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Question Laptops and "all day" battery life

souljacker said:
I'm going to respond, whatever you say!

Have you checked the power profile? Can you reduce brightness and/or reduce the time before the laptop goes to sleep? 6 hours doesn't sound great on a new laptop.

You may also be able to get an extended battery. It might take more space at the back of the machine but might be worth it.
Click to expand...

Thanks :D

Yes, I've checked power profiles and am familiar with such/amending/etc - I agree 6 hours isn't brilliant.

I'm all cabled up at present so am unsure whether the battery is removable/swappable on this model.

I'm now at 85% and 2h 23mins in the 15 minutes since I posted the figures above.

I'm running
Chrome - 5 tabs
DuckDuckGo - 19 tabs
Notepad - 1 tab
Word - 1 doc, small
Excel - 1 workbook, small to medium sized
Grammarly
and all the other bollocks that usually runs in the background of a Win11 device without you asking for it

e2a: using ethernet, not WiFi, too
 
Reading up on it, there are two available battery sizes. XDA reckons you can get 8 hours of light use out of the larger of the two, so if you have the smaller one and are into heavy use... It's not far off what I'd expect. If you have the larger battery, that's really quite poor and I'd have a word with Lenovo.

We got the smaller batteries in these HP Elitebooks were use at the Uni, and I have to really turn things down to manage 6 hours out of it. It's a standard thing with "corporate" laptops that are expected to be plugged in 95% of the time - they offer a pathetic battery at a teensy savings and the beancounters just jump on it.
 
Chz said:
Reading up on it, there are two available battery sizes. XDA reckons you can get 8 hours of light use out of the larger of the two, so if you have the smaller one and are into heavy use... It's not far off what I'd expect. If you have the larger battery, that's really quite poor and I'd have a word with Lenovo.

We got the smaller batteries in these HP Elitebooks were use at the Uni, and I have to really turn things down to manage 6 hours out of it. It's a standard thing with "corporate" laptops that are expected to be plugged in 95% of the time - they offer a pathetic battery at a teensy savings and the beancounters just jump on it.
Click to expand...
Cheers for this - I've just checked the specs on my invoice and it says
Battery 4 Cell Li-Polymer 52.5Wh selected upgrade
which I assume is an upgrade from the 3 Cell Li-Polymer 39.3Wh listed on their site which I have just checked

I'm currently in discussions with Benyamin via Live Chat and email and I'm jumping thru all the usual hoops due to my assumed idiocy on the Lenovo's part

It's all up to date - the drivers are all up to date - the BIOS is up to date - fucksake

I know what you mean though regarding work/docked laptops and the mindset behind that - it happens at our place too - that and buying things with U chipsets in because ultra low power consumption is good :rolleyes:
 
Chz said:
Reading up on it, there are two available battery sizes. XDA reckons you can get 8 hours of light use out of the larger of the two, so if you have the smaller one and are into heavy use... It's not far off what I'd expect. If you have the larger battery, that's really quite poor and I'd have a word with Lenovo.

We got the smaller batteries in these HP Elitebooks were use at the Uni, and I have to really turn things down to manage 6 hours out of it. It's a standard thing with "corporate" laptops that are expected to be plugged in 95% of the time - they offer a pathetic battery at a teensy savings and the beancounters just jump on it.
Click to expand...

Look - it even says it 'All-day battery' - same processor as mine - pricks :mad:

1693325443968.png
 
All day just means minimum 8 hours running a lightweight browser test. Or marketing bollocks, if you prefer. In a way, it's impressive that you can drain it that fast - most laptops would be too thermally limited to run that hot. :D For sure my HP never gets near to its rated maximum speed for more than 2 seconds.
 
You should definitely be getting better than that on a new ThinkPad. Mine is pretty damn old now, and still goes a few hours without plugging in. Lenovo are pretty well known for poor quality control, as they outsource many parts (screen, batteries, keyboards) from multiple different companies globally. You might have got a dud. Apparently this has been slightly worse since COVID parts shortages.

