The balancing act between more powerful laptops and the need for power conservation continues in the Dell XPS 13 2-in-1. Things have progressed though, the low power Intel Kaby Lake processors are more efficient than ever, Intel HD graphics are less of a power drain than before and even the QHD+ display doesn’t require as much power as you might expect.
All that said, balancing all that power with battery life takes a little work. That’s why I put together the Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 battery charging super guide. Hopefully it should help you get the most out of both your laptop experience and the battery.
Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 battery
The Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 uses a built-in 4 cell 46Whr lithium-ion polymer battery. It is smaller than the battery in the standard XPS but is also lighter. As the intent is portability and flexibility rather than productivity, this seems a reasonable compromise. Dell says the battery is good for up to 9 hours while watching video and independent testing so far gets somewhere close to that.
The Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 features Dynamic Power Mode technology, which scales the processor clock speed up and down as apps demand which helps keep power consumption to a minimum. This is automatic so no action need be taken to activate this feature.
You do not need to completely drain lithium-ion polymer batteries like you used to with older chemistry. In fact, draining them completely can shorten the operating life of lithium-ion polymer. Charge the battery as and when you please and you should get most, if not all the advertised 18-24 month life out of the pack.
Maximizing battery life in the Dell XPS 13 2-in-1
While 9 hours is a respectable time, there are some quick tweaks you can make to get as much life as possible out of your laptop battery. Here are a few of them.
• Turn off Wi-Fi when you’re not using it.
• Find a screen brightness setting that is as low as you can go while still enjoying the experience.
• Set the Windows power plan to Power Saver or Balanced.
• Remove or disable any unnecessary apps that start with Windows.
• Avoid having multiple windows or apps open at once while running on battery.
• Get to know the Dell Extended Battery Life Options, especially the Longevity setting.
• Keep your BIOS up to date as Dell often release power-saving features.
• Disable unnecessary Windows Services.
The Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 can also tell you how healthy the battery is so you can ensure it is running at its full potential.
1. Open a CMD windows as an administrator.
2. Type or paste ‘powercfg /batteryreport /output “C:\battery_report.html”’ and hit Enter.
3. Navigate to your C: drive and double click the report.
4. Look for Installed Batteries and Recent usage. This will tell you how healthy the battery is and what apps or actions use the most power.
While the Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 battery isn’t as large or as long-lived as many competitors, it is more than enough for most users. Follow these tips and you should get as much battery life as possible from your new laptop!
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