Can you imagine having to run to the nearest power outlet to recharge your laptop battery? The problem is exacerbated if your family is working and learning from home these days in different areas of the home that don’t have convenient outlets nearby. Laptops today are much more efficient than they used to be.
How to Increase Laptop Battery Life
A modern laptop, even one that replaces a desktop computer, can run for over eight hours on a single charge. The battery life of ultraportables can reach fourteen or more hours.
Despite these difficulties, you need to pay attention to the power settings, how many apps you run, and even the temperature of the room, in order to get your PC or Mac’s battery to last as long as the manufacturer advertises. Once you know what settings to adjust, none of this requires much effort to figure out. Find out the easiest and most effective ways to get the best performance from your laptop’s battery.
Performance Management in Windows
We begin our tour of improving battery life by exploring the Windows performance management tool. The battery icon in the taskbar is linked to the slider in Windows 10. It can be found in Settings > System > Power & Battery > Power Mode in Windows 11. There are a few easy-to-understand categories that are meant to group all the settings that affect battery life.
Depending on the manufacturer of your PC, the battery slider controls different settings. But generally, you should follow these guidelines:
- Users who choose Best Performance mode trade-off battery runtime for faster responsiveness and more speed. When this mode is on, Windows will not stop apps from consuming lots of power while they are running in the background.
- It prioritizes power over efficiency, but limits resources for background applications.
- Improved battery life compared to previous versions of Windows when using Better Battery mode.
- With the Battery Saver mode, a sliding choice displayed only when your PC is unplugged, the brightness will be reduced by 30%, Windows Update downloads will be blocked, Mail will no longer sync, and many background apps will be suspended.
Using macOS’s Battery Settings on a MacBook
Several settings are available on Mac laptops running up-to-date versions of macOS. Go to System Preferences in Mac OS Monterey and then click Battery.
The “Slightly dim the display while off battery power” option should be selected, and the “Enable Power Nap while off battery power” option should be unticked. When Power Nap is enabled and your MacBook is sleeping, your Mac will wake up every now and then to check for updates.
When it is disabled, the MacBook stays asleep until it is woken.) On recent MacBook Pro laptops, whenever you unplug it from power, the display brightness adjusts to 75%. There may be additional options in the Energy Saver preferences pane depending on what MacBook you have and what version of macOS you have.
One option is “Optimize video streaming while on battery,” which will disable HDR video playback while on battery, while another is “Optimize battery charging.” Macs also have a setting called Energy Mode, which is very similar to Windows performance management tools.
When you see Energy Mode in the Battery section of system preferences, you’re presented with the following options:
- Low Power: Battery life can be increased by reducing energy usage.
- Automatic: Make sure your Mac automatically uses the best performance level.
- High Power: During sustained workloads, use more energy to improve performance.
Simple Workflow Tips: Close Apps, and Use Airplane Mode
You should make it a habit to reduce your laptop’s battery consumption when you work off the plug, such as by only running one app at a time and closing all other applications when you aren’t using them. When a room is vacant, it’s a bit like turning off the lights.
You may want to leave the lights (and apps) on (and open) when you’re going back and forth between the kitchen and pantry all the time, or Firefox and Microsoft Word. Turn everything off and close all other programs if you’re just cooking or watching a YouTube video.
If you’ll be working on a document that doesn’t require web access, make sure to turn off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth in macOS and Airplane mode in Windows, as well as shut down other programs while you single-task.
As well as minimizing distractions, Airplane mode removes a significant drain on batteries: not only the wireless radios themselves but also background apps and processes that rely on them continuously, such as notifications and updaters.
Close applications that use a lot of power
You’ll quickly drain your battery if your PC has multiple applications and processes running simultaneously, and chances are you’re not actively using everything your PC is doing. When using Windows, the Settings app is your first stop to identify energy-guzzling programs.
The Windows 10 search bar can be used to find out which apps are consuming the most power by typing “See which apps are affecting your battery life”. The list is available in Windows 11 under Battery Usage within the Power & Battery settings pane.
