There’s nothing more frustrating than hearing the familiar ding of a dying battery. This scenario always seems to happen when there’s zero outlets in sight. Bummer, man.  Nowadays, laptops are lasting longer than ever thanks to the energy-efficient chips from Intel and Qualcomm. Many laptops we’ve tested here at PCWorld are pushing well past the 20 hour mark, a far cry from the days when eight to 10 hours was the norm.  So, if marathon battery life is a top priority of yours, you’ve come to the right spot. We’ve personally tested over 70 laptops so far this year (still counting!), over 120 last year, and many more over the past decade. I can point you to the ones that have the best battery life. Here are the five laptops we tested with the longest battery life. How PCWorld tests battery life: When it comes to testing battery life for laptops, we loop a 4K file of a short film on screen until the laptop dies. We set the brightness level to 250 to 260 nits, unplug all USB drives, disable Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and plug in a pair of earbuds. We run this test twice per laptop to ensure consistent results. 1. HP OmniBook 5 14 (25 hours) Pros Enjoyable keyboard Attractive 1200p OLED display Incredible battery life Ships with small GaN charger Cons Though attractive, build quality doesn’t stand out Connectivity is limited So-so performance Best Prices Today: Retailer Price $579.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket The HP OmniBook 5 14 is the new king of the castle as far as battery life goes–it’s currently PCWorld’s Best Battery Life pick, and for good reason. In our battery test, which you can read more about here, it lasted an astonishing 25 hours on a single charge. That’s a jaw-dropping result for any Windows laptop, especially one that costs under $1,000. So, where does this efficiency stem from? It comes from the Snapdragon X Plus X1P-42-100 processor that’s nestled inside.  It’s a lower-tier chip that trades raw performance for endurance. It’s not a slow machine by any means, but if you’re a power user, you may need to look elsewhere. For the day-to-day stuff, though? Totally fine. The 14-inch 1920×1200 OLED display, though it delivers good colors and contrast, tops out at just 300 nits in terms of brightness. In other words, it’s not a huge power draw. The keyboard feels snappy and comfortable, too, which is nice for long typing sessions. 2. Asus ZenBook A14 (24 hours) Pros Incredibly lightweight Ceraluminum is impressive Mind-blowing battery life Cons A $600 laptop CPU in a $1,200 machine Seriously, this is the slowest Snapdragon X chip Ceraluminum feels almost plasticky and hollow Best Prices Today: Retailer Price Check Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket The Asus ZenBook A14 is one of those laptops that’s so light it might just cloud off into the clouds if you’re not careful. It weighs just two pounds and yet it somehow manages to last 24 hours on a single charge. That’s just plain bananas! This is probably because of its 70Wh battery (this is on the bigger end for a portable laptop) and the entry-level Snapdragon X processor, which prioritizes efficiency over pure speed.  It’s fine for things like browsing the web and writing emails, but it’s not built for heavy-duty apps, so if you’re a multitasker at heart… this might not be the machine for you. That said, if your priority is to stay unplugged for as long as possible, the ZenBook A14 will definitely deliver on that front. Read our full Asus ZenBook A14 review 3. Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 (24 hours) Pros Over 24 hours of battery life (in our standard test) Solid build quality Snappy desktop performance 2-in-1 experience with pen Cons On the expensive side Lunar Lake’s low multithreaded performance is an issue for some workflows Best Prices Today: Retailer Price Check Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 is a business powerhouse with loads of endurance (despite the smaller 57Wh battery sitting inside of it). This 14-inch laptop managed 24 hours in our playback video test thanks to its Intel Lunar Lake CPU and lower-power display. You could unplug it for a full day (or more!) without worrying, as long as you keep the brightness turned down some.  Battery life aside, it’s a classic ThinkPad machine through and through. You’ve got a sturdy metal chassis, an excellent keyboard with the iconic red TrackPoint, and an included pen. The 1920×1200 IPS display also hits 500 nits of brightness, and performance is snappy for productivity and some light multitasking, though it may slow down a bit when running super-heavy workloads. Read our full Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 Gen 10 Aura Edition review 4. Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition (23 hours) Pros Long battery life (almost 24 hours in our test) Beautiful OLED screen Great webcam Cons Lunar Lake’s multithreaded performance isn’t ideal for some workloads Glossy screen can be difficult to read in harsh lighting conditions A little expensive Best Prices Today: Retailer Price $1,650 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket The Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition is a good-looking laptop (it’s wrapped in aluminum!) that just keeps on going and going–and it’s no wonder it took home PCWorld’s Best Overall title this year. It’s another 14-inch convertible that runs on an Intel Lunar Lake chip (Intel Core Ultra 7 258V to be exact) and between that and its 75Wh battery, it pushed out 23.5 hours of video playback. That’s not bad for something that looks so good! It’s like the posh sibling to the more straight-laced ThinkPad X1 2-in-1, swapping the lower resolution display of the former for a sharper 2880×1800 OLED touchscreen. You’re also getting 32GB of RAM and 1TB of SSD, both generous amounts. The Intel Arc graphics can handle some lightweight creative apps, too.   23.5 hours of battery life is a phenomenal result, there’s no doubt about that, but it’s a tiny bit shorter than others on this list. That’s probably because of the Yoga’s higher resolution display, which eats up more of the battery life. Read our full Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 review 5. HP EliteBook X G1i (21 hours) Pros Quiet operation Strong anti-glare display Great battery life Clean, lightweight design Charging on both sides Cons Middling specs and performance for the price Nebulous pricing Mics pick up too much Best Prices Today: Retailer Price Check Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Stamina is the name of the game here and the HP EliteBook X G1i is no different in that regard. With its Intel Lunar Lake processor and 68Wh battery, it managed nearly 21 hours in our tests, which is impressive for a machine that’s built for the business crowd.  The 1920×1200 anti-glare display isn’t the most beautiful thing we’ve ever laid our eyes upon, but it’s bright and sharp and, most importantly, easy to read under fluorescent lights. The keyboard and trackpad also feel good, and the magnesium chassis keeps it pretty light at 2.7 pounds. The facial recognition stuff is pretty great, too. It doesn’t match the Yoga 9i’s 23.5-hour result nor does it dethrone the battery life champion up top (aka the OmniBook 5 14), but the EliteBook X G1 rightfully earns its place here because it’s reliable and that’s what really matters most.  Read our full HP EliteBook X G1i review Read...

Matthew Roskruge (Te Atiawa, Ngati Tama), Professor of Economics at Massey Business School and the Associate Dean Maori, says Labour`s proposed capital gains tax makes sense in principle but does little to address deeper wealth inequality. Read...

Datacom`s AI-powered Business Analysis Accelerator wins IIBA Innovation of the Year Award, cutting documentation time by over half for major ANZ clients. Read...

The chair of New Zealand`s Ministerial Advisory Group on transnational and serious organised crime says `business as usual` would mean `we will continue to go backwards`. Read...

The founder of a startup business that helps employers and parents with parental leave is asking whether it`s fair that parents are taxed as individuals. Read...

Clients of an employment disputes resolution business question how the founder, who has fraud convictions, was able to set it up using a different name. Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Thunderbolt 5 SSD option RGB options from the busy to ambient Tightly integrated within the Razer ecosystem Clean look with rear-mounted ports Active cooling fan Cons Competition offers the same for about $100 less Power delivery is an issue SSD is currently stuck inside the dock Storage test speeds can be slower than the competition Our Verdict Razer’s Thunderbolt 5 Dock Chroma provides serviceable functionality with Razer’s trademark RGB bling. But this dock commands a sizeable premium, and several problems encourage you to look elsewhere. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Razer Thunderbolt 5 Dock Chroma Retailer Price $399.