Still, it sounds like something is wrong, and you should probably send it back.

On another note - you shouldn't be paying £1300. Buy surplus industry stock off Ebay, boxed and new. I imagine with a bit of looking you should be able to get a new T14 with decent spec for half that.
 
Last edited:
It's a bit like advertised MPG for a car though. They test it in factory conditions at the most economic speed and are then able to advertise it as kosher. But in the real world it's different. It's probably stripped back of most unnecessary processes with screen brightness set to minimum, if not on sleep mode.
 
:thumbs: Lenovo have agreed I can return it in November after this course has finished :thumbs:
I can't afford to be without a machine at the moment unfortunately - so we'll see if it improves or learns or whatever they're supposed to do.

It's the fact that it tells me there's 2hrs left, then 30 minutes later it says 4.5hrs left then later 2 hrs, then 2h20min.
Make. Your. Fucking. Mind. Up

Taskbar says
1693672364943.png

Battery settings says
1693672385087.png
 
Throbbing Angel said:
:thumbs: Lenovo have agreed I can return it in November after this course has finished :thumbs:
I can't afford to be without a machine at the moment unfortunately - so we'll see if it improves or learns or whatever they're supposed to do.

It's the fact that it tells me there's 2hrs left, then 30 minutes later it says 4.5hrs left then later 2 hrs, then 2h20min.
Make. Your. Fucking. Mind. Up

Taskbar says
View attachment 389927

Battery settings says
View attachment 389928
Click to expand...
The only thing that matters is how fast the %age goes down. The time estimates are always ludicrous. Windows 11 has even dispensed with it by default, you have to turn it on.
 
Just chiming in to say that laptops that leak battery whilst shut down can go fuck themselves too :mad:

I shouldn't need to store my laptop plugged in to ensure that there is charge left when I need to use it next (especially as this is a supposed top-of-the-range Lenovo X1 Yoga :rolleyes: )
 
Ted Striker said:
Just chiming in to say that laptops that leak battery whilst shut down can go fuck themselves too :mad:

I shouldn't need to store my laptop plugged in to ensure that there is charge left when I need to use it next (especially as this is a supposed top-of-the-range Lenovo X1 Yoga :rolleyes: )
Click to expand...

I know what you mean, but I'd be ok with 1% or 2% a day. How much is your X1 losing?

My MacBook does stuff* when it is sleeping apparently. Probably summat to do with updates I imagine, if not more. I recall the article saying summat about leaving wifi on when you sleep it so it could do X or Y.
It hardly bleeds any power though iirc. This reminds me I haven't switched it on in a week or more so I must have a look at it later.

* I can't recall what but I remember reading about it a few weeks ago
 
Ted Striker said:
Just chiming in to say that laptops that leak battery whilst shut down can go fuck themselves too :mad:

I shouldn't need to store my laptop plugged in to ensure that there is charge left when I need to use it next (especially as this is a supposed top-of-the-range Lenovo X1 Yoga :rolleyes: )
Click to expand...
found it! my macbook does this

1693688465539.png

and over the last 10 days it has lost very little power - I think - looking at this other graph - maybe the 1 or 2% I mentioned above - looks like I haven't used it for 9 days

1693688615162.png
 
Ted Striker said:
Just chiming in to say that laptops that leak battery whilst shut down can go fuck themselves too :mad:

I shouldn't need to store my laptop plugged in to ensure that there is charge left when I need to use it next (especially as this is a supposed top-of-the-range Lenovo X1 Yoga :rolleyes: )
Click to expand...
Do you properly shut it down or just close the lid and then wonder why processes might still be running and draining the battery?
 
Magnus McGinty said:
Do you properly shut it down or just close the lid and then wonder why processes might still be running and draining the battery?
Click to expand...

