XPS 15 9500, 4K, poor battery life of 5 hours

Depending on what you're doing with the system, that's likely a good battery run.

Very rarely do you get anywhere near what the manufacturer claims, because the test criteria that determine those battery runs are the equivalent of the old automobile tests that had ideal rather than real world driving cycles.  If you can get more than half the quoted time, you're doing well.

The idealized tests are run with the wireless adapter shut off for extended periods -- using the system with a live network connection will drastically shorten runtimes.  The 4K screen you have will as well vs. a system with an FHD screen.

Unless you're intermittently using the system - cutting off the wireless adapter when not using it, and powering down the SSD/hard drive, you're unlikely to do much better than you're doing now, even with a dim screen.  

There's a pretty good battery run analysis here:

https://www.laptopmag.com/features/laptop-battery-life-claims-debunked

You are getting better than me!  I'm pretty disappointed with mine. Just purchased it thinking I could squeeze at least 6 hours out of the battery but I'm lucky if I get 3 hours.

I'm getting abt 6 hrs on Linux here, wifi on, screen on. Nvidia on-demand scheme.

I consider this a good result, as Linux does not have a good reputation concerning battery life.

Hi 

I'm getting the same battery life for some reason. I've stopped services, dimmed screen and using the low power in power management and still getting 3hr may be 4.

Very disappointed!!!!!

I'm lucky to get two full hours with a 3 month old laptop. I'm running Google Chrome and maybe a secondary program actively when this happens. Dell xps is terrible wrt battery. Terrible.

One thing you can do to help is to reduce the maximum processor state on battery to 99%, which will prevent turbo boost cpu speeds (power is roughly proportional to square of processor speed)

First do this:

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/107967-add-remove-maximum-processor-state-power-options-windows.html 

Then set it to 99% when on battery in the advanced settings of the power plan.

This should make a difference.

5 hours? I’m getting just over 3 hours.  Battery claims are similar to gas mileage claims. Only under the most extreme and unrealistic conditions,  we will never see 7-8 hours. Those claims are NOT real world. Also, the XPS machines run very hot even at idle. Maybe the high thermal temperatures at idle contribute to battery longevity.

The battery "drain" issue is broad. On a full charge, I am seeing just over 3 hours according to Windows 11 Power and Sleep Settings. HOWEVER, re-installing the Dell Power Manager app and selecting "Optimized", my battery longevity jumped from 1-hour 45 minutes to over 3-hours not even at full charge. But it quickly dropped down to 2-hours 31 minutes. The Dell Power Manager clearly does something different than Windows 11 Power and Sleep Settings. Another step you can try is at the Command Prompt, type: “powercfg.exe /batteryreport.” Hit return and then type: “start battery-report.html” to open the new report in your browser. Some say the full charge capacity should match the design capacity. Another interesting area is the Battery Life Estimates. At full charge, I am at best, 4 hours 31 minutes. The purported 7-8 hours is bunk.

Over the last 39-days, my Battery Capacity on average, dropped 3mWh. Although Dell markets the 70N2F95 as 86mWh, the Design Capacity reads 84mWh. Is 2mWh relevant? My Battery Report illustrates a maximum charge capacity of only 78mWh. Is 8mWh significant? Per Dell’s Battery Specifications PDF on Table 16, what happened to the missing 8mWh or roughly 10%? I do not know if these real numbers are normal but raises the question of design capacity versus actual capacity versus marketed capacity.  Notwithstanding, I do believe it is essential to install/configure Dell’s Power Manager.

I think I figured out Dell’s 7–8-hour battery life marketing claim. Dell’s Power Manger application has a feature called “Battery Extender.” It reduces CPU power, reduces screen brightness to 20%, disables keyboard illumination, mutes your sound, and reduces thermal management to “quiet.” Once enabled, projected battery life shot up to 7-hours 38 minutes! That is, if you’re not touching the computer! Under this configuration, one must ask, what exactly am I supposed to do with this laptop? Prior to enabling Battery Extender, on a full-charge, my estimated battery life was 1-hour 45 minutes. I believe the maximum real world battery life is somewhere around 2-hours 30 minutes. The reason for the spurious marketing claim is that you can’t market a product with a svelte portable design, 4K display, robust processor, NVidia graphics, and an illuminated keyboard with 2.5-hours runtime. Having to reduce or disable the very features that led to a purchase decision is not a suitable trade-off to reach performance claims made by the manufacturer. Incidentally, the amount of time it has taken to draft this paragraph, battery life has dropped to 5-hours 30 minutes. I presume having an open Word document is a substantial drain on battery longevity.