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Best Prices Today: Check today’s prices Does Razer’s Thunderbolt 5 Dock Chroma provide the same fun RGB sparkle as its predecessor? It does indeed. But serious, cutthroat competition delivers the basics for much less–and some fairly severe issues should give you pause. Razer Thunderbolt 5 Dock Chroma: Configurations Razer’s Thunderbolt 5 Dock ships in two variants: the RGB-equipped “Chroma” version and the “Mercury” option. The Mercury option is plain white and (at press time) costs $389.99 — basically, it’s an aesthetic difference for those who want more vanilla setups. Razer representatives assured me that there would be no functional difference between the two. The only difference is the lack of RGB lighting. Razer Thunderbolt 5 Dock Chroma: Design, ports, installation process Razer’s Thunderbolt 5 dock is an 11-in-1 dock, consisting of three Thunderbolt 5 outputs and one Thunderbolt 5 connection to your laptop. Like others in this Thunderbolt 5 dock generation, Razer has chosen to allow you to buy the necessary cables to connect them to external displays. Depending upon your monitor, you’ll need either USB-C (Thunderbolt) cables capable of the 80Gbps/120Gbps connection that Thunderbolt 5 allows, or else buy the high-speed cables that terminate in a DisplayPort or HDMI connector. (The Thunderbolt 5 connections support DisplayPort 2.1.) Beyond the Thunderbolt 5 ports, the dock includes two 10Gbps USB-C ports, one 10Gbps USB-A port, Gigabit Ethernet, a 3.5mm headphone jack, plus a UHS-II SD slot on the side. A 0.8 meter (31-inch) Thunderbolt 5 cable connects to your laptop. If you’re looking for a slick addition to your PC battlestation, Razer’s Thunderbolt 5 dock will serve. But with some severe faults, most shoppers should look for alternatives. If you’re someone who does like a bit of color on your desktop, however, the Thunderbolt 5 Dock Chroma is an ideal choice. Razer’s dock includes an RGB strip that runs along the underside of the dock, accenting all surfaces except the top and the rear ports. That’s a bit ironic since the rear ports (especially the Thunderbolt 5 connections) are embossed with black-on-black labels, so that I really had to squint (and use a small flashlight) to make out which ports were which. While Microsoft has promised that you’ll be able to manage your PC’s RGB lighting using its Windows 11 Settings, Razer’s Blade 18 laptop — my test bed — includes an app called Synapse which controls the lighting on the Blade as well as peripherals like the Thunderbolt 5 Dock Chroma. Without any RGB, the Razer Thunderbolt 5 Dock Chroma is… boring?Mark Hachman / Foundry The Synapse app is powerful and versatile, and it allows me to configure the dock’s RGB settings from a “Starlight” twinkle to a “Breathing” pulse to waves of color to just a static glow. The last option is the least distracting. Incidentally, Razer also patched out the major RGB vulnerability that exists in most RGB and fan drivers. Otherwise, the Razer Thunderbolt 5 dock is an upgrade over the similar Thunderbolt 4 Dock Chroma, a very good dock priced at $329.99 at press time. Unless you wish to future-proof your desktop, you’re better off buying the older TB4 dock to save a bit of money while still keeping that RGB rizz, as the kids say. A Thunderbolt 5 dock will work with a PC with only Thunderbolt 4 docking ports, but you’ll lose out on the higher-speed Thunderbolt 5 interface that allows for three 4K displays at 144Hz, eGPU capabilities, and more. On the other hand, if you don’t have such a setup, an older TB4 dock is still an option. In addition to the functional differences between the two, however, the two docks are designed differently. The older Thunderbolt 4 dock includes ports on the front and back, while Razer’s designers chose to engineer its latest dock with every single port (save the SD slot) on the rear of the dock. It makes for a nice clean look, if that’s your thing. Otherwise, the dock is made out of anodized aluminum, giving it a bit of a plasticky feel. All told, the dock measures 8.1 x 3.3 by 1.2 inches and weighs 1.15 pounds. The rear of the Razer Thunderbolt 5 Dock Chroma is where the action is: USB-A ports, a USB-C port, the four Thunderbolt 5 ports, and the gigabit Ethernet port as well.Mark Hachman / Foundry There are no “dedicated” charging ports, though the Thunderbolt port supplies 15W (or an actual load of 13.7W, according to my power meter). Dock makers used to advertise a port or two as a “charging port.” That’s been quietly dropped as a feature from most dock makers as the power input that modern smartphones require to fast charge has hit 40W and above. You will see small venting on the short sides, however, since Razer also included an active fan that can kick on under load. Don’t expect to hear it while tapping away on an office document, however. The very quiet fan only turns on during heavier workloads and the dock remained quite cool throughout. I didn’t notice any issues with any of the ports, the SD card slot, or the headphone jack. On one side of the Razer