Help Extending Battery Life? (Discussion)

[Urzu1000]

Hey guys! I just got a new laptop, and I'm concerned that I'll tear through the battery life too fast.

Is there any method to get some "extra" charge, like carrying a UPS in my backpack or something? Is that even practical? Or is there any recommendations for maximizing the life? Here's my laptop specs (copy pasted) from order confirmation.

17.3" FULL HD (1920X1080) LED Matte LCD
nVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M 192bit w/3.0GB GDDR5
Intel® Core™ i7-4720HQ (2.6~3.6GHz) w/6M L3 Cache - 4 Cores - 8 Threads
IC Diamond Thermal Compound - CPU + GPU
16GB (2x8GB) DDR3L/1600 Dual Channel Memory
128GB Micron M600 M.2 SATA Solid State Drive (up to 400MB/s Write/560 MB/s Read - 88K IOPS Write/100K Read)
1TB SATA III 6Gb/s 7,200 RPM Hard Drive
Built in Bigfoot Networks Killer M.2 Wireless-AC 1525 + Bluetooth 4.1 (Dual Band - Max speed: 867Mbps)
Smart Li-ion Battery Pack (4 Cell)
Full Range Auto Switching AC Adapter (180W)
***No Sager Logo

 

[Ubrales]

Lithium Ion batteries last the longest when maintained between 40% and 80% of full charge. If you plan to use it over extended periods of time, consider an extra battery (fully charged) to swap out when the laptop battery is getting close to 35% charge.

It is a good idea to set the "Power Options" to "Battery Saver/Max Battery" (or something like that), and to use a reduced screen brightness.

It does not make sense to carry a UPS because the UPS will be heavier than the entire laptop.

 

[Urzu1000]

To be honest with you, I have no idea how easy the battery is to swap out. I haven't received the laptop, as it's still being shipped. Some laptops are very easy, but some require lots of screws. I used to have a tiny little 11-inch laptop where I had to disassemble the keyboard to access the battery. I can't believe they even sold it that way.

I'm familiar enough with power settings, as I always have to reset it to high-performance on my desktop, but you mentioned screen brightness.

I have a Nintendo DS Lite (old school nowadays), and changing screen brightness makes a HUGE difference to battery life. How much does this affect laptops? Do you have any sort of numbered estimate as to how much power draw a screen uses on different brightness settings?

 

[Ubrales]

Laptop batteries are very easy to swap out. There will be two tabs to slide out and the battery can be taken out. If you know the make and model (you obviously do) you can download and save the Manuals which will explain everything that there is to know about the laptop.

 

[STbob]

Laptop batteries are very easy to swap out. There will be two tabs to slide out and the battery can be taken out. If you know the make and model (you obviously do) you can download and save the Manuals which will explain everything that there is to know about the laptop.

You are making a incorrect assumption on battery swaps. "Some" laptops have a swap out battery with tabs like one of my Dells, that would be easy. But the trend on some of the gaming laptops is not to have that type of battery. They require you to disassemble the back of the laptop, taking out screws then connecting the battery wire harness. That is not super hard but is super slow and not something you want to do on the go.

Not sure why these companies have done this ill advised engineering move with gaming laptops.

 

[Urzu1000]

Laptop batteries are very easy to swap out. There will be two tabs to slide out and the battery can be taken out. If you know the make and model (you obviously do) you can download and save the Manuals which will explain everything that there is to know about the laptop.

You are making a incorrect assumption on battery swaps. "Some" laptops have a swap out battery with tabs like one of my Dells, that would be easy. But the trend on some of the gaming laptops is not to have that type of battery. They require you to disassemble the back of the laptop, taking out screws then connecting the battery wire harness. That is not super hard but is super slow and not something you want to do on the go.

Not sure why these companies have done this ill advised engineering move with gaming laptops.

Interestingly enough, the laptop I ended up with requires some disassembly as well to get to the battery. It's a shame too, as the laptop is a beast. It eats through that battery like nobody's business.

When I repaired my friend's laptop a while back, he had one of those batteries where you push the tabs and pull and you can swap it out in a few seconds. More manufacturer's really need to jump on that.