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6 Simples Ways to Extend Your Laptop Battery

This post was done in partnership with SokoBest.co.ke, a Kenyan website that provides buyer guides, reviews and recommendations for the best products you can buy in Kenya


There is nothing as frustrating as having to charge your laptop every few hours. If your laptop battery is draining power super-fast and showing signs of being useless very soon, maybe you have not been taking good care of it.

A laptop’s battery is very fragile and if not given the care it deserves, its life will keep plummeting by the day. The good news is, there a few things you can do to ensure that you significantly extend your laptop’s battery life.

Below are a few of them.

Reduce Screen Brightness

If you fancy a bright and clear display, you are not only hurting your eyes but also the battery life. A laptop’s screen is severely power-hungry and if kept at maximum brightness for a long time, will reduce the battery performance.

Make sure that the display brightness is turned down as low as possible especially at night or in dark spaces where you don’t need too much brightness. You can dim the screen from your keyboard by pressing and holding down the brightness button (the button with a little sun symbol).

Some laptops may require you to press the Function (Fn) key together with the brightness button in order to dim the screen.

Try Dark Mode:

Dark Mode not only makes the interface quite cooler, it is also kinder on your eyes, and it reduces the laptop’s demand on battery.

Windows Dark Mode

To enable Dark Mode, head over to Settings -> Personalisation -> Colours. Scroll down and choose Dark Mode. You can while at it choose darker Windows colours too.

Enable Battery Saver Mode

If you are using Windows 10, you have at your disposal a few power features which you can play with to optimize battery life. The wrong settings could hurt your battery and reduce its efficiency.

Most preferably, you should take advantage of the Window 10’s Battery Saver Mode. By default, this feature is enabled when your battery power hits 20% but you can customize it to your liking by going to Settings > System > Battery. When enabled, the battery saver improves battery performance by reducing screen brightness and limiting background activity.

Windows Battery Saver

The quickest way to fire up Battery Saver Mode is by clicking the battery icon in the notification area of your taskbar. A small window will pop up with a power mode slider. Drag the slider to ‘Best Battery Life’ on the left. Note that this action may reduce your laptop’s performance and should also be done if none of the programs you are using is affected.

Switch off Wi-Fi when not in use

Apart from screen brightness, wireless connections will also sap your battery power real fast. You will realize that your battery drains very quickly when using a Wi-Fi connection. Even when not connected to any hotspot, the Wi-Fi will still use battery power when looking for available connections.

So, it is advisable to turn it off altogether when not in use. You can turn off Wi-Fi by pressing a function key on your keyboard or through the notification centre. You can also click on the Wi-Fi icon on your notification area.

Avoid USB peripherals

The laptop was never meant to be used for charging your phone, power banks or any other gadgets. When plugged in, even when you don’t mean to charge them, USB peripherals such as phones, USB sticks, webcams and mice will strain your battery by increasing motherboard activity.

You should disconnect these devices as soon as you are done using them in order to save some battery power. If you are using external speakers you should mute or disconnect them when not in use.

Eject your disc drives that are not in use

Did you forget to eject your disc after watching a movie? Well, guess what? It has been spinning the entire time. Well, maybe not the entire time but most of the time, especially every time you power up your laptop.

It is easy to forget, but as soon as you remember, eject discs you are not using to ensure your battery lasts longer.

Use Fewer Software

The more programs your laptop is running, the faster it will drain battery power. Disable unnecessary programs or those you don’t use constantly. Are you still using screen savers? You are draining battery power for absolutely no reason. Make sure very few programs are running in the background at any given time.

Uninstall programs you don’t need and disable those you don’t use constantly. This will not only extend battery life but also increase your laptop’s performance.

There you go. I hope the tips above will go a long way to help you extend your battery life. If you have any other tricks you use to save your battery power, please feel free to share them in the comments section.

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