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Battery Life

By Nick Bunce

What is battery life?

When you're choosing a new phone, laptop or tablet, you want a battery that can keep up with your day. Battery life is how long your device lasts on a single charge, although the time you'll get depends on what you're using it for — gaming and streaming will drain it faster than browsing or typing up a few docs. Put simply, the longer the battery life, the longer you can go without reaching for the charger.

Factors that affect your battery

Battery life vs battery lifespan

Battery life: How long your device lasts on a single charge.

Battery lifespan: How well your battery holds its charge over time. Batteries naturally wear down with age, so after a few years of daily use, they won't last quite as long as they did when they were brand new.

Screen brightness

The brighter your screen, the harder your battery has to work. Turning the brightness down is one of the easiest ways to make your battery last longer.

Connectivity

Keeping Wi-Fi and Bluetooth switched on means your device is constantly looking for connections, which can slowly chip away at battery life.

Background applications

Open apps and browser tabs keep working behind the scenes, so the more you have running, the faster your battery can drain.

Task intensity

What you're doing matters. Light tasks like browsing or typing use less power, while gaming, streaming and video editing will drain your battery much quicker.

Tips to save your battery

Lower your screen brightness

Turning your brightness down to around 50–70% is one of the quickest and easiest ways to make your battery last longer.

Turn on power saving mode

Both Windows laptops and Macs have built-in power-saving settings that reduce background activity and help squeeze more life out of every charge.

Close unused apps and tabs

Apps and browser tabs can keep running behind the scenes, even when you're not using them. Closing anything you don't need can help save battery.

Unplug your accessories

External drives, USB sticks and other accessories can all draw power from your laptop. Unplug them when you're done to avoid unnecessary battery drain.

What to look for when buying a new laptop

Battery life estimates are usually listed on the product page, but the right amount for you depends on how you use your laptop.

Everyday laptops: Aim for around 8–10 hours of battery life if you need a laptop for work, study or everyday browsing.

Chromebooks: Thanks to their lightweight operating system, Chromebooks are known for excellent battery life, with many models offering up to 12 hours on a single charge.

Gaming laptops: Powerful components like dedicated graphics cards are great for gaming, but they use more power too. Expect around 2–4 hours of battery life while gaming, so it's worth keeping your charger nearby for longer sessions.

Before you go…

Thinking about upgrading your laptop? Head over to our laptop buying guide. You'll find expert tips, handy advice and everything you need to find the right model for the way you work, stream, browse and play.

For more computing inspiration and advice, explore our Computing Hub.

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What is the life of a battery?: The battery life tells you how long your laptop will last, on average, without needing to recharge.
How to check laptop battery health?: You can check how much battery life is left by hovering over the battery symbol in the bottom right corner of your screen. If you’re looking for more details about your overall battery health on a Windows 11 PC, follow these steps:
1. Type “command prompt” in your searchbar.
2. Press and hold “command prompt” or right click on it.
3. It’ll ask you if you want to “run as administrator”, press “yes”.
4. At the command prompt, type “powercfg /batteryreport” and press “enter”. This will export a HTML file.
5. Open File Explorer and find the HTML file and open it in your browser.
What can I do to prolong battery life of my laptop?: There’re a few things you can do to make the most of your laptop’s battery life.
1. Check your power settings and change to “best battery life” instead of “best performance” or switch to an “economy mode”.
2. Check power and sleep settings. A few tweaks to make your laptop go to sleep when it’s inactive can save some juice.
3. Lower the screen brightness.
4. Turn off any keyboard backlights.
5. Close apps or tabs you’re not using.
6. Turn off Bluetooth and WiFi if you don’t need them.
Which Windows laptop has the best battery life?: Some laptops have up to a 16-hour battery life. We list the battery life on every product page to make it easy to compare different models.
Do gaming laptops have bad battery life?: Gaming laptops can be less efficient as they’re really powerful systems that need a lot of juice to work well. It’s not recommended to play games on your laptop when it’s not plugged in as this can affect performance.
Does keeping my laptop plugged in reduce battery life?: Leaving your laptop plugged in all the time can have a small effect on the overall battery life. To make the most of your battery, it’s worth using the laptop unplugged from time to time.
Will replacing the laptop battery improve the battery life?: If you have an older laptop, putting a new battery in should improve the battery life. All laptop batteries degrade after around 100+ charges, so if you’ve had your laptop a couple of years, a new battery will make a noticeable difference. If you’ve only used your laptop 10 or 20 times, it won’t have the same effect as the original battery will still be in really good shape.
Does screen resolution affect a laptop’s battery life?: Yes, the higher the screen resolution, the more power it needs to run. So, the battery will run out quicker with higher quality screens.