There are a lot of factors you need to consider while looking for a new laptop: Its screen size, the processor that powers it, storage capacity, and RAM etc.
All of these factors are equally important but there’s another one which is even more crucial for a laptop (at least according to me): Its battery life.
After all, this was probably the main reason why companies started making the laptops in the first place: You can take it anywhere and turn it on without the need for a direct power source.
Also, more often than not, it’s the battery life which decides how long will your laptop last.
It’s because, on average, battery life degrades more and faster than the rest of the components in a laptop.
How Long Should A Laptop Last
So in this post, we’ll discuss two things:
- What’s the average battery life of a laptop
- What’s the overall lifespan of a laptop and how long it should last
Battery Life Of A Laptop
The quality of the battery life of a laptop can be measured by two things. The first is the amount of time a laptop can last a single charge. The second is the number of those charge-recharge cycles a laptop’s battery can endure before dying out.
Single Charge Duration
A single charge duration depends on the quality of the battery inside your laptop and how you spend that battery juice.
More expensive laptops usually come with a higher quality battery than the cheap ones. That being said, this isn’t a hard and fast rule, and you can find some real gems in a low price range. The same goes for the other way, and there are some premium laptops with mediocre battery life.
The key here is to read different reviews about any particular laptop you want to buy and note down the battery life each of those reviewers got. Then you’ll get the approximate idea of its battery life.
The single-charge duration of a laptop also has a lot to do with how you utilize that battery juice. This is the reason why, even if you’ve got a $1000+ gaming laptop and you spend all the time play Assassin’s creed odyssey on it, a 2-2.5 hour-duration would be great.
On the other hand, you can get a 5-6 hours single-charge duration on a $500 laptop as long as you’re doing nothing other than web browsing, ebook reading, and other light stuff.
The last, and lesser known, factor that affects a laptop’s single-charge duration is the age of the battery. A brand new battery will undoubtedly last longer than the one that’s 2+ years old.
More often than not, after 2 years period, the single-charge duration of your laptop’s battery will be reduced to almost half of the time, to what it used to be when the battery was new.
Having discussed these variables here are some small measures you can take in order to boost the single-charge duration of your laptop.
- Reduce your screen brightness.
- Turn off your laptop’s WiFi/Bluetooth when not needed
- Open as fewer software programs as possible
- Open as fewer browser tabs as possible. You can also use extensions like “The great suspender” in this regard.
- Unplug the laptop if/when it’s fully charged.
- Use headphones instead of the laptop’s speaker whenever possible.
- Always carry a backup battery.
- Use a laptop cooler. It’ll help your laptop generate less heat, which in turn will help you gain more battery life.
How Long Should Your Battery Last Before Completely Dying Out
Like the single-charge duration, the overall laptop battery’s lifespan depends on its usage.
On average, it’ll last around 350-500 full charge-recharge cycles (depending on the quality of the battery) before dying out.
A single full charge-recharge cycle means that if you charge a laptop from o to 100% battery, it’ll be considered as a single such cycle.
Same way, if you charge your laptop having 50% battery and unplug it when it’s 100%, then it’ll be only considered as a half charge-recharge cycle.
Overall Lifespan Of A Laptop
The overall lifespan of a laptop depends on its price, quality, and how you use it.
In terms of price, the following are the general lifespan of laptops that belong to different price categories.
- Budget (300-700): 2-3 years
- Midrange (700-1200): 3-4 years
- High-End (1500+): 4-6 years
Then comes the usage.
If you do lightweight stuff, then it’s possible for your laptop to last at least 5-6 years, provided that you’ve taken a good amount of care for it.
On the other hand, if you opt to play heavy-graphics games, your hardware will be obsolete in probably 2-3 years since games are getting more demanding with each passing day, more powerful hardware components are required.
Physically, your laptop can withstand even 10-year mark. But the games would have been so much advanced by then, that it would be impossible for your then-obsolete hardware to run them.