Battery life survey

[wynand32]

I just wanted to get a sense for what kind of battery life everyone is experiencing with your SP4. Here's my experience:

Windows 10 version: 14393
SP4 Core i5/8GB/256GB
Main apps: Edge, Snagit, Nextgen Reader, OneNote, Tweetium, Netflix, Edge video (Vudu, Amazon Prime)
Main use: Browsing, RSS feeds, occasional video, writing in OneNote
Screen at "Recommended" and adaptive brightness
Bluetooth on for Pen
Keyboard cover attached, backlight on

No matter what I do, I can't get more than 4.5-5 hours of battery life. I'm reading elsewhere that some others are getting 7-8 hours in similar conditions (and on the same Windows 10 build). And so, if you want, please report your battery life so we can at least have some anecdotal information.

 

[Aldec]

Open Settings, type Power, there are many options to adjust and save battery life, but at the cost of performance.
Very difficult to give an over all assessment, depending also on your setup and specification.

 

[leeshor]

I have the i5/8/128 and get no less than 5 hours. I don't and likely won't use Edge anytime soon but if you like it, use the registry hack and a host file. I use Firefox with Adblock Plus. I also don't use the adaptive brightness. In my opinion those 2 items alone would make a big difference.

I also have a ton of background tasks/apps disabled.

 

[wynand32]

I have the i5/8/128 and get no less than 5 hours. I don't and likely won't use Edge anytime soon but if you like it, use the registry hack and a host file. I use Firefox with Adblock Plus. I also don't use the adaptive brightness. In my opinion those 2 items alone would make a big difference.

I also have a ton of background tasks/apps disabled.

Okay, thanks. Now, what's this Edge registry hack you speak of?

 

[leeshor]

I know it's on the forum somewhere, just can't pin it down and it's been a while since I used it since I don't use Edge. I'm pretty sure it was posted by jnjroach.

 

[ScottyS]

Okay, thanks. Now, what's this Edge registry hack you speak of?

Yes, it was posted by @jnjroach and it works great!

How to lessen the Edge crashes and make your browsing smoother.

Using the HOST File method of Ad Blocking with a slight change to the Registry and now Edge works very fast with no Display Crashes on HTML5 Video Ads (like this site).

http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.zip

Once you download that file, extract it anywhere and go into the folder and run mvps.bat as administrator. This will install the hosts file mod and now all known ads and malicious sites will be blocked from your PC. However, there is another step to ensure smooth performance with DNS resolution, as large HOSTS files tend to cause issues with the default settings.

To apply this tweak you need to do the following:

1.Open Regedit
2.Navigate to HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\DnsCache\Parameters
3.Create a new DWORD “MaxCacheTtl” and set the value to 1
4.Create a new DWORD “MaxNegativeCacheTtl” and set the value to 0
5.Reboot your PC
Once you have done the above, you will have an effective ad blocking solution that will work across your entire system (including Microsoft’s new browser), and with the added tweak there will not be any performance hit in your browsing experience. Without the added tweak you would notice site loading delays, especially with sites like Hulu etc…

Source: Blocking Ads with Microsoft Edge (Project Spartan) | Chris123NT's Blog


Credit jnjroach

 

[wynand32]

Cool, thanks! And of course thanks @jnjroach.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[hughlle]

I use onenote app, word and a little bit of chrome to download lecture or seminar material. Brightness on darker, power saver on, airplane mode on, and get 7-9 hours. It seems to vary from one insider build to the next.

 

[wynand32]

Wanted to revisit this thread, because I'm now down to about 4 hours of battery life, max. Settings/configuration is about the same as in the OP, and I"m running production Windows 10. I can futz around and maybe squeeze out a few more minutes, but nothing more.

Starting to really think this unit is a lemon. Can't conceive of how I could getting only 4 hours otherwise.

 

[hughlle]

Wanted to revisit this thread, because I'm now down to about 4 hours of battery life, max. Settings/configuration is about the same as in the OP, and I"m running production Windows 10. I can futz around and maybe squeeze out a few more minutes, but nothing more.

Starting to really think this unit is a lemon. Can't conceive of how I could getting only 4 hours otherwise.

Hey wynand32, just to give you a point of comparison, my usage case is still the roughly the same (basically like yourself and the OP), and I'm still getting my 7-9 hours.

 

[wynand32]

Hey wynand32, just to give you a point of comparison, my usage case is still the roughly the same (basically like yourself and the OP), and I'm still getting my 7-9 hours.

Yep. Looking at various data (I'm the OP, by the way), it seems like there might be two classes of machines. Some get 7+ hours, some get around 4 hours. I'm very seriously considering pushing for a swap, but I'm going to wait until next week's event to see what's in the pipeline. If they transition to Kaby Lake, I'll push to replace with that version.

 

[hughlle]

Yep. Looking at various data (I'm the OP, by the way), it seems like there might be two classes of machines. Some get 7+ hours, some get around 4 hours. I'm very seriously considering pushing for a swap, but I'm going to wait until next week's event to see what's in the pipeline. If they transition to Kaby Lake, I'll push to replace with that version.

My mistake not really a mistake, just lazy. It definately sounds like you should be offered a replacement. 4 hours and this wouldn't be worth a consideration when shopping around, I'd be mad. Who knows what is happening next week, but I imagine that they still have enough sp4 stock left to make haggling for an upgrade fruitless. Give it a go by all means if you're within warranty, but I doubt you'll get an sp5. I've only read of such replacement a few times but it was generally sp1 to an sp3.