It is my first laptop that I am able to configure/upgrade. Is the energy efficiency of NVMe drives a thing in laptops? If so which one is recommended for best battery life?
Yes, some nvme drives are more efficient than others. The best one would be the Solidigm P44 pro followed by the Samsung 990 pro.
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But off course that I searched before posting! Just for NVMe topics not for SSD! 
Sorry about that.
It’s hard to say which drive is the most efficient because there are 5 different power states that drives switch between.
Power states 1 and 2 are high performance power states. Power state 3 is the lowest power while still keeping the drive active. Power states 4 & 5 are even lower power, but require the drive to switch to a different power state to start retrieving data (power state 5 is the lowest power, but takes longer to exit that power state).
Desktops typically favor power state 4 while laptops typically favor power state 5 when not doing much, although the OS takes into consideration the performance of those power states when deciding what to use (so a drive with really terrible power state 5 performance will end up rarely using power state 5).
I have seen a lot of people praise the SK Hynix P31 Gold for it’s great efficiency in power state 3, however in power states 4 and 5 plenty of drives are competitive with it.
Personally I am getting the Solidigim P44 Pro (also known as SK Hynix P41 Platinum). It’s efficiency in power state 3 is a bit lackluster, but in other power states it has steller efficiency that should make up for it (it is also an incredibly fast drive).
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How much battery life would a more efficient drive save vs a less efficient drive?
Personally I am getting the Solidigim P44 Pro (also known as SK Hynix P41 Platinum).
This is what I have ordered as well
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This is a complicated question to answer as it really depends on your workload however, given that most of these drives are similar in price, it makes sense to try to select the most efficient drive.
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Now there are two new options:
- Crucial T500. After abandoning their in-house controller, this drive’s efficiency is comparable to Solidigm P44 Pro according to Crucial 2TB T500 SSD Review: The All-Around Gen 4 SSD | Tom's Hardware with the help of the 4-channel Phison E25 controller. Now it’s $102 on Amazon for 2TB.
- Lexar NM790. This DRAM-less drive’s sequential read/write and large file write performance is comparable to many DRAM drives (~7000MB/s) thanks to the 2400MT/s interface of both the controller and the flash (Review: Lexar NM790 SSD Review: A Pleasant Surprise | Tom's Hardware and TechPowerUp ). Among a number of Maxio MAP1602 + YMTC 232L drives, this drive is probably the most reliable because Lexar’s parent company has a high standard for packaging NAND flash and a good relationship with YMTC, similar to Plextor and Toshiba(Kioxia). It is currently $210 on Amazon for the 4TB (single-sided!) version, but the price may dip to ~$180 on Black Friday.
Personally, I would recommend the Lexar NM790 4TB version. It’s among the cheapest 4TB drives. Single Sided, ~4.5W Max power consumption, comparable to DRAM drives with a DRAM-less config.
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As not everyone who uses laptops needs a 2TB+ drive, I am curious which nvme drives both handle heat well and use low amounts of electricity. I don’t care too much about the speed as long as its at least 1500MB per second.
I have a few sabrent rocket nano v2 external ssds as a note. I know they handle heat well. I just don’t know their power consumption.
Those are 2230 size
Solidigm’s or SK Hynix’s drives are the best followed by some Samsung drives.
You’ll have to look at some benchmarks
You can install them however, you should purchase an adaptor to ensure they fit properly in the 2280 slot (assuming you’re referring to the 13).
2230 Size is the smallest form factor of nvme. I wondered if its possible to use 2230 drives in the 13 inch framework.
Also, I wondered if its possible to swap stuff out in the chromebook version.
Have anyone tried looking at Kioxia drives? I wonder how do they fare.