Thunderbolt 5 Dock Chroma is the SD card slot and venting. The dock has an active fan that you’ll barely notice.Mark Hachman / Foundry Razer’s dock also ships with an M.2 SSD slot, which doesn’t come populated with an SSD like the Sonnet Echo 13. That allows you to add storage directly to the dock rather than use an external SSD. (Is this necessary? I’ll address this in the performance section, below.) Adding an SSD could hardly be simpler. Underneath the dock is a plastic cover, which pops off easily but otherwise keeps the SSD secure and apparently free from dust. Attaching the SSD takes a second or two simply to slide into the connector sleeve. You might expect a screw to secure it in place. Instead, the SSD includes a circular notch, which fits over a small cylinder with a small latching mechanism, like the hands of a clock. Simply turn the cylinder a half turn or so to lock the SSD in place. You’ll then need to use the Windows disk management system to format the SSD, which also takes a few seconds. Mark Hachman / Foundry My only problem is that after I successfully inserted the SSD, re-latched the cover, tested it, and attempted to remove the cover for a photo… I couldn’t. Right now, my test SSD is stuck inside Razer’s dock until I force it open or it manages to wiggle free. Big problem! Is the Razer Thunderbolt 5 Dock Chroma one of the best Thunderbolt docks? Let’s find out. Razer Thunderbolt 5 Dock Chroma: Power issues Razer’s Thunderbolt 5 Dock Chroma performed adequately, although not in one scenario. Razer’s Thunderbolt 5 Dock Chroma demonstrated instability within minutes of connecting it to my test PC, the Razer-manufactured Blade 18. I could excuse some flickering when the dock was first plugged in, but it spontaneously disconnected the displays before reconnecting them a short time later. Within a few minutes, Razer’s dock had disconnected again. It continued to show signs of instability. A notification from the laptop (not the dock) when on battery. In this case, there was an excuse: I was accidentally powering the laptop on battery power. The dock supplies only 140W of power to the laptop, not the full rated 240W that the Thunderbolt 5 spec allows for. That’s not unusual, as the other Thunderbolt 5 docks I’ve tested only supported 140W as well. I don’t usually test a dock’s performance on battery power, but it was worth noting that a typical Thunderbolt 4 dock supplies enough power (60 to 90W, on average) to satisfy the needs of the typical business notebook with a Thunderbolt 4 port. Thunderbolt 5 is typically confined to gaming laptops, which can demand up to 400W under load. I didn’t initially mark down the Razer Thunderbolt 5 Dock Chroma because of this, as it’s an unusual scenario. The question, however, is whether the dock displayed any instability while the laptop was connected to power. It did not, but there was a lot of display “panic” when the laptop and dock resumed from sleep: docks turning on and off for several seconds when the laptop resumed from sleep. I saw more of this behavior than on other Thunderbolt 5 docks I’ve tested on the same laptop. Otherwise, the dock’s stability earned a passing grade but that’s all. I’m more concerned about the power delivery to the laptop. Under normal tests, the Razer dock transferred about 85W to the Razer laptop — nothing wrong there. But then I decided to play a PC game to see how much the laptop would draw from the dock. I unplugged the laptop from its power cable and used the dock itself as its only power source. My power meter instantly showed that the power supplied dropped to zero, occasionally spiking to 85W or so again, then dropping off to zero for seconds at a time. A second battery meter reported similar results. The laptop never received 140W, however, which is what the dock is rated for. Windows, of course, complained about a lack of available power. I recorded what I saw and supplied it to Razer, which didn’t deliver an explanation by press time, more than ten days after we contacted them for comment. Razer Thunderbolt 5 Dock Chroma: Performance The dock’s performance was a little slower than its competition. The streaming performance was perfectly fine; the dock dropped 11 frames on one display and 15 frames (out of 10,000) on the other display while streaming a pair of 4K videos at 60Hz. Again, this metric was quite good. Razer’s Synapse app controls the RGB lighting of the Razer Thunderbolt 5 Dock Chroma, which has multiple effects including strobing and “starlight” twinkles. As you can see, more than one color can be displayed at any one time.Mark Hachman / Foundry When transferring data via an attached Thunderbolt 5 SSD, the Razer Thunderbolt 5 Dock Chroma and the SSD