My 15 Hour ‘Make It Last’ Torture Test: VAIO S-Series ‘Unplugged for a Day’

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In this article, I test out my ‘Make It Last’ scenario – that is just what it sounds like: a svelte setup that doesn’t use any power unless it absolutely needs to but allows me to go about my day and get stuff done. The graphics are set to ‘Stamina’ (integrated) and the power plan to ‘power saver.’

One of the big claims of the new VAIO S-series laptop is that not only does it deliver great performance in a svelte package, but combined with the sheet battery, it can deliver up to 15 hours of usage between charges. I have already tested the ‘Normal Use’ and ‘Hardcore Gaming’ modes … now it is time to see if this thing can actually deliver 15 hours of battery life!

Let’s see how the S-series performs!

Operating Conditions:

Before setting out to test ‘Make It Last,’ I needed to decide exactly what that meant in order to provide a fair test. Here is the screenshot of my power plan:

But there is more – here are some of my other operating conditions:

  • WiFi On at all times
  • The DVD drive powered Off.
  • No external mouse, internal trackpad only
  • No USB usage
  • Screen brightness was set to a minimum I could tolerate.
  • No limits on apps – I used Chrome for web stuff, Microsoft Office apps, and the statistical tools JMP, Minitab, and R, as well as little things like Paint for screenshots as I made progress. On the web, I mostly used email and basic services, but also watched a couple of YouTube songs.

Observations:

As before, I started by charging the VAIO S-series overnight from a nearly drained state, getting everything set up as noted above, and then unplugging the AC adapter. As you can see below, I started the day with both the main and sheet battery charged to 100%.

I chose the day for the test based on only needing to make a couple of drives – to work and home. Each one is less than ten minutes, so I knew the test would be ‘pure.’ I unplugged the S-series just before 6 AM when I started doing some work at home before leaving for the day.

As today was mostly a ‘desk day’ again, the S-series was in nearly constant use, with the majority of my applications open all day long. I simply used the computer as I normally would, and even with the ‘power saver’ power plan, I never felt I was compromising anything!

After three hours of use, I noticed a couple of issues – for whatever reason, the DVD was still powered on, and I had left the screen in ‘auto’ mode, so it was drawing much more power than intended. As a result, it showed that I was on track only to get ~10.5 hours of battery life! I decided to fix those issues and see how things went for the rest of the day.

At the five-hour mark, you will notice something – despite two hours being used, the battery life remaining was more than an hour HIGHER than before – that is a three-hour swing, and put me on target for at least 13 hours of total life.

After seven hours – two hours later – only one hour had ticked off the battery life: this means that despite constant use, I was looking at getting as much as 14 hours. It seemed that the system was catching up after I fixed the drain issues.

Nine hours in, and things seemed to have stabilized – two hours more had ticked off the clock, still on track for at least 14 hours.

Between nine and eleven hours, I was mostly just using the web browser, and I noticed that once again, my drain had decreased – so suddenly, it seemed that I might reach fifteen hours! Also, it was then time to go home!

After thirteen hours, I was using the system a bit less due to around-the-house things – the timer indicated a possible seventeen hours of battery, but I wasn’t believing it!

Between thirteen and fourteen hours, I was doing work with multiple apps, and as a result, the battery life dropped by two hours – and back in line with fifteen or so hours.

Just before the fifteen-hour point, I grabbed this screen showing only ten minutes remaining. Seems like it would just make fifteen hours.

After this, I kept using the system, with the battery not quitting until just after 15:15 (fifteen hours and fifteen minutes) before it was forced to hibernate.

Conclusions:

I was absolutely stunned at the results – after messing up the display brightness, I expected to have to abandon the test. So I was thrilled to see that when pushed, the VAIO S-series can actually exceed 15 hours of battery life!

However, I need to be honest – I will never use this mode. I like an external mouse too much to stick with the trackpad, particularly since the positional sensitivity of the mouse click position is my biggest nitpick with the system. I also found that running the screen so dimly caused my eyes to be tired at the end of the day, and not using a USB port is just unacceptable.

But I DID leave on the WiFi all day – if I disabled BlueTooth and WiFi, I imagine it might be possible to approach sixteen hours of battery life.

One final thing worth mentioning – while there were many compromises, the core performance of the system was more than enough to meet my daily needs even in ‘power saver mode.’ Most times, in battery-saver mode, you can really feel the pain of the trade-off, but not here!

As I said, I was completely amazed – I got more than 15 hours of battery life while still using all of my daily apps. The VAIO S-series makes it possible to have a solid performing system and all-day battery all in one package!

Next up – I try a ‘Lo-Carb Gaming’ challenge, testing the VAIO S-series in balanced mode with integrated graphics while playing older games such as Unreal II and Quake III!

Remember to check out the VAIO site for more details and offers!

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About the Author

Michael Anderson
I have loved technology for as long as I can remember - and have been a computer gamer since the PDP-10! Mobile Technology has played a major role in my life - I have used an electronic companion since the HP95LX more than 20 years ago, and have been a 'Laptop First' person since my Compaq LTE Lite 3/20 and Powerbook 170 back in 1991! As an avid gamer and gadget-junkie I was constantly asked for my opinions on new technology, which led to writing small blurbs ... and eventually becoming a reviewer many years ago. My family is my biggest priority in life, and they alternate between loving and tolerating my gaming and gadget hobbies ... but ultimately benefits from the addition of technology to our lives!