Dell venue battery life: Dell Venue Pro 8 – Battery Life and Verdict Review

IntroductionDesignDisplaySystem PerformanceTablet PerformanceBattery Life and Charge TimeCamera, Wi-Fi, Speakers and SoftwareFinal Words

Battery Life

Battery life is one of the critical elements to any mobile device, especially one such as a tablet. Notebooks can easily be used from desk to desk, but for a tablet, mobility is king. If it was not, you likely would not want a tablet.

The Venue 11 Pro is somewhat different in that it is a tablet first and foremost, but is also offered with a keyboard dock which basically turns it into a laptop. It offers Connected Standby support like other Windows tablets, but on the inside are parts which are more often found in Ultrabooks. For this reason both tablet battery life and laptop battery life was tested.

The Venue 11 Pro comes with an integrated 38 Wh battery. The keyboard dock includes an integrated battery as well which is around 24 Wh, so that combined the total is about 62 Wh of battery capacity.

As always, our devices are standardized to 200 nits of brightness for all battery life tests.

Tablet Battery Life

First off, the Venue 11 Pro needs to be tested as what it is – a tablet. For this we have tested the device with our tablet browsing test, which is less demanding than the one we use on laptops.

Tablet battery life is actually quite good, coming in just under the iPad Air 2 in our Wi-Fi test. It is of course helped by its much larger battery than the average tablet. For example, the iPad Air 2 has a 27.62 Wh battery versus 38 Wh in the Dell. Video playback time is not quite as impressive even though it does have hardware support for the video decode. The hardware and software for video playback on the ARM devices seems to be a bit more tuned. Tablets need to be mobile, so the Venue 11 Pro’s larger battery helps it deliver competetive overall battery life.

Laptop Battery Life

When docked to the keyboard accessory, the tablet can be used as a laptop replacement. It is a very small laptop mind you, but it can be used this way if needed.

With Core M, a reasonable resolution, and a relatively big battery, hopes are that this unit will deliver on the battery front. As with our tablets, all battery testing is done at 200 nits to have a consistent performance level for the display, and for the notebook tests, the Dell Venue 11 Pro was docked to the Mobile Keyboard to increase the total battery size to 60 Wh.

The Venue 11 Pro can deliver some pretty amazing battery life, coming in at almost fifteen hours of use. Not too many devices can deliver this on our light test, which consists of just web browsing over Wi-Fi.

With an even larger battery than the Dell XPS 13, the same resolution display, and Core M, the Venue 11 Pro can easily deliver all-day battery life even when put through our heavy test. It is a very impressive result. 2015 seems to be the year of battery life, and the results are very much welcome.

Next, the devices have the overall battery life divided by the battery capacity to give a feel for overall platform efficiency. Here the Venue 11 Pro does very well again, scoring almost at the top. As a system, the Venue 11 Pro is very efficient, and that is backed by a larger than normal battery when docked to the keyboard, which makes for a very mobile device.

Charge Time

Battery life is of course just one side of the mobile equation. The time to charge can also play a big factor especially when travelling. Dell ships the Venue 11 Pro with a 24 watt adapter, which has micro USB in order to charge both the tablet and the keyboard. This is not a huge amount of power, but it does keep the adapter on the small side to make it easier to bring with you.

Just charging the tablet takes 2:49, which is a bit long when compared to a laptop, but a good score when compared to a tablet. It is almost the opposite of what you would expect though, since it has a small battery for a notebook, and a large battery for a tablet. So obviously Dell has made a good compromise here.

Once you add in the keyboard though, the charge times get pretty high. Charging both devices at the same time results in a 5:41 charge time, which is well over what most notebooks will do. The micro USB cable plugs into the tablet, which then charges the keyboard, at least in this scenario. I can understand why Dell has done this, but it does make for a long time to get to 100% charge. If needed, the keyboard can be charged on its own but only with the tablet detached since the charging connector is in the slot where the tablet would normally be.

Charge Rate Tablet Only

Venue 11 Pro Charge Rate with Keyboard Attachment

This graph is (at least to me) very cool. Obviously some thought has gone into how to charge the two batteries, and the priority is on the tablet battery. Once you hit 80% though, the tablet battery would normally taper off until it gets to 100%, but the second battery charges to 80% instead, and then each charges the rest of the way until the device is fully charged. The overall time could go down if both devices could charge at the same time, but that would likely require a lot more circuitry.

The docking station does include a 65 watt charger, so I hoped that this would increase the charge rate and therefore decrease the time to charge, but unfortunately this is not the case.

Tablet Performance
Camera, Wi-Fi, Speakers and Software
IntroductionDesignDisplaySystem PerformanceTablet PerformanceBattery Life and Charge TimeCamera, Wi-Fi, Speakers and SoftwareFinal Words

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Review: Dell Venue 11 Pro 7140 is king of the 2-in-1 laptops

Faster, skinnier, and fanless, the new version of the Dell Venue 11 Pro is a lean, mean desktop replacement

Dell Venue 11 Pro 7140 9 9 9 9 8

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Dell Venue 10 Pro 5056 review: Not a sell-out show

Why you can trust Pocket-lint

(Pocket-lint) — What are budget tablets about these days? Should they be the sort of devices you can slip into a small bag and carry around with you 24/7; light enough so you can hold them in one hand; cheap enough so you won’t fall into a month-long depression when you crack the screen? These are what most budget tablets aim to achieve. But the Dell Venue 10 Pro 5056 doesn’t.

Nope, the Venue 10 Pro is big and chunky. And starting at £349 it’s not the sort of device you’ll buy on a whim. It’s meant more as laptop-replacement than something you’ll use to read-up on soap gossip or iPhone 7 rumours while on the sofa — hence the «Pro» namesake.

But the Windows-based Dell Venue 10 Pro does have a few appeals of its own, even if it’s not your all-purpose, for-everyone device. Here’s what we have to make of it.

Our quick take

The Dell Venue 10 Pro 5056 doesn’t really seem like a tablet of 2016. A conservative design, non-aggressive price and entry-level power mean it struggles to ignite much gadgety lust when there are much cheaper hybrids available that include the keyboard.

If you can stomach the extra £112 for the keyboard module — and you really should if you’re thinking about buying this machine — it’ll make a decent little portable laptop. Good battery life is its major plus point, and once you start thinking about this Dell as a laptop rather than a tablet, its weight and size issues melt away to a degree.

3.5 stars

For

• Decent screen
• A potential laptop replacement
• Long-lasting battery

Against

• Keyboard not included
• Not that powerful
• Chunky build
• Price

Dell Venue Pro 10 review: Design

If you’re just looking for a 10-inch tablet, the Dell Venue 10 Pro 5056 might not be the best device — which becomes obvious as soon as you get your hands on it. It’s big, heavy and thick — at 10mm — a bit like the Android tablets we used to get excited about back in 2011. This is a Windows 10 tablet, though, so don’t write it off just yet.

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It’s quite obviously heavier than the screen parts of some of the recent affordable keyboard-combo machines too, like the Asus Transformer Book and the HP Pavilion X2. It honestly doesn’t make all that much sense as a lone lifestyle tablet, which is why there’s an optional keyboard.

However, Dell could make it easier to source a keyboard. There’s no obvious bundle option on the company’s website: you just add it as an accessory, on about the fifth page of spec customisation, below a half-dozen Bluetooth keyboard alternatives. Bit odd, right? The keyboard also costs £112, making the whole package dangerously close to £500.

Dell didn’t send us a keyboard to test with this tablet either. But we can safely assume it, well, has keys and slots into the Dell Venue 10 Pro 5056’s bottom edge. It doesn’t have any extra connections, though.

So this tablet may feel too heavy to use in one hand comfortably — 662g makes it around twice that of an iPad Air 2 — but the Venue 10 Pro 5056’s weight does make it feel sturdy for an all-plastic tablet. There’s a soft-touch panel on its back for a bit of bonus tactility and in a desperate situation you could probably use it to break a particularly poorly-made window.

The real benefit of the Dell Venue 10 Pro 5056 over its Android brothers is connectivity. It’s laptop-like, with a full-size USB, microHDMI and a USB-C port (which doubles-up as the charging port). There’s also a flap on one side that covers a microSD slot and, in our version, a hole for a SIM card. The 4G model costs £430, again without the keyboard. It could really do with an extra USB port, though, as right now you can only plug in one conventional USB device.

