Might be so for your model, but anything post-"touch bar" is crappy. Had a top of the range touchbar Macbook pro with countless issues, from sound, touchbar, and keyboard failures. Currently on a 13" Macbook pro - many issues, two keyboard failures, USB-C issues. Honestly, for the money you pay for a Mac, you'd expect more
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Personal Laptop for work
- Thread starter Dolby
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Might be so for your model, but anything post-"touch bar" is crappy. Had a top of the range touchbar Macbook pro with countless issues, from sound, touchbar, and keyboard failures. Currently on a 13" Macbook pro - many issues, two keyboard failures, USB-C issues. Honestly, for the money you pay for a Mac, you'd expect more
Rocket-Boy
Honorary Master
Keeping it plugged in definitely wrecks the battery. I was in the same boat you are now 2 years back so I bought a very high end HP with touchscreen and SSD etc etc. Battery life was around 8 hours at the time it was new and after a year it battled to hold charge more than 30 mins. I seldom took it home though and it stayed plugged in almost permanently in the office.
RedViking
Nord of the South
Why not just pull the cable out when leaving your desk?
^^^ this
Rocket-Boy
Honorary Master
Because it would then run out of battery if standby was disabled or go into standby if it wasnt, I *always* had process running talking to remote servers that needed to keep going.
I did work the battery a bit when I remembered by removing the power cable for a bit and working until it showed a low battery alert but admittedly that wasnt very often.
The point I was making though was that leaving it plugged in will damage the battery.
RedViking
Nord of the South
Agree that leaving it on for 24 hours will drain the battery. It just makes sense. A laptop is not designed to be a Server PC.
But if you work on it during the day and unplug it when you go home, the battery will last its intended life cycle. If you take it home with you and to work the following day, it will also serve it's function. You will work on it. Unplug it when finished with it. The problem comes when leaving it plugged in like a PC for weeks and months. Just take the battery out then if it is possible.
Silly to use a laptop then. But at least the battery won't be used for whatever pointless reason and you will be able to sell the laptop later on as: Secondhand laptop + un-used battery. Battery still in excellent condition. (not really as the battery will deteriorate naturally over time anyways).
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reactor_sa
Executive Member
My Dell XPS15 has battery settings in the BIOS to maximize battery life by eg lowering the max charge and lowering the charge rate.
My work Dell Latitude 7 also has battery life settings, and has seen much more charge cycles and is actually about on par with my XPS15 after 4 years! Get a latitude 7 series of you want amazing battery life.
My work Dell Latitude 7 also has battery life settings, and has seen much more charge cycles and is actually about on par with my XPS15 after 4 years! Get a latitude 7 series of you want amazing battery life.
A note on laptop batteries.
The majority of them are 6-8 cells of 18650 Lithium Ion Batteries. They come in a variety of mAh and max amperage specs, but for most of them the following holds true:
1) A New Li-Ion battery has either 1000 or 500 cycles (depending on the manufacturer, the cheaper batteries are 500)
2) A cycle is "consumed" when the battery goes over 100% charge (which is 3.7v for each cell, even though they can be charged to 4.2v)
3) A cycle is "consumed" when the battery has drawn 25% charge and you start to overdraw. (i.e. 2.6v)
4) Keeping the Li-Ion battery at overcharge could lead to thermal runaway.
5) A battery that has "consumed" its cycles still have 80% capacity (2000mAh will become 1600mAh)
Most Battery packs come with a built in Battery Management system which try and manage battery cycles for as long as possible and most importantly prevent long periods of overcharge and undercharge.
Most importantly, they cut out when thermal runaway is detected to prevent it cascading.
The BMS will also make sure the battery stays in the 2.7v and 3.7v range, by bypassing the charger completely and powering your laptop directly so that long periods on the charger have no effect on the batteries at all.
Only when the batteries drop below a certain threshold does the BMS charge the battery again without consuming a cycle.
The majority of them are 6-8 cells of 18650 Lithium Ion Batteries. They come in a variety of mAh and max amperage specs, but for most of them the following holds true:
1) A New Li-Ion battery has either 1000 or 500 cycles (depending on the manufacturer, the cheaper batteries are 500)
2) A cycle is "consumed" when the battery goes over 100% charge (which is 3.7v for each cell, even though they can be charged to 4.2v)
3) A cycle is "consumed" when the battery has drawn 25% charge and you start to overdraw. (i.e. 2.6v)
4) Keeping the Li-Ion battery at overcharge could lead to thermal runaway.
5) A battery that has "consumed" its cycles still have 80% capacity (2000mAh will become 1600mAh)
Most Battery packs come with a built in Battery Management system which try and manage battery cycles for as long as possible and most importantly prevent long periods of overcharge and undercharge.
Most importantly, they cut out when thermal runaway is detected to prevent it cascading.
