thats it - but i always use it with the AC power on - without it - screen too dim no matter how bright i set it - and also a bit more sluggish
Then use the SETTINGS that allow you to fine tune how it behaves. The screen brightness DEFAULTS are in the BIOS. And theres no reason to have the screen dimmer uness YOU decide on this.
BALANCED (all) fo e.g has settings a mile long for how it behaves on battery and on AC. Screen brightness can be at 100 percent, CPU power can be at 100 percent on battery or AC, its a co puter and YOU are the one meant to be driving it and configuring it to suit your own usage. The reason they say "balanced" is because someone else guessed what you might want... Its for dummies.
maybe its because of the power saving mode in windows power settings ?
There are 3 default powe settings. All of these can be configured in at least 100 ways on both AC and battery... It seems you didnt bother!
Or you can create a 4th, 5th etc to use for different purposes.
i believe i had it at performance before - used more more i am sure but felt better to use - i believe - i will put it back to performance mode in windows and leave it at 80 - 85
No go through all the advanced settings and CONFIGURE THEM to make the thing work properly without wasting power... The battery config is just 1 thing to configure.
You can set the screen brightness with shortcut keys, and default settings in BIOS, and in windows. For AC and for BATTERY. Theres no reason it will be darker on battery unless you fauled to configure it. And you can do it in dells software or windows too...
As for CPU power etc then its configured BY YOU in the power settings... On AC and on Battery...
As is the point where your PC sleeps, shuts down, or hybernates on AC or Battery. YOU DECIDE.
You know when I say you dont drive your computers and never configure anything, this is 1% of what I mean. Then you keep on restoring them back to an earlier state! I fine tune this stuff year on year. And notJUST this stuff. So a backup or a fresh install is the worst of all worlds.