How to Calibrate Laptop Batteries
This one's going to be a short one. I promise.
So you've got your new MacBook/MacBook Air/MacBookPro and you want to rip open that neat clean box and play with your new toy. But you're going to want to do something to ensure that you get the most out of that battery and it pays to take a little time at the beginning to get every ounce of power you can for as long as you can.
Most of the new Apple laptops now have non-replaceable batteries. They're supposed to give you 'up to 8 hours' of life. Now, I've never gotten the maximum stated life from a battery but I've come close and I'm going to give you a few steps that should help you do that.
1. Fully charge the computer. That means once you get the computer out of the box, plug in the white power adapter into the wall and connect the magnetic connector to the computer. On almost all of the laptops, with the exception of the MacBook Air, you can click on a button on the computer (on the left side on MacBook Pros, under the bottom on MacBook whites) and get a reading of the battery life. You can also get it from the icon on the right side of the Menu Bar at the top of your screen. When that reads "Charged" the computer is fully charged. Let it rest about 2 hours before doing anything else.
2. Unplug the computer and use it. When the battery gets low it will let you know with a dialog box.
3. Save your work. You will continue to work with the computer until it is out of power and goes to sleep.
4. Let it sit for 3-5 hours.
5. Plug it in and recharge it.
Now you're ready to use the computer as you normally would. Think of this as a 'Burn-In' period like you would have on a new car. You need to 'temper' the battery first to get the most out of it later. These steps will really make a difference over the life of the battery.
I do one more thing. In iCal I have an event set to repeat EVERY MONTH to fully discharge my computer battery by using it until it goes to sleep. Then I recharge it and use it. The last thing I would suggest is that in Preferences => Energy Saver, I set the power settings under Power Adapter to maximize power usage.
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