Laptop Battery Charging and Basics
Life Expectancy of a Laptop Battery?
The typical lifespan of a laptop battery is 3-4 years. Most laptop owners will start noticing considerably lower laptop battery charging capacity after about 2 years. Typically, a laptop battery will lose about 10-15% of its charging capacity after every year of use. This is why most users are either looking for a new battery or a new laptop after three years. The way a laptop battery is used can help insure you get the fullest use of your notebook batteries. There are some ways to insure you are getting the fullest use of your laptop and battery before making the decision to invest in a new computer.
How Long will a Laptop Battery Hold a Charge?
The typical time a new laptop battery can hold a charge ranges from about 2-4 hours, with a few laptops getting much lower and higher than this average. There are three factors which determine the life of a laptop battery:Laptop Batteries contain a certain number of battery cells which determine how long they can hold a charge; Typically this number is between 6-8, but can be as high as 12 and as low as 4. The higher the number of cells the greater the battery life. Some 12 cells advertise as much as 6 hours of battery life. Lower cell batteries usually get two or less.
Bigger laptop screens usually consume more power, resulting in lower battery life. Higher performance models include benefits such as powerful graphics cards which consume a good deal more battery power than your typical integrated graphics on lower-end models. The other side of the coin is that these bigger, higher performance models also tend to be offered with larger battery sizes such as 9 and 12-cell models, which offset some of the power consumed by the heftier size and performance features. Netbook computers, which are mini, portable laptops with ultra-low-powered CPUs can get up to as much as 9-hours of battery life on a single charge on a 6-cell battery.
The way we use our laptops greatly affects how long the battery will last. Casual web-surfing, typing emails or word documents will not use up the battery nearly as quickly as watching DVD movies or playing graphics intensive games. Also, running lots of programs simultaneously so the hard-drive is constantly being accessed will hasten the battery life significantly. Also, there are things you can do in your power management settings to help extend your battery's charge, such as turning off screen when it's not used, and turning down the brightness when the AC power is not plugged in. As you can seen, there is no specific answer to how long a laptop battery lasts. It depends on the size and performance of the laptop, the size of the battery and the way the laptop is used.
How to Preserve the Life of a Laptop Battery
The obsessive way to care for your laptop battery would be to shut down your laptop every time it is not in use and remove the battery from it and store it in a cool, dry place. Additionally, if you have a nickel based battery, it would help to completely discharge the battery before it is plugged back in and re-charged. It is also preferable to shutdown the laptop rather than to merely close the cover and allow it to rest in hibernate mode. The ideal way to extend your battery would be to turn the laptop completely off whenever it is not being used, even if for a few moments. But is all of this very practical?
The Practical Way to Extend Battery Life
Obviously, being obsessive has a price: Inconvenience. Isn't convenience a great part of the reason we bought our new laptops in the first place? Constantly turning on and off the laptop and removing the battery is not an efficient way to live with your notebook computer. Lithim based Batteries do not hold a memory, so there is no need to discharge them completely and fully recharge them to maintain it's life. If your laptop runs hot, say over 50 degrees centigrate, keep the battery out of the unit while you are plugged into power. Heat can destroy a battery much faster than the way it is used. Do you really have time to wait for the computer to boot up everytime you want to do a simple google search or check your email? The Laptop Batteries Finder has made it easy to find replacement batteries for whatever Laptop or Netbook brand that you have. Don't obsess over Laptop Battery Charging advice. Find yourself a spare battery and spare yourself the inconvenience of constantly worrying about running out of juice.