GS40 or GS60 Battery Life?

So my 2013 Razer Blade is coming to the end of it's life and these days there are many similar laptops with much better pricing. I am strongly leaning toward picking up a MSI GS40 or GS60 laptop, but the one massive red flag is battery life.


I have been reading reviews online and the results are all over the map. This one ( http://www.notebookcheck.net/Xotic-PC-MSI-GS60-6QE-002US-Notebook-Review.152667.0.html ) says that it will struggle to hit 2 hours on power saver, which is certainly a no go. That said, something seems fishy with those results, as >2hrs on power saver at idle is just horrendously bad for a Skylake powered machine. If it's true I certainly wont get this machine!

On the other hand, this review ( http://www.kitguru.net/laptops/zardon/msi-gs60-6qe-ghost-pro-4k-laptop-review/20/ ) suggests 2hrs gaming, and up to 5hours with light usage, and that's with the 4k screen, which are normally battery killers.

Having reviews disagree by almost 150% renders those reviews pretty much obsolete.

So I was hoping some owners could help me here. If you have a GS40/GS60, what kind of real world battery life are you getting? I don't really care about gaming battery life, gaming on battery sucks anyways due to GPU limiting. It's the general day to day number I am interested in. Would you for example get 4+ hours with the screen at medium brightness just surfing the web over wifi? I think that's about my cut off point for useful ness.


Also if you could, could you please tell me your specs. Most notably CPU version and screen resolution.

Thanks a ton for answering, I think a lot of people are looking for these answers and nobody seems to be providing them! Cheers.

 

The GS40 will get a bit longer than the GS60 yes, as for battery life it really can depend on power settings and that the GPU is off properly.

 

GS40 gets about the same battery life as GS60 because last time I checked, GS40 gets about 2.5 to 3 hours of battery life.

 

Ya the GS40 Will be slightly better just due to the smaller screen, neither are going to be "great" for battery life, however hopefully give you enough when you need it by properly adjusting power settings.

 

@Alex From what I've read online about the GS60 6QE the battery life is abysmal, do you guys have any knowledge whatsoever as to what we can expect for the GS40? I'm not expecting miracles here but if it's not at least 3 hours for web and browsing then it really isn't worth the money for a laptop imo.

 

I'm not expecting it to be worlds better than the GS60, with some good power management i would assume 2-3 hours on it, that way anything more is positive.

 

You have to keep in mind that the GS60 has a 6 cell battery and the GS40 has a 4 cell battery. So the times will be relatively close because of the decrease in screen size goes with decrease in battery size. But if you get the 4k GS60 then it will probably be worse either way

 

Rather than cell count, life is based on the watt-hour capacity of the battery (You can have many smaller cells or fewer larger cells, it makes no difference).

 

You can have larger cells in fewer numbers vs smaller cells in larger numbers, since GS40 has smaller screen it would drain less power than GS60.
GS40's battery capacity is a 4-Cell 61Wh (approx. 5600mAh).

 

Pre-ordered my GS40, I've read someone with the GS60 6QE on a youtube channel has been getting around 5 hours off charge so hopefully its similar. Will let you know when mine arrives in under 2 weeks.

 

Look forward to hearing your results. I read the same 5 hours from one source but I've also seen sub 1 hour battery results so I'm having trouble deciding who is right.

 

Thanks for the replies. As you are both not tied directly to MSI k perhaps you can make a suggestion for me.

I'm trying to replace a 2013 Razer and I'm looking for:
4+ hours
>5lbs
15" or smaller
970m or better
2k USD or less
Not garish ( clean. No neon or bullet whole decals etc... )


Does such a beast exist outside of Razer? If I take battery life off the list its easy to find. But a laptop with poor battery is useless to me.

 

Was that an extreme test? Practical usage test is up to 3 hours so this is the reasonable number.
Extreme test condition can give you 5~6 hours.

 

It does depend on usage, I can get over 4 hours out of my GS30 just browsing the forums.

 

It didn't sound extreme but I also question the validity of the claim. I can't remember which video I've watched where it was said though. Either way, the moneys left my account now so I might as well see how it is, can always send it back if it really isn't fit for purpose. Then it'll only leave me with the Aorus X3 as I'm no fan of Gigabyte's P34W design.

 

(sorry wrong thread)

 

I've owned 2 GS60's (first gen and now second gen listed in my sig) and battery life for general usage is 2-2.5 hours on average over that time. It sucks compared to a lot of other machines, but when weighing the rest of the stats (thickness, weight, performance, expansion options, screen quality, above average build quality, awesome keyboard) I'm still a happy camper.

But, this depends on what you need when mobile and away from a plug. I'm personally never that far from a plug, and when I am use a tablet or smartphone. When I use my GS60, it's as a full blown desktop replacement and it has yet to disappoint, even after extended usage while pushed hard, no complaints.

All in what you are looking for I suppose.

 

This is exactly why I bought myself a Galaxy Tab S2 last week. Between the two, there's never a time where I'll be without some useful form of device for attending to work emails etc or browsing the web where I won't have access to a plug. So far my experience with the GS40 is that the battery does get over 4 hours if brightness is low.

 

Over 4 hours is a good battery time, just don't do the battery calibration the utility that MSI preload with their new laptops. It increases the battery wear and it doesn't help at all.

 

Ah good thing you told me that, I saw it but was too lazy to actually run it and forgot, but was planning to at some point. Thanks !

 

I've owned both. Gs60 4k and gs40 currently.

The ghost gets 2 hours max non gaming Low brightness.

Phantom gets 4 hours easy on medium brightness, non gaming.

Battery wise the ghost has a 4amphour hour pack vs the phantoms 8amp hour pack. Though the ghost has double the voltage.

 

Yes, you always have to mutliply the voltage by the current to get the power of the battery which will determine the life it can produce.

 

The capacity is higher on the GS40 so that pretty much dictates battery life.

 

Did you own GS60 4K with Skylake?

 

yup. loved that thing! screen a bit dim but i miss my 4k video editing and photo viewing

 

Than why did you replace it?

One more thing, I'm currently leaning more towards the XMG P506 custom (1tb ssd, 500gb HDD, 6700 Skylake, 970m 3gb, 16gb ram 2400) but am also considering MSI GS60 6QE (4K, Skylake 6700). Are there any owners of P506 around, the battery life concerns me the most, which one has better GS60 or P506?

 

The size of the gs60 has a big footprint when its closed. it wouldnt fit inside my bag (im coming from an 11" gaming laptop, i travel a fair amount)

the xmg looks pretty badass. i wouldnt doubt it can get 4 hours in a charge as XMG claims. it could well be the 4k display killing the battery on the gs60. im sure running x4 any resolution requires a lot of energy

 

I agree. Easily 4 hours + on the GS40 on medium brightness, balanced power setting, doing routine work and browsing.