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If you have an Apple Silicon Mac I can recommend Battery [1]. It can keep your Mac at 80%, and even force discharge while plugged in to get there. It’s a CLI and status bar utility, I love it.
Somewhere down the line, many of us got the idea that our laptops should always be plugged in to improve their performance Because the manfacturers made the firmware defaults downclock the CPU if it was on battery power. Also, is it just me or does this article have an "AI generated" feel to it? The arguments it makes are somewhat in the "uncanny valley" between truth and fiction, and the phrasing of some of the sent…
Yeah, this does seem AI generated, or at least “AI assisted” in that it was primarily written by AI and a human slightly modified it and then stamped their name on it. Just look at this paragraph: “Many laptops sit on a charger throughout the workday and all through the night. We don’t even think about it; we just plug in everywhere. We’re charging at work, at home, at the coffee shop – a collective addiction to a la…
The article is over dramatized causing false statements, doesn't use any of the usual GPT4 lingo etc.
E.g. claiming that it is the "worst thing you could do".
"In terms of longevity, the optimal charge voltage is 3.92V/cell."
https://batteryuniversity.com/article/bu-808-how-to-prolong-...
That maps out to roughly 65% charge state.
There's a great app called AlDente for MacOS that allows you to set the charge limit while plugged in.
Is there a good reason why we can't tell our devices to charge the battery to say 70% and then internally disconnect the battery, so it's neither charging nor discharging?
Dell laptops have had such a feature literally for a decade now
Please explain like I'm five: if continuously charging and drawing power at 100% hurts my laptop's battery, why doesn't the laptop bypass the battery circuitry, keeping it idle, and use the incoming juice directly?
First laptop at work, always plugged in (except for maybe one or two hours a week). After two years of use (maybe a couple more from a previous employee) the battery lasted 30 minutes.
Personal laptop. Mostly plugged in (except when traveling maybe 3-4 weeks per month) but with the charging at 80% capped (it's an option from the manufacturer). Almost 10 years later still holds around 1-2 hours (disclaimer: I don't use this laptop anymore except for occasional tests)
Please explain like I'm five: if continuously charging and drawing power at 100% hurts my laptop's battery, why doesn't the laptop bypass the battery circuitry, keeping it idle, and use the incoming juice directly?
But the key point is that the battery will drop to 99% very quickly and on it's own because no battery can keep the energy in perfectly. So it's recharged for the missing 1% over and over again which causes the damage.
Unless some smart charging logic prevents that, see other comments here.
Edit: typo
Please explain like I'm five: if continuously charging and drawing power at 100% hurts my laptop's battery, why doesn't the laptop bypass the battery circuitry, keeping it idle, and use the incoming juice directly?
"In terms of longevity, the optimal charge voltage is 3.92V/cell"
https://batteryuniversity.com/article/bu-808-how-to-prolong-...
That maps out to roughly 65% charge state. So a little trickle charge on/off doesn't really help things much at all. You simply need to keep the battery in a lower charge state while plugged in for longer periods.
As bad as this is alone, the toxic combo that kills a plugged in laptop's battery in a year or two is regularly pushing it hard at full charge.
Please explain like I'm five: if continuously charging and drawing power at 100% hurts my laptop's battery, why doesn't the laptop bypass the battery circuitry, keeping it idle, and use the incoming juice directly?
It does, if the battery is 100% no more charging current goes in, so charging stops. But the key point is that the battery will drop to 99% very quickly and on it's own because no battery can keep the energy in perfectly. So it's recharged for the missing 1% over and over again which causes the damage. Unless some smart charging logic prevents that, see other comments here. Edit: typo