Intel's Arrow Lake CPUs are here, but do they offer a significant battery life upgrade over last year's Intel processors? We spent over 100 hours testing the first two Intel Arrow Lake systems to reach our labs to find out.
While you shouldn't really be looking to upgrade from a Lunar Lake laptop yet (the first of them launched in late 2023), you may be wondering if it's worth picking up a brand-new Arrow Lake laptop or perusing our best laptop deals for a discounted Lunar Lake system. The MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo and Asus Zenbook Duo are the first Arrow Lake laptops to come through our labs, so we looked thoroughly at how they hold up on battery life — and whether they're worth your money.
While it's too soon to say if either of these laptops will make the cut for our best laptops of the year, they do paint an interesting picture of the overall performance and efficiency we can expect from Arrow Lake, especially when compared to last year's Meteor Lake chips.
How does Intel Arrow Lake battery life compare to Meteor Lake?
Arrow Lake, the latest generation of Intel processors, is finally here. In a recent interview with Laptop Mag, Intel's Robert Hallock explained that, "A lot of time this year was spent on battery life," hinting that we could see some strong battery life test results from Arrow Lake laptops.
Laptop Mag's lab testing team has just finished putting our first two Arrow Lake laptops through the paces in our intensive battery life test. So, we can finally see whether battery life actually is better on Arrow Lake and how it compares to last year's Meteor Lake laptops.
The results aren't as black-and-white as one might expect:
| Header Cell - Column 0 | MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo (2025) | Asus Zenbook Duo (2025) | MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo (2024) | Asus Zenbook Duo (2024) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Battery life (hours, minutes) | 15:20 | 8:39 (single screen), 6:05 (duo screen) | 13:04 | 10:34 (single screen), 8:22 (duo screen) |
| Processor | Intel Core Ultra 9 285H | Intel Core Ultra 9 285H | Intel Core Ultra 7 155H | Intel Core Ultra 7 155H |
The good news is that the 2025 Arrow Lake version of the MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo lasted significantly longer than its Meteor Lake predecessor in our tests. The 2025 model survived for 15 hours and 20 minutes, over 2 hours longer than last year's model.
That's even more impressive considering that the Arrow Lake model also improved the Geekbench 6 multicore score by 31% and single-core performance by 19%, meaning dramatically better performance for most tasks. That bump is partly attributable to our 2025 review model featuring an Intel Core Ultra 9 285H compared to a weaker Core Ultra 7 155H in our 2024 review unit. However, it's clear the 2025 Prestige 16 AI Evo will win on both fronts, even at the same configuration.
However, things get a little more interesting when we look at the Asus Zenbook Duo. Considering this laptop has to power a unique dual-screen design, I wasn't expecting it to last as long as the MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo. However, I also wasn't expecting to see worse battery life than last year's model.
The Arrow Lake Zenbook Duo came in behind the Meteor Lake Zenbook Duo in both the single-screen and dual-screen battery life tests. In fact, the 2024 model lasted almost as long in dual-screen mode as the 2025 model lasted in single-screen mode. That's a dip of about 2 hours in the single-screen battery test between the 2024 and 2025 models. The Arrow Lake Zenbook Duo lasted just 6 hours and 5 minutes in dual-screen mode.
One factor to consider is that the 2025 model uses a more powerful Core Ultra 9 chip, while the 2024 model we tested was equipped with a Core Ultra 7 chip. So, it's possible the more powerful processor is simply slurping up battery life faster. However, a two-hour drop is significant, particularly if you're looking to upgrade to a Zenbook Duo.
We'll unpack all the details on the new versions of the MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo and the Asus Zenbook Duo in our full reviews, so stay tuned for a more in-depth look at how they performed in our tests.
More from Laptop Mag
- “Not everybody has a killer app for AI yet”: Intel’s Robert Hallock opens the company playbook on AI, NPUs, and more
- "We were not going to prevail in that lawsuit": Arm admits its legal feud with Qualcomm was a lost cause
- MacBooks "without any compromises": Apple's Doug Brooks says performance and battery life dominance will continue as M5 rumors emerge
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
