Apple’s portable computers have become the company’s best-selling Mac models, which is no doubt down to them being thinner and lighter than ever before. However, this puts a limit on how big their batteries can be, and although the technology has improved, battery life in laptops is still an important factor. As good as OS X and Intel’s latest processors are at minimizing power drain, our expectations of how long we should be able to go between charges have also increased.
The good news is there are quite a few things you can do to squeeze as much as possible out of a single charge. It helps, for example, if you can install OS X 10.9 Mavericks, because this has many under-the-hood power-saving technologies, but even on older versions of OS X there are some great tips to know, as we’ll see.
1. Lower the Screen Brightness
Even when the CPU is fairly idle, the screen still uses battery. Use the shortcut keys or go to System Preferences > Displays and lower the brightness a little. Newer Macs have an “auto brightness” option you may wish to turn on.
2. Cut Wireless Connections
If you’re not on a Wi-Fi network, turn Wi-Fi off from the menu bar icon at the top of the screen. If you are on Wi-Fi and have connected to remote drives, disconnect when you’re done, otherwise your Mac uses power to poll the network to check they are there.
3. Disable Power Nap
With the Power Nap system, newer Macs can perform certain functions when asleep. It should be deactivated while on battery power; go to System Preferences > Energy Saver, click the Battery tab and deselect “Enable Power Nap while on battery power.”
4. Remove any Optical Discs
Most newer Apple laptops don’t have optical drives, but many older ones do. Having a disc in the drive when you’re not using it causes the computer to periodically whip up the drive. The motion of spinning the disc uses quite a bit of battery power, so eject it.
5. Clean out Your Login Items
Installing printers, scanners and other devices can cause helper apps to be placed on your system. Go to System Preferences > Users and Groups and look at the Login Items. Remove any you don’t need, to speed up login and reduce power consumption.
6. Minimize Active Apps
OS X 10.9 Mavericks has App Nap, to suspend apps not in the foreground. For earlier OS X versions, and as a general rule of thumb, it helps to quit any app which you’re not actually using in order to free up potential resources.
7. Disconnect Peripherals
Both USB and Thunderbolt connections are able to carry power, and they’re often used to power external devices. If you’re working away from a power source, this power comes from your laptop battery, so if you’re not using a device, disconnect it.
8. Use ClickToFlash
Safari Power Saver in OS X 10.9 disables parts of websites, such as Flash content, to use fewer resources when browsing. Simulate this in earlier OS X versions by installing the Safari extension ClickToFlash to block Flash content from playing automatically.
9. Battery Info
If you hold the Option key and click the battery icon in your Mac’s menu bar, you get an expanded display that reveals a report about the condition of the battery. This should say Normal, but it will report any problems, or indicate if the battery needs replacing when it’s older. Laptop batteries are not designed to be charging all the time; they should be run down at periodic intervals and then fully recharged. This “cycling” ensures better longevity, so don’t be afraid to use your laptop away from the mains.
10. Switch to an SSD
Almost all Apple laptops now come with a solid state drive (SSD) included, instead of a hard drive. This is because they’re smaller, faster, and lower in power consumption compared to spinning hard drives. However, even if you have an older laptop, you should be able to swap your original drive for a new SSD. Prices for these drives are coming down hugely online, so it pays to shop around. They give an older laptop a brand-new lease of life in terms of general performance, as well as improving battery life. However, remember to back up your data comprehensively before swapping out any hardware components.
11. Fast User Switching
Fast User Switching can be really useful, because it lets one or more users stay logged in in the background while another operates a Mac under their own account. Be aware, though, that many processes started by the background user, such as Safari downloads, continue even when the Mac is switched to a new user, and can use battery power. Apps that have opened also stay open. Because there’s no real way of knowing which apps will be running in the background, the only way to ensure that a user is taking up no battery power at all is to log them out of OS X.
12. Energy-Saving Options
A. Graphics switching: Higher-end MacBook Pro models have two graphics processors. One is for simple tasks, such as email or web browsing, and the other for intensive processes, such as gaming or Photoshop work. OS X is smart enough to toggle between the two processors so it uses the less power-hungry hardware, but, when required, switches on the high-powered card (but only for as long as it is needed).
B. Choose your setup: OS X can be set to work differently on mains power and battery power. When on mains, you don’t need to worry as much about CPU usage, screen brightness and display sleeping. Under the Battery option, you should have different settings, such as faster screen-dimming and a sleep option to preserve power.
C. Display sleep: When you’re on mains power, you may well have your display set to go to sleep after a longer period. On battery power, it’s wise to have the screen sleep after a shorter time — we’d suggest five minutes. Remember the screen only sleeps when there’s no user input.
D. Power save options: The “Put hard disks to sleep when possible” option is more applicable to older, spinning hard drives than new SSDs, since the latter have no moving parts and so use far less battery power. However, if you do have a hard drive, switching this option on is advisable, because over time it saves a decent amount of charge. The option to slightly dim the display while on battery power is also useful, because with every notch that the brightness is lowered, some battery power is saved.
E. Power Nap options: Newer Mac laptops are able to check for email, iCloud, calendar and other updates even while asleep. As you might imagine, this requires the use of some power since the computer isn’t technically fully asleep. It’s fine to use on mains power, but it’s probably a good idea to check this is switched off for battery power unless you really want those updates.
F. Energy usage monitor: If you click on the battery icon in the menu bar in OS X 10.9 Mavericks, you see a menu item that displays which (if any) apps are using significant energy. “Energy” can refer to CPU, disk access and RAM usage, all of which use up battery power to various extents. You can then quit the app if necessary.
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