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Dell Venue Pro 10 review: Screen

Some parts of the Dell Venue 10 Pro 5056 make you end up comparing it to much cheaper hybrids. After all, its size and fairly humble power mean it’s probably going to be used for light duties anyway. The £229 (with keyboard) HP Pavilion X2 will be a valid alternative for some of you.

However, the screen is a cut above the real affordable stuff. The Dell Venue 10 Pro 5056 has a 10.1-inch Full HD IPS screen. That means its 1920 x 1080 resolution looks plenty sharp and that it appears just fine from an angle. The blacks just appear a touch blue in certain light though. But overall it’s a decent upper-entry-level tablet screen.

Contrast isn’t perfect, colour is a little undersaturated, but both are a bit better than what you’d get from a hybrid that costs less than £300 (including the keyboard). And there are a few of those about.

This isn’t close to what a Surface tablet offers, though. Those are sharper, punchier and even more expensive. There’s also no stylus involved with the Dell, although an active stylus accessory is available. Straight out of the box the Dell Venue 10 Pro 5056 relies on a plain old touchscreen.

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Dell Venue Pro 10 review: Software

Here’s where we stumble upon the crux of whether the Dell Venue 10 Pro 5056 is any good or not. How does Windows 10 feel when it’s controlled just through a touchscreen?

Where Windows 10 on a regular laptop feels closer to Windows 7’s old-school style that Windows 8 did, the Dell Venue 10 Pro 5056 (without a keyboard) reverts to something closer to the old Windows Metro UI. This is where you get screens of big icon blocks, but no traditional desktop — which is hidden away.

There are also touch-friendly additional shortcut soft keys that will disappear when the Venue Pro keyboard is connected. They’re roughly the same conceptually as the soft keys of an Android device.

If anything, though, Windows 10 has sidelined this tablet side in favour of a core interface that works better with a laptop or desktop. For example, the keyboard doesn’t always pop-up when you want it to if you’re running a «desktop» app, and the apps tray takes that bit longer to pop-up than it would on a mobile-focused OS.

Without the keyboard attached, the Dell Venue 10 Pro 5056 highlights our differing expectations of budget computers and budget mobile devices. It feels awkward and clumsy.

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Dell Venue Pro 10 review: Performance

The Dell Venue 10 Pro 5056 is not all that powerful given its price either, although it is totally up-to-date. It uses the Intel Atom X5 Z8500 CPU, a low-end dual-core 2.4GHz CPU. That and 4GB RAM get you slightly better than the £250 all-in hybrid alternatives from Asus and HP, but this is still a low-power tablet/sort-of-2-in-1.

General performance when you’re just browsing and writing up some documents is fine. However, apps tend to take a while to load compared with an entry-level Ultrabook like the ZenBook UX305CA.

Why? As well as having a fairly slow CPU, the storage is pretty slow too. It uses solid state memory, 64GB or 128GB, but its performance is much closer to a hard drive or fast memory card than a proper SSD. It reads at 150MB/sec and writes at 90MB/sec; even entry-level SSDs read and write at 400MB-plus these days.

We had a crack at running Skyrim, the open-world game. It runs, but we didn’t get a great result. We had to lower the resolution output to 1280 x 800 and turn down the graphics to minimum settings — and while it was just about playable like this, it’s not really how the game should be played. This is not a gaming machine.

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The Dell Venue 10 Pro 5056 also has fairly poor speakers. They fire outwards from each side of the tablet, getting you a bit of stereo juice, but they’re also fairly thin-sounding and don’t go particularly loud. Now that even some super-skinny phones have decent (for a phone) speakers, this is real tech water-treading. Of course, you could argue that’d be a mis-allocation of funds, but then the Dell Venue 10 Pro 5056 isn’t exactly budget.

There are a lot of patchy elements to the Dell Venue 10 Pro 5056, but its battery life is very solid. It’ll last for just under 10 hours of video: good for a tablet, even better for a laptop if you splash out on the keyboard base. You could get a full day’s work off this machine with the keyboard in tow.

To recap

If you can stomach the extra £112 for the keyboard module — and you really should if you’re thinking about buying this machine — it’ll make a decent little portable laptop. Good battery life is its major plus point, and once you start thinking about this Dell as a laptop rather than a tablet, its weight and size issues melt away to a degree.

Writing by Andrew Williams.

Dell Venue 10 7000 Series Review

DT Recommended Product

“The Dell Venue 10 7000 with keyboard is the most productive Android tablet we’ve reviewed, but don’t throw away your laptop yet.”

Pros

• Amazing keyboard attachment
• Stunning OLED display
• Stock Android
• Rear camera can detect distance and depth

Cons

• 7 hour battery life
• $600+ with a keyboard
• No quick charging capability
• Dell is bad at updates

Dell wants to establish itself as the brand to own for getting work done on a tablet. After releasing the critically acclaimed Venue 8 7000 earlier this year, it has returned with the larger Dell Venue 10 7000. This model shares its predecessor’s thin bezels, solid metal build, and unique depth-sensing camera, but sports a larger display and can be paired with a full keyboard that is an absolute joy to use.

It also happens to be the most expensive Android tablet when purchased with the optional keyboard. The tablet alone costs $500 for the 16GB version or $550 for 32GB. Add in the keyboard, and the cost increases to $630 and $680, respectively.

A solid build, but far from perfect

Android tablets have never set the world on fire in terms of design and quality, but Android manufacturers finally got the memo last year that a lot of consumers actually crave quality. Samsung started delivering on that with the Galaxy Tab S, and Dell followed up with some of the best hardware we have ever seen on an Android tablet with the Venue 8 7000. The Venue 10 7000 has the same metal material as the Venue 8, but with a larger screen size of 10. 5 inches.

Jessica Lee Star/Digital Trends

It is easily the most premium Android tablet to date, but unfortunately it comes with a few flaws. The first is that it’s very heavy and feels bulkier than it actually is. My jaw dropped when I saw that it was only 6.2 mm thick, only slightly thicker than the iPad Air 2 (6.1 mm) and a little thinner than the Galaxy Tab S (6.6 mm). However, the weight of 1.32 lbs makes it much heavier than both the iPad Air 2 (0.96 lbs) and the Galaxy Tab S 10.5 (1.03 lbs).

The added weight comes from its magnetic cylinder base, which allows a special keyboard to attach. This cylinder makes it difficult to hold comfortably in landscape orientation (without the keyboard), but more comfortable to hold in a portrait orientation. With the cylinder at the left or right side, you get a really nice one-handed grip that’s perfect for reading digital books, magazines, and Web pages.

It is easily the most premium Android tablet to date.

The cylinder also houses the battery and stereo speakers — one at each end. We will spend some time on the battery later, but the speakers are a nice touch. Dell touts them as front-firing, which is true, but they can also be heard from the rear of the tablet since the speaker grill wraps around the cylinder. This can be convenient for meetings, but I should point out that the keyboard dock connector will block most of the rear speaker holes. The overall sound wasn’t as good as HTC’s BoomSound on the HTC One phones, but it’s still far better than the majority of tablets available today.

The last two gripes I have with the design of the Venue 10 7000 is that it’s a tad slippery and a smudge magnet. There is nothing you can do about the smudges other than wipe it down once in a while, but the cylinder does compensate for the slipperiness by giving you a better grip.

A functional keyboard that’s a joy to use

The Venue 10 is a decent tablet on its own, but the real magic happens when you pair it with the optional keyboard accessory. It becomes a convertible notebook, in a sense. Size aside, this solid metallic keyboard is as good as you’ll find on the best laptops and notebooks.

The keys are spread out nicely and it’s very comfortable to type on. Typing long emails was an absolute breeze. Even more impressive, all the keys are backlit like on a premium notebook. You can do just about anything on the keyboard without ever needing to touch the tablet’s display. You get a full touchpad with a mouse pointer for selecting and navigating, which makes the tablet feel almost like a Windows or Mac computer. A two-finger swipe scrolls through web pages, and you can even use shortcuts like Ctrl-V for pasting text and ALT-Tab for switching to recent apps.The keyboard also offers quick keys to Home, Back, and Recent Apps, as well as volume, media controls, display brightness, search, and much more.

The Venue 10 7000 easily connects to the keyboard by placing the cylinder into the slot on the keyboard. The magnetic connection locks it solidly into place, yet it’s easy to swivel. You close the tablet onto the keyboard just like any other laptop or notebook, but it’s a little cumbersome to open. Removing the keyboard is as easy as yawning the hinge almost 180 degrees open – it pulls right out.

