Microsoft’s new built-in Power recommendations in Windows offers a consolidated set of energy-saving tips, leading to notable increases in laptop battery life, though results vary based on hardware and settings.
Windows users who want to stretch laptop battery life can now rely on a built-in set of recommendations that gathers multiple power-saving changes in one place. Microsoft’s Settings app surfaces these suggestions under System, then Power and battery, where a section labelled Power recommendations offers options tailored to the device. In effect, it packages a series of common battery-saving adjustments into a single action, which can be useful for anyone who does not want to tweak each setting separately.
The list is straightforward but practical. Microsoft’s guidance includes switching the power mode to Best power efficiency, which reduces performance to lower energy use, alongside changes such as dark theme, lower screen brightness, shorter display and sleep time-outs, disabling HDR, turning off the screen saver, and stopping USB devices from drawing power when the display is off. On OLED panels, dark mode can have a more noticeable effect because black pixels are not backlit in the same way as on conventional displays. Microsoft also recommends Energy Saver mode, which limits some background activity and trims power draw when a device is running on battery.
PCWorld recently tested the feature on two laptops and found that the impact can be substantial, although it varies by hardware and settings. On an Asus ZenBook A16 with an OLED screen, the publication reported battery drain of about 17% an hour under standard settings, translating to roughly 5.9 hours of use. After applying all of the Windows recommendations, the drain fell to around 14% an hour and the estimated runtime rose to about 7.7 hours.
The stronger result came on Microsoft’s Surface Laptop, where PCWorld said the machine was losing around 16% an hour before the changes, or about 6.25 hours of battery life. Once the recommendations were enabled, consumption dropped to roughly 8% an hour, pushing the estimate to about 12.5 hours. Microsoft’s own support pages make the same broader point: battery life can be improved by combining display, sleep, brightness and power-mode settings, but the final gain depends on the panel type, the processor, and which power-saving controls are already active. In short, the feature is not a universal doubling of battery life, but in the right conditions it can make a marked difference.
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