Battery life after switching to Windows 10 Home

[sahmad88]

I am new to Windows 10 S. My battery life dropped by half after switching to Windows Home. I don't remember the exact numbers, but I had something like an estimated 9 hours and 47 minutes in Windows 10 S at 100% battery. After switching, my batter dropped to 4 hours and something. Now, only after 5 minutes, it dropped to 3 hours and 32 minutes with 95% batter left. Do these numbers sound right?

Dropbox is the killer for me. I think I could make do in Windows 10 S, but I need dropbox. I tried the Windows Store version, but it isn't nearly as functional and fluid as the desktop app.

 

[jnjroach]

This has always been the issue with Win32 Apps, they are designed for desktop environments. For me Outlook and Skype for Business and Teams are my battery killers...

S Mode because it relies on UWP Apps which are designed around mobility they battery life is sustainable.

Now, you may be able to tweak the settings of Dropbox so that it isn't doing real-time synching, see if it has an asynchronous mode.

 

[sahmad88]

Originally posted by jnjroach
This has always been the issue with Win32 Apps, they are designed for desktop environments. For me Outlook and Skype for Business and Teams are my battery killers...

S Mode because it relies on UWP Apps which are designed around mobility they battery life is sustainable.

Now, you may be able to tweak the settings of Dropbox so that it isn't doing real-time synching, see if it has an asynchronous mode.

This is the weird part. I literally just switched to Windows Home but hadn't even installed any other apps yet and I was getting those weird battery readings. My readings are still crazy. I have been just playing with a jigsaw puzzle app and browsing the web since I last posted. That was about 40 minutes ago. I did install Dropbox, but that was the only app I have installed since switching. I have Dropbox set to not download anything to my computer, I am keeping everything online. It is syncing the file structure, but that is it. My battery at one point showed 4 hours left. But that was a brief moment. It has been everywhere from 2 to 4 hours of battery left, going up and down, in those last 40 minutes. Right now it is showing 2 hours and 59 minutes with 74% battery remaining. At this rate, I will be getting 2 and half to 3 hours of battery usage off of a full charge. I get that win32 apps use more battery, but is this really right? Might my usage really go to 1/3 of the estimated time if I just stayed in Windows 10 S? With the only win32 app being dropbox that is not downloading a single file?

 

[bulls96]

Just switch from to OneDrive fulltime haven't noticed any difference. And I don't have Dropbox.

 

[jnjroach]

This is the weird part. I literally just switched to Windows Home but hadn't even installed any other apps yet and I was getting those weird battery readings. My readings are still crazy. I have been just playing with a jigsaw puzzle app and browsing the web since I last posted. That was about 40 minutes ago. I did install Dropbox, but that was the only app I have installed since switching. I have Dropbox set to not download anything to my computer, I am keeping everything online. It is syncing the file structure, but that is it. My battery at one point showed 4 hours left. But that was a brief moment. It has been everywhere from 2 to 4 hours of battery left, going up and down, in those last 40 minutes. Right now it is showing 2 hours and 59 minutes with 74% battery remaining. At this rate, I will be getting 2 and half to 3 hours of battery usage off of a full charge. I get that win32 apps use more battery, but is this really right? Might my usage really go to 1/3 of the estimated time if I just stayed in Windows 10 S? With the only win32 app being dropbox that is not downloading a single file?

You would need to see which processes Dropbox installs that run in the background. The background processes of many Win32 Apps are what causes performance and battery issues, it is one the main reasons I won't even install Chrome on a Mobile Win 10 device.

 

[Drael646464]

You could probably use some middle man service to switch everything on dropbox over to one drive.

Honestly I've always found dropbox to be a process hungry app. I've got a family member with an older PC, and everytime I use it, I kill dropbox to make it faster. I have no idea why it's so inefficient as a program, but it's definately using more resources than it should.

 

[Daniel Rubino]

Battery estimates are 100% based on current activity (CPU), disk access and screen brightness. If the CPU is doing some background work even anti-malware scanning in Windows 10 S mode and you check the estimate it will be lower than when it's not doing that.

Battery life estimate is a snapshot. It's like if you ran to the bathroom (literally) and looked at your Fitbit to see your HR at 130 BPM - concluding your resting heart rate is now 130 BPM would be very inaccurate.

In other words, battery life estimate is one tool for understanding battery, but it's FAR from the only way one can and should understand battery life.

Better method? Work on the Surface Go for 2 hours in normal settings straight. Do what you normaly do. Use a timer, record battery life at beginning and end then do the math.

 

[sahmad88]

Battery estimates are 100% based on current activity (CPU), disk access and screen brightness. If the CPU is doing some background work even anti-malware scanning in Windows 10 S mode and you check the estimate it will be lower than when it's not doing that.

Battery life estimate is a snapshot. It's like if you ran to the bathroom (literally) and looked at your Fitbit to see your HR at 130 BPM - concluding your resting heart rate is now 130 BPM would be very inaccurate.

In other words, battery life estimate is one tool for understanding battery, but it's FAR from the only way one can and should understand battery life.

Better method? Work on the Surface Go for 2 hours in normal settings straight. Do what you normaly do. Use a timer, record battery life at beginning and end then do the math.

Thanks, Daniel. This makes a lot of sense based on what I have been seeing. I was worried at first but my usage has shown that battery life won't be a problem for me. I love my Surface Go and couldn't be happier with it.

 

[BanditoTR]

Have you tried the Web App Version? Works great for me on Ubuntu

 

[Insti Gator]

I actually used mine for 6 days in S Mode, then unlocked to Windows 10 Home and haven't noticed a single change. After upgrading, I have not installed any new software nor changed my usage habits and the battery estimates and time I get on each charge is identical.

 

[Mike Buckhurst]

After 1 day, I don't think switching out of S mode has made it worse than the figures suggest for S mode. Watched an episode of Chuck, read a few emails and browsed for a couple of hours, that in total didn't use more than twice the battery, than leaving the thing over night in stand-by, this has always been my biggest issue with Windows 10, why does standby cost so much battery life?

 

[Insti Gator]

After 1 day, I don't think switching out of S mode has made it worse than the figures suggest for S mode. Watched an episode of Chuck, read a few emails and browsed for a couple of hours, that in total didn't use more than twice the battery, than leaving the thing over night in stand-by, this has always been my biggest issue with Windows 10, why does standby cost so much battery life?

Totally agree on standby.. It's why I set mine to 'hibernate' after 40 mins. It goes into a cold-boot state, I've timed and it takes between 8-12 seconds for everything to come back up but it uses ZERO battery. I'll take the 8 second delay to have maximum battery the next time I open the device. Especially since it might be a day or two between uses and in that time on standby the battery would be nearly gone.

 

[MrCraigBaxter]

I've just switched to Windows 10 Home and did a test before and after. In S mode, running Edge playing YouTube videos it lasted for 6 hours 7 minutes. In Home doing the same test it lasted for another 30 minutes... I expected the opposite tbh

 

[Zeem Frostmaw]

Also had no issues with battery, and also wouldn't be the slightest bit surprised if third-party cloud software is hitting it.