Turning the tablet the other way (opposite of the keyboard) transforms the keyboard into a stand of sorts.  In this configuration, You can close the tablet so that the keyboard is underneath the back, letting you use the Venue like a traditional tablet without disconnecting the keyboard.

This model will set you back an extra $130, but it’s amazing how much a really good quality keyboard can improve a tablet. You can spend a lot less on a standalone Bluetooth keyboard, but none of them will come close to the quality and workmanship that Dell offers.

A stunning display with high-end specs

Just like the Venue 8 7000, the Venue 10 7000 offers an OLED Quad HD (2,560 x 1,600) display, which rivals both the Galaxy Tab S and the iPad Air 2. Colors are vibrant and viewing angles are fantastic.

Dell opted to go with the Intel Atom Z3580 processor instead of a Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 or 810. The Z3580 is a quad-core and clocked at 2.3GHz, which provides adequate power along with its 2GB of RAM. A Snapdragon would have been better, not necessarily for performance, but for the added benefit of quick charging. Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 2.0 technology allows you to charge devices up to 75 percent faster than conventional chargers. At present, the only tablets that offer Quick Charge 2.0 are the Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet, Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact, and Xperia Z2 Tablet. Samsung is likely to offer something similar with the Galaxy Tab S2 this summer.

Jessica Lee Star/Digital Trends

As far as the performance goes, I noted definite lag when rotating the tablet between landscape and portrait mode. I experienced minor lag at other times, and non-responsive touches here and there. I suspect the software to be the culprit rather than the hardware. None of this was enough to ruin my experience, but they are important enough to point out.

Dell offers the Venue 10 7000 in either 16GB or 32GB, but you can expand the storage up to an additional 512GB thanks to the MicroSD slot. You won’t find a full-size USB port or SD card slot, which generally isn’t a big deal for tablets. However, since the Venue 10 7000 is perceived as a power-user device and a possible notebook replacement, the lack of both may annoy some of you.

Below average battery life

Dell says you will get 7 hours from the 7,000mAh battery, which is pretty dismal for a 10+ inch tablet. We assume its estimate is based on the tablet being docked with the keyboard. The keyboard uses Bluetooth, but doesn’t have its own battery, so it must draw power from the tablet. Unlike other Bluetooth keyboards, that means you never have to charge it, but it also means it’s sapping your tablet’s battery life. The fancy backlit doesn’t help the situation, but it does turn off when you’re not typing, and you also disable it completely.

I always run a video rundown test with every device I review. I essentially set the display at around 65 percent brightness and loop video until the battery runs dead. It’s the perfect way to see how a device measures up against the competition.

Without the keyboard, the Venue 10 7000 ran for a total of 8 hours and 9 minutes. Attaching the keyboard dropped those numbers to 7 hours and 42 minutes. That’s not much of a penalty, but it’s most likely because the keyboard was dormant the entire time. Based on this information, it’s likely that Dell’s estimate of 7 hours is right on if you factor in more keyboard use.

Everyone’s use case with tablets is different, but you should be able to get by without needing to charge it for at least two to three days. While the battery life isn’t all that great, the good news is that it barely drops when it’s sitting idle.

Jessica Lee Star/Digital Trends

The bottom line here is that with or without the keyboard, the Venue 10 does not have adequate battery life for power users. The Galaxy Tab S and iPad Air 2 yielded over 12 hours in the same video rundown test.

As I mentioned earlier, the fact that there is no quick-charging capability is a downer as well. It will take about 4 hours and 30 minutes to charge the Venue 10 7000 from 0 to 100 percent. That’s OK when charging overnight, but too long if you need a quick pick-me-up during the day. Quick charging would give you a 0 to 50 percent charge in a little over an hour, which would be substantial for road warriors.

Cool camera tech, but it’s a tablet

Just like the Venue 8 7000, the Venue 10 7000 has Intel’s RealSense Depth Camera, which is very similar to the dual-camera setup on the HTC One (M8) except Dell takes it up a notch by adding a third camera. In a nutshell, the main rear camera is 8 megapixel, and below it are two additional 720p cameras, which form a triangular shape. Using the Depth Snapshot setting, all three cameras will work in unison, reading depth information so that you can selectively focus or apply filters to certain parts of the photo after the fact.

Focusing or applying filters to a particular area of an image is as simple as tapping on the photo, but there is also a slider bar that allows you to select the exact area in feet.

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You can even measure the length or height of objects, as well as check the square area. So you can find out how tall your child is or how high your dog jumped up to catch that ball. Then you can head home and measure the square area in your living room to find out if that new sofa will be a nice fit. The measurement tool works well, but don’t expect precision to the inch.

The software for editing works very well, but I do have one major gripe. Saving a photo that you have applied filters to overwrite the original photo, and you have no way to revert back to it. This is a clear result of Dell’s lack of experience with Android. Hopefully it will be rectified with a future update. Until then, there is a workaround: Save your images to something like Dropbox, then export them back to the Venue 10 and they will still retain the depth information. I only tested this with Dropbox.

Android enthusiasts will love the near stock Android experience.

The RealSense Depth Camera is very cool and you will have fun playing with it, but we are talking about a 10.5-inch tablet. Most people don’t use giant tablets as their primary camera. Put this technology on a smartphone and it suddenly becomes more useful.

The other issue is that the camera is really only suitable for the outdoors or when there is a lot of lighting. Images captured indoors usually have too much noise or focusing issues. You can also forget action shots, so don’t expect to get anything worthwhile at your child’s soccer game.

There is also a Single Shot mode that only uses the main 8-megapixel camera without the two extra lenses. These shots won’t have depth information, but I did find the quality to be better, but still not on par with some of the better smartphone cameras.

Stock Android with minor changes

Android enthusiasts will love the near-stock Android experience. Stock Android is what you will find on Google’s Nexus devices, such as the Nexus 6 and Nexus 9. Other manufacturers like HTC, LG, and Samsung modify Google’s version of Android giving it a completely different look. These modifications can be really awesome, but they can be horribly bad as well. Dell chose to stick with Google’s interpretation, which is rare.

The only major changes Dell made were to the Camera and Gallery apps, which are obviously due to the RealSense Depth Camera. On top of that, Dell also included the ability to show all your photos from your Dropbox and Facebook accounts in the Gallery App if you allow access. The concept is good, but it didn’t import all my Dropbox photos properly. It only showed photos from April 2014 and older.

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You will also find an app called MaxxAudio, which allows you to switch sound profiles for the built-in stereo speakers. The profiles are movies, music, talk, and gaming. You can separately toggle the boost for volume, bass, treble, and dialog, as well as adjust the equalizer for each profile. Changing profiles is a breeze, since you can easily toggle them from the notification panel.

Dell has done a great job with the software, but its track record for software updates leaves something to be desired. It took six months for the Venue 8 7000 to get the Lollipop update, and there were no carriers to slow it down. And big updates like these aren’t even the issue. It’s the smaller updates that fix annoying bugs and security issues that are actually more important.

It looks like a PC, but it isn’t

The Venue 10 7000 is the most productive Android tablet on the planet, but is that good enough? Being the best of a breed doesn’t make you top dog. As good as the Venue 10 is, it’s not as powerful as a Windows or Mac computer. Android just isn’t necessarily suited for major productivity.

Although Microsoft Office is available on Android, it’s not the same experience and neither is using Google Docs or Sheets. The only advantage the Venue 10 offers is the keyboard. Granted, that’s a nice plus, but it doesn’t change the overall experience. Even Chrome for Android isn’t the same experience as the desktop, since extensions aren’t compatible. Then there is the battery life, which is below average. On the plus side, you have access to millions of Android apps from Google Play.

For more than $600, the Venue 10 7000 is aimed at the power user, but casual users will benefit most.

Conclusion

If you’re looking for just a tablet, without a keyboard, the Venue 10 alone is definitely one of the best. However, the iPad still has the best overall experience when it comes to tablets, so I would opt for an iPad Air 2. If you want Android specifically, I would wait just a little longer and see what Samsung offers with the Galaxy Tab S2 in the next couple months.

The Venue 10 7000 and keyboard combination just might be the best Android tablet experience available today, but it only caters to a very small niche. If you are entrenched in the Android ecosystem and have the extra cash, it might be for you. For everyone else, it’s $600+ price is just too high.