It is a good idea to close apps that you rarely use if you see that they are using lots of energy. This is usually the result of apps being opened in the background and forgotten about, such as Spotify or Adobe Reader.
Then, you can either use the search bar to see which processes start up automatically when you open Windows or open the Task Manager application. You can see every utility that runs as soon as your PC starts up on the Startup tab. It is usually safe to disable anything called “Download Assistant” or “Helper.”.
In such cases, you can disable the Spotify Web Helper unless you frequently open Spotify playlists, tracks, or albums from web links. Mac OS users can purge similar apps from the Login Items tab by searching Users & Groups, then clicking the Login Items tab, where you will find a list of apps that will run in the background when your Mac starts.
Adjust the graphics and display settings
In laptops with powerful graphics processors, only graphically intensive applications will use the graphics processor, while everything else will use the CPU to process graphics. You can assign each application to a graphics-processing chip if your system makes use of NVIDIA GeForce graphics (located on the right side of the taskbar in the notification area) by clicking on the Program Settings tab of the GeForce control panel.
The discrete chip should be reserved for games and apps like Adobe Photoshop and Premiere that require advanced photo- and video editing and everything else should be handled by the integrated graphics.
You can repeat the same steps on a Mac by opening the same Battery preferences pane as described earlier and ensuring the “Automatic graphics switching” option is checked, as shown in the screenshot from macOS Big Sur above.
The GeForce panel offers more fine-grained control over each program, so you need to rely on macOS’s judgment when it comes to selecting which app uses which graphics accelerator.
Take Heed of Airflow
Thanks to software and firmware improvements as well as advancements in battery technology itself, most laptops today come with lithium-polymer batteries that require little maintenance. You do not have to perform a full battery discharge regularly to calibrate your battery, nor do you need to be worried about damaging your laptop if you completely drain the battery.
It is important to be aware of heat(This can be accomplished by periodically blowing out some dust with compressed air.) A more frequent issue occurs when the laptop is placed on a pillow or blanket that either obstruct the ventilation system or retains the heat.
You can prevent this by placing your laptop on a solid surface such as a table or desk, which won’t flex and obstruct airflow. since it will accelerate the battery’s death. You must make sure that ventilation holes are not blocked. A laptop’s vents and fan can be cleaned to prevent dust buildup.
Keep an Eye on Your Battery’s Health
The charging capacity of all batteries degrades over time, so eventually they will need to be replaced.Every now and then, it’s a good idea to check on a battery.
The battery status can be viewed with the Option key held down in the menu bar of an Apple MacBook laptop. If your battery is showing a “Replace Now” or “Service Battery” message, it is likely that the battery is functioning much below its original capacity.
If you go to the Power tab of the System Information app, you can get a more detailed description of how many charging cycles your battery has endured. To know how many more cycles you have left, compare the cycle count value with Apple’s rated maximums.
You’ll need to dig into the world of the command prompt if you want an equivalent battery-health indicator in Windows 10. Using the command prompt, here’s how to generate Windows battery reports.
Review the Battery Management Settings
Modern laptops can now monitor a battery’s temperature history and charging pattern automatically. The manufacturer can use this information to adjust the “full” charging so that it remains below 100% of the battery’s capacity if it is not regularly used.
It’s a good idea to monitor the battery, but if you’d prefer to disable it to ensure the battery is always charged to maximize capacity, many manufacturers let you do that. The Energy Saver settings can be found in the System Preferences window on a MacBook running macOS Catalina or later. You can deactivate the “Battery health management” option by clicking Battery Health, followed by OK.
Carry a Battery Backup
Powered by your laptop’s charger, these external power sources plug in similarly to a charger. The cost generally ranges between $100 and $200, but they come with adapters to allow them to be used with many different laptops. These programs are compatible with more than one operating system, and even with other devices like your phone or tablet.
You can maximize your battery life with these strategies. If battery life is one of your main concerns when shopping for a new laptop, take a look at our roundup of the best laptops we have tested.
