I used to plug my HP in every night and let it sit at 100% until morning. Did that for about 18 months. Then last December I noticed the battery would only last maybe 2 hours before dying, used to get closer to 5. Buddy of mine who fixes electronics told me keeping it topped off all the time kills lithium batteries faster. So I changed two things: I started unplugging once it hit 80%, and I only charge it back up when it gets down to 20%. It's been 4 months now and the battery life is holding steady around 4 hours still. I don't even plug it in overnight anymore, just top it off during lunch when I'm at my desk. Has anyone else tried this and seen their laptop battery last longer?
I was always Team Lenovo for laptops, thought Dell was overpriced junk. Then my 2-year-old Lenovo started dying after 3 hours off the charger no matter what I did. My buddy's $600 Dell Inspiron still gets 8 hours after 4 years, so am I just unlucky or did I pick the wrong brand?
I used to swear my MacBook Air was unbeatable for design work. Then a buddy at a coffee shop in Austin showed me how to snap windows to quadrants on a Dell XPS 13 using just the keyboard. Now I'm actually considering switching because managing multiple artboards side by side feels way smoother on Windows without the extra clicks.
Back in 2018, I swore I'd never buy a refurbished laptop because I figured it was just someone else's broken junk. But last year my budget was tight and I needed something for basic web stuff and Netflix, so I got a Dell Latitude off a refurb site for $280. Two years later it's still running fine with no issues, battery lasts about 6 hours which is better than my buddy's brand new HP. Has anyone else had good luck with refurbs or did I just get lucky?
I swore by Dell for years because that's what I had in college. But my buddy let me borrow his ASUS Vivobook for a week last month while mine was getting fixed. The battery on this thing lasts like 12 hours compared to my old Dell's 6 hours. Plus it boots up in like 5 seconds flat without any of that bloatware nonsense. I was convinced I'd hate the keyboard but honestly it's just as good for typing. The real kicker was the price - his was $550 and my Dell was $750 for way less battery life. Has anyone else switched brands and been surprised by what you found?
I was reading through a forum post on laptop battery care last Tuesday and saw a chart showing that keeping a laptop plugged in at 100% all day cuts battery life by almost 40% over two years. I had been leaving mine plugged in since I bought it 18 months ago and never thought twice about it. Has anyone else tried unplugging once it hits 80% and seen a difference?
I always used cheap $15 chargers off Amazon for my Dell, figured a charger is a charger right? Then last week my power brick literally started smoking during a zoom meeting in my kitchen. I took it to a repair shop in Austin and the guy showed me how the cheap one was sending uneven voltage to my battery. He said I was a few weeks away from frying my motherboard and losing everything. Has anyone else had a cheap accessory almost destroy their laptop?