By following the tips in this article, I’ve increased my Macbook Pro 15″ battery life from 2.5 hours to 4.25 hours in Windows 7. By following these simple tips, you too can increase your laptop’s overall battery.
- Dim your laptop’s screen brightness. This sounds simple (and it is!) but it is a surefire way to increase the length of your battery by 15 minutes if total battery time is around 2 hours or up to an hour and a half if your total battery time is closer to 6+ hours. The great part about diming the screen is that with little effort on your part (except maybe for some extra eye strain!), you can significantly increase the length of your battery.
To dim the brightness of your screen, there is usually a keyboard shortcut that activate by pressing the FN button + one of the F1-12 buttons located at the top of your keyboard. Most of you probably already knew this, but in case you didn’t, it’s certainly the first place to start when trying to increase the length of your battery. - Switch to the Power Saver mode. In the lower right hand area of your system tray, you can find your battery icon. Click on it to select which power mode you want. If you’re just working on your paper or emails, switch to power saver mode. In Windows 7, Power Saver mode disables Windows Aero, limits your processors maximum usage, and switches your wireless to maximum power saving (it will be harder to get signal from wireless routers). Switching to power saver mode with my Macbook Pro takes my 3 hours battery life and increases it to 3.5 hours. You can also set your power plan to dim the brightness of your screen automatically if you want. Depending on the make and model of your laptop, you may have other power saver modes (such as on the UL80VT).
- Turn Bluetooth Off. This can increase your battery anywhere from 15 minutes (if total battery time is close to 1.5 hours) to 45 minutes (if total battery time is 6+ hours). Some computers (such as HP computers) have separate software where you can disable/enable the Bluetooth and wireless quickly and easily. Also, some computers have keyboard shortcuts or Bluetooth/Wireless On/Off buttons. Look for these on your laptop. It can save you a lot of trouble. If your computer doesn’t seem to have a dedicated bluetooth on/off button, you can still disable your Bluetooth by going to your Control Panel (in Vista/Windows 7 with the Control Panel in Categories mode, the default mode). Click on “Network and Internet.” Click on “Network and Sharing Center.” Click on “Change Adapter Settings.” Right click on the Bluetooth adapter and click “Disable.” To enable your Bluetooth when you want to connect a device just right click on the Bluetooth adapter and click “Enable.”
- Turn off wireless. Like Bluetooth, this can increase your battery time anywhere from 15 minutes to 45 minutes or more. To disable, follow the same instructions as listed for Bluetooth. Most laptops have a dedicated wireless adapter on/off switch. For those that don’t, go to your adapter settings as described above and disable it manually.
- Only plug in USBs peripherals if necessary. If I plug in my Logitech G35 USB headset (amazing sound!), it causes my Macbook Pro to last about 25-30 minutes less. In the UL80VT, it would cause me to drop at least 1 hour off my battery life. Plugging in a USB mouse will drop your battery life only a little (I’d estimate 5 minutes off of a two hour charge), but if you’re trying to get the maximum your battery life, you better opt to use your track pad.
- Dim or turn off your back-lit keyboard. If your computer has a back-lit keyboard, keep it on the lowest possible setting or completely off. It takes a surprising amount of battery life. Usually there is a button dedicated to dimming your back-lit keyboard.
- Close any programs that utilize your graphics card for animations (or disable the animations). I normal use Zune to play my music. I really like the software and the cool animations it has. The problem is that when the animations are turned up, it causes my graphics card to go nearly full blast. This causes my laptop to not only heat up significantly but also to lose about half of my battery life. In my Macbook Pro 15”, my battery life goes from 4 hours to 2 hours instantly when the Zune animations are on. The simple answer is to either find a different program (that doesn’t have animations) or to disable them. I was able to disable the Zune’s animations and ever since doing so, playing music on my Macbook Pro only takes 15 minutes or so off my 4 hour battery life.
Hey Brandon,
I just asking… Which laptop of yours are you typing with… Cause ill be getting an Asus UL80VT and im just asking if typing is Enjoyable.. And BTW..Im having a dell laptop and the HEAT and small sized keyboard made me to get an asus…Thanks!!
I used the Macbook Pro keyboard to write this article. I used the UL80VT for most of the reviews I’ve written though, and I gotta say, I like the keyboard better on the UL80VT because of the dedicated Home/End/Page Up/Down buttons + correctly placed FN button on the lower left hand corner (The FN is to the farthest left, not the control button). The keyboard on the UL80VT in my opinion is a great keyboard that all but the most pickiest people will love (unless it is loose/rattling like some UL80VT’s have been. You can send yours to Asus if it is that way).
Great article!
I now have my computer screen dimmer.
A question… Will doing these things make the battery life of my computer last longer in the long term. My computer that I got for college wore out pretty fast. I want to avoid that in the future.
Thanks a bunch!