Charging and managing your battery on the Dell Venue 8 (7840) tablets

The battery life on the Venue 8 tablet can vary a great deal, depending on what you do with the tablet. There are a number of hints and tips that can help you extend your battery life.

The tablet is designed to be used horizontally with the speakers and webcam window to the left. To turn on the Dell Venue 8 (7840) tablet, press and hold the power button found on the top edge close to the right side of the tablet for 7 seconds. After pressing the power button, wait several seconds for the Intel logo to appear, and shortly after that you will reach the Android home page.

• The tablet charges its battery using the micro-USB connector located in the middle of the left edge of the device. You can connect this to an AC adapter or to a computer USB port. The tablet will charge in both cases, but it will charge faster from an AC adapter than it will connected to a computer USB port. To check how much of your battery's charge remains at any time, swipe down from the top of the page and then swipe down from the top where the date and time are shown. The battery icon will show the charge state graphically and with a percentage along the top of the screen.

• You can also display details on the battery use. This display will show where your battery power is going.
  
  To access the power usage, perform the following steps:
  1. From the home page, touch the Apps icon in the center of the bottom row to access all your apps (Figure 1).
     
     Figure 1: Apps Icon
      

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• Touch the Settings icon (Figure 2, you may have to swipe to the second or third page of Apps).
  
  Figure 2: Settings Icon
   

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• Touch Battery to see what is using up battery power. You may see that the Screen uses most of the battery power.
  
  To change the brightness.
  1. Touch Screen.
  2. Touch Display.
  3. Touch Brightness level to adjust the brightness of the screen (Figure 3).
     
     Figure 3: Brightness settings
  
  You can also adjust the time delay before the screen dims when you are not using it under Sleep.
   

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• Some functions on the tablet consume power whenever they are turned on. Turning these functions off when they are not in use can extend the battery life. If you are not actively using the Wi-Fi connection, the Bluetooth connection, enabling the tablet as a Wi-Fi hotspot, or using the broadband connection, you can turn them off to make the battery last longer.
  
  To turn the Wireless or Bluetooth on or off.
  1. From the home page, touch the Apps icon in the center of the bottom row to access all your apps (Figure 1).
     
     Figure 1: Apps Icon
      

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• Touch the Settings icon (Figure 2, you may have to swipe to the second or third page of Apps).
  
  Figure 2: Settings Icon
   
• Touch Wi-Fi.
• Touch the slider to switch the Wi-Fi on or off.
• Touch the arrow in the upper-left hand to go back one page.
• Touch Bluetooth
• Touch the slider to switch the Bluetooth on or off.

• Many apps will keep running once you have started them, even if you leave the app and do something else instead. To turn off unneeded apps that are running on your tablet. Swipe down from the top of the page and then, swipe down from the top where the date and time are shown, touch the Settings icon. In the Device section, touch Apps. On the left side of the screen will be a list of all downloaded apps. Swipe to the left to display only those apps that are currently running. Touch any app to bring up the details. You can now touch Stop to completely turn off the app and reduce the power consumption.
   

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• There are apps available in the Play Store which manage power on mobile devices. Some of these can extend battery life. Use caution when choosing and downloading apps and make sure they are safe to use.