Windows 10: Issues with Battery Life Estimate on a new laptop

I've purchased a new Dell XPS 13 a week ago, and the battery estimate setting has just been going haywire?


It'll show 2 hr 45 min remaining on 95%, then bump it up to 11 hrs at 92%, then it'll drop back down to 3 hours at 90%.


I've contacted Dell and they checked that there's no issues with the battery itself or hardware, so it's got to be an issue with how Windows estimates the remaining battery life.


I've also tried to reinstall the OS and going through a few charge cycles to let the laptop "learn" how long it lasts on a full charge, but the problem still persists.


Does anyone know how to solve this issue? I'm concerned because I wasn't expecting issues like this on a pretty much brand new laptop, and Microsoft customer service hotline sucks I've been left on call for ages and no one picked up the call.

:)

 

Battery life estimates wrong

Battery is in new laptop so I don't think its battery. I used a battery condition application which confirmed battery is at spec capacity. I begin this inquiry when other people in forums complained about new laptops that had similar issues. Can't believe
they all had bad batteries. Fast Startup seems plausible given how it works. But it's interesting that even if its not a Windows issue, that it cannot correctly give a user a relatively accurate battery life report. I've had in the past used Mac's and even
Linux desktop OS that gave better more accurate estimates. What good is a battery level status if it doesn't work?

 

Battery life estimates wrong

I have a Lenovo IdealPad and was reading a couple other forum questions about their laptops having battery estimate problems. These ranged from a loss of capacity after being off over night, such as mine losing over 15% even as the laptop was shut down overnight.
To a rapid drop which serious affects the estimated time left of a charge. I mean for example if using my laptop and it estimates my life as say 60% which translates to 3 hours 40 minutes but then 15 minutes later I am at 50% and 2 1/2 hours left? Doing the
same tasks and haven't changed brightness or anything?

This makes the battery estimates pretty much useless and how can I go from 87% capacity when I shut down my laptop to 70% capacity in the AM when I boot up? How can I loose over 15% capacity when the PC is off? Either some of us have some serious parasitic
drains on batteries and/or we have some serious issues with Windows being able to determine battery capacity. I've used laptops for years and for the most part battery life estimates have always been pretty stable and accurate. But lately I have noticed that
many laptops only show percentage left and not time left by default. Is this trying to conceal a inaccurate system? When I am charging my battery the estimates to full charge seem very accurate. So why are discharges so bad, that we now resort to percentages
rather then time ?

[Moved from: Windows / Windows 10 / Performance & system failures]

 

OS battery life hours estimate question

If you Generate Battery Usage Report in Windows 10 the battery life estimates there are based on actual observed drain. I see no reason why the taskbar icon wouldn't be based on observed drain too.