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As hybrid working continues laptops are becoming more important than ever in our businesses. With a laptop, staff can access files and attend important meetings wherever they are. The problem is that we have to rely on good battery life to do that.
Laptop batteries give you several hours of use when they are new, but over time they start to shorten their use span. This is frustrating when you are considering hardware costs because you’d be forgiven for thinking that you need to replace instead of maintain.
In this blog post, we will be looking at 8 different things you can get more out of your laptop battery life and lower your hardware costs.
Our 8 tips for longer laptop battery life!
Most of these tips you should be able to try yourself, but if you are in any doubt get your IT professional (hello!) to help.
Tip 1. Lower the display brightness
The more light you have on your display, the more battery power it uses. By lowering the screen brightness in your settings you will reduce power consumption. Remember you can also use the brightness keys (usually F1 and F2) on the top row of your laptop without searching settings.
The best brightness for your eyes in most environments is 40-60%.
Tip 2. Reduce battery use in power and sleep settings
We recommend your IT technician adjust this for you, but if you are confident (and have permission) you can adjust power settings to slow the use of your laptop battery.
Start by searching for the power settings.
If you’re using Windows, open the search on the TaskBar. Type in “power settings." This directs you to the power, sleep, and battery settings in your system settings.
Look for any tips for increasing battery life. This might include creating a rule for when your laptop sleeps or goes dark if it detects inactivity.
Then review the settings, such as Screen and Sleep, and Power mode. Find the ones that will reduce your PC’s battery consumption. This will extend the time you can go without a new charge.
Tip 3. Enable the battery-saver mode
You don’t have to wait until your PC hits 10% for it to go into battery-saver mode. You can control this and enable it yourself in your system settings.
We recommend adjusting your setting to 20%. It will slow the rate at which the last 20% of your battery depletes. That should give you enough time to finish your document or plug it in during a video call.
Tip 4. Use the manufacturer’s battery calibration tool or app
Manufacturers will have their own PC maintenance tools installed directly onto your laptop. Using the tool to calibrate your laptop can correct issues with battery longevity (to a degree).
Their app will usually be on the Task Bar (unless you’ve hidden it). Again it’s worth making sure your IT professional is aware of your intentions, as they may be required to do this for you either under an internal directive, service or warranty agreement.
This tool will tell you if your battery needs calibration. If it does follow the prompts to activate that process. If it doesn’t, then try a different tip.
Tip 5. Keep your laptop away from heat and freezing conditions
Both excess heat and freezing temperatures can be bad for a computer. This includes shortening the battery life.
You should never leave your laptop in a car on a hot day or when it’s freezing outside. The same is true if you work with your laptop near a larger window.
Tip 6. Start using Microsoft Edge Browser for its efficiency settings
We all have multiple tabs open at once when we work online. The hidden problem with that is that they drain your battery power.
We recommend using Microsoft’s Edge browser. It has been gaining in popularity ever since it incorporated the Chromium engine. This is the same one Chrome uses.
The browser has several power-saving features that you can enable in your settings. Search “sleeping tabs” in Edge settings to find these. They include:
Enable efficiency mode (choose from the available options)
Enable Sleeping Tabs and fade them when asleep
Choose when you would like to put inactive browser tabs to sleep to conserve battery power.
Need more reasons to switch to Microsoft Edge? Read our full guide here.
Tip 7. Turn off unnecessary apps
This is the same as mobile device use - closing inactive apps saves your battery.
Remember it isn’t just that you have an app open that is using battery life. Every open app has the power to download updates or run system processes. So, whilst it is unseen to you, these apps can be working behind the scenes and contributing to power loss.
Tip 8. Get a computer tune-up with your IT professional
Getting a tune-up from your IT provider can solve a lot of different issues. This includes laptops that feel sluggish or have battery problems.
Check with your in-house team, or external provider when your next laptop maintenance check is due and if it isn’t as soon as you’d like, then mention the issues you are having.
Looking for a laptop tune-up or battery replacement?
We are IT Soho, a team of expert IT professionals serving the London area. Our IT Manager support package includes hardware and software management, as well as online, phone and onsite support. Battery life and its maintenance are one of the areas we consider in our hardware tune-ups.
If your laptop battery life is giving you nightmares, call us today and we will get you sorted out in no time!