Laptops are our gateways to all things online. Your high-powered Laptop will follow you from home to office to coffee shops and back, hour after hour…as long as you take a few steps to maximize the battery’s power.
The good news is that your advanced Lenovo battery is engineered to adapt charge thresholds and keep the “juices” flowing. So you don’t have to worry about adjusting settings—it’s all done automatically based on your day-to-day usage.
But what if you have a long flight? Or can’t find a free power source at the coffee shop? In these instances, the key is finding ways to squeeze as much time as possible out of a single charge. Here are some easy ways to do it on a Windows 8.1 laptop:
1. Turn down the brightness on your screen
Your screen backlight uses a lot of battery juice, so turn it down to the lowest level you can comfortably handle. If your system doesn’t have a button or dial, you’ll need to turn off the automatic adjustment feature before reducing brightness:
- Swipe in from the right edge of the screen
- Go to Settings, then Change PC settings
- Tap or click PC and devices, then Display
- If the “adjust my screen brightness automatically” slider is on, tap or click the slider to turn it off
- Under Settings, click or tap Brightness or Screen
2. Prevent updates from running on battery power
Virus scanners, extension updates and other regularly scheduled tasks can sap precious juice while you’re unplugged. Change your settings so these tasks will only run when your laptop is plugged in to a power source.
3. Turn off or unplug unneeded devices
Many USB devices eat up power even when idle. Unplug headphones and flash drives when not in use and consider replacing your mouse with a touchpad or tablet pen.
4. Turn off Bluetooth
Bluetooth is a powerful technology, but leaving it on at all times means using the battery. Get in the habit of turning Bluetooth off when it’s not in use to get more power from your battery.
5. Modify your Power Plan settings
Many of the most efficient settings—for sleep mode, screen brightness, wireless adapters and more—can be set to adjust automatically. In Windows 8.1, you can choose from two power-saving plans:
- Balanced: Offers full performance when you need it and saves power when you don’t. This is the plan for most people.
- Power Saver: Reduces performance and screen brightness to help get more from a single charge.
To view and select a plan, swipe in from the right edge of the screen, click or tap Search, type Power Options, then choose the plan you want to use.
6. Expect even more battery power
Some laptops a new technology that replaces traditional sleep functions (previously known as Connected Standby in Windows 8 and Windows RT).
If your laptop has InstantGo, it can maintain connectivity and make updates in the background during standby mode when your screen is off.
This requires less from your battery and keeps the device ready to resume in an instant, virtually eliminating the need to power up each time you want to check email or be ready to accept Skype calls—even when you’re trying to extend the length of a battery charge.