Highs

• Amazing keyboard attachment
• Stunning OLED display
• Stock Android
• Rear camera can detect distance and depth

Lows

• 7 hour battery life
• $600+ with a keyboard
• No quick charging capability
• Dell is bad at updates

Editors’ Recommendations

• Does the iPhone 14 have an always-on display? Know this before buying

• What to expect from Google’s October 6 event: Pixel 7, Pixel Watch, and more

• Google gives Maps’ Immersive View a boost and adds a new vibe feature

• This new Google Lens feature looks like it’s straight out of a sci-fi movie

• Razer’s 5G-enabled handheld gaming system is getting a public release

CNET tablet battery life results

Battery life is an important, yet often overlooked feature.
Xiomara Blanco/CNET

Editor’s note: This list is updated regularly.

Battery life testing is one of the last evaluations we subject tablets to at CNET Labs, but by no means is it the least valued. How long you can use your tablet is nearly as important as what it is you do while using it.

Our CNET labs testing standards ensure that all tablets, regardless of size, color, or operating system, are tested as close to equally as possible. Details on how we test tablets are included below the testing results chart. We’ve also thrown in each tablet’s maximum luminosity, resolution, and pixel density for good measure.

Expect this list to be updated frequently as new tablets are tested. To see what tablets are coming down the pike, check out the upcoming tablets blog.

Tablets in the process of being tested say «IP» and results with keyboard docks appear in parenthesis.

Model	Video battery life (in hours)	Maximum brightness (in cd/m2)	Resolution	Pixel density (ppi)	Screen size (in inches)
Acer Iconia A1-830	8. 5	362	1,024×768	162	8
Amazon Kindle Fire HD (2013)	9. 3	421	1,280×800	216	7
Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 7	9. 8	430	1,920×1,200	323	7
Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 8. 9	IP	472	2,560×1,600	339	8. 9
Apple iPad (fourth generation)	13.1	N/A	2,048×1,536	263	9. 7
Apple iPad Air	13.2	421	2,048×1,536	264	9. 7
Apple iPad Mini	12.1	N/A	1,024×768	162	7. 9
Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime	9.6 (15.3 with keyboard)	570	1,280×800	149	10. 1
Asus Fone Pad	7.3	242	1,280×800	216	7
Asus Memo Pad HD 7	9. 7	353	1,024×600	169	7
Asus Memo Pad 8	8. 9	N/A	1,280×800	189	8
Asus Memo Pad FHD 10	8. 3	287	1,920×1,200	226	10
Asus Transformer Pad TF103C	8	N/A	1,280×800	167	10
Asus Transformer Pad TF300 (Balance mode)	8. 7 (13 with keyboard)	331	1,280×800	149	10. 1
Asus Transformer Pad Infinity TF700 (Balance mode)	8.5 (13.9 with keyboard)	422	1,920×1,200	224	10. 1
Barnes & Noble Nook HD	7.3	455	1,440×900	243	7
Barnes & Noble Nook HD+	9. 5	496	1,920×1,280	256	9
Dell Venue 7	7. 7	342	1,280×800	217	7
Dell Venue 8	7. 9	356	1,280×800	189	8
Dell XPS 10	9. 6/15.7 with dock	335	1,366×768	155	10. 1
EVGA Tegra Note 7	IP	423	1,280×800	216	7
Google Nexus 7 (2013)	11. 5	570	1,920×1,200	323	7
Google Nexus 10	8. 4	368	2,560×1,600	301	10
Kobo Arc 10 HD	9. 5	371	2,560×1,600	301	10
Lenovo A10	8. 4	292	1,280 x 800	167	10
Lenovo A8	8. 2	300	1,280 x 800	209	8
Lenovo IdeaTab A1000	4. 6	369	1,280×800	216	7
Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 11	12. 6	232	1,366×768	135	11. 6
Lenovo Yoga Tablet 8	14.2	438	1,280×1,080	209	8
Lenovo Yoga Tablet 10	12. 4	435	1,280×1,080	167	10
LG G Pad 8. 3	6.4	289	1,920×1,200	273	8. 3
LG G Pad 8.3 (Google Play edition)	7	289	1,920×1,200	273	8. 3
Microsoft Surface Pro 2	6.9	n/a	1,920×1,080	208	10. 6
Microsoft Surface 2	11.6	315	1,920×1,080	208	10. 6
Nokia Lumia 2520	IP	676	1,920×1,080	218	10. 1
Samsung Galaxy Note 8	8.5	458	1,280×800	182	8. 3
Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 (2014 Edition)	6	326	2,5601×1,600	298	10. 1
Samsung Galaxy Note Pro 12.2	11	368	2,560×1,600	247	12. 2
Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8.0	10	395	1,280×800	189	8
Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10. 1	8.3	421	1,280×800	149	10. 1
Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 8.0	9	337	1,280×800	189	8
Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8. 4	8.5	361	2,5601×1,600	359	8. 4
Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1	9	375	2,5601×1,600	298	10. 1
Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4	12.1	N/A	2,5601×1,600	359	8. 4
Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5	13.4	N/A	2,5601×1,600	288	10. 5
Sony Xperia Tablet Z2	13	N/A	1,920×1,200	224	10. 1
Toshiba Excite 7	7	340	1,024×600	170	7
Toshiba Excite Pro	7. 9	301	2,560×1,600	302	10
Toshiba Excite Pure	6. 3	284	1,280×800	151	10
Toshiba Excite Write	8. 8	335	2,560×1,600	302	10

How we test tablets

In the CNET Labs, we currently run two different tests to evaluate the performance of non-Windows tablets.

Battery life
We evaluate battery life by continually running a movie file on the tablet until its battery dies.

We set each tablet to Airplane mode and adjust its respective brightnesses to 150 candelas per square meter (cd/M2) or as close to that number as possible.

For the iPad, we run the iPad version of «Toy Story 3.» On Android tablets, we run a 720p version of «Toy Story 3.» The reason we chose 720p for Android was that not every tablet can run 1080p video just yet, and we wanted to make sure we tested Android tablets under the same methodology.

On the iPads, we ran the movie through the iPod app; for Android, we used the movie player apps mVideoPlayer or DicePlayer, as they provide a much-needed repeat video function that not all native Android movie players include.

*The Barnes and Noble Nook Tablet reflects continually streaming video through a wireless connection. The router was approximately five feet away with a full signal. We used the Netflix application to stream «Amadeus» and when the movie ended it was manually repeated, due to a lack of repeat video function available.

Contrast ratio and brightness
We also tested the maximum brightness, default brightness, and contrast ratio for each tablet. We conducted these tests using the Minolta CA-210 display color analyzer. With each screen at full luminosity, we placed the sensor in the middle of the screen. We used a completely white screen to test the brightness and a completely black screen to test the black level. We then divided the maximum brightness by the maximum black level to get the contrast ratio.

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Review: Dell Venue 11 Pro Tablet is a laptop in disguise

At a Glance

Expert’s Rating

Pros

• Core M CPU makes it faster than most Atom-based devices.
• Excellent keyboard/auxiliary battery slice

Cons

• It’s not going to win any thin contests.
• Pricy

If lightweight tablets laugh behind the somewhat chunky Dell Venue 11 Pro’s back, just wait until they crack their skinny heads against something the Venue 11 Pro won’t even notice. Or overheat trying to process the larger spreadsheets and video/photo work that the Venue 11 Pro 7000 series shrugs off with a yawn. Indeed, the Venue 11 Pro is a laptop in tablet’s clothing—with all the advantages and disadvantages that implies.

I’m not kidding about the chunkiness. The Venue 11 Pro on its own is 0.45-inch thick and weighs 1.57 pounds. The $160 Travel keyboard it mates with to form what is, in essence, a very nice small laptop, weighs an additional 1.75 pounds. The keyboard also adds about a quarter-inch to the general thickness, and a full three-quarters of an inch at the hinge. However, it contributes an auxiliary 28-watt-hour battery to the mix for increased run time. The keyboard types quite nicely and the touchpad is responsive. Dell has even fixed the issue I saw last August, where you couldn’t click the touchpad if you were too far toward a lower corner.

The 10.8-inch (1920×1080) Venue 11 Pro 7140 I looked at was powered by a Broadwell Core M-5Y71. With its relatively low 4.5 watts of total draw, you can get away with it in a fanless environment such as a tablet.

