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    M14x Battery Life?h

    Discussion in 'Alienware 14 and M14x' started by Frap, May 27, 2011.

  1. Frap

    Frap Notebook Enthusiast

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    Hey everyone,

    I am going to college in the Fall, and am trying to decide which laptop to buy. I was wondering; what is the battery life on the m14x? Does it switch to the integrated gpu when not gaming (optimus?) I need somethingg with a decent battery life, nothing less than around 4.

    Thanks
     
    Frap, May 27, 2011
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  2. ted264

    ted264 Notebook Consultant

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    it will be great for school dude gets about 5-6 hours with brightness set to low and just word processing the reason i bought it
     
    ted264, May 27, 2011
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  3. Conspiracy

    Conspiracy Notebook Consultant

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    With all the power saving options on, and no gaming, mine is running for about 5 hours with just web browsing around the house.
     
    Conspiracy, May 27, 2011
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  4. Dakks

    Dakks Notebook Consultant

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    How much difference would turning the wifi off do (-> going into notetaking mode)?
     
    Dakks, May 27, 2011
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  5. Conspiracy

    Conspiracy Notebook Consultant

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    Haven't tried it, but I imagine it would add another 30 min or so, maybe more. I'm just wildly guessing here based on how much my iPhone uses with the wifi on, lol.
     
    Conspiracy, May 27, 2011
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  6. Dakks

    Dakks Notebook Consultant

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    Hahah yeah, i was actually thinking about my phone too (my lappy has 15min battery on the lowest settings nowadays so there's no point in testing there). I'm lucky if it lasts an an hour or so on wifi.
     
    Dakks, May 27, 2011
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  7. humjaba

    humjaba Notebook Consultant

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    [​IMG]
     
    humjaba, May 27, 2011
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  8. yhchoong

    yhchoong Notebook Consultant

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    Hmm how come mine gets 3 hours 50 mins with Wifi on and idling on desktop >.<
     
    yhchoong, May 27, 2011
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  9. FlipBack

    FlipBack Notebook Evangelist

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    Do you have all the power saving features enabled? What's your screen brightness?
     
    FlipBack, May 27, 2011
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  10. Dakks

    Dakks Notebook Consultant

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    That figure looks awesome!

    What brightness did you have the screen on, and how accurate is the estimate usually?
     
    Dakks, May 27, 2011
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  11. yhchoong

    yhchoong Notebook Consultant

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    I'm on 2 bar brightness, default balanced plan.

    Is there a difference between the balanced plan and power savings features in terms of consistent usage?

    What I mean here is that if you are using your laptop consistently, the power saving features such as letting the HDD spool down and the monitor turning off will not activate so there is not much of a difference, unless activating power saving deliberately undervolts the CPU and GPU?

    Edit: Ah I did some research online and there are indeed many differences which may not be easily identifiable when Windows is placed under power saver. Reduction of the USB port polling rates is such an example. That may explain the battery life. Thanks =)
     
    yhchoong, May 27, 2011
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  12. humjaba

    humjaba Notebook Consultant

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    I modified my Power Saver settings as follows -
    On battery, it turns of windows aero, turns off all AlienFX lights, turns screen to full dim (which is still bright enough for indoor use). I haven't tried it on this laptop, but in my experience the battery estimate is usually pretty accurate.
     
    humjaba, May 27, 2011
    #12