Spectre Battery Life

[djathay]

I purchased a configuration of hp spectre x360 15 to have plenty of power to run cad and bim applications for architecture requirements. I have had the laptop for one week have haven't yet used any cad or bim, they are not even installed on the computer yet. I have been acquainting myself with the device and just using Microsoft edge, sticky notes, checking email and using google docs. With just these simple tasks, battery life is painfully low, only about 4 hours. The computer was advertised as having 12-13 hr life expectancy by some sources, 16-17 hr by others. How can I only be achieving ~4 hrs with only simple internet use? I use power-save mode at 30% battery remaining. I dim the screen, although I would like to have brighter when using cad/bim.

What in the world can be done? I have already chatted with an hp support assistant who told me "No. Battery life is 4-5 hours at best" and when I referenced the expected battery life times of 12-13hours they replied I wouldn't ever get more than 8. How can I even get 8?

[WAWood]

@djathay 

I looked up a few reviews of your model laptop at random and the battery lives ranged from under 7 hours to a max of 8 1/2 hours -- nothing like what you had found.

If you have not disabled FastStartup (which is enabled by default in Win10) that can serious use up the battery life -- so much so that on my laptop, I remove the battery when storing it for more than a couple of days.  I have had it run down to zero in a week due to the demands of the hybrid-sleep of FastStartup.

When running, the display tends to use most of the power, so if you have yours dimmed, it should not be running down much.

Is it charging to full capacity when hooked to the charger?

You can check the battery to some extent using Powershell built into Windows 10. as follows:
1) Press Windows key + X
2) Click Powershell in the menu
3) Type powercfg /batteryreport

This will generate a report and if you scroll down, you will see Design Capacity and Full Charge Capacity ratings. If the Full Charge Capacity is much less than 100% of the Design Capacity, it is faulty and needs to be replaced.

If you're not able to get even 8 hours life out of the battery, then you should contact HP Customer Service to see about getting the laptop serviced or replaced under the warranty.

If you live in the US or Canada, contact information is on this page: http://www8.hp.com/us/en/contact-hp/phone-assist.html#section1

If you live elsewhere, contact information is on this page: http://www8.hp.com/us/en/contact-hp/ww-contact-us.html

NOTE: After you get through, stay on the line until you are finally able to talk to some one -- it can take a while!