Shut down doesn't shut down by default anymore, but put into a deep sleep for fast boot. No idea how much battery this uses, suspect hardly any, but still.

Shut down your PC, turn it on and then look at the uptime.
 
A bit late and probably not very helpful but you mentioned intel Macbooks work with all your software, just not M1. An option?
 
Magnus McGinty said:
Do you properly shut it down or just close the lid and then wonder why processes might still be running and draining the battery?
Click to expand...

Probably :oops:

I mean, obviously that's likely what's happening...but I'm sure I've done it (properly shut it down, waited for all the lights to go off etc) enough times and yet still turned up 2 days later to find there's no charge left.

This is all made worse by the fact there's no way (as far as I can see) to deduce whether the power is actually off. Seemingly if I press a key to check it's turned off ..the thing sees that as a request to boot up and we're back to square 1:mad:. All these shitty optimisations dreamy up by marketing departments that are funking useless and provide a worse IRL UX. :facepalm:
 
Right, so today I definitely shut it down (Windows Key>Power>Shut Down).

I will see next time I boot what the battery sitrep is (and will use my work laptop for a few days #science)

I suspect next up I'll try the options mentioned in that last post next, thanks
 
danski said:
A bit late and probably not very helpful but you mentioned intel Macbooks work with all your software, just not M1. An option?
Click to expand...

Probably - but it means buying a used or refurbed machine as they stopped making Intel Macs in 2020.

Looking on Apple's refurb site now I'd have to spend just over £2k to get a similarly specced machine (and it has less RAM, an older chipset, smaller screen than mine).

I did think about it when I found out but meh/you know. I was just aggrieved that my existing laptop couldn't hack it for a niche reason.
 
I've got an ancient toshiba laptop running linux - when I close the lid it takes 1.5 W, same as when I press the power on/off button on the (external usb) keyboard to shut it down.

Not really relevant but the battery died on it several years ago so it only lasts a few minutes and I have to plug it in all the time. I bought a replacement battery at the time which also immediately died - I think it must have been the charger that was fucked so it only charged up to a very low charge even with a new battery.
 
Ted Striker said:
Right, so today I definitely shut it down (Windows Key>Power>Shut Down).

I will see next time I boot what the battery sitrep is (and will use my work laptop for a few days #science)

I suspect next up I'll try the options mentioned in that last post next, thanks
Click to expand...

Just booted it up 83% after roughly 34 hours, so around 0.5% drained an hour
 
Ted Striker said:
Just booted it up 83% after roughly 34 hours, so around 0.5% drained an hour
Click to expand...

When you do that, or just close the lid to 'sleep' it, do you have a slowly blinking light anywhere on the laptop?

Did you leave the WiFi on?

I tend to stick my Macbook in airplane mode before I sleep or off it (habit from work) or with this Windows Lenovo I tend to use it on ethernet so have the WiFi switched off almost all the time, so it stays off (I assume) when I sleep it or hibernate it.
Unless Bill's turning it on for a look when I'm in bed, the cheeky cunt!
 
I have no idea if I have been using this on Win 10 and 11 laptops I've used over the last few years.
I assume it's on by default.
How much quicker is it?
And would it feel like the 1980s again if we switched it off? How significant is it to boot times? Roughly. Any ideas?
Do I need to blow the dust off my autoexec.bat notes?
 
Throbbing Angel said:
I have no idea if I have been using this on Win 10 and 11 laptops I've used over the last few years.
I assume it's on by default.
How much quicker is it?
And would it feel like the 1980s again if we switched it off? How significant is it to boot times? Roughly. Any ideas?
Do I need to blow the dust off my autoexec.bat notes?
Click to expand...

Still pretty quick because of modern SSDs.

Ted Striker said:
Yes, forgot to add, I have just tried that. Turned off fast-boot, Shut it down, and took it off charge at 9am this morning
Click to expand...

If you start task manager is your uptime reset?
 
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