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xps 13 battery life maximization
I just bought a new-ish Dell XPS 13 2015 model on ebay.
It is reading a 15 hr battery life (great!) once charged.
I would like the forum's advice on how to maximize the battery life of the unit, and also to get it set up for best user experience.
1) I was told it's better if I don't have battery charge to 100% but rather to cap the max charge to 90%. Does anyone know how to do so? Is there a third party software I should install? I don't see a way to use the control panel settings to limit the charge to 90%.
2) the laptop does not seem to go into sleep mode when the lid is closed. What settings should I check? Such an issue causes the laptop to lose full charge when I pack it away in a hurry to carry and go.
3) Is there anything else I can do to maximize battery life? Is there any smart 3rd party software to give me more working hours? Any settings I should pick other than dimming the screen? Is there a way I can turn off the backlit keyboard to save energy?
4) The Dell ships with Win 8. I don't like Win 8.. Can I install Win 7 and if I did, would I lose out on battery life? I saw that installing Win 10 has a lot of problems, and that Win 7 install seems to have BIOS issues, according to the forums. Or alternatively, if I keep Win 8 is there a way I can get rid of those *** tiles and make the OS at least look and feel like Win 7?
Dell-SreejithR
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November 6th, 2016 13:00
Thank you for your message.
A battery is made of different cells. One cell will approximately give you about 20-30 minutes of back up based on the usage. A 6 cell battery will give you about 120 minutes of back up on a normal usage.
We would recommend you to charge battery completely & use the computer just on battery power until the power drains down to 10-15 %. Charge the battery again, try this at least 2-3 times a week. This will improve the battery life & have a good charge & discharge cycle & improve the battery life.
We do not recommend using any 3rd party application to improve the battery life.
Please open control panel-power options- change plan settings – change advanced power options – scroll down & change the lid close option according to your need (You can chose to put the computer to sleep, shutdown or do nothing when you close the lid)
We wouldn’t recommend you going back to Windows 7 as that will void the software warranty. Windows 10 is pretty stable now & all the issues reported have been fixed.
Press the F10 to enable to disable keyboard backlight (Fn+F10 if F10 alone does not work)
If you would like to stay on Windows 8 & have a Windows 7 look/theme you can download classic shell here http://bit.ly/2f7vnFO