The UL Procyon Battery Life Benchmark produces a score measured in hours and minutes. Each battery life scenario produces its own score. Combine scores from different scenarions to create a battery life profile.

The battery must be at least 80% charged before you can start a battery life benchmark. We recommend starting the test with a fully charged battery. The benchmark will run until the system goes into hibernation or shuts down. After the test is complete, reconnect the charging cable, restart the computer, open the Procyon app and then go to the Results screen to see the battery life result.

PC setup and configuration

To produce comparable and consistent results, start with the PC’s factory settings and a fully charged battery. 

  1. If the device is new, or the battery hasn’t been discharged for a while, follow the manufacturer’s advice to calibrate and condition the battery.
  2. Apply the following settings:
    1. Set DPI scaling to 100%
    2. Disable WiFi / Bluetooth / Cellular
    3. Disable Screen Saver and Monitor Timeout
    4. Disable search indexing and automatic updating
    5. Under Sign-in options, Set Require Sign-in to Never
    6. Set the screen brightness level to 200 cd/m2
  3. Unplug peripherals that consume power, such as external keyboards and mice, USB memory sticks, etc.
Luminance is occasionally expressed in Nits. Nit is a non-SI name used for units of luminance. A nit is equivalent to the SI unit, i.e. 1 nit = 1 cd/m2.

Screen brightness settings

Screen brightness can have a significant effect on battery life. To produce comparable results, you should calibrate every device you test to the same screen brightness. We recommend setting the screen brightness level to 200 cd/m2.

If you don't have access to a luminance meter, you can calibrate your devices by comparing the brightness to a reference level such as another monitor, light-box or similar. Alternatively, place your devices side by side and adjust the brightness levels by eye.

Be wary when using a device's built-in brightness setting to calibrate screen brightness. Different screens offer different levels of maximum brightness. The 50% brightness setting on one device may not be equal in luminance to the 50% setting on another device, for example.

Recommended process

  1. Reboot the system.
  2. Plug in the power cable.
  3. Wait until the system battery is fully charged.
  4. Open the UL Procyon application and start a Battery Life Benchmark. 
  5. Unplug the power cable when prompted. 
  6. The benchmark will run until the battery is depleted. 
  7. After the system has switched off, plug in the power cable and turn the system back on. 
  8. If Procyon is still running, it will complete the test and present the result. If Procyon is no longer running due to the system shutting down, start the application manually. Procyon will then recover the files saved during the benchmark run and present the result on the Results screen.
UL Procyon benchmarks use real applications whenever possible. Updates to those applications can affect your benchmark score. When comparing two or more systems, be sure to use the same version of each application on every system you test.