Battery longevity with infrequent use

[Shahmatt]

I want to buy a laptop for a month long trip, but afterwards the use will be occasional only as my desktop is available.

If I buy a good brand name laptop how long can I keep in storage with the battery remaining serviceable? How should I charge the battery for storage?

Appreciate any comments.

 

[firesong]

I want to buy a laptop for a month long trip, but afterwards the use will be occasional only as my desktop is available.

If I buy a good brand name laptop how long can I keep in storage with the battery remaining serviceable? How should I charge the battery for storage?

Appreciate any comments.

Lithium Batteries are chemical by nature and will deteriorate over time, even while unused. So an old battery sitting in a warehouse for a few years would have some form of degradation. Temperature plays a part too, so if it's stored in 25degC or 45degC will have very different effects on the battery (and we all know there's not many warehouses that leave the aircon on 24/7).

For long term storage, charge to around 50-60% and fully shut it down. Recharge to 50-60% every few months. Don't let the battery level drop too low or it'll kill the cells, so a 50% charge level is about right - don't charge above that to store, as I believe it'll also introduce some wear on the battery. Storage temperatures of under 30degC is also best.

If you don't need high performance, why not look at older laptops, and use it as a light movie watching/web surfing tool instead? That way you probably don't need to worry about the battery so much.

Apple's advice is quite good.
https://www.apple.com/sg/batteries/maximizing-performance/

 

[iduncheckmail]

no need so mafan.
alot of new laptops come with a software limiter for charging, so you can set it to 50-60% and leave it inside the laptop plugged in.

 

[firesong]

no need so mafan.
alot of new laptops come with a software limiter for charging, so you can set it to 50-60% and leave it inside the laptop plugged in.

That actually creates additional wear on the battery, especially if he doesn't plan on using it at all as he alludes to primarily using a desktop. The battery will eventually drop below the threshold and then charge - even constantly pushing charge for this 10% creates wear.

Just because there is a software limit does not mean it should remain plugged in. Besides, the software limit does nothing to alleviate the heat caused by dissipation of waste energy - basic physics on the law of conservation of energy, where waste energy must go somewhere. Probably a better use of electricity to plug it in once in a while rather than leave it plugged in and not used.

It's different when you're using it daily as your main machine and leave it plugged in, where this setting to limit the charge is much more practical, as the energy is diverted to powering the laptop instead of only pushing charge to the battery.

 

[Shahmatt]

Lithium Batteries are chemical by nature and will deteriorate over time, even while unused. So an old battery sitting in a warehouse for a few years would have some form of degradation. Temperature plays a part too, so if it's stored in 25degC or 45degC will have very different effects on the battery (and we all know there's not many warehouses that leave the aircon on 24/7).

For long term storage, charge to around 50-60% and fully shut it down. Recharge to 50-60% every few months. Don't let the battery level drop too low or it'll kill the cells, so a 50% charge level is about right - don't charge above that to store, as I believe it'll also introduce some wear on the battery. Storage temperatures of under 30degC is also best.

If you don't need high performance, why not look at older laptops, and use it as a light movie watching/web surfing tool instead? That way you probably don't need to worry about the battery so much.

Apple's advice is quite good.
https://www.apple.com/sg/batteries/maximizing-performance/

Thanks for the advice.

I don't need high performance. Purpose is do some Excel work and online design using Canva. Older models should be fine.

The place I am going to may have unreliable power supply. Hence I need some battery life and mobile internet (3G, LTE). Maybe I will use my phone as hot spot.

Is it worth considering laptop rental?

 

[firesong]

Thanks for the advice.

I don't need high performance. Purpose is do some Excel work and online design using Canva. Older models should be fine.

The place I am going to may have unreliable power supply. Hence I need some battery life and mobile internet (3G, LTE). Maybe I will use my phone as hot spot.

Is it worth considering laptop rental?

If your usage is only for a very short period and you have no use for a laptop, borrow or rent a laptop. It may be more worth your money. From the looks of it, a cheap 7th/8th generation Intel with 8/16GB RAM may be sufficient for your needs.

