How Long Do Laptop Batteries Last? And What Can You Do to Improve This?

Most people buy laptops because they want to be portable. They want to move around the house or work in coffee shops or the library. Unfortunately, you can't always get as much done as you want to, because you can't always find a place to plug them in. Luckily, laptops have batteries.

This isn't as good as it sounds though. The typical laptop battery (in a 14 or 15 inch laptop) is a 6-cell battery that lasts around 2 hours. They might last a little longer than that, or a little less. It depends on what you're doing. If you are pushing the laptop (watching DVDs or editing photos) the battery will drain faster. Just think about how you get tired faster when you run than when you walk.

Luckily, you're not stuck with that 2 hours. You have a couple of options.

First, you can always buy a second battery. Then, when you're about to run out of juice, just swap batteries. That will give you four hours.

Even better, you can buy a second battery that's a larger-capacity than your original battery. As I said, most batteries that come with laptops are 6-cell batteries. You can buy bigger cell batteries that will give you longer battery life. You can buy these extended batteries from the laptop manufacturer, whether that's Apple, Dell, HP, Sony, or whoever. They are more expensive, but they're a good way to get more work done while you're on the road.

Those are your main options, but there are manufacturer-specific options. For instance, Dell sells something called a modular bay battery. You pull out your optical drive (DVD or CD drive), and install this battery instead. Then you get longer battery life because your laptop has two batteries. The laptop uses the modular battery first, just in case you want to use your optical drive. That way you will get the most battery life possible, because the primary battery is not used until the modular bay battery is used up.

This just proves that each manufacturer is striving to improve in this area all the time. So always check out what your manufacturer has available to help improve your battery life. People keep talking about a revolution in this area, but for now, you have to think creatively to get the most out of your laptop.

John Harper

John Harper blogs about the best rated computer laptops at http://bestratedcomputerlaptops.blogspot.com