Laptop Battery Tips

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Battery research is focusing heavily on lithium chemistries, so much so that one could presume that all portable devices will be powered with lithium-ion batteries in the future. In many ways, lithium-ion is superior to nickel and lead-based chemistries and the applications for lithium-ion batteries are growing as a result.
Lithium-ion has not yet fully matured and is being improved continuously. New metal and chemical combination are being tried every six months to increase energy density and prolong service life. The improvements in longevity after each change will not be known for a few years.
 
There are newer and better sources of portable power than lithium-ion. It's pretty old by technology standards.

They're looking for ways to reduce the size of lithium iron phosphate cathode batteries. They have much better power retention and have a very high operating temperature threshold. They're mostly used in power tools and hybrid vehicles right now but in a few years we should start seeing them in electronics.
 
Coding Horror: How Much Power Does My Laptop Really Use?

Here's what I learned:


1.The CPU is, by far, the biggest consumer of power in a laptop. No surprise there. If you want to drain your battery lickety-split, run a bunch of apps that peg your CPU at 100 percent.
2.Putting your hard drive to sleep isn't worth it. Ever. You save a whopping.. single watt. Why bother?
3.For maximum battery life, dim your screen. I was surprised that the screen alone accounted for 25% of the total power draw of my laptop at idle. You can moderate use of WiFi or your hard drive, but you can't exactly moderate the use of your screen. Plan accordingly.
Of course, your mileage may vary.
 
Laptop IBM ThinkPad - Battery charge usually 100% - 96% - 100%.

Started discharging gradually - down to 81%, unplugged from wall; at warning (10%)
replugged wall.

Running normally (sometimes slow) 6+ hours; charge level still 10%...?

Thanks, browser
 
The only way to really keep a battery from going bad is to only charge it when it is completely dead, and do not use your laptop while it is charging. Most ppl just ignore that, in result their batteries hold a charge for 10 minutes if they get lucky.
 
^ That's only true for Nickel Metal Hydride batteries. No notebooks are manufactured with NiMH anymore.

Lithium-Ion don't have the same memory. The best thing you can do for a Li-Ion is ensure it's charged fully before unplugging it. They love to be at max capacity. You can charge them any time however.
 
Baez is right now, the new lithium ion batteries do NOT have the memory effect, only the older ones do. On the flip side their life span is less, but you don't have to worry about the memory effect.
 
I've always found that batteries have fallen well behind in manufacturers priority list. It's great having power/graphics etc. but bejeezus, its a laptop!! give us some battery ;)
 
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