Laptop Buying Guide: How to Choose the Best Battery Life Laptop

Theoretically, we all know how batteries work. Don’t you remember sitting in your fourth-grade classroom, hooking wires up to tiny lightbulbs and feeling like Dr. Frankenstein?

Batteries can do a lot more than those simple circuits, however. Alas, that means your top grades in elementary school science won’t help you when it comes to choosing the best battery life laptop! The way lithium batteries hold charge and distribute energy is a little more complex, given the state of technology today!

Luckily for you, knowledge is power! This brief guide will explain the ins and outs of how to choose a laptop that can keep on going, hours after a full charge! We’ve even included some tips and tricks to extend the life of your current battery so that you can get the most out of your beloved computer.

Ready to supercharge your brain and increase laptop battery life? Read on to complete the circuit and watch the lightbulb (or laptop!) suddenly go on!

How Do Laptop Batteries Work?

In essence, it’s a battery’s job to take chemical energy and transform it into the electrical power used to keep your favorite devices running. A small chemical reaction is taking place within every functioning battery. This reaction causes electrons in the battery itself to flow.

Think about the typical small AA or AAA batteries you might use to power your television remote control. Its two ends, or terminals, have a positive symbol and a negative symbol marked on the outside. Those free electrons will flow from positive to negative, which creates the current that allows you to change the channel or pump up the volume!

On a very basic level, laptop batteries still work that way today. Different batteries contain different chemicals, however. Each reaction can generate a variable amount of power, which can have a major impact on your computer’s battery life.

Today, there are a few different types of laptop batteries in regular use.

Nickel-Metal-Hydride Batteries (NiMH)

NiMH batteries have about 120 peak watt-hours and you can recharge them about two hundred times. You will find these in older notebooks from about a decade ago, as well as some mobile phones. Due to ‘memory effects,’ these batteries lose the ability to hold a charge over time and thus are beginning to become obsolete.

Lithium-Ion Batteries (Li-ion)

Lithium-Ion batteries are capable of 160 peak watt-hours and you can recharge them 400 times before they begin to experience memory effects. That means they tend to last twice as long as NiMH batteries. They are more expensive because they tend to be harder to manufacture, but are the batteries you’re most likely to find in a contemporary laptop computer.

These days, you’ll even find Lithium-ion batteries in your higher-end cell phones, and plenty of other handheld devices. Each battery contains a tiny controller chip that is responsible for ensuring that devices don’t overcharge. This technology has made a huge difference and is the reason why many smartphones can last a day or more on a single charge each morning.

Lithium-Ion-Polymer Batteries (Li-poly)

Lithium-ion-polymer batteries are not yet featured in many laptops, but they will be soon! Capable of 130 peak watt-hours and 400 recharges, these batteries last just as long as Lithium-ion batteries, but weigh much less. They might make your devices lighter and more portable in the future, so be on the lookout for this up-and-coming technology the next time you’re in the market for portable or handheld tech!

What Affects Laptop Battery Life?

There is nothing more anxiety-producing than looking down at your battery-life icon and seeing that little red sliver. You might only have minutes left before your laptop powers down! What causes your battery life to drain, leaving you stranded and SOL?

Your laptop’s CPU, or central processing unit, is responsible for using up about 50% of your laptop’s power at any given time. The more complex computers become, however, the less likely your CPU is to be the culprit when you find yourself low on juice.

Processor technology continues to improve, ensuring that laptops last longer, even though they utilize the same batteries as previous models. For example, the Lenovo EVO platform boasts nine or more hours of battery life on a single charge. You can view here for more.

If you’re shopping for a new laptop, paying attention to the processor can help you determine just how long you might expect your battery to last.

CPU Cores, Explained

If you have been around for a while, you might remember the television commercials boasting “dual-core” laptops. At the time a laptop with two CPU cores was an innovation that lead to increased battery life and overall speed. Today, laptops have anywhere between two and eighteen cores, so we’ve come a long way!

At the most basic level, each core in a laptop is capable of handling a single task. Ergo, a laptop with multiple cores can handle several tasks at once without slowing down or faltering. Many cores make light work, and these laptops tend to be more efficient.

Most highly efficient laptops have about four cores. If you’re looking to prioritize battery life when purchasing a new laptop, that’s a spec to consider. Your new computer will be fast, efficient, and last a few good hours on a single charge.

Ways to Extend Laptop Battery Life

What? A new laptop? In this economy?

If you’re not quite in the market for the latest and greatest laptop out there, there are ways to boost the battery life on your existing machine. Adjusting the way you use your laptop on a daily basis can have a major effect on how long it runs.

Try Battery Saving Mode

Most Windows laptops have a battery-saving mode. When you select this option, battery-saving features will kick in, allowing your laptop to chug along for a little while longer. You may notice some performance loss, however, so you probably don’t want to try this while gaming, watching movies, or running software.

Don’t Let It Die

If you take your laptop on the road a lot, you might find yourself using it up until it gives up the ghost and powers off. The truth is, letting your battery drain regularly can have a negative effect on its ability to hold a charge. Most experts say there’s only one time you should allow your battery to drop to zero, and that’s when you’re replacing it with a brand new battery, which resets the gauge.

Likewise, you might want to avoid charging your laptop completely. Charging to 100% regularly can also affect the battery life over time. You’re better off keeping it somewhere in the middle and avoiding extremes completely!

Keep It Comfy

Laptops are notoriously finicky creatures, and their batteries are no exception. Keeping your laptop away from extreme heat or extreme cold will go a long way to extending the life of your laptop battery.

Think about your own body. When it’s hot outside, everything feels harder to accomplish and you need to expend more energy to complete the same tasks. The same goes for very cold weather when your body uses resources for shivering that could be better used thinking or working!

Your laptop also diverts resources when the weather is extreme and has to work harder to do the same tasks. This leads to battery life draining quickly – and occasionally, bigger problems!

Disconnect Your Extras

What extras do you have hooked up to your laptop? Every hard drive, webcam, wireless mouse, external mic, and joystick draw power, even when they are not in use. You can preserve that energy by simply unplugging these extras in between uses.

Turn Off Your Bluetooth

Even if you don’t have a million peripheral devices plugged into your laptop, you probably make use of Bluetooth technology. It can be tempting to leave your Bluetooth on at all times so you can pair your favorite headphones with the tap of a button. The truth is, even when your headphones are miles away, leaving your Bluetooth signal on uses battery life.

The same goes for your WiFi signal. If you’re doing offline work, connecting to the internet will use up some of that glorious battery life. You can add a few extra minutes by switching it off until you need it again.

Buying the Best Battery Life Laptop

The details behind the battery life of your favorite laptop are far from simple, but a few tips and tricks can make it much easier to extend the power and keep on chugging! If you’re buying a laptop, you now have the information that you need to choose the best battery life laptop in the showroom!

Take all of that new laptop battery life and get to work – your most productive day ever is on the horizon!

Since you have so much extra power, consider sticking around and checking out the rest of the blog! It’s packed with all of the online news you might be looking for, from tech tips to sporting events!