eligri97 :
I really wont get even 5h with the Gigabyte Aero? That seems to be the common figure for watching movies on it, and I assume running word isnt much more demanding.
We been doing this for 25 years. In my business we put folks in the field on construction jobsites and in offices where folks do work ... in other words, what many who want to tease students a bit call "the real world". The college campus is usually our 1st entry into this reality. In college, like the office, its all about getting work done. On the college campus, leisure time is scarce ... people are usually busy reading books, taking notes, etc .. and the school provides the appropriate ambient lighting accordingly. This has a significant impact on battery life because ambient lighting is far brighter than leisure oriented areas like the den or a bedroom. Watching movies is generally done in dimmed lighting. Campus type ambient lighting conditions require upping the brightness on any electronic device.
I have been using laptops on an every day basis well over 20 years. I own a 90 watt ampere hour laptop, typing from it now. It's a bit nicer and well built than the Gigabyte as it was custom built to my needs. The 90 AH doesn't last any longer because you slap a Gigabyte logo on the back of the screen
I still have to carry a 2nd battery cause I can't get thru a cross country flight on a single battery. But here's the thing ... On the red -eye with the cabin interior lights dimmed while most folks are napping, I can safely count on getting > 2.5 hours of work done. On a mid day flight ... little more than half that because I have to change the brightness up to the same level that I use in the office when I plug the lappie into a wall socket.
As you have noticed if you have owned a smart phone, one of the things that drive folks to upgrade is that by the time their 2 year contract is over, battery life is terrible. Its well established that batteries lose capacity of time.
In the image we see that we are looking at 75 - 85% capacity after 200 cycles.... let's call it 80%.
If you are going to be out and about campus all day as you have described, it's safe to assume that you will be pretty well discharged by the time you get back so lets be generous and call it 33%... that's 67% of a cycle every day or 244 cycles per year. I'm not accounting for "off campus time because, if anything, your usage will be more demanding.
After the 1st 10 months (9.8) you max charge is 80% of the original charge
After the 1st 20 months (19.7) you max charge is 60% of the original charge
By the time your thru 2 years of school battery life is 50%.
I know with my boys, they are playing with their phones or another device constantly when not working. But even assuming when away from campus for summer semester, and plugged in all the time it doesn't change much unless you yank the battery to reduce heat when plugged in all the time as recommended. I replace my batteries every 2 years, because by that time ... its hard to get anything done when away from an outlet.
I have put 3 kids thru college ... none made it thru with a laptop. I teach continuing education courses necessary for folks to keep their professional licenses. ... I don't see any big high performance laptops. Most take notes and transcscribe them back at home. My middle son recently graduated, in his classes (20-30 students) he said he'd see maybe 2 or 3 laptops,
none of them had the big gaming laptops. My youngest son is in school now, I been on campus, I have meetings there. When he looks around his classroom he sees iPads and other tablets and a few super thin laptops with no real horsepower. What you are looking for is a contradiction. Like a car that gets 0 - 60 in 4 seconds and still gets 42 miles per gallon.
Wanna believe what manufacturer's tell you ? Do you believe that that $175 monitor really delivers 1ms response time, bet ya can't confirm it by a test. As for batteries, read this 1st:
https/www.laptopmag.com/articles/laptop-makers-exaggerate-battery-life
Note the guy with the XPS 13 (by no means a powerhouse) with claimed life of 11 hours and 54 minutes. ga,ong CPus, Gaming GPus, Gaming screens w/ low response times all eat power. Ya can clock down the CPU / GPU but not that fast response screen. The XPS user when going outside the lab into "the real world" got "Maybe got 3 hours of viewing streaming videos and checking email." That's 25% of the claimed 12 hours doing "real stuff" in a "real environment".
So all I'm saying is verify those advertising claims . That guy expecting the 12 hour battery life came to a rude awakening because he believed manufacturer's claims which they back up with tailored lab test (low light / low brightness) conditions so they don't get sued. He wound up experiencing just 25% of the claimed battery life "in real life". Simply put, there's a difference between what ya can "read on the internet" and what you will experience and can verify "in real life".
https/www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DZbSlkFoSU