The Core M-based Venue 11 Pro 7000 series starts at $699, but our nicely-appointed configuration—8MB of system memory, a 128GB Sandisk M.2 SATA SSD, and the Travel Keyboard—costs $1,258.96. Yowser. And that’s in Dell dollars, my name for the perpetual discount displayed at the company’s Web store. The claimed retail is $1,795.66.

The Dell Venue 11 Pro 7000 is as thick as Boston clam chowder, but it does play the part of a laptop fairly well.

If you can live with about half the performance, you can get into the Venue 11 Pro for about half the cash via the 5000 series. The low end there offers an Atom Z3775D CPU, a 1366×768, 10.8-inch display, 2GB of RAM, and 32GB SSD for a mere $429. 

The Venue 11 Pro 7140 features an 8MP rear-facing camera and a 2MP front-facing Webcam. The right side is home to the power button, micro-SD card slot (hidden behind a plug) and reset pinhole. The lower edge of the tablet has only the docking port and auxiliary battery connection points. On the left are a full-sized USB 3.0 port (a definite upside to the half-inch thickness), micro-USB port (used for charging the unit), mini-HDMI port, the volume control rocker, and the headset jack.

The back of the Venue 11 Pro is given over largely to a pressure-fit plastic panel that pops off to reveal the 36-watt-hour battery, as well as access to other components, though the only thing you can get to without further disassembly is the micro-SIM card. The Venue 11 Pro has Bluetooth, 802.11 a/b/g/n, and WiDi on board, and is also wired for broadband.

The Venue 11 Pro also supports active stylus, and Dell will sell you one for a mere $30. In my hands-on, the Dell Active Stylus was accurate, if not quite as responsive, smooth, or stylish as the one that comes with Toshiba’s Encore 2 Write.

PCWorld

The Core M 5Y71 in the Dell Venue 11 Pro 7000 doesn’t give up much ground to the true laptops.

Performance and Battery Life

The performance offered by the Venue 11 7140’s Core M CPU is fantastic for a tablet and good even for a laptop. PC Mark 8 rated it at 2,620 in the work test and 2,016 in the Creative Conventional test. Gaming was decent in Web-quality games—the Venue 11 7140 scored 24,775 in 3DMark’s Ice Storm Extreme. That’s all about twice what you’ll get from the Atom-based 5000 series Venue 11 Pro.

Despite being rated at only 4.5 watts of total draw, if you do use all the processing power available in the Core M and its GPU, it’s going to suck the battery dry in relatively short order. PC Mark rated it at 6 hours, 5 minutes with the auxiliary keyboard battery in play and 3 hours, 57 minutes for the tablet portion by its lonesome. Keep in mind that PC Mark uses a constant drain and you’ll likely get twice that under normal usage.

More evidence of the power draw is the supplied 4.5-amp AC/USB wall wart. The average 0.5-amp cell phone charger won’t cut it, and the Venue 11 Pro isn’t smart enough to figure out that the voltage isn’t adequate. It will shut down unceremoniously if you’re running Windows and plug in a challenged charger. On the other hand, the BIOS provides plenty of warning should you try to boot with a lesser adapter connected.

PCWorld

In office drone tasks, the Dell Venue 11 Pro is, for the most part, just as fast as the ultra thin laptops. You just won’t confuse it for being thin.

Software

Now is the time during the review when we perform our new Lenovo-check. That is, we tell you what, if any software has been added to the mix, and whether it’s hijacking your browser and exposing your personal preferences to the world—or at least to advertisers. Our configuration of the Dell Venue 11 Pro came with a trial version of Office, as do most computers these days.

The rest of the junk was relatively innocuous: An app to create recovery discs, plus some Dell and Intel utilities that largely duplicate what Windows already does, and a 30-day trial of McAfee Security.

Conclusion

Statistics aside, as a tablet or a small laptop, the Venue 11 Pro is a joy to use. The display is bright and evenly lit, and it couldn’t be any more responsive to touch. Movies look great and it even sounds halfway decent when music emanates from the speakers. The Venue 11 Pro isn’t skinny, and it isn’t cheap, but it can definitely make an argument for being the best small business tablet on the market.

Author: Jon L. Jacobi, Freelance contributor

Jon Jacobi is a musician, former x86/6800 programmer, and long-time computer enthusiast. He writes reviews on TVs, SSDs, dash cams, remote access software, Bluetooth speakers, and sundry other consumer-tech hardware and software.

What is the battery life of the Dell Inspiron 15 7000? — Batteries

Tiffany Garrett

Batteries

Best Answer: There are two different batteries available for the Dell Inspiron 15 7000 depending on model and display type. The FHD display in the 7570 and newer 7580 comes with a three-cell 42 Wh battery that should realistically last five to seven hours with regular use, while the four-cell 56 Wh battery in the older 7570 with 4K display should realistically last three up to seven o’clock. five hours of regular use.

• Dell: Inspiron 15 7000 (7570) (from $882)
• Dell: Inspiron 15 7000 (7580) (from $833)

What affects battery life?

The Inspiron 15 7000 recently received an update so the 7570 and 7580 models are available. inch FHD display (touchscreen also available) to Intel Core i7-8550U models with NVIDIA MX130. discrete GPU and 15.6-inch 4K touch display. Both processors have a TDP of 15W, which means they both consume roughly the same average amount of power. Battery life does vary in GPU and display choices. The newer 7580 only has a non-touch FHD display option with 8th Gen Intel Core i5-8265U or Core i7-8565U processors, which also have a TDP of 15W.

good delay for xbox one

Most people can get five to seven hours from an Inspiron 7570 or 7580 with a 1080p non-touch display. The FHD touch display will shorten the time a bit. This life is based on average usage — such as web browsing, word processing, checking email — with screen brightness about halfway through. When watching streaming video or playing games, battery life will drop significantly; realistically expect a couple of hours for gaming and maybe a few hours for constant video streaming.

The older 4K touch model comes with a larger 56 Wh battery, but life is still shortened by the task of displaying all those extra pixels. The 4K options only seem to ship with a discrete NVIDIA MX130 GPU with 4GB of VRAM, so any task that requires extra graphics performance will also drain the battery. Most people can get three to five hours of standard use of a 4K model, but something specialized — like gaming or editing — will shorten life even further.

If you don’t think your laptop is giving you an accurate idea of ​​how much life is left — for example, if it hits 20 percent on the scale and turns off — you can always calibrate your battery for more accuracy.

Tips for improving battery life

upgrade to Windows 10 clean install

If you find your Inspiron 15 7570 is running out of battery, there are a few tricks you can try.

It doesn’t take long to set up and enable the battery saver function in the long run, and optimizing the battery for video playback will also add valuable minutes. Dell usually has its own power plan, but you can create your own that personally balances the performance you need with maximum battery life. Here you can also lower the frequency of Intel 8th generation processors if you do not need maximum performance, and you can set some applications that you do not use so that they simply do not start at all on battery power.

How about leaving the laptop on?

Laptop batteries, even if used to their full potential, will degrade performance over time. Modern laptops have fail-safe devices to extend battery life, and if the laptop is constantly plugged in, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll kill the battery. Usually, after a full charge, the battery does not go through, but there is still a risk of damaging the battery due to too much continuous heating.

Keeping the battery between 40 and 80 percent charged (and keeping it cool if possible) should provide the best long-term results.

Old Model

Inspiron 15 7000 (7570)

Great performance and large display in a budget package.

The Dell Inspiron 15 7570 offers discrete graphics, 8th Gen Intel Core processors and many other configuration options for a versatile budget device. It has a lot of ports and you would be forgiven if you mistake it for a laptop that costs a lot more.

• From $882 at Dell

Newer model

Inspiron 15 7000 (7580)

Updated 7000 with new processors and SSD.

best mobo for ryzen 5 2600

The Inspiron 15 line has recently been updated with new processors and more storage options. The 4K and touch FHD models are no longer available, so stick with the 7570 models for those features.

• From $833

Dell 9 Laptop Battery Repair0001

The battery is an important part of every notebook. It is she who provides the mobility of the device and ease of use. Unfortunately, it is the battery that often fails — and not always the reason is a factory defect. Many users do not pay enough attention to laptop batteries and do not even think about violating the rules for their operation. But it is improper operation that is a common cause of battery damage.

