Laptop suppliers are not necessarily exaggerating things, when they speak of battery life ‘up to’ a certain number of hours. Those two little words may lead us to believe we can achieve it by being really smart, which is not always practical. Today we ponder why does laptop battery life often disappoint us, even when the product is brand new?
Why Can’t We Achieve the Same Laptop Battery Life
Well first of all, we may focus on calendar life as opposed to time between recharges, and only charge up to 80%. And secondly, our lifestyle may require high screen brightness, online streaming, and running several processes in the background.
These conflicting demands almost guarantee that the manufacturer’s estimate is beyond our reach during an average workday. Perhaps it might help if we read the small print. But who remembers to do that when we are shopping for the latest shiny new hardware?
The website Make Use Of, suggests that laptop battery manufacturers may test their products on lower power tasks. This could, for example, involve continuous video playback with brightness around 50%, and Wi-Fi disabled.
That strategy would certainly help explain why does laptop battery life disappoint us in real time. If we were to adopt the Make Use Of regime, we could find that our central processing unit was just ticking over, because we were not using system tools, just tapping into memory.
But That Mode Does Not Suit My Lifestyle
There is nothing wrong with that! We are probably mostly in the same boat when it comes to laptop charging. We might be able to come a little closer to the ‘up to’ estimate, while following suit with 50% screen brightness and Wi-Fi disabled. But that’s not what we purchased the laptop for.
It’s a fact of laptop battery life that these ‘up to’ estimates are generally beyond our reach. Although we could extend battery life by turning on Wi-Fi only when we need it, and not running multiple programs in the background.
By all means turn your screen brightness down, but not to the extent that you cannot read this clearly. Try to resist charging the battery fully, unless you really need it. Life is full of compromises and laptop batteries are no exception. But at least we brought you closer to the whole truth!
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