Tech tricks: Improve your laptop's battery life with these tweaks
What's the story
Laptops are our go-to devices for work and entertainment, but their battery life could often prove to be a limiting factor. However, by making a few simple changes to your laptop's settings, you can easily extend its battery life. And, the best part is, these tweaks are pretty easy and can be done in no time. Here's how.
Brightness
Adjust screen brightness
Reducing screen brightness is one of the easiest ways to conserve battery power. Most laptops offer a function key or a slider in the settings menu to adjust brightness levels. Lowering it by even 10% can make a noticeable difference in battery longevity. Consider setting it to an automatic mode, where it adjusts according to ambient light conditions. This helps maintain optimal brightness without excessive power consumption.
Background apps
Manage background applications
Many apps also run in the background without you knowing, eating up valuable resources and killing battery life. Look for task manager or system preferences to see apps running silently and disable those which aren't required immediately. This will reduce CPU load and increase battery duration by minimizing unnecessary processes eating up energy.
Power options
Optimize power settings
Most operating systems come with in-built power management features to improve battery performance. Access these settings through your control panel or system preferences and choose a power-saving mode designed for longer usage time. These modes usually throttle down processors, dim the display after a period of inactivity, and restrict background activity - all contributing factors in extending battery life.
Connectivity features
Disable unnecessary connectivity features
Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and other connectivity options are convenient but can drain batteries when left on unnecessarily. Turn off these features when not in use by accessing network settings or using keyboard shortcuts available on many laptops. Disabling them conserves energy, as they continuously search for connections even when idle.
Software updates
Update software regularly
Keeping software updated is the key to get the best performance and efficiency out of hardware and apps on your device. They directly affect how long batteries last between the charges. This is mainly because updates tend to include bug fixes - specifically aimed at enhancing overall efficiency. This includes energy consumption patterns on the devices themselves, thereby contributing towards prolonging their operational timespan per charge cycle. Over time, this brings better results overall.