In addition to the normal wear and tear of the battery, damage can be caused by mechanical impact, such as dropping the laptop on a hard surface, or contact with moisture. In this case, it is necessary to contact the repair service, since a defective battery not only makes work difficult, but also poses a certain danger. Even if the laptop continues to run on AC power, a failed battery can overheat, leak, or even explode.

Leading laptop manufacturers have an average battery life of three to four years even under heavy use. However, many users complain that the laptop’s operating time begins to decrease after a year. In this case, it is necessary to check the condition of the battery — it is possible that the battery itself is in order, and the problem lies in incorrect controller readings.

How to check the battery condition?

Initial diagnostics can be performed using the built-in Windows tools. To do this, open a command prompt and run the command powercfg. exe -energy -output c:battery.html, and then go to the specified file. It will contain a detailed report on the laptop’s power consumption, indicating sub-optimal power settings and listing the most energy-consuming processes.

Pay particular attention to the «Battery Information» section, which lists the laptop’s estimated battery capacity and last full charge. If the last charge is much less than the estimated capacity of the battery, it is time to refurbish or replace the battery.

There are also a large number of special software utilities that allow you to check the condition of the battery, monitor its discharge cycles and calculate the percentage of wear, such as BatteryInfoView, Battery Care, BatteryCat or BatteryMon.

How to restore battery capacity?

If the calculated capacity of the battery is much higher than the declared capacity, you can try to restore it yourself.

There are two ways: firstly, you can completely discharge the battery, and secondly, you can calibrate it.

Full discharge

Sometimes a simple procedure is enough to restore battery capacity:

1. Charge the battery to the maximum, but do not disconnect from the mains.

2. Go to the «Control Panel» and in the «Power Options» section select «Create a new power plan» and in it — «High performance».

3. On the next screen, select «Never» in all drop-down lists, and also set the maximum brightness, and then click on the «Create» item.

4. After that, you need to wait for the battery to completely discharge and turn off the laptop. Then you should connect the laptop to the network as soon as possible and charge up to 100%.

(Don’t forget to re-set the optimal meal plan in the «Control Panel»).

This procedure allows you to increase the reduced capacity of the battery and extend its life.

Battery Calibration

The problem may not be with the battery itself. A special controller is responsible for the charge readings. It may display data incorrectly — there are frequent cases when a failure occurs and the controller signals a low charge level, while the real charge is 50-60%. In this case, you just need to calibrate the battery.

What is calibration and why is it needed?

The battery of any laptop consists of the battery pack itself and the control unit, the so-called controller. Its task is to manage the charging of batteries and their operation. It is the controller that notifies the laptop operating system about the battery charge, shows the battery temperature and the remaining time without connecting to power. If the controller fails, the entire battery fails.

However, sometimes a situation arises in which the battery is charged, say, at half capacity, and the controller greatly underestimates the charge. In this case, the laptop continues to work until it is discharged by another 10%, and then automatically turns off or goes into sleep mode to avoid data loss.

To avoid such situations, it is necessary to calibrate the battery.

How to calibrate the battery?

Different manufacturers use their own utilities to calibrate the battery controller. For Dell, this is the Dell Power Manager.

There is also a public and universal method that works for most laptops.

1. Connect the charger and charge the battery to 100%.

2.                                                                                    Turn off/shut off shutdown shutdown And off «allow to use hibernation mode». Also uncheck the boxes for disabling the screen saver, screen and hard drive.

3. Discharge the battery to zero.

4. Wait until the laptop turns off. At this point, the batteries will be completely discharged and the controller will read 0%.

5. Plug the laptop in immediately and fully charge the battery.

If you leave the battery in this state without charging, it may become unusable due to too long discharge!

Calibration may take two to ten hours, depending on battery capacity and condition. It is essential for normal operation. It is recommended to calibrate once every six months, and in the case of active use of the offline mode, once a month.

However, even if all the rules are observed and the battery is treated with care, sooner or later it will lose its capacity. In this case, you need to replace the battery or contact the repair service. Specialists can restore battery capacity. This is not a very complicated operation, however, it requires special knowledge and skills. Even disassembling a battery requires special tools and skill. It is not recommended to make such repairs at home in order to avoid the final breakdown of the battery.

At our RemontDell service center, we are always available to assist with any repair. We are waiting for you at the address: Moscow, Profsoyuznaya, 93A, ground floor, room 2b or call +7 (495) 374-73-02 +7 (968) 797-16-39!

3 Ways Check Battery Health of Dell Laptop

3 Ways Check Battery Health Dell Laptop

Summary :

Laptop is widely used for study and work. The battery is an indispensable hardware component of a laptop. It provides power to your laptop, allowing you to take it to work without plugging it into a power source. However, over time, the battery will wear out. This post from MiniTool shows you how to do a Dell battery test in three ways.

The battery is often used to power electrical devices such as laptops and mobile phones. Any battery wears out over time. You need to check the health of the battery so you can decide if you need to replace it with a new one or not.

Is a laptop battery test useful? How to check laptop battery health? Many people don’t know what to do. This page will show 3 ways to shut down a Dell laptop as an example. Dell battery test.

Tip: Worried about data loss due to unexpected shutdown or incorrect operations? Regularly back up your system, disk, or at least valuable data. However, if your important files disappeared before the backup, you should start restoring them right away with a professional recovery tool.

Perform the Dell Battery Test in 3 Ways

Testing the Dell battery is easy, even for inexperienced users. You should follow the steps in the following methods to check the battery status on your Dell laptop.

How do you check the battery status of your laptop?

Using the Dell Battery Diagnostics

1. Start your Dell laptop as usual.
2. Take a close look at your screen. Press F12 on your keyboard immediately when you see the Dell logo screen.
3. Look for Diagnostic in the Dell boot menu.
4. Select it and press Enter .
5. Please wait and respond correctly to user prompts in the pre-start diagnostic program.
6. View Dell battery test results.

Note: You must submit some information on the system performance test page whenever a test fails: service tag, ePSA error, and confirmation code (before SupportAssist knows how to proceed).

Accessing the BIOS

You can also check the status of your Dell battery by entering its BIOS. BIOS settings and information do not match between Dell computers.

Situation 1:

1. Start your Dell computer.
2. press F2 when the Dell logo screen appears. You can press it several times at startup if the screen is not displayed.
3. Look for the General category in the left pane and expand it.
4. Select Battery Information option under it.
5. The corresponding battery status and information will be displayed on the right panel.

Situation 2:

1. Repeat steps 1 and 2 mentioned in the previous situation.
2. Navigate to the Advanced tab at the top using the arrow keys.
3. Look for Battery status option from the list.
4. If it says This battery is working properly , it means that your battery is in good condition. You don’t need to replace it.

How to check and update the BIOS on a Dell 9 computer0003

Many users want to complete the Dell BIOS update process on their own, but don’t know what to do.

Read more

Switch to Dell Power Manager or Dell Command | Power Manager

Both Dell Power Manager and Dell Command | Power Manager are useful applications available to users to check the battery status and set up battery maintenance to increase the battery life of a Dell laptop.

How to check the battery life of a Dell laptop?

1. You should open Dell Power Manager or Dell Command | Power manager application.
2. Select the Battery Information option and view the report.

Should I Replace the Dell Battery

You can find out about the health and condition of your battery by running the Dell Battery Test. If the run time does not meet your needs, you should consider replacing the battery with a new one.

How long does a Dell laptop battery last?

There is no doubt that all batteries wear out over time. In general, Dell laptop users will notice a noticeable decrease in their battery life after 18-24 months. An advanced user may even notice this issue within 18 months.

How to improve the performance of your Dell laptop battery

Battery performance will decrease after prolonged use of the battery. Are there any useful solutions to improve it?

• Check your Dell laptop battery regularly.
• Unplug charger when not needed.
• Turn off your Dell laptop when not in use.
• Save battery power when using your Dell laptop: dim brightness, disable Wi-Fi/Bluetooth, charge with original AC adapter, etc.
• Use Dell Power Manager and Dell Command | Power Manager tools to optimize battery settings.
• Change the Microsoft Windows power plan to suit your needs.

How do I recover data from a Dell laptop?

How to increase the battery life of your laptop on Windows 11

23 August

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1.

Keep your system up to date

Many users, by hook or by crook, tend to turn off updates to their Windows. But along with updates, bug fixes that lead to performance drops and new versions of hardware drivers come to the system. Therefore, system updates can, in theory, reduce the power consumption of your PC.

