How to keep new laptop's battery at best possible condition?

[fatymid]

First of all let me show you stats from HWiNFO about my current ASUS Zenbook UX310UA I bought 2 years and 9 months ago. 

 

Should the drop in battery life be so big over 3 years?

 

I am buying a new laptop (Lenovo X1 Extreme), so I would like to know what the best approach to charging is. Could you provide some guidance?

[alexhelvetica]

Only charge it when the battery is flat, and only charge up-to 80%

[fatymid]

6 minutes ago, comicsansms said:

Only charge it when the battery is flat, and only charge up-to 80%

Even when gaming? 

 

Also, the laptop will shut itself off when reachin <10% (that's what my ASUS does). What I've been doing with my current device was charging it when at 10% to about 90% and what you see on a screenshot is the end result. 

Ive seen some people recommending leaving it on charge. Not sure which practise is right.

[WereCatf]

6 minutes ago, fatymid said:

Should the drop in battery life be so big over 3 years?

Yes, that's actually pretty typical.

 

7 minutes ago, fatymid said:

I am buying a new laptop (Lenovo X1 Extreme), so I would like to know what the best approach to charging is. Could you provide some guidance?

You'd get literally the most life out of it by charging it up to 70%, then taking it out of your laptop and putting it on a shelf and only putting it back in your laptop when you need it. A full battery, when sitting on a shelf, degrades naturally over time to some extent, and so does an empty one, but at ~70% charge it will degrade the slowest.

[WereCatf]

1 minute ago, fatymid said:

What I've been doing with my current device was charging it when at 10% to about 90% and what you see on a screenshot is the end result.

Li-ion actually likes to be used a lot and should be discharged to something like 25%-30% and up to ~80% when in use for optimal life. Letting it discharge to 10% and then charging it up to 90% degrades it faster.

 

Alas, I, personally, think it's way too much effort to bother with constantly monitoring battery-charge.

[fatymid]

1 minute ago, WereCatf said:

You'd get literally the most life out of it by charging it up to 70%, then taking it out of your laptop and putting it on a shelf and only putting it back in your laptop when you need it. A full battery, when sitting on a shelf, degrades naturally over time to some extent, and so does an empty one, but at ~70% charge it will degrade the slowest.

What about everday use? Should I wait for it to decharge and then charge it to 70-80%? Or should I keep it plugged in while using? 

I use my laptop for long periods of time and I am unsure what to do is such circumstances. 

[fatymid]

7 minutes ago, WereCatf said:

Alas, I, personally, think it's way too much effort to bother with constantly monitoring battery-charge.

With the amount of money I am spending, I don't mind taking extensive care of the device. 

 

So I should decharge to 20-30%, then charge to 80 - that's actually very doable with my workflow. Now, do you have any sources to back this up?

[WereCatf]

3 minutes ago, fatymid said:

Now, do you have any sources to back this up?

Read up everything on Battery University related to li-ion. You could start from https://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries if you wish.

[fatymid]

1 minute ago, WereCatf said:

Read up everything on Battery University related to li-ion. You could start from https://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries if you wish.

Thanks a lot!

 

Do you think, in a gaming scenario, I should still maintain 30-80 range or is it possible to keep it charged for some time?

[WereCatf]

Just now, fatymid said:

Do you think, in a gaming scenario, I should still maintain 30-80 range or is it possible to keep it charged for some time?

If you're planning to plop your ass down for a couple of hours of gaming, you could just remove the battery from your laptop and use the AC-adapter. That way the battery would be a non-concern.

[fatymid]

10 minutes ago, WereCatf said:

If you're planning to plop your ass down for a couple of hours of gaming, you could just remove the battery from your laptop and use the AC-adapter. That way the battery would be a non-concern.

Ok, we're reaching technology levels beyond my knowledge. You mean unscrew the laptop, remove the battery (charged to 60%, as I read) and just put in on a shelf? And use laptop, in essence, as a PC?

 

What adapter should I buy? Is this one ok? https://www.x-kom.pl/p/416601-zasilacz-do-laptopa-lenovo-zasilacz-do-lenovo-thinkpad-90w.html (sorry for polish language, but the data is there)

 

The third question is, if the battery degrades that fast (looking at my ASUS) does it even make sense to buy an expensive laptop? Wouldn't it make more sense to spend ~750$ every 3 years to buy a new one?

[WereCatf]

2 minutes ago, fatymid said:

Ok, we're reaching technology levels beyond my knowledge. You mean unscrew the laptop, remove the battery (charged to 60%, as I read) and just put in on a shelf? And use laptop, in essence, as a PC?

If the laptop doesn't have an easily-removable battery, then yeah. Again, that seems like too much effort for little gain, IMHO, but it's up to you.

 

3 minutes ago, fatymid said:

What adapter should I buy? Is this one ok? https://www.x-kom.pl/p/416601-zasilacz-do-laptopa-lenovo-zasilacz-do-lenovo-thinkpad-90w.html (sorry for polish language, but the data is there)

Laptops do come with AC-adapters, there's no need to buy a separate one.

 

3 minutes ago, fatymid said:

The third question is, if the battery degrades that fast (looking at my ASUS) does it even make sense to buy an expensive laptop? Wouldn't it make more sense to spend ~750$ every 3 years to buy a new one?

You could just as well just replace the battery itself when it goes bad. Replacement-batteries aren't expensive and can be bought e.g. on eBay and similar sites.

 

I mean, if you need an expensive laptop, then you need an expensive laptop, but its price doesn't affect how quickly or slowly the battery degrades, so you have to know for yourself if a cheaper laptop would be enough for your needs or not.

[fatymid]

15 minutes ago, WereCatf said:

You could just as well just replace the battery itself when it goes bad. Replacement-batteries aren't expensive and can be bought e.g. on eBay and similar sites.

 

I mean, if you need an expensive laptop, then you need an expensive laptop, but its price doesn't affect how quickly or slowly the battery degrades, so you have to know for yourself if a cheaper laptop would be enough for your needs or not.

There is no guarantee that there will be a battery for today's device available, right?

 

Secondly, the main reason I consider expensive laptops is that I expect such devices to live many years. I do not want to replace a device every 3 years, but I accept the need to replace some parts after a few years. For example: I had my ASUS repaired recently for 30$ and that's ok - the first time I had to invest in this laptop, but I feel that the processor is outdated and my battery life is very low (discharges 100%-->10% in 4-5 hours with better battery option on, during light use; with games I expect less than 2 hours of battery life). I honestly don't know if my approach to buying a laptop is correct. Do you have any thoughts?

[WereCatf]

2 minutes ago, fatymid said:

There is no guarantee that there will be a battery for today's device available, right?

Correct.

 

2 minutes ago, fatymid said:

I honestly don't know if my approach to buying a laptop is correct. Do you have any thoughts?

I don't really know. I'm poor, my current laptop is 5 years old and I can't afford a newer one, so I haven't looked at current laptops much. If I had the money for a laptop, I wouldn't know what to buy myself, either.