HP reclaims laptop battery life crown from Lenovo

The caveat is that buyers of the ultraportable EliteBook 2540p must opt for a slower, lower-voltage Core i7-640LM processor and a pricier 9-cell Lithium-Ion battery ($39 more than the 6-cell battery) to achieve that runtime, said an HP spokeswoman. Similarly, the runtimes for both the Lenovo and HP laptop batteries are only achievable using batteries warranted for one year of usage. Those matched HP, which last year introduced its Long-Life batteries, built by Boston Power Inc., that are also guaranteed to hold their charge for 3 years. The tradeoff is that long-life Lithium-Ion batteries, while more durable, can't offer the same high capacity/runtime out of the box as the largest Lithium-Ion batteries.