By default, Windows 11 is updated only when the computer is connected to a power outlet. Therefore, it is necessary to periodically connect the laptop to a power outlet so that the system can download new security and performance patches.

If desired, this can also be done manually by clicking Start → Settings → Windows Update → Check for Updates.

2. Change the display settings

Your notebook’s main power draw is the display. The brighter it is, the more the battery is consumed. Therefore, during battery operation, it is worth changing this setting.

There are two ways to do this:

• Press the brightness down button on the laptop keyboard in the F‑key row above the number row.
• Open Start → Settings → System → Display and adjust the slider under Brightness.

3. Adjust your system’s power consumption

The system’s power mode determines how much Windows 11 will allow your computer to use its processor, memory, and other resource-intensive components.

If economy mode is enabled, the processor will not overclock above a certain frequency. Performance will decrease, but the battery life will grow.

Click Start → Settings → System → Power & Battery and under Power Mode select Max. energy efficiency».

Most importantly, do not forget to return the «Balanced» or «Max. performance» when you plug in again and want to play games or run greedy software, otherwise the computer will slow down.

4. Turn on battery saver

In battery saver mode, Windows 11 lowers screen brightness, reduces notifications, and restricts background app activity. Usually the system activates it automatically when a certain percentage is reached.

But you can also turn it on manually. To do this, click «Start» → «Settings» → «System» → «Power and battery» and in the «Battery saver» section, click «Turn on now».

Another option — in the item «Automatically turn on battery saver when» select «Always» in the drop-down list and activate the checkbox «Decrease screen brightness in battery saver mode». So you will significantly increase the battery life.

5. Set up background app activity

Windows 11 is chock-full of built-in apps for all sorts of purposes, and they love to take their share of battery life. It would be nice to limit those programs that you do not need all the time.

Click Start → Settings → System → Power and Battery, and under Battery Usage, look for the apps that use the most power. Then click on the icon with three dots and select «Manage background activities». In the «Allow an application to run in the background» field, select «Never».

Repeat this for any programs you rarely use.

6. Adjust your computer’s sleep time

Another great way to increase your Windows 11 battery life is to have your system go to sleep when you’re not using your device. By default, when running on battery power, the computer turns off the screen after 5 minutes and goes to sleep after 10 minutes. You can shorten the timeout.

To do this, click «Start» → «Settings» → «System» → «Power and battery» and in the «Screen and sleep» section, specify the time of activity. For example, 1 minute. Now, even if your PC is idle, energy will not be wasted.

7. Reduce the quality of video playback

Some built-in Windows 11 apps like Microsoft Edge, Photos, and Movies & TV, as well as Microsoft Store apps like Hulu, Netflix, or Vudu can adjust the quality of the video they play under the condition of your battery.

If your laptop is running on battery power, the system will play the video in a lower quality, which will reduce the load on the device and save more power.

Click «Start» → «Settings» → «Applications» → «Video Playback» and activate the «Play videos at a lower resolution when running on battery» option.

8. Do not leave your computer plugged in all the time

In general, different manufacturers have diametrically opposed opinions about whether it is possible to keep their laptops plugged into the network all the time.

So, Asus advises ^{ASUS Battery Information Center to discharge the battery of devices to 50% at least once every two weeks and not keep them connected to power all the time. And Dell doesn’t consider Solved: Leaving your laptop plugged in all (or most) of the time / Dell Community to be a problem. The company recommends How to Improve the Performance of a Dell Laptop Battery / Dell US to install the proprietary Dell Power Manager utility, which will not allow either too low or too much battery recharge.}

But when connected to the network, the laptop also heats up more than usual, which has a bad effect on lithium batteries. Therefore, to maintain maximum life, a compromise must be found.

It is best to connect your computer to the network when you need to get maximum performance for games or heavy software, and disconnect it after recharging to prevent overheating or overcharging the battery.

Read Also ?

• 7 Windows Files and Folders You Can Safely Delete to Clean Up Space
• How to Fix Windows 10 Sleep Problems
• How to remove the password when logging into Windows 11

The laptop works only from the network and the battery does not charge while

Let’s look at the reasons why the laptop does not want to work from the battery, but only works from the outlet. This is a very common failure and most often the cause is the battery or its power controller. But there are other situations, which I will consider in the article below.

This article applies to all brands that produce Windows 11/10 laptops: ASUS, Acer, Lenovo, HP, Dell, MSI, Toshiba, Samsung, and others. We are not responsible for your actions.

Attention! You can ask your question to a specialist at the end of the article.

Contents

1. Battery connected but not charging
2. Safe operation without battery
3. Reinstalling battery drivers
4. Charging and battery manipulation
5. Notebook malfunction
6. Notebook manufacturer software
7. Power supply
8. Old battery not charging or not fully charged
9. Battery effect

Battery connected but not charging

— Any battery has a certain life number of charges. One of the most common causes of battery failure is wear and tear. In this situation, you just need to replace the battery with a new one.

If a new laptop is being used, the «age» of the battery cannot be referred to. In this state, it should function normally. There is a possibility that the connection inside the battery is loose, because of which you should try to remove the battery and insert it back.

Another cause may be a malfunction in the battery charging circuit. When the battery is connected but not charging, you need to pay attention to the system board. It has a microcircuit with power distribution. If it breaks, the laptop will not charge.

A power failure can cause a malfunction. It is important to make sure that the laptop cable and network adapter are connected correctly.

Need help?

Don’t know how to solve a problem with your gadget and need expert advice? Alexey, a smartphone and tablet repairman at the service center, answers questions. Write to me »

When the battery is connected but not charging, the battery contacts may have been oxidized or dirty. This results in an unstable connection to the motherboard. Such a malfunction leads to a malfunction of the system board, so it will have to be repaired or replaced. It will be much easier to strip the contacts and reconnect the battery.

The power connector could also be broken. To check the serviceability of the connector, you can contact the service center. Any wrong action can lead to more serious problems.

Battery-free safety

The notebook can function without a battery, but the following conditions must be met:

• There must be a stable power source.
• It is important to use a quality power supply, preferably a native one.
• Connect to the network through an uninterruptible power supply.

If the laptop is connected directly to the network, the entire system is at risk, primarily the motherboard and hard drive. Serious voltage drops can burn the device or one of the components.

This outcome is optional, the laptop can be used without a battery without problems for a long time. During strong power surges, there is still a chance that the operating system will fail. Therefore, it is necessary to solve the breakdown and restore the laptop from the battery.

Reinstalling battery drivers

This method is safe and can help if the laptop does not charge from the network:

• Open the “Device Manager” in Windows (right-click on “Start”, select “Device Manager”).
• Expand the «Batteries» section, then right-click and delete all devices that are associated with the battery.
• After that, right-click on the «Batteries» item and select «Update hardware configuration».

Enlarge

This will start the driver reinstallation process. If the laptop still does not charge from the network, then proceed to the next method.

Manipulations with charging and battery

• We check that the power cord is connected and the battery is installed in the laptop. We turn on the device. When the Windows OS is loaded, unplug the power cable.
• Turn off the laptop again and remove the battery.
• Now we connect the power cable, turn on the laptop.
• Go to the «Device Manager» and remove the «Battery with ACPI Compliant Management» according to the instructions from the above method.
• Shut down Windows and unplug the power cable.
• Insert the battery, connect the power cord and turn on the laptop.

The laptop will re-detect the battery when Windows boots up, after which it should charge as expected.

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Laptop crashes

A crash may occur, after which the laptop stops detecting the battery or does not do it correctly. This happens when the user leaves the laptop running on battery power and forgets to turn it off. This is also observed when changing one battery to another, especially if the new battery is from another manufacturer.

In this situation, you need to reset BIOS:

• Reset BIOS settings to optimal.
• Save the BIOS settings and turn off the device.
• Disconnect the laptop from the charger (from the mains).
• We insert the battery into the laptop, connect the charger and turn on the laptop.

Quite often, after these actions, Windows will report that the battery is connected and charging. If this does not happen, then we understand further.

Software from the laptop manufacturer

Laptop manufacturers produce special programs to monitor the battery status of the product. In some cases, these utilities begin to perform battery optimizations.

For example, some Lenovo laptops have a dedicated battery manager. Various modes have been added to it, among which the following stand out:

• Best battery life.
• Optimum battery life.

