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2020 Dell XPS 13 (9300) battery life: UHD+ (4k) vs. FHD+ (1200p)
Hi,
I'm considering purchasing a 2020 Dell XPS 13 (9300), but still have to decide on the screen resolution.
The UHD+ (4k / 3840x2400) sounds gorgeous, but reviews suggest that it might reduce battery life by up to half of that of the FHD+ (1200p) screen.
Is there any information/experience/experiments/tests/reviews that compare the battery life of the following configurations/setups:
1) UHD+ (4k) @ full 3840x2400 resolution
2) UHD+ (4k) @ reduced 1920x1200 resolution
3) FHD+ (1200p) @ full 1920x1200 resolution
?
In other words, when in need for long(er) battery life, would (temporarily) reducing the UHD+'s resolution to, say, the FHD+'s resolution considerably increase battery life, possibly up to the genuine FHD+'s battery life?
Thanks!
Best,
Stefan
ejn63
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July 27th, 2020 03:00
Reducing the resolution will have little to no effect on the battery runtime -- beyond that, you're likely to find the appearance of the display unacceptable. Notebooks are designed to run the screen at the fixed resolution they're capable of -- anything lower will be blurry.
StMane
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July 27th, 2020 05:00
thanks, @ejn63 !
can any one comment on whether the battery life/runtime difference between FHD+ & UHD+ is indeed (up to) a factor two?
Thanks!
Stefan
StMane
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July 27th, 2020 05:00
Thanks, again
Does touch vs. no touch have a significant impact on battery runtime?
ejn63
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July 27th, 2020 05:00
Likely not significant, no. There is of course one more USB peripheral attached, which does draw power - but nothing like what an FHD screen does (not to mention the added drain from the GPU, which has to work significantly harder to render the much larger number of pixels in an UHD display).
ejn63
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July 27th, 2020 05:00
The answer is yes - the UHD screen will cut the battery life in half. If the system is rated for 10 hours FHD, you'll see about five UHD.