Our Laptops are getting powerful each generation. They now have faster processors, blazing-fast storage, better and bigger screen. Everything has come so far but the battery improvement and increase in power density of batteries are still in progress. It all comes down to battery life at last. If there is no battery, there is no work. Most of us don’t like to carry a charger every time and sometimes an outlet may not be available easily. This is why we want to share some tips to help you improve laptop’s battery life. These practices can help you get more juice out of your device and make your device healthier. These are some tips on how to increase the battery life of your laptop.
All of us might have faced this issue sometimes. We need to send an emergency mail or fill a form and do a presenation. But at the most crucial time, we notice that our laptop’s charge is getting low. You also can’t seem to find charger or a nearby outlet. Sometimes we notice fast draw of charge when enjoying movie or binging a series on Netflix. At these times, we all wish for a longer and bigger battery life.
All these newer powerful processors, wireless connection, bigger screens, and higher resolution require a lot of power. This is why we need to have a good track of all the power expenses and check on the lifeline of our working device. Currently, we use Lithium Polymer and Lithium-Ion batteries in our mobile devices and laptops. Companies are racing to find the best solution for energy storage. In the future, we might see an ultra high capacity power storage solution. Till then let’s work on improving the durability of what we have. The tips written below may look simple but they do add up to give you good benefit and increase battery life of laptops.
1) Turn on Power Saving Mode
If you are running your laptop without charger and doing normal browsing, watching movies, binging shows, doing office and school work then you should keep your computer in power-saving mode. In Windows 10, you can just click on the battery icon on the taskbar and shift the slider to “Best Battery Life” or eco mode. Another method is going to the control panel and changing settings. For this open Control Panel then go to System and Security and click on Power Options. There select “Balanced” or Power saving mode.
In case you need to do heavy work, processing, editing, rendering, the analysis then only change the mode. This way you can conserve battery by taking fewer computer and hardware resources. We recommend using a charger or adapter for heavy work and gaming sessions. These days processors and graphics cards are very smart can save a lot of power by themselves.
2) Turn off lights and reduce the brightness
At first, reduce the brightness of your screen because it is one of the biggest power consumers. These days laptops have big screens such as 14″, 15″, 15.6″ and 17″. These new high-resolution panels now have higher brightness these days. This is why you should dial down the brightness to at least 50%. Dim your screen according to time and need. If it is day time and there is sufficient ambient light then do reduce it even more. If you are in a poorly lit situation then use sufficient light so that your eyes are not strained. You can also try to drop the resolution from 1920×1080 to 1366×768 or 1280×720 to save some power. These settings can change the power consumption of your portable device.
These days many gaming laptops, notebooks come with a backlit keyboard. It is very useful in low light situations for typing and using. But if you don’t need it then turn that off as well. In a well-lit location, they may not be the use of keyboard backlight. Some models even have fancy RGB which takes even more power. So try to turn that off as well.
3) Switch off Unimportant Wireless Services and use Airplane Mode
These days WiFi is everywhere and it is now becoming a basic utility. A huge amount of energy is used in keeping the wireless network alive. Out laptops and phones use a lot of power to run their modem. WiFi, Bluetooth, and mobile network take a lot of power. In regions where there is bad or no reception, our devices work harder to search. So just make sure you are in a place with the good network coverage. But most importantly try to use wired connections such as LAN cable. Turning off WiFi and using the LAN cable with RJ45 jack can help you save a good amount of battery in the office. Hardwire connections are also safer and stable compared to wireless connections.
If you are using WiFi and nothing else then switch your laptop to Airplane Mode and then use WiFi. This turns off other unnecessary wireless connections such as Bluetooth and Hotspot. Creating a hotspot and unnecessary Bluetooth search takes a lot of power. WiFi works in Airplane mode so don’t worry.
Next is turning off cloud services which constantly sync. You might have Google Drive, One Drive, and other services which constantly sync with cloud services. These backup services are great but they take up energy constantly. Therefore disable them when they are not needed. It is best to do manual synchronization instead of automatic sync. These things can help you increase laptop battery life.
4) Use less peripherals
USB devices such as an external mouse, keyboard, joystick, and headphones take power from your laptop to operate. If you want to conserve power don’t use them until and unless they are necessary. We are not saying that you should give up on comfort and productivity. But if your primary goal is to improve laptop battery life then you should try to reduce their use. Also, don’t use a wireless mouse or keyboard because Bluetooth takes up a lot of energy.
Many people also have a habit of charging their smartphones with their laptops. This is one main cause of power to withdraw as well. Use separate chargers and don’t do this in order to conserve power for your machine. Some people also use 3rd party laptop cooler with one and two fans. These are USB powered and take a toll on your battery. So try to reduce its use as well. You can also disable some devices like CD/DVD drive from Device manager as an extra step.
5) Lower the power demand and work on one
We know multi-tasking and productivity are very important these days. But if you have a constraint of power then streamline your work. Don’t open unnecessary programs if you don’t need them. For example, if you need to just type a document then don’t open a movie in the background and browser with unnecessary tabs. All of these take processor, RAM, and storage. So they all take power from the source.
You might save quite a bit of energy if you just open a word processor and music in the background instead of opening a bunch of applications. This will help you focus on the work and also conserve energy for a long day. Internet browsers also take a lot of resources when media is being played. For example, your computer works harder to play a video on YouTube compared to a website with just texts like Wikipedia. Therefore do keep in mind about these things as well.
6) Buy the best and original hardware
Some laptop manufacturers do offer bigger battery sizes such as 6 cells, 8 cells, and 12 cells. If possible always take the biggest size possible considering weight you need to carry. The next thing you can do is buy power-efficient hardware. There are mobile processors in the market that give both performances and save power. These have a low base clock and consumer very less energy in idle mode. Gaming devices and powerful processors have high-performance CPU so they might consumer power and give less life span.
There are other hardwares that you should look out as well. These are details that many people don’t think of. For example, an SSD with no moving parts consumers less power compared to a mechanical Hard Disk. Different types of display panels also affect your battery consumption. LED is more efficient than LCD. 4K panel consumer more power compared to FHD panel. Try to make a balanced choice before making a purchase.
Using original devices and accessories also makes a lot of difference. Many people change their chargers and batteries. Some people opt for genuine products while some might go with duplicate accessories. Duplicate chargers and cables can definitely worsen the lives of electronic devices. Therefore always fo for genuine original products.
7) Keep good care of your battery and laptop
Firstly tune up your system and remove unnecessary programs. Don’t let unnecessary tasks run in the background. Check your startup list and disable unwanted software. Run Defragment scan on your hard disk and do a clean up with antivirus as well. Defragmentation can help boost up disk speed. It is advised not to defrag the SSD. Uninstall all the unwanted software, applications, and addons from your PC.
Also Read: UPS vs Inverter Mode
Clean your insides of the laptop by opening. We recommend cleaning the dust and dirt build-up in the fans and other important parts. If needed change the thermal paste on the processor and graphics cards as well. All of these helps to reduce the workload and temperature of your laptop. If there are unnecessary tasks in the background and if you have dirt build-up, your device will heat. In order to cool down the system, the fans will ramp up. We know fans take more battery so eventually, you lose power.
It is recommended to not overcharge your devices. This causes strain and can cause a reduction in battery life. It is recommended to only charge a laptop when needed. Keeping the laptop plugged in even while it is at 100% is not recommended. Do charge in time and turn off your PC when not in use. All these things should help you to get more juice and increase your laptop’s battery life