You could also trawl around Carousell to see if you can snag one of those for around $300-500 or so. Might be better than renting, since you can wipe it and sell it for a small loss ($250-450), depending on market rate), or retain it as a web surfing machine/Netflix on bed machine if you so choose. You could probably try to sell it for the cost you got it for, but ethically it's not nice.

It's cheaper to use your phone as a hotspot than to look for LTE enabled models, as those are not cheap to begin with.

 

[yusoffb01]

buy x260 for $300. has removable batttery

 

[Shahmatt]

buy x260 for $300. has removable batttery

Thanks for the advice

 

[greythorne]

buy x260 for $300. has removable batttery

I got a x270 touchscreen i5 7300U 8gb ram with 256gb nvme SSD. $360. Not sure a good buy or not.

 

[watzup_ken]

My take is to just use the laptop whatever way you want, and don’t bother too much about battery health. At most if you buy second hand, you should sell it when you return. No point keeping it in storage because even if the battery don’t fail, it is possible that some parts may fail over time.

I am not sure about your budget, but if you think battery life is critical, I would recommend trying to get a second hand Apple Macbook Air M1. Battery life on that laptop is stellar. But being second hand, the battery life depends on how “abused” is the battery. I believe Canva and Excel works well on M1 chip. Otherwise, get a laptop that allows you to charge using a power bank, i.e. type C charging. That should give it some juice in case there is no power.

 

[Shahmatt]

My take is to just use the laptop whatever way you want, and don’t bother too much about battery health. At most if you buy second hand, you should sell it when you return. No point keeping it in storage because even if the battery don’t fail, it is possible that some parts may fail over time.

I am not sure about your budget, but if you think battery life is critical, I would recommend trying to get a second hand Apple Macbook Air M1. Battery life on that laptop is stellar. But being second hand, the battery life depends on how “abused” is the battery. I believe Canva and Excel works well on M1 chip. Otherwise, get a laptop that allows you to charge using a power bank, i.e. type C charging. That should give it some juice in case there is no power.

Thanks for the advice. I decided to go with a x260 as @yusoffb01 suggested. With coupon it cost me $285.

Once I receive it I will check the battery life. Seems like this model originally came with long battery life so I am hoping at least 2 to 3 hours would be possible. Otherwise I may have to invest in a new battery.

I had not thought of type C charging. It is a good idea. Unfortunately the X260 has some proprietary power input.

I have never used an Apple product. I never even considered it sadly as the ecosystem is something I am not familiar with.

 

[yusoffb01]

Thanks for the advice. I decided to go with a x260 as @yusoffb01 suggested. With coupon it cost me $285.

Once I receive it I will check the battery life. Seems like this model originally came with long battery life so I am hoping at least 2 to 3 hours would be possible. Otherwise I may have to invest in a new battery.

I had not thought of type C charging. It is a good idea. Unfortunately the X260 has some proprietary power input.

I have never used an Apple product. I never even considered it sadly as the ecosystem is something I am not familiar with.

usb c cable only $4

can use external power bank for extra 4h

dont forget to buy 72wh battery (model 68+) for 8~10h life

can dual boot from single ssd

fully supports mac

 

[Shahmatt]

usb c cable only $4

can use external power bank for extra 4h

dont forget to buy 72wh battery (model 68+) for 8~10h life

can dual boot from single ssd

fully supports mac

Thanks for the advice

 

[greythorne]

usb c cable only $4

can use external power bank for extra 4h

dont forget to buy 72wh battery (model 68+) for 8~10h life

can dual boot from single ssd

fully supports mac

How’s the battery life under Mac OS?

 

[yusoffb01]

How’s the battery life under Mac OS?

same as windows with proper acpi kext

 

[greythorne]

usb c cable only $4

can use external power bank for extra 4h

dont forget to buy 72wh battery (model 68+) for 8~10h life

can dual boot from single ssd

fully supports mac

Where do you buy the 68+ 72wh battery? Do you also changed the internal battery as well? I am thinking of changing both. Any idea which I should buy from?