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Ask HN: Why do you need to deplete ThinkPad E14 battery to max life?
In the official Lenovo User Guide for a new ThinkPad E14 Gen 2 some options to maximize battery life are:
• Use the battery until the charge is depleted.
• Recharge the battery completely before using it.
In the nearest months I may not need to run the laptop on battery only, so there will always be an AC power supply. Should I deplete the battery charge to max its life?
How can battery charge depletion maximize its life?
- PaulHoule 4y agoThe conventional wisdom is that it puts physical stress on a battery pack if you deeply charge or discharge it and could greatly extend the life of the battery if you kept it in a small range, say, 50-80%. The flip side of it is that the system has algorithms in it that learn what the battery capacity is and how to measure it and if you don't exercise a wide range the system won't recognize the capacity it has. What I do know is that every desktop replacement laptop I've had had the batteries functionally wear out in less than two years. The Alienware I have is good for running on battery between unplugging it in one conference room and plugging it in another one. I am not so sure if this is really the battery wearing out or the system just not using the capacity that is there.
- amts 4y agoYou imply as if some stupid Windows 10 pre-installed on this laptop would perform some complex "learning" activity on the battery. Why a Li-ion battery sensor needs "to learn" how to measure the battery output, if its main function is just to register the already existing battery output? If I have constant access to AC power, should I deplete the battery just for the sake of this odd battery saving recommendation?
- amts 4y agoA battery may have a limited number of charging-recharging cycles. So depleting the charge obviously decreases this number, and thus battery life. Lenovo ThinkPads also have been known for their good batteries.
- PaulHoule 4y agoI had the battery functionally wear out (e.g. only use the laptop when plugged in) in about one year on a Lenovo laptop.
- amts 4y agoWas it a Lenovo ThinkPad or another Lenovo product line? I have a cheapest HP laptop with crappy plastic casing for ~5 years plugged in, and its current battery capacity is only 96,2% from 100% after 5 years.
- PaulHoule 4y agoIt was a high end Lenovo Thinkpad, from the W-series... What they call a "mobile workstation". I've seen cheap laptops where the battery lasts but for the expensive ones (that say have a discrete GPU) seem to have good battery life for a few months. Some of it might be that the big ones have to abuse the battery we had since the T.S.A. won't let you take a big laptop with an accordingly big battery on the plane.