Arm laptops vs traditional laptops

[zachthebomb13]

I have an older HP Ultrabook, maybe 2012ish. It's showing it's age, and I'm going to be in the market of a new laptop this Summer. My main use this Summer will be for military training. Application wise, I'm going to be using Office 365, Chrome, and a basic video editor. The most important thing for me is portability (not being heavy) and excellent battery life, as well as reliability.

So, when Microsoft recently announced their new laptops working on the Snapdragon 835, I thought it'd be a perfect fit. But, I'm starting to have second thoughts. Are there Intel machines out there that have impeccable battery life, and that may run better because they are more native than the Arm machines?

My budget is probably around $800.

 

[DOGC_Kyle]

Intel laptops tend to only have incredible battery life with connected standby (always connected to network) disabled while on battery. That being said, they can still have the same "instant on" (which is the main benefit IMO of systems supporting connected standby). I wouldn't get a laptop without the instant on, that's how good it is. It's so much faster than any other PC.

I've been using an HP EliteBook 1020 x360 (and before that, an EliteBook Folio, the predecessor). As long as it wasn't connecting to the network while the screen was off (the default setting keeps it connected 24/7), the battery life was among the best I've seen on a laptop.
I use it a couple hours a day (maybe 5-6 hours, of web browsing in Edge, Skype, VS Code), and I charge it every other day (it always stays unplugged at night). 4K display, Brighter brightness, Wi-Fi (no cellular), NFC on, BT on, and it's got an i7-7600U.

10-12 hours use + 20 hours standby, on a full charge, would be my estimate.
Could probably push further without the 4K display (which I'm assuming sucks a lot of power compared to FHD), lowered brightness, NFC off, although it's fine for me right now. I doubt it could reach the advertised battery life (20 hours use + 1000 hours standby) of the ARM systems though.

I do love having the i7 though. On battery, the fans shut off, the processor stays cool, and the battery lasts long. Plugged in, the processor boosts to a higher speed, and you've got a system that can do some 4K gaming, Halo Wars, Minecraft, Portal 2, all ran fine at native 4K resolution, medium settings, roughly 30fps. Modern Intel processors are incredible for their flexibility.

The ARM wouldn't give you that flexibility, but if you're not using a ton of apps then it might not matter to you. If you really need to get 8 hours a day, two days without charging, then the Intel systems might not quite get you there.

 

[covfefe]

You insist on using Chrome so not much point in using a WOA device. If you primarily use natively compiled code, such as Edge in this case, then sure.