In some situations, the first mode of operation causes the battery to stop charging. In this case, you must do the following:

• Switch the manager’s work mode and try to charge the battery again.
• Disable this program and check. Sometimes you can not do without uninstalling this utility.

Before removing such software from the manufacturer, you should make a backup of the system. It is possible that this program affects the functioning of not only the battery, but also other components.

Power supply

The laptop’s power input may become less dense over time. When it moves away, the power will begin to disappear from the network, due to which the battery will not be charged.

This is checked like this:

• We pay attention to the power LEDs located on the laptop case.
• You can look at the power icon in Windows. It is different depending on whether the laptop is running on battery power or a power supply is connected to the device.
• The most effective method: turn off the laptop, remove the battery, connect the laptop to the power supply and turn it on. If the device works, then everything is fine with the wires, plug, input and power supply.

Old battery does not charge or is not fully charged

When a battery that has been used for a long time does not charge, it is possible that the problem is in itself. The battery controller could break or the capacity was running out.

After a large number of charge/recharge cycles, the battery loses its capacity. It turns out that the battery is quickly discharged, but not fully charged. Its actual capacity is much less than the declared value at the time of manufacture. You can find out the real capacity of the battery and the degree of deterioration using the AIDA 64 utility.

Increase

Attention should be paid to the parameter «Current capacity». Ideally, if it corresponds to the declared battery capacity. As work progresses (approximately 5 — 10% per year), the value of the real capacity will decrease. This directly depends on the quality of the battery and the operation of the laptop.

When the actual capacity of the battery becomes less than 30% or more, it is recommended to replace the battery with a new one.

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Effect on the battery

Particularly frugal users deliberately disconnect the battery so that it does not deteriorate. There is a certain sense in this, but there are reservations.

Depending on the settings of specialized utilities that monitor the state of the battery, the mode of consumption and the degree of its charge, it is discharged to a certain threshold: 50%, 60% or 100%. Constant connection to the mains recharges the battery, which has an extremely negative effect on the duration of its operation.

As a result, the battery will fail much faster than with proper use. This is especially true for charging up to 100%. Disconnecting the battery will have a positive effect on its condition.

Li-ion batteries must be discharged and recharged or they will deteriorate. The ideal option would be to disconnect the battery from the laptop and systematically charge and discharge it. Such use guarantees the longest operating time.

AuthorMaster Nikolai

Engineer for the repair of mobile and computer equipment in a specialized service center, Moscow. Continuous experience since 2010.
Any questions? Ask in the comments to the article. I try to answer your email as soon as possible. Each case is individual and therefore it is very important that you describe your problem as much as possible and what model of device you have.

How to reset the laptop battery controller

Laptops have gained immense popularity in the past due to their ability to run on battery power, which allowed them to move from one place to another and get the job done almost anywhere. The first models could not last long without a charge, and the nickel-metal hydride batteries used had a bunch of drawbacks. But manufacturers did not sit idly by, and over several decades, battery technology has undergone dramatic changes. Today, the vast majority of laptops use lithium-ion batteries. They can last quite a long time and are devoid of many of the shortcomings of their predecessors.

But nevertheless, they are not perfect and can also become unusable over time. A battery malfunction is expressed in the fact that it is very quickly discharged, or the laptop incorrectly displays the charge level. In this case, manufacturers and sellers of equipment recommend purchasing a new battery. But, since the cost of the original component is quite high, you can try to correct its work yourself. Depending on the extent of the damage, either the battery cells need to be replaced, or a reset of the laptop’s battery controller will suffice.

Note that the battery controller is an electronic device and can also fail. If this happens, then the battery will not work at all. Then all the tips below will not help — you need to repair the controller in the service or replace the battery. However, if the battery is somehow working, then the controller is operational. It only shows incorrect charging values, quickly charges or discharges the battery, and this can be overcome.

It is the last possibility that we want to tell in more detail in today’s article. You can find out in which cases you need to reset the controller, and we will also talk about possible ways how you can do it yourself at home.

When to reset the battery controller

The first thing to do is figure out what the battery controller is. This is a small microcircuit built into the battery itself, which controls its operating condition, as well as the process of charging and discharging. It interacts with the power controller on the motherboard of the laptop itself, and also transmits the necessary system information to the operating system. We hope you understand the diagram. We tried to describe everything in simple terms, but if you want to know the technical details, search the Internet.

When this little chip stops working correctly, it may be necessary to reset the controller. Popularly, this procedure is also known as battery calibration. By and large, there are only two situations when this may be required: incorrect charge display and replacement of battery cells.

Incorrect charge display should be understood as a situation when the laptop operating system, even after a long charge, shows that the charge level is less than 100%, or the charge drops sharply, and the laptop does not turn off after a few hours, as it should, but much faster . Many begin to think that the battery has become unusable, but this is not always the case. The problem very often lies in its controller, which simply incorrectly displays the charge.

Battery cell replacement means that some workshops and service centers can offer so-called battery repacking, that is, replace indoor units that have become unusable. The controller must then be reset so that all new elements are recognized and can be properly enabled. Although, if after replacing the blocks something does not work, you have every right to make a claim and demand that the defects be corrected.

Laptop battery replacement

Now let’s see how to reset the laptop battery controller. Let’s touch on software and manual methods.

Controller soft reset

On some sites you may see a recommendation to use the Battery EEPROM Works program. This is indeed a very powerful and advanced utility that can, in some cases, literally reanimate the battery. But there is one big BUT! To use it, you need to know a lot and be able to understand electrical circuits, as well as have the necessary adapters, which are far from always easy to get on the free market. We will not recommend this program to you for use in home devices, as it is very easy to permanently damage the battery. What then is right for you?

Battery EEPROM Works window

Almost every manufacturer has built-in power management utilities. It can be downloaded from the support site, from the driver download page for your device, and in some cases, the utility may be either preinstalled or written to the included driver disk. Select the reset or calibration function and follow the on-screen instructions exactly. Most often, the utility discharges the battery to zero, after which it charges up to 100%. The controller will remember the extreme indicators of the charge level and will work, as it did immediately upon purchase.

Different laptops may use different software provided by the manufacturer. Let’s take a look at some popular models:

• Acer — The BatteryMark utility tests the battery by fully loading the processor. If inconsistencies in its operation are noticed, a reset and several charge-discharge cycles are performed.
• Asus has a Smart Battery Calibration option in the BIOS on the tab Here you can reset all controller data.
• Dell — here you need to look at the utility for your model on the official website of the manufacturer. If it is not there, you can use other programs, such as Smarter Battery.
• HP — The manufacturer’s website has an HP Support Assistant utility that has a «Battery Test» option.

However, if you still want to perform a hard reset of the controller, you will have to learn how to work with the Battery EEPROM Works program. But keep in mind that you do this at your own peril and risk, so it’s worth experimenting if, in case of failure, the battery will not be a pity to throw it away. This utility allows you to:

• Resets the battery charge/discharge cycle counter.
• Changes the release date of the battery to the laptop’s system date.
• Flashes the actual battery capacity in the controller.

The battery is then considered «new». Correcting the real charge can help if the controller does not show it correctly and the laptop turns off quickly, although the battery may still be working. This must also be done after replacing the battery cells with new ones. Let us remind you once again — first learn how to use this program, since it allows you to do a lot.

Manual controller reset

If for some reason you cannot find or install the power management utility, you can manually reset or calibrate the battery. How?

1. Disconnect the laptop from the mains, then put it into BIOS mode. You can read more in the article how to start the BIOS mode.
2. Leave the laptop and do not touch it until it is completely discharged. Make sure it doesn’t overheat.
3. Without turning on the laptop, put it on charge. Wait until it is fully charged, for this you can leave it connected to the network all night.

In 99% of cases, these simple steps will bring the battery back to life. Well, if this does not help either, buy a new battery, or connect the laptop directly to the outlet, while removing the battery.

Some tips for using the battery

• If you use your laptop only at home, it is best to remove the battery to reduce battery wear. But before that, charge it to about 80%, and also check the charge level from time to time, as it is prone to self-discharge. After removing, connect the laptop to the power supply and use it as a desktop computer. This option is suitable for those who have a laptop only in one place, since with this use you can lose data if you disconnect the laptop from the power source during operation.
• To increase the time you use your device, set the appropriate options in the power plan settings. Use the power saving mode if necessary.

Conclusion

Friends, today we talked about how to reset the laptop charge controller. We learned that sometimes the problem is not only in the hardware of the computer, but also in the software.