The BMS will also make sure the battery stays in the 2.7v and 3.7v range, by bypassing the charger completely and powering your laptop directly so that long periods on the charger have no effect on the batteries at all.
Only when the batteries drop below a certain threshold does the BMS charge the battery again without consuming a cycle.
Lupus
Honorary Master
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There are modes you should be able to set the laptop to that this doesn't become an issue. My 7 year old Dell M4700 sat plugged in for 5 years of it's life and the battery only went kaput last year. Before that it was fine for 3 hours or so of work.
Geoff.D
Honorary Master
Not always possible on all laptops, physically and technically anymore. And not desirable for many other reasons.
IF this worries you, get your company to get you a better machine for daily use.
Geoff.D
Honorary Master
The Acer I have at the moment talks plenty of legal garbage about power management, clearly designed to protect them against warranty claims.
I have tried to work out how the power setup works rather unsuccessfully so far.
I do what I have always done. Cycle the battery at least once a week. which means allow the battery to discharge to the point where the battery has reached 30% before reconnecting the charger.
I have tried to work out how the power setup works rather unsuccessfully so far.
I do what I have always done. Cycle the battery at least once a week. which means allow the battery to discharge to the point where the battery has reached 30% before reconnecting the charger.
RedViking
Nord of the South
Why? Is this really still necessary for 'modern' batteries?
Geoff.D
Honorary Master
Who knows if is good or bad. I probably don't remember to cycle it that often either thinking about it. More than likely not.
The Acer manual says use AC whenever it is available, which implies cycling the battery is a bad idea.
The Acer manual says use AC whenever it is available, which implies cycling the battery is a bad idea.
What do you mean personal laptop for work?
If you're going to do work on this I assume your IT department is happy with it? And they have ensured you have taken the required security precautions?
Else you would get fired and kicked out of the building on the spot.
If you're going to do work on this I assume your IT department is happy with it? And they have ensured you have taken the required security precautions?
Else you would get fired and kicked out of the building on the spot.
SauRoNZA
Honorary Master
Why the comparison?
Your phone doesn't get plugged in and stay on your desk for 8+ while charging and being used at the same time.
It's quite different.
But if @Dolby is taking the laptop home every night and not just leaving it docked permanently then this really is a non-issue.
If you plan to have it docked permanently 24/7 then rather get a Desktop.
RedViking
Nord of the South
Which can be easily done if it is used as a 'desktop' phone only and if you use it outside its function and game with it the whole day. Exactly. Now why do you want to do it to a laptop that is not meant to stay plugged in 24 hours?
And I agree. If you use it between work and home you are not going to leave it plugged in the whole time. And if you buy a laptop but is scared the battery will deteriorate over time, you must not buy a laptop.
The question should rather be, which laptop is known for having the best battery life.
agentrfr
Executive Member
New laptops these days use exclusively Li-Ion or Li-Po cells. Keep the battery between 20%-80% and you will have 1000s of cycles before degrading capacity to 90% original.
Most laptops come with drivers to charge to 80% (or whatever you want) and stop. You only really kill Li-Po/Ion batteries by running them flat (which promotes dentrite formation on the anode).
If you can't limit max charge %, just let it go to 100%. It's fine. Do not run the laptop flat and you'll be hunkie dorie for many years
Most laptops come with drivers to charge to 80% (or whatever you want) and stop. You only really kill Li-Po/Ion batteries by running them flat (which promotes dentrite formation on the anode).
If you can't limit max charge %, just let it go to 100%. It's fine. Do not run the laptop flat and you'll be hunkie dorie for many years
RedViking
Nord of the South
SauRoNZA
Honorary Master
Except nobody does that?
But yes this I agree with, there is no reason to worry about it any which way you plan to use it.
Scary_Turtle
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I have just done an experiment.
I have pretty much had my work lenovu laptop plugged in since November 2015 and very seldomly take it home on weekends where it is plugged in again.
This thread got me wondering if the battery life would be significantly worse then when it was bought.
I unplugged it at 11:28 this morning and I have been using it ever since its now 14:30 battery life is 64% estimated time remaining 5h15min.
So 3 hours of use with 5 hours remaining seems about right to me. I think most laptops have about 8 hours of use but stand to be corrected.
Will update just before 16:00 and see if anything drops dramatically.
Edit: 15:43 and 49% battery remaining 4 hours 08 mins left
I have pretty much had my work lenovu laptop plugged in since November 2015 and very seldomly take it home on weekends where it is plugged in again.
This thread got me wondering if the battery life would be significantly worse then when it was bought.
I unplugged it at 11:28 this morning and I have been using it ever since its now 14:30 battery life is 64% estimated time remaining 5h15min.
So 3 hours of use with 5 hours remaining seems about right to me. I think most laptops have about 8 hours of use but stand to be corrected.
Will update just before 16:00 and see if anything drops dramatically.
Edit: 15:43 and 49% battery remaining 4 hours 08 mins left
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