HP says its EliteBook 6930p offers a full day and night of battery life on a single charge.

The computer maker said its HP EliteBook 6930p, on sale later this month, could run for 24 hours off a single charge, provided it was fitted out with a separately purchased "ultra capacity battery".

The move would see HP overtake arch-rival Dell in the battery-life stakes. Dell recently launched the Latitude E series, which it says can achieve 19 hours of battery life.

IDC's market share figures for the second quarter of this year show HP is trouncing Dell in the laptop market. HP has 21 per cent of the market ahead of Toshiba (17.5 per cent), Acer (17.3 per cent) and Dell (15 per cent).