reported 396.5MB/s under the PCMark storage test, for a score of 2,654. That’s less than the Sonnet Echo 13 (436MB/s) or the Plugable TBT-UDT3 (437MB/s). While streaming in the background, the performance dropped to 365.1MB/s, versus 402MB/s for the Plugable dock. That’s probably not something that you’ll feel in real-world applications, but it’s still a tad slower. Copying a basket of more than 30GB of video and other files from the SSD through the dock to the desktop took 18.6 seconds, or 19.3 seconds while streaming. Again, that’s about two seconds slower than the competition. I also tested the dock using a 2TB Crucial P310, a PCIe 4 SSD. Here the dock showed its worth: 423.08MB/s from the internal SSD using PCMark’s tests, with a slight drop to 415.09 MB/s while streaming. The folder copy completed in a blistering 16.08 seconds, or 18 seconds while streaming. The basic PCMark score increased just 7 percent from using an external PCIe 5 SSD to a slightly slower (and cheaper) PCIe 4 M.2 SSD. By comparison, that’s much faster than Sonnet’s internal SSD, which delivered data at 279.8MB/s, a 51 percent increase. Clearly, the interface as well as the speed of the SSD matters, but that’s performance to think about, too. For gamers, a high-speed external SSD makes a difference, and it’s a positive mark for Razer’s dock. Razer Thunderbolt 5 Dock Chroma: Conclusion I wouldn’t, and that’s not entirely Razer’s fault. Most of it is, however. In the middle of this review, Intel — whose chips power about 80 percent of the laptop market — revealed that its 2026 laptop platform, the Core Ultra Series 3 or “Panther Lake” — will only support Thunderbolt 4 natively, or Thunderbolt 5 with the addition of a separate, discrete chip. That tells me that most 2026 laptops will support Thunderbolt 4 instead, not 5. That’s a strike against this dock. Thunderbolt 5, then, will be reserved for gaming laptops. But Razer markets itself as “for gamers.” If that’s the case, I expect the dock would work acceptably under a gaming scenario, which it didn’t. Somewhere along the line — between the combination of Razer’s test laptop and its dock — the power delivery didn’t, well, deliver. I did like this dock under normal operation. It performed perfectly acceptably, and aside from clearer labels for the ports, was a solid dock. Adding an M.2 slot is a nice touch… but if you can’t get the SSD free for a future upgrade, what good is it? With all that said, I would consider alternatives. Plugable’s 11-in-1 Thunderbolt 5 (TBT-UDT3) docking station is functionally identical to Razer’s dock (again, without RGB), is priced $100 less, and runs a bit faster. We’ve reviewed a handful of Thunderbolt 5 docks as part of our recommendations for the best Thunderbolt docks, and our roundup is a good place to start. I thought Razer’s Thunderbolt 4 Dock Chroma was surprisingly good! But this Thunderbolt 5 update falls short between its power instability, high price, and unclear labeling. Read...

TL;DR: Launch a website with 75% off Hostinger Business Website Builder’s 1-year subscription. If you’ve always wanted your own website for your portfolio or online store but didn’t even know where to start, you were meant to see this. Hostinger uses AI to do all of the hard work, so you can just describe what you want and get a polished, secure site that’s ready to go live. Hostinger: Build, customize, and launch with AI This isn’t your average drag-and-drop builder. Hostinger’s AI suite can generate full websites, product descriptions, and even logos in seconds. You can tweak every detail manually, but if you’d rather let the robots work, it’ll design up to 50 sites, complete with responsive layouts and smart grid alignment so your pages always look crisp. For sellers, the AI Store Builder can upload and auto-describe up to 600 products, handle 100+ payment options, and charge zero transaction fees. Built-in SEO and analytics tools integrate with Google Ads, Meta Pixel, and Hotjar, giving you real data to improve conversions. Security and speed are baked in. Each site gets unlimited SSL, reliable hosting with strong uptime, and a free domain for your first year. You’ll even have 24/7 live chat support that responds in under three minutes. Get one year of Hostinger Business Website Builder for $49.99 (MSRP $207.94). Hostinger Business Website Builder: 1-Yr SubscriptionSee Deal StackSocial prices subject to change. Read...

ANZ`s monthly sentiment survey showed the headline measure rising to a net 58 percent confidence, the best result since February. Read...

QSIC appoints Jaclyn Shaw as Retail Media Partnerships Lead for APAC amid rising demand for in-store retail media and business expansion in the region. Read...