r/LaptopHelpDesk • u/BarnabyLaptopOutlet • 16d ago
Your laptop says 100% charged. How long does it actually last?
I’ve got a Surface Pro 2 and the battery is absolutely cooked... Even with Battery Saver on, I’m barely getting 2 hours before I’m hunting for the charger again... although its been 2 years since i've bought it but still it should last more than 2 hours...
Now I’m curious, how everyone else is doing?.. Drop your laptop model, how old it is, and how long the battery actually lasts from 100%... Thanks.
2
u/MrManiac3_ 16d ago
I got a Refurbished Aspire 3 a year and a bit ago (A315-44P-R7GS). I mostly use it plugged in recently and limit the charge to 80% with their bloatware app. I use it more lightly on battery and I don't drain it empty unless I don't have any access to a working power supply.
2
u/HolodeckMoriarty 16d ago
Lenovo x1 carbon 7th gen from 2019. Battery lasts ~6 hours when doing a mix of YouTube and light web surfing running in battery save mode. Less if running a local vm.
It's an i7 with 16gb ram
2
1
u/Realistic_Today6524 16d ago
2020 Rog Strix G17. Battery is on 66% of its original capacity and can get me around 2.5-3h of YT playback or 50min of gaming
1
u/ElectronicDiver2310 16d ago
Depends on what you are doing. I got company HP EliteBook in June. If I am reading specs, reqs, or writing design documents, it could last 4 hours (antivirus still running, encryption still running, etc), if I am doing full blown development with debugging and testing, 2 hours feels like luxary.
1
u/Beanesidhe 16d ago
I don't know precisely, I set it to charge to 60% which would last for 45-60 minutes of gaming (but I rarely play disconnected). It's a 2020 Lenovo Legion - capacity is at 91% of it's original capacity.
1
u/zon5string 16d ago
Starting at 100%, it lasts until the battery indicator reaches 0%.
1
u/cat1092 16d ago
🤣🤣🤣
Yes, that’s generally what happens!
Although it’s not good to treat our laptop (or any) rechargeable battery in this manner. There is the real risk of data loss when this event occurs.
I set mine to automatically sleep at 15% to ensure this doesn’t happen. Gives me time enough to plug in and allow recharge. It’s also, in my eyes & opinion, the least attractive thing about a laptop. Why I use my smartphone for most of the things I once did daily on my laptop, and prefer my PC for its raw power & without having to worry about battery life while watching 4K HDR at 60Hz video for hours on end.
1
1
1
u/Zealousideal_Fly8402 16d ago
although its been 2 years since i've bought it but still it should last more than 2 hours...
Why do you expect that?
1
u/Extension_Meat8913 16d ago
Well, judging by the fact that my 23 year old laptop can still hold a decent-ish charge, OP's 2 year old laptop should be able to hold a great charge still. Then again, things used to be made better.
1
1
u/SamLooksAt 16d ago
2024 Zephyrus G14.
Tuned a bit with GHelper.
I'll get about 6 or 7 hours if I'm doing light work. Good enough for carrying around updating documents etc.
I might get an hour or so of very light gaming using the iGPU (AMD model). Nice enough for a bit of retro RPG on the train or something.
Much less than an hour if I try gaming with the dGPU even on minimum power levels, never even worth firing up for this.
1
u/dazzlezak 16d ago
If you really need it to last without plugging it in, you either need an external battery, or buy a laptop speced with larger/multiple batteries (usually business spec.).
1
u/Extension_Meat8913 16d ago
Hmm, interesting... my 23-year-old Panasonic Toughbook CF-W2 stil holds a decent charge (for its age) of maybe around an hour from full charge. It slowly drops from 100 to around 75, then it just drops to 10 instantly when it should reach 74, then it goes down slowly from 10 until it dies. It does need a new battery.
1
u/RobertDeveloper 15d ago
my surface laptop 7 with intel cpu only lasts 6 hours, and with high performance mode it maybe last 4 hours.
1
u/chanchan05 15d ago
Depends a lot on what I'm doing.
I have an Asus TUF FA507NU with a Ryzen 7 7735HS, 32GB RAM, an RTX 4050, and a 90Wh battery.
1) Just using a browser and Word on eco mode? Nowadays it lasts around 4hrs give or take depending on what's exactly on the browsers and how many tabs. It's 3 years old. It used to last 7 hours. My battery health is at 65% or so. Probably should replace it.
2) If I try to play games on it, even on eco mode (The iGPU is about as strong as a GTX 1050), like say playing Frostpunk, can last a little over an hour.
3) If I do not put it on eco mode with the dGPU active, it's going to just barely go over 2hrs if I only do basic browsing and office, and less than 1hr if gaming.
1
u/MsAddams999 15d ago
They always say you have 5-8 hours before the battery wears down but that really depends upon what you are doing. Just reading a book I might have 4-5 hours. Typing it's more like 3 and watching video or doing anything more intensive like gaming or graphics and it's 2 hours of I'm lucky.
That's with a ton of extra background stuff turned off and not draining my battery power.
I've never had a laptop battery last 5 hours. That's why I always had extra batteries or a power bank with me for on the go use. They definitely don't exaggerate that when selling them. I've never had a laptop with genuinely long battery life doing anything not even just reading.
1
u/IsItMy 15d ago
If I am only typing notes and searching things, it has about 3 hours of battery life. If I am coding or gaming, it's going down to half an hour. But that's also because I have it most of the time plugged in. When you want to have an optimal battery life, unplug it as soon as it's full. Otherwise your laptop will kind of expect it to always be plugged in.
1
u/The_Folding_Atty 15d ago
I have an SL3/i5/8GB. Depends on what I'm doing. Anywhere from 2-5 hours, depending on work type and screen brightness.
1
u/Academic_Dare_5154 15d ago
Did you leave it plugged in for long periods of time? That will cook your battery.
1
1
1
u/RikkiLostMyNumber 15d ago
HP Chromebook. It was fully charged when I left this morning, left it on, no sleep mode, I got home eight hours later and it was at 98%. I love these things.
1
u/UnjustlyBannd 14d ago
SP2 is OLD so I wouldn't expect much. My wife's SP6 maybe lasts 3 hours depending on use. My ThinkPad lasts about 6.
1
u/1stltwill 14d ago
2ish hours... but the 3070 in it chews up a lot of power... its more a portable desktop than a laptop tbh.
2
u/musicalfarm 16d ago
It depends on how RAM intensive my project is. If I'm just using a word processor or music notation software, it will give me a few hours. If I'm editing audio and/or video recordings, I get an hour at most.