Who wants to quickly run to an electrical outlet to save their laptop battery? That's not fun, especially if your family works and studies at home these days in various locations that might not have an accessible outlet close by. Fortunately, newer computers are far more effective than older models. These days, even cheap laptops that can replace a desktop and certain gaming behemoths have battery life of over eight hours. Ultraportables typically last 14 hours or longer.
However, the unfortunate fact is that unless you pay attention to some important elements, the battery in your PC or Mac laptop won't last as long as the manufacturer advertises: your power settings, how many apps you're operating, even the temperature of the room in which you're working. The good news is that none of this requires much effort to sort out, once you know which settings to adjust. Let's take a look at the highest-yield, least-effort ways to get the most out of your laptop's battery.
Take use of the Windows Performance Management Tool.
The Windows performance management tool is the first stop on our battery-life improvement tour. It's a slider in Windows 10 that can be accessed via the task bar's battery icon. It may be found in Settings > System > Power & Battery > Power Mode in Windows 11. It strives to organise every setting that has an impact on battery life into a few simple categories.
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Which settings the battery slider actually affects depends on who built your PC. But generally speaking, remember these suggestions:
People who are willing to sacrifice battery life in exchange for speed and responsiveness should use the Best Performance mode. Windows won't prevent background apps from using a lot of power in this mode.
The Better Performance (or Recommended) mode favours power above efficiency, yet it restricts resources for background apps.
Compared to the default settings on earlier versions of Windows, the Better Battery mode provides longer battery life.
The Battery Saver mode, a slider option that only appears when your computer is not plugged in, lowers the display brightness by 30%, pauses Windows Update downloads, halts the Mail app's synchronisation, andsuspends most background apps.
Use the macOS Battery Settings for a MacBook.
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Modern Mac laptops with the most recent versions of macOS feature a wide range of power and battery settings that you can adjust. Open the System Preferences application on macOS Monterey and select Battery.
Make sure "Enable Power Nap when on battery power" is unchecked and "Slightly lower the display while on battery power" is checked. (When Power Nap is turned on and your MacBook is dozing off, it will occasionally wake up to search for updates. Until you decide to wake up your MacBook, disabling it keeps it entirely dormant.) When you disconnect a newer MacBook Pro laptop, if "Slightly dim the display while on battery power" is activated, the display brightness changes to 75%.
You might have access to extra settings in the Energy Saver preferences pane, depending on the MacBook you have and the version of macOS you are running. A couple of these are "Optimized battery charging" and "Optimize video streaming while on battery," which disable HDR video playback. Similar to the previously mentioned Windows performance management tool, certain Macs also include an Energy Mode setting. The following choices are available if Energy Mode is selected in the Battery section of system preferences:
Low Power: Use less energy to prolong battery life.
Automatic: Set your Mac to operate at its optimal performance level.
High Power: Use more energy to perform better under prolonged workloads.
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Airplane mode and app closure might help you streamline your workday.
If you frequently work without a power source, it's a good practise to modify how you use your laptop in ways that are more battery-efficient, such as by only using one app at a time and shutting the others when you're not using them. It's like to shutting out the lights in an empty room. Keep both sets of lights (and applications) on if you frequently switch between the kitchen and the pantry, or between Firefox and Microsoft Word (and open). However, it's advisable to switch off and close everything else if you're just cooking or simply viewing a YouTube video.
