As readers of this blog, and friends will know I am a keen Apple fan. So much so that I have 3 Apple computers in my collection – two Mac Mini’s and a MacBook. It is the Mac Book that I want to concentrate on in this article. In particular the MacBook’s battery life and how to optimize your battery power to get the most out of it.
Laptops are notorious for being great gadgets, but poor on battery efficency. The MacBook is a little different in that it probably has one of the best battery packs around in terms of the amount of battery life that it can provide in terms of no. of hours in my experience. That said the longest I have out of it is about 2.5 hours, still not enough for a long journey here and there. So how can we get more power and a longer run time out of our MacBook batteries?
Over time I have learnt a little bit about this in order to firstly extend the amount of time you get from your MacBook battery and secondly the life of the battery itself. In order to extend your MacBook’s battery for as long as possible it is crucial that you never use it plugged into the mains, unless it needs charging. Batteries work best charged fully when empty, used to they are almost dead and then charged fully again. Charging your battery constantly will your MacBook is being used will reduce the lifespan of the battery. Other top tips for saving battery power are:
- Most modern MacBooks (Intel ones) have an Airport (or wireless) card built in, for connecting to Wireless networks. When this wireless card is not being used then make sure that it is switched off. To do this right click on the wireless icon in the upper right corner of your MacBook and then select “Turn Airport Off”
- Your MacBook will probably also have bluetooth card inside and therefore do that same as for your Airport card. Turn your bluetooth off whenever you are not using it as it is draining power.
- Your MacBook will use significantly less power when you dim the display. To do this select the display option from the System Preferences which can found by clikcing on the Apple menu in the top left of the screen and lower the brightness
- Only have programs open that you are using as additional programs take up memory, which in turn takes up power
Following the above will help reduce the power consumption of your MacBook and therefore make your battery last longer in the short, and in the long term.
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Hey Mark,
Good article, and your 4 tips are very useful for extending macbook battery life.
I just wanted to comment on your statement, ‘Batteries work best charged fully when empty, used to they are almost dead and then charged fully again. ‘
Though this advice holds true for older rechargeable batteries (i.e. nickel cadmium), macbook batteries are lithium ion. They lack the ‘memory’ tick that the old rechargeable batteries suffered from. For these batteries, the best way to take care of them is to charge them at around 10-20% of there capacity, instead of letting them drain completely.
I’ve also written an article on this topic which focuses less on increasing the battery power short term, and more about preserving your battery long term.
Source :
http://macnuggets.ca/Extending-the-lifespan-of-your-Macbook-battery.html
BatteryUniversity.ca