Underwhelming battery life of new Acer Swift 3 (SF314-512-52MZ

realLehre · June 2022

I have been making posts about this model (SF314-512-52MZ) for the past few days and I've been torn between returning the device or just try to keep up with it.

Acer claims (on their website) it has about 10 hours of battery life, which isn't close to the best but fair but I've been using this PC and the highest I've gotten so far is about 6 hours.
This is just from watching a local video available in my drive, wifi turned off, screen brightness at the lowest!

I've fulfilled the recommended 3 charge cycles but it's just terrible, really!

(Thread was edited to add model name to the title)

JackE · June 2022

Open Task Manager Startup tab. Please post screenshot of result.

realLehre · June 2022

JackE said:

Open Task Manager Startup tab. Please post screenshot of result.

Here you go

JackE · June 2022

OK, try this. Open Control Panel. Search 'button'. Click 'change what the power buttons do' in left pane. Then click 'change settings that are currently unavailable' near the top of the next pane. Scroll down and UNcheck the box for fast startup if not already unchecked.

Then temporarily disable as many startup apps running in the background as possible. Particularly Edge & NetLimiter. FireFox is preferred to Edge to save energy. NetLimiter signficantly increases battery discharge rates.

Then shutdown Windows normally. Turn it back on. See what happens to discharge rates without these background processes.

realLehre · June 2022

JackE said:

OK, try this. Open Control Panel. Search 'button'. Click 'change what the power buttons do' in left pane. Then click 'change settings that are currently unavailable' near the top of the next pane. Scroll down and UNcheck the box for fast startup if not already unchecked.

Then temporarily disable as many startup apps running in the background as possible. Particularly Edge & NetLimiter. FireFox is preferred to Edge to save energy. NetLimiter signficantly increases battery discharge rates.

Then shutdown Windows normally. Turn it back on. See what happens to discharge rates without these background processes.

Doesn't change anything. Thanks for your time though.

JackE · June 2022

Sorry. Then it must be the programs/activities you are running. The max advertised times are usually a stretch as you might expect. For very minimal activities --- aka nearly idling. 50% screen brightness levels. No peripherals like mice connected to any of the ports. Wifi turned off or in airplane mode when not on line. Things like that. I'm sure you get the idea.

dancemonkeymadness · June 2022

The advertised 10h only comes with optimal power settings. By default, it ships with "balanced" power settings on Windows power management and the GPU's power management - both need to be changed to their optimal battery life setting. Make sure that extra features like Bluetooth and Nearby Devices are turned off. Startup apps or resource intensive apps may drain the battery, as well. Finally, keep the brightness as low as possible on the monitor when trying to preserve the battery.