Spectre x360 Battery Life

[MikeyMike1]

MTTB,

I respect your ideas but do not agree. I think 40% screen brightness is way too low and undermines the clarity of the display. I use 70% brightness and have not seen a major battery difference with Chrome plus Adblock vs IE 11. I do agree with your suggestions of turning off Cortona and Bluetooth. In the end, I feel that Wikkus is on point. The machine can not deliver more than 6 hours of moderate activity use. HP is to blame by making  battery claims that are not attainable.

[Wikkus]

I've had my machine 9 months.  Machine tag is L6A11EA#ABU, a Broadwell i5-5200U machine with 8GB RAM, the FHD display, and the 256GB SSD.

Windows 10 (version 1511, build 10586.36).

This afternoon, I conducted a little experiment; latest BIOS (F.2D), all apps up to date, all HP and Windows service packs up to date, Cortana (and all other non-essential services) disabled, one instance of Edge open with one tab (default search page) open.  Power settings set to HP Recommended (but with sleep/screensave disabled to prevent sleeping), screen at 50% brightness, battery fully charged.

Then it was unplugged from AC and left.

Wasn't touched.

Guess how long the battery lasted for?

Six hours and eight minutes.

Go figure.

[dannyboy2005]

Wkikkus - are you from the USA? An i7 FHD isn't aviable here in the UK but 6 hours is still better then my 3 hours.

Anyone got a i5 fhd screen with good running time?

I looked at the dell xps at the weekend. Nice PC but only available touch screen VHD for the i7. It was nice but missed the solidness of the spectre.

Not sure what to do. I'm getting my laptop collected on the 6th and getting a refund.

I5 reviews will be interesting. Oh, I also somehow updated mY battery driver last night from a 3rd party software. Says the driver for the battery was 2006. I understand it that a) the software is lieing or b) this is a battery used on older laptops too. I'll let you know.

Why isn't HP having their input on the forums?

[dannyboy2005]

In regards to my last post about this third party software updating my 'battery drivers' it seems to have worked.

I have been researching forums and reviews and everything to try and find an answer. I have downloaded "TweakBit Driver Updater". It has scanned all drivers on my laptop and has said that most of the drivers that were downloaded from HP's Support Assistant are out of date or obsolete.

I had to pay £22.00 for it mind you and its apparently upgraded my '2006 battery driver' but it has somehow made the battery last a lot longer. 

I have given the PC a full charge, Disabled Cortana, Disabled GPS and disabled bluetooth (I never had it on since i got the PC). I have the screen on 100% brightness, 1 Chrome window open with 4 tabs open and the PC has been on for around 35 minutes and is currently on 93% - Better then i've been getting

I will let the PC run flat and see if I can time how long the battery charge lasts this time. 

Afterall, I have a 30 day money back guarantee on the driver software so if it's poop i'll get a refund.

[Wikkus]

@dannyboy, No, I'm from the UK and my machine is an i5.

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@dannyboy2005 wrote:
Wkikkus - are you from the USA? An i7 FHD isn't aviable here in the UK but 6 hours is still better then my 3 hours.

---

[dannyboy2005]

I fell asleep before the battery could drain but I'd say i've got about 90 minutes use of web browsing and used 25% battery.

I have just been to device manager and clicked on 'Batteries' -> 'Microsoft Surface ACPI....' and my driver version is 'Microsoft 1.2.0.2 battery driver' and the 'Microsoft AC Adaptor' is 10.0.10586.0.

It might be worth checking yours, if its out of date then update it from Microsoft (Easier and cheaper then paying for it)

Wikkus - I have been assuming you have a i7 with running times like that. HP say that the running time is based on the computer being on standby. Why would anyone let their pc be on stand by for 12.5 hours? Then they try to fob you off about he computer is using Wifi and the screen should be 10% brightness - No thank you!

[kayellem]

@dannyboy2005

Hey, do you know how to update the driver from Microsoft? I believe I have an older version than you but if I press the "update driver" option it says I have the newest one.

[Wikkus]

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@Wikkus wrote:

I've had my machine 9 months.  Machine tag is L6A11EA#ABU, a Broadwell i5-5200U machine with 8GB RAM, the FHD display, and the 256GB SSD.

Windows 10 (version 1511, build 10586.36).

This afternoon, I conducted a little experiment; latest BIOS (F.2D), all apps up to date, all HP and Windows service packs up to date, Cortana (and all other non-essential services) disabled, one instance of Edge open with one tab (default search page) open.  Power settings set to HP Recommended (but with sleep/screensave disabled to prevent sleeping), screen at 50% brightness, battery fully charged.

Then it was unplugged from AC and left.

Wasn't touched.

Guess how long the battery lasted for?

Six hours and eight minutes.

Go figure.

---

Update:
Did a system restore to 8.1.

Tested in the same state as it was received from HP (with McAfee bloatware uninstalled) plus BT disabled.

Six hours and 15 minutes.

Patched/updated 8.1, tested again.

Six hours and 12 minutes.

Not happy.

[dannyboy2005]

kayellem - I used the driver updater.

Google the driver number I've mentioned and download it. Battery hasn't improved.

I've noticed there is a new 2015 edition of the XPS 13 just come out. Apparently even better battery then last time. Also released will be a 2 in 1 just like the spectre.

I can't find anything new on the spectre. One hit wonder?

Lots of positive reviews on the spectre and the dell. Both say they are just as good as each other.

[dannyboy2005]

Wikkus:

That is interesting. I thought about doing the same thing, glad I hadn't.