How bad is battery life on Linux laptop?

OmltCat@lemmy.world to Linux@lemmy.ml – 67 points –

I will need to get a laptop in the foreseeable future, and I really want to stick to Linux. However, I may need to be out-of-home for 12+ hours straight in a day. After some research, it seems people are generally not that impressed with battery life on Linux?

The laptop does not need to do anything heavy duty, as I will remote back into my already very beefy desktop back home.

I guess a common solution to this light use case is M2 MacBook if one wants to completely throw battery concern out of the window. Well... let's just say it's a love-hate relationship.

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My thinkpads have always gone further on ubuntu than on windaz.

Yeah my x1 carbon thinkpad has great battery life with Linux.

I’ll use power saver in fedora if needed.

My x1 carbon, with tlp and kubuntu, idling with screen on estimates 20 hours battery life. Haven't had the patience to test it yet.

Is that just forcing the cpu scheduler? I use ubuntu-mate, and theres just a dropdown widget to switch between balanced/power/powersave.

Some addition power management tools I suppose?

Tlp and Intel xtu for undervolting (lowers temps and power consumption, but newer cpus don't support it) are pretty good ideas. If battery life is your perogative, try avoiding discrete gpus, they can be a pain to make sure they don't drain battery in Linux. 14hrs is possible, but you have to spec properly (think thinkpad t480 with dual batteries, and a low power display).