Samsung says its Galaxy Book6 Ultra will get “up to 30 hours” of battery life due to Intel’s Panther Lake hardware. But that’s a reasonably daring declare.
Laptop battery life is slippery, in spite of everything. Promises from producers that push above 24 hours of battery life have gotten more and more untethered from real-world laptop utilization. If you have been to make use of the Galaxy Book6 Ultra, you’d attain nowhere close to that.
I examined it out myself and it didn’t get all the way there. But I’m nonetheless impressed by Core Ultra Series 3 {hardware}! Despite falling in need of the declare, this laptop computer has wonderful battery life for this degree of efficiency and an Nvidia RTX GPU. Here’s why that’s thrilling.
No, you’re not getting 30 hours
I ran PCWorld’s normal laptop battery life rundown test on Samsung’s Galaxy Book6 Ultra with an Intel Core Ultra 7 356H. I put the laptop computer into airplane mode, set the display to round 250 nits of brightness, plug in some earbuds, and play a 4K copy of Tears of Steel on loop. Then, I see how lengthy it runs earlier than the laptop computer suspends itself. I run this no less than twice to make sure the outcomes are constant.
On common, the Galaxy Book6 Ultra lasted 1,543 minutes (about 25.7 hours). That’s darn spectacular, particularly for a high-performance x86 machine with Nvidia RTX graphics {hardware}. But it’s additionally nowhere close to the said “up to 30 hours” of battery life.
A whole lot of factors can affect a laptop’s battery life, however the chart beneath exhibits consultant examples throughout Intel Meteor Lake, Arrow Lake, Lunar Lake, and Panther Lake laptops. (This one’s battery life really exceeds Qualcomm’s unique Snapdragon X {hardware}!)
Chris Hoffman / Foundry
Compared to different laptop computer CPUs, it’s an enormous leap. This Panther Lake laptop computer runs cool and quiet, sipping energy whenever you’re simply on the desktop. It’s like Lunar Lake earlier than it, besides with stronger efficiency and higher energy effectivity, all on the normal x86 platform for max software program compatibility. It’s nice! But is it 30 hours? No.
Our battery life rundown check offers us a great way to check battery life between laptops. One that is available in at 25 hours gained’t get you 25 hours of real-world use, nevertheless it’ll actually final for much longer than one which is available in at 14 hours. That’s how these battery life benchmarks needs to be used: as a comparability between machines. That’s all.
Psst. If you need to see which laptops blew away the competitors, see our roundup of the laptops we tested with longest battery life.
What to anticipate with real-world utilization
Laptop battery life benchmarks have gotten more and more untethered from real-world laptop utilization. In actual life, nobody is getting anyplace close to 30 hours of utilization but.
But how a lot below 30 hours will you personally get? Well, that will depend on your workflow, the apps you utilize, and the way excessive you set your display brightness. A laptop computer that benchmarks at 24 to 30 hours could have extra like 9 to 15 hours of precise battery life. It varies so much relying on the way you really use your laptop.
You can see this in motion on any Windows PC. Just mouse over the battery icon on the Windows taskbar, which provides you an “estimated time remaining” primarily based on utilization. This estimate fluctuates:
Chris Hoffman / Foundry
That’s why the Samsung Galaxy Book6 Ultra’s real-world numbers are nonetheless spectacular to me. With a laptop computer like this, I don’t expertise “battery life anxiety.” It’s a full workday—after which some—away from an outlet. That’s an enormous distinction from most Intel-powered laptops I’ve used. It’s nice solely plugging in to cost as soon as per day! And we’re of the opinion that long-battery-life laptops can save you serious cash.
Battery life anxiousness is even much less related now that PC producers have sped up charging. Samsung guarantees “super-fast charging” on the Galaxy Book6 Ultra, restoring as much as 63% of battery life in 30 minutes of charging. This laptop computer positively charged in a short time.
So, don’t anticipate 30 hours, however anticipate good outcomes nonetheless. If you need to get anyplace near Samsung’s 30-hour determine, you’d should set Windows 11’s energy plan to “Best Power Efficiency” as a substitute of “Balanced,” successfully buying and selling efficiency for battery life. You’ll even have to scale back the laptop computer’s display brightness as a lot as potential, and also you’ll should keep away from doing something moreover watching a neighborhood video file on loop. (Of course, that’s not how individuals use PCs!)
Panther Lake continues to be spectacular
Forget the 30 hours of battery life declare. Panther Lake is a big improve even in the event you ignore all of that. Again, Intel’s earlier Lunar Lake additionally delivered spectacular battery life, nevertheless it needed to run underpowered with poor multi-threaded CPU performance to make it occur. Meanwhile, Arrow Lake had severe energy nevertheless it wasn’t power-efficient—it ran hotter and drained batteries sooner.
Chris Hoffman / Foundry
With Core Ultra Series 3, Intel serves up the most effective of each worlds—and it’s a conventional x86 chip, so that you don’t even have to modify to Arm (which comes with its own problems). I’m impressed with how properly Qualcomm Snapdragon X chips work, however software program compatibility continues to be missing, particularly with older {hardware} drivers and PC video games.
The Samsung Galaxy Book6 Ultra is a severe laptop computer with an Nvidia GPU and nonetheless manages to attain over 25 hours of battery life in our laptop computer rundown check. That’s thrilling! And it’s one thing that deserves the hype.
Keep your expectations in examine
Panther Lake delivers. While the Samsung Galaxy Book6 Ultra and its Core Ultra 7 356H didn’t final 30 hours in my testing, I did get many of the option to 26 hours. That’s unbelievable for a robust PC. But, once more, you gained’t get 26 hours in the actual world both. Real-world utilization just isn’t the identical as a sterile check setting.
Here’s what you can anticipate from the Samsung Galaxy Book6 Ultra and different laptops prefer it: comfy all-day battery life, plus the power to recharge it in a short time, with out sacrificing key efficiency. That proper there may be motive to be enthusiastic about Panther Lake.
Further studying: I tested Panther Lake. You’re gonna want it