Lithium-ion batteries—like the one in your laptop—degrade over time. You can maximize its lifespan by keeping it between 40 and 80 percent charged. That’s according to Battery University, a website with all kinds of information about batteries provided by Cadex, a consultancy that helps large companies like Amazon and Motorola get more out of their batteries. If you want your battery to last as long as possible it shouldn’t be completely full, or completely empty, very often.
That’s easy enough to do if you mostly use your laptop on the go. But if you, like me, mostly use your laptop at your desk it can charge fully, and then stay fully charged for hours at a time. That’s a quick way to diminish the life of the battery, but both Windows and macOS devices offer ways to keep your battery below 80 percent. Here’s how they work.
I’m writing this on my Macbook Pro, which is plugged into a power supply. Mac computers have a built-in battery health management feature that keeps track of your charging habits and prevents the battery from fully charging unless you’re likely to unplug it soon. For example, here’s how my usage today looks:
You can see my battery slowly lost power overnight, when I stopped using it for the day. I plugged it in to my desk a little after 6 a.m., as I do every morning, but the battery didn’t charge until a little bit before noon. That’s because I rarely unplug my laptop in the morning after I plug it in but I do sometimes take it on the road later in the day.
All of this happened without me having to configure anything, which is nice. We don’t always stick to our routines, however, so the computer allows users to take control when needed. If the battery isn’t fully charged, click the battery icon in the menu bar and click Charge to full now. You can also turn the battery management feature off entirely. In System Settings head to Battery, click the…
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