9.29.2009

To Plug or Unplug?

So which preserves battery life on your laptop more, keeping it plugged in or unplugging it until it runs out of charge?

Here's one answer (with multiple parts) via smarterware:

1. With Lithium-Ion batteries, Apple encourages users to let the battery run completely out and recharge it fully once/month. In between chargings, it recommends not leaving your laptop plugged in unless you need to.

2. For other battery types, the data is pretty inconclusive. Whereas neither Dell nor HP suggests unplugging to save battery life, there are many people who claim that leaving their laptop plugged in has shortened the battery life significantly.

Bottom line (as the article says): When In Doubt, Unplug. There doesn't seem to be any evidence that unplugging can shorten a battery's life if nothing else. Plus I hear it's "greener" anyway. Win-win.

6 comments:

  1. I showed this to Marker. He always gets on my bootie about letting his battery run out and claims that I killed his battery. Ha!
    Keep up the good work!
    -Your BFF

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  2. I almost always leave mine plugged in and I've never had a problem in battery life.

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  3. Maybe that's because you never have it unplugged long enough to test battery life. :)

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  4. I feel like we are all in the middle of a fight now! :)

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  5. I leave my Macbook plugged in all the time, and the consequence is that I have lost ALL battery life. This wouldn't be a problem, because I leave it plugged in all the time, except that if I ever unplug it, it instantly goes out, so that produces chagrin- especially since the charger is magnetic.

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