How best to use your laptop – on the battery itself or with the charger connected? This is an eternal question for many, like not all laptop users. This topic returns periodically when one of our friends or we buy a new laptop. Currently used batteries in laptops have one common enemy, which is time, as the battery capacity decreases with time. Below are the advantages and disadvantages of 3 modes of powering the laptop: working on the battery itself, working on the battery and power adapter and working on the power adapter itself.
In this configuration, you must first of all avoid discharging the battery to 0 %. It is also worth recharging the battery in a situation when it is discharged e.g. up to 60%. This is correct for lithium-ion and lithium-polymer batteries. To prevent the battery from being discharged to 0%, the operating system settings should run the options responsible for hibernating or shutting down the computer when the battery is less than 5-10% charged. On Windows family systems this is automatically set to 7%.
In this usage mode, the battery charges to the full, then the computer switches to mains power. This solution has disadvantages that affect the life of the battery. It is worth noting here that the optimum working environment for lithium-ion cells is from 0 to 25 degrees Celsius. Higher temperature translates into lower battery capacity. For example, continuous operation at 60 degrees Celsius for 3 months can cause the battery capacity to drop by up to 40%. If you decide to do this, you have to disconnect your computer from the power supply at least once a week and completely discharge the battery.
The preferred way to work in situations where you use your laptop exclusively at your desk. Charge the battery to 50-60% and then remove it from the computer. However, remember that the battery in your laptop works like a UPS. When you unplug it, any power outage will cause your computer to shut down or reset itself. Working on the power supply itself is preferred when your laptop is used for gaming.
How your laptop will be used depends only on the person who uses it. On our website, however, we recommend to mix up the 3 power modes we presented and use them alternately.
Author: Krzysztof Wołongiewicz
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