Would disabling the touchscreen on an XPS 15 help battery life?

[Headshot_]

I'm interested in picking up an XPS 15 with the 4K display because the microsoft store is selling it for the same price as the FHD version over at the dell store. I personally won't be using the touch screen so would disabling it in the BIOS potentially help battery life?

I mean it has a 97Wh battery already but still. I could use the extra battery life.

 

Thanks!

 

 

[vanished]

Actually I'm not sure what kind of power that would draw... curious to see if anyone else knows.  I think the majority of the power goes to the core components (CPU, etc.) and the display light itself, with each being roughly 4 or 5 W each at idle at minimum brightness with my laptop (but of course that will vary).  I bet you'd see more savings running the display at 1080p vs 4K than you would by disabling the touchscreen aspect.

[ARikozuM]

Not really as the touch function doesn't take much more than the entire panel itself. The higher pixel count kills it more than the touch does.

[EunSoo]

That intrigues me as well because to tell if it actually uses more power would you need to run a stress test while actively using the touch screen or could you just leave it on and compare it to being off. I can test all 3 out tomorrow if you remind me

Edited September 25, 2017 by SCGazelle

[Headshot_]

41 minutes ago, ARikozuM said:

Not really as the touch function doesn't take much more than the entire panel itself. The higher pixel count kills it more than the touch does.

True. The major power hog comes from the display. I'd assume the touch sensing itself uses slightly more power than a trackpad

[ARikozuM]

31 minutes ago, Headshot_ said:

True. The major power hog comes from the display. I'd assume the touch sensing itself uses slightly more power than a trackpad

If you need to be untethered for the longest amount of time, go 4K non-touch. 

If you need more [above], go Full HD with touch. 

If you need even more [above's above], go FHD non-touch. 

 

People like me will need touchscreens for note-taking and medical labels. Also touchpads suck and trackpoints are better.

[Arika]

if it does it's not going to do to much in terms of battery life. There is a significant increase in battery time on non-touch vs touch screen laptops of the same model, but disabling it will likely just turn off the controller/disable the inputs, not prevent power draw for it