from shifting to browser-based productivity tools and keeping everything lean—no heavy desktop software, minimal background processes, and display settings tuned just enough for comfort without draining excess power. One power-saving habit that’s stuck: keeping the taskbar clean and the focus sharp. Closing unused tabs, disabling unnecessary notifications, and pausing background syncs can stretch battery life more than most realize. It’s not just about saving power—it’s about staying effective without the constant search for a charging point.
Arvind Rongala, CEO, Edstellar
ThinkPad X1 Delivers 10+ Hours With Power Management
Running UrbanPro’s development tasks on my ThinkPad X1, I typically achieve 10+ hours by using the built-in Lenovo Vantage power management tools. I learned that disabling unnecessary startup programs and keeping my laptop’s vents clean made a huge difference during long coding sessions. My biggest power-saving discovery was using Visual Studio Code’s built-in battery optimization mode, which helped me extend battery life by nearly 30% while working on our platform’s backend.
Rakesh Kalra, Founder and CEO, UrbanPro
ThinkPad X1 Carbon Lasts 13 Hours Through Intentional Habits
As someone who travels often and runs a digital business, battery life isn’t just a spec—it’s a productivity benchmark. The most impressive battery life I’ve gotten from my ultrabook during a workday was just over 13 hours. That was on a day filled with flights, layovers, and Zoom calls from airport lounges, all without ever plugging in.
What made it possible wasn’t just the machine itself—it was how I used it. I run a Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon, and I’ve tailored both the hardware and my work habits for battery efficiency. I always run it on Battery Saver mode and keep background apps to an absolute minimum. I’ve also customized my workflow to rely more on lightweight, browser-based tools like Notion, Slack (web version), and Google Docs, instead of resource-heavy apps.
My top power-saving tip? Reduce screen brightness more than you think you need to. Most of us overestimate how much brightness we need indoors. I keep my brightness at around 30% unless I’m in direct sunlight. Combine that with a minimalist tab strategy (no more than five tabs at a time, ever), and it makes a major difference.
Also, turning off Bluetooth and disabling unused extensions in Chrome can stretch your battery far more than you might expect. These little habits, once they’re baked into your daily use, give you consistent gains.
As a founder, I try to optimize everything—from our campaigns to our tech stack—and it turns out, you can apply that same thinking to how you use your laptop. Battery life becomes less about constraints and more about how intentional you are with your digital habits.
Max Shak, Founder/CEO, nerDigital
Edge Browser Extends MacBook Air Battery By Hours
The battery challenge really hit me during a cross-country flight when I needed to finish some urgent ShipTheDeal work. I switched to Edge browser instead of Chrome and enabled its efficiency mode, which surprisingly got me an extra 2 hours of work time on my MacBook Air M1. After lots of trial and error, I found that using web versions of apps instead of desktop ones (especially for Slack and Discord) significantly reduces battery drain while still keeping me connected.
Cyrus Partow, CEO, ShipTheDeal
ThinkPad Reaches 9 Hours With Tab Management
I typically get around 9 hours from my Lenovo ThinkPad by using the Windows battery saver mode and keeping my tabs under control with a tab manager. Working with remote SEO teams all day, I’ve learned that using web-based tools instead of desktop applications saves significant battery life and keeps my laptop running longer.
Joe Davies, CEO, FATJOE
Dell XPS 13 Achieves 14-Hour Flight With Performance Tiers
I achieved 14 hours of battery life on my Dell XPS 13 during a cross-country flight while working on game design, code reviews, and emails.
My strategy uses performance tiers—high performance only for active coding/testing, balanced for business tasks, and power saver for meetings. This prevents unnecessary CPU spikes. My top tip is disabling hardware acceleration in browsers when not needed. Web-based game testing kills batteries, but turning off GPU acceleration for simple tasks extends life by 3-4 hours. I also use 40% screen brightness and dark mode everywhere—small optimizations compound over long work sessions.
Marin Cristian-Ovidiu, CEO, Online Games
Dell XPS 13 Reaches 11 Hours Through Power Settings
I recently got almost 11 hours from my Dell XPS 13 by tweaking the power settings and keeping screen brightness at 40%. I’ve found that disabling background apps like Dropbox and using airplane mode when I don’t need internet has made the biggest difference in extending battery life during long workdays.
Pavel Sher, CEO, FuseBase
Ultrabook Delivers 12-Hour Workday With Simple Adjustments
My ultrabook has served me an incredible battery life of 12 hours in a working day. I take care of closing unnecessary programs and of the power-saving mode so as to maximize my usage. The best power-saving strategy that I can apply often would be to reduce the screen brightness as well as turn off Wi-Fi, in the case when it is idle. This has made it possible for me to significantly increase my battery life whenever using my computer in carrying out significant tasks. Therefore, it is always good to keep in mind whatever you are using and make little modifications that will lead to saving much power at the end.
Evan Tunis, President, Florida Healthcare Insurance
Ultrabook Lasts 12 Hours Through Smart Power Management
My ultrabook has had the best battery life of about 10-12 hours in a working day. I ensure that I make the most out of it by closing the application/tabs I am not using to keep the screen brightness to the minimum and enable the power-saving mode. I especially enjoy the suggestion to disable Wi-Fi or Bluetooth when it is not needed because they can burn the battery in a relatively short period. Saving of some extra juice can also be done by use of cooling pad to keep your laptop off overheating. Ultimately, having even a vague idea of what is draining and a small bit of fiddling with your settings, can go an extra mile toward surviving the day without having to monitor your battery.
Michael Yerardi, Property Specialist, Turning Point Home Buyers
ThinkPad Delivers 11 Hours Between Global Offices
Working between UK and Singapore offices, I regularly get 11 hours from my ThinkPad by using airplane mode during focused work sessions and limiting background processes. My best discovery was that using NetSuite’s mobile app instead of the browser version during client demos cuts battery drain in half, which really helps during long consulting days.
Karl Threadgold, Managing Director, Threadgold Consulting
Dell XPS Maintains 10-Hour Battery For Developers
I consistently get 9-10 hours from my Dell XPS while coding and running multiple development environments by using Windows’ built-in battery saver and dimming my screen to 40%. My game-changing tip is using dark mode in all my dev tools and browsers – it saved me nearly 2 hours of battery life when working on Tevello’s Shopify integrations.
Or Moshe, Founder and Developer, Tevello
Browser-Based Stack Powers 13-Hour Ultrabook Performance
I think it was just over 13 hours. The key is to run everything through a browser-based stack, while capping screen brightness at 55%, turning off background apps and using dark mode across the board.
My top power-saving tip is: disable Bluetooth and auto-sync features when you don’t need them. They are effective, especially during travel or long coffee sessions.
Tom Molnar, Business Owner | Operations Manager, Fit Design
One-Window Strategy Extends Ultrabook To 13 Hours
Occasionally, I was able to make my ultrabook battery last more than 13 hours during a weekday of writing up reports, sending email campaigns, and two virtual conferences. The secret was that only one window of the browser was used and the screen brightness was set below 40 percent and the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connections were disabled when they were not in use. Offline applications also came in handy wherever I could use them and I did not give in to the urge of listening to music in the background.
The greatest change was brought about by a little habit one app at a time-closing the apps that I was not in the process of using. Background applications such as slack, spotify and even auto-synced cloud storage will drain your battery without giving anything back to you when you are focused on the task. By keeping it low, not only did it save the battery life but also allowed me to be more present in what I had to actually do.
Belle Florendo, Marketing coordinator, RGV Direct Care
