I spent a few weeks watching a Zenbook Flip drain its battery doing different things via Ubuntu 16.10, and here I present the results.
Charging while idling (screen on):
| Trial Number | Initial Charge | Final Charge | Time (hours) | Total Charge Time (hours) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Average | 2.565 | |||
| 1 | 0.120 | 1.000 | 2.409 | 2.737 |
| 2 | 0.091 | 0.990 | 2.000 | 2.225 |
| 3 | 0.041 | 0.990 | 2.534 | 2.671 |
| 4 | 0.013 | 1.000 | 2.568 | 2.602 |
Admittedly, this has less to do with the OS than the hardware, but it was easy info to collect while running the other tests.
Discharging with video playing and full screen brightness:
| Trail Number | Initial Charge | Final Charge | Time (hours) | Total Discharge Time (hours) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Average | 4.268 | |||
| 1 | 1.00 | 0.029 | 4.050 | 4.171 |
| 2 | 1.00 | 0.028 | 4.242 | 4.364 |
I was pulling video from YouTube via Firefox, specifically https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrlHtqTL_8o&list=PLU0V6ITiWqjhk5k-7hAasE5oAQspuTYgp. Gaming playlists make a good source of non-stop video.
Discharge passively with screen at 40%:
| Trial Number | Initial Charge | Final Charge | Time (hours) | Total Discharge Time (hours) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Average | 9.733 | |||
| 1 | 0.975 | 0.029 | 10.381 | 10.974 |
| 2 | 1.000 | 0.029 | 10.630 | 10.947 |
| 3 | 1.000 | 0.029 | 7.068 | 7.279 |
I’m not sure what happened with the last trial. Nothing should have changed between them. Regardless, I think the picture is clear enough.
I had started to do passive discharge times at full brightness, but later decided against it. The data I gathered is below:
| Trial | Initial Charge | Final Charge | Time (hours) | Total Discharge Time (hours) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1.000 | 0.030 | 7.462 | 7.693 |
This looks similar to the odd trial from the previous table, so that might offer an explanation.
The last test I ran was battery rundown while sleeping. This test should be completely independent of Ubuntu, but it’s still useful.
Rundown time: 35 days from 100% to 13%
I only have the patience for one trial, but I’m more than satisfied with the result. Presumably it could go 40+ days before losing state.
It looks like Ubuntu 16.10 will give you anywhere between 4 to 10 hours depending on usage, where 10 hours is barely any usage. I’m inclined to believe Windows performs better, but I haven’t run the tests myself.