Timeline for Is it better to use a laptop on battery or on AC power?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
18 events
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| Jan 5, 2016 at 13:23 | history | edited | Charles Roper | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
Fix broken link
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| Dec 28, 2014 at 4:17 | comment | added | psusi | This answer really fails to address the question, which is about whether to run while plugged in vs. charge up, unplug, discharge, rinse, and repeat. The answer to that is a definite keep it plugged in, as charge/discharge cycles do wear out the battery. Short of that, it is deep discharge cycles that put the most wear on, so plug in before the battery gets low. | |
| Mar 3, 2014 at 21:22 | history | edited | Charles Roper | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Dec 7, 2011 at 20:25 | review | Suggested edits | |||
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| Apr 10, 2011 at 12:31 | comment | added | barlop | Make sure you tell the laptop to hibernate or standby after x time, if on battery. that's v important, or one day, the power cord may come lose and you won't know and you come back and find your laptop off. Or you just left it on battery by mistake and it went off.. I suppose you don't want to do that to the battery.. (unless it's new and you're cycling it as per instructions the battery came with) | |
| Oct 4, 2010 at 6:48 | comment | added | sinni800 | @Arjan My Alienware M11X also has a very portable kind of AC adapter which provides peak current ;-). This thing is in the same price category as a MacBook and runs games! (Also it runs 4 hours without gaming.) | |
| Oct 1, 2010 at 19:01 | comment | added | Arjan | @sinni, indeed it's odd that the AC adapter might not provide enough current for peak usage. Maybe Apple is not taking any risk, or maybe they're just being cheap. (Cheap as for saving manufacturing costs; not cheap while selling their stuff...) But in the end: I never use my MacBook without a battery, so I don't really care. And I love the fact that the AC adaptor is really small, and is easily taken on the road. So, as far as I'm concerned: kudos for Apple for being cheap! ;-) | |
| Sep 30, 2010 at 12:36 | history | edited | Charles Roper | CC BY-SA 2.5 |
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| Sep 29, 2010 at 8:33 | comment | added | sinni800 | @Arjan this was true with the early asus EEE PC too, strangely. But that the MacBooks AC adapter can't provide peak energy of the MacBook is kind of pathetic. | |
| Sep 6, 2010 at 11:38 | comment | added | pipTheGeek | @Mehrdad - Temperature and keeping them fully charged shorten their life. Now find a laptop that doesn't cook its battery while running. @Arjan - Windows default power settings are generally to conserve more power at the expense of performance when running on battery. However, if AC power is connected then the battery is not needed, after all, the PSU can supply enough power to charge the battery AND run the laptop. @Bruce - no more so than any other PC. They use a switchmode PSU which are normally fairly resilient to crappy power. | |
| Oct 10, 2009 at 11:46 | history | edited | Charles Roper | CC BY-SA 2.5 |
updated my opinion to read as fact
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| Oct 9, 2009 at 4:36 | comment | added | Malabarba | I read somewhere that removing the battery while on AC power might leave the laptop vulnerable to damage from power oscilations. Is there any sense to that? | |
| Jul 24, 2009 at 17:46 | comment | added | Arjan | Apple MacBooks actually run slower when you unplug the battery, as the A/C adaptor cannot provide all peeks that may occur in power usage. I guess this may be true for other brands as well, so even though it may increase battery life, I'd not recommend to take the battery out. See tomshardware.com/news/… and Apple's support.apple.com/kb/HT2332 | |
| Jul 24, 2009 at 17:45 | history | edited | Charles Roper | CC BY-SA 2.5 |
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| Jul 24, 2009 at 17:35 | vote | accept | Moayad Mardini | ||
| Jul 24, 2009 at 17:33 | history | edited | Charles Roper | CC BY-SA 2.5 |
added 495 characters in body; added 1 characters in body
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| Jul 24, 2009 at 17:31 | comment | added | mmx | Indeed. Contrary to what most people think, the power circuitry is usually smart enough not to charge the battery after a threshold. The primary issue is temperature. | |
| Jul 24, 2009 at 17:27 | history | answered | Charles Roper | CC BY-SA 2.5 |