Does lower the resolution impact heavily on battery life?

[EMENCII]

Hello everyone,

I saw many reviews on the XPS 13/15 saying how the higher resolution models have better screens but because of the resolution the battery life is impacted quite a bi, and how windows scaling isn't perfect.

So... How much of an impact would it have to run them at a lower resolution as a battery-saving measure?

Should I just consider the lower res models, or are the nicer screens much better? I'm coming from the macbook experience (not an apple fan, just liked it to code) and that had no problems running it for as long as I needed it to (75Wh battery in a 13inch...) and the image was crisp and vibrant (the screen was niiiice.)

Opinions on the whole thing?

 

[ARikozuM]

Running a 4K panel at 1080 would still be a 4K panel since we're talking about physical pixels. 

[EMENCII]

1 minute ago, ARikozuM said:

Running a 4K panel at 1080 would still be a 4K panel since we're talking about physical pixels. 

If the dimensions are the same... I know more pixels are... More, but the backlight is basically the same, and the GPU (even if it's already little) has to do less work...

[ARikozuM]

6 minutes ago, EMENCII said:

If the dimensions are the same... I know more pixels are... More, but the backlight is basically the same, and the GPU (even if it's already little) has to do less work...

It doesn't take much work to run a 4K panel unless you're gaming and even then you're still using the same power (pixel fill rate). If you're eying the 4K panel, just check reviews to see how long the battery lasts. If it can't hold you for the alloted time, just pass for the 1440 or 1080 panel. 

 

Personally, I wouldn't bother with a 4K panel on a 17" or lower laptop unless you need some of the features only 4K panels provide, i.e. HDR. 

[EMENCII]

7 minutes ago, ARikozuM said:

It doesn't take much work to run a 4K panel unless you're gaming and even then you're still using the same power (pixel fill rate). If you're eying the 4K panel, just check reviews to see how long the battery lasts. If it can't hold you for the alloted time, just pass for the 1440 or 1080 panel. 

 

Personally, I wouldn't bother with a 4K panel on a 17" or lower laptop unless you need some of the features only 4K panels provide, i.e. HDR. 

Well, the pixel fill rate is not synonym for power, and my 980 does use some less watts if I reduce the resolution (in GPUZ something lowered as well, can't remember what tho)

Thank you for your answer ^^

[Jrasero]

22 hours ago, ARikozuM said:

Running a 4K panel at 1080 would still be a 4K panel since we're talking about physical pixels. 

Spot on