Tag Archives: laptop

Laptops

How Long Do Laptop Batteries Really Last?

MacBook with battery settings on the screen Tada Images/Shutterstock

There are laptop computer batteries that may last as long as 22 hours like that of a brand new M3 MacBook Pro, whereas just a few, such because the Panasonic Toughbook 40, might offer you 27 hours, in accordance with PC Magazine. On the opposite hand, another laptops can not seem to keep on with out being plugged in. This enormous discrepancy between batteries throughout laptops is because of a number of variables, however there are two common methods to categorise them: battery life and battery well being.

Battery life is the variety of hours you may get out of a battery after a single cost. When you’re taking a laptop computer like a MacBook, cost it, place it in your pack, and go to a espresso store, you will run out of battery in accordance with how a lot load you place on the battery. If you overwork the battery with CPU-intensive or graphics-intensive classes, then the battery merely will not final very lengthy. In our MacBook instance, you could possibly get lower than half of the MacBook’s marketed 22 hours.

However, batteries degrade with time. You could have observed that older laptops can battle to maintain a cost. We seek advice from the power of a battery’s efficiency as battery well being. Your laptop computer’s battery well being has a direct influence on battery life, and battery degradation is an unavoidable a part of utilizing it. The extra the battery degrades, the less complete hours you may get from a single cost. Your solely alternative is to reduce the speed at which it degrades by caring for it correctly.

How do you lengthen your laptop computer’s battery life?

Battery icon floating over an open laptop Triloks/Getty

There are a number of complete guides on how to maximize battery life across your devices, however if you need some fast pointers, here is what it is best to know:

  • The issues that actually drain your laptop computer’s battery are lights (screens and keyboards), CPU and GPU pressure, cooling (in case your laptop computer has a fan), peripheral units, and sounds from the built-in audio system. You can in the end hint all life-sapping points to those.
  • Many laptops use LCD screens, that are simply massive bulbs behind the show. Powering the lighting on the display screen takes numerous battery. Dim your show to increase your laptop computer’s battery life.
  • Avoid utilizing resource-hungry software program should you can assist it. Games, video modifying, and different related duties can actually suck the life out of your battery.
  • Watching movies and utilizing your webcam are additionally culprits of battery drain. There’s a cause most official battery assessments use video playback hours as a metric — video drains battery. An app like Zoom makes use of each movies and your laptop computer’s digicam, and you may see it eat at your battery’s life in real-time.
  • Don’t use your laptop computer’s battery to cost your telephone except you are actually determined. If you employ a MacBook, keep away from this altogether. A MacBook has no “powerful” battery, even with its wonderful battery life. Instead, MacBooks have environment friendly CPUs that demand much less from the battery. Charging your telephone from a MacBook’s battery will shortly drain the laptop computer. You can use this philosophy with different non-Apple laptops, as effectively.
  • Extreme chilly may also trigger your laptop computer’s battery to empty shortly. Ensure you keep away from exposing your laptop computer to extraordinarily chilly ambient temperatures.

How do you extend your laptop computer battery’s well being?

A man sad over dead laptop battery New Africa/Shutterstock

In reality, the true factor it is best to shield is your laptop computer’s battery well being. A weak battery can’t be fastened; you should have no alternative however to interchange it. Most laptops use lithium-ion batteries (Li-on), and these degrade with every cycle of use. Each time it reaches 0% from 100%, it’s one step nearer to the top.

On common, laptop computer batteries have two to 5 years of use or 300 to 500 cycles of cost. As you close to the top, the laptop computer will start to lose hours till it may possibly now not assist regular efficiency, forcing it to close down quickly after you begin it up.

Fortunately, there are habits you possibly can undertake to make sure your battery stays wholesome for longer:

  • Don’t cost your laptop computer to 100%, and do not let it die. Doing this stresses the chemical substances in a Li-on battery and causes sooner degradation.
  • Monitor your laptop computer battery’s well being ceaselessly to see what habits are killing it. There are strategies to check the battery health on a MacBook and methods to see the battery health on a Windows laptop.
  • Don’t leave your laptop plugged in after 100%. This could cause the battery to overwork and overheat and cut back its efficiency even sooner.
  • Avoid exposing your laptop computer to warmth. Whereas chilly may quickly trigger your battery to have poor cost, warmth can irreversibly degrade your battery.

As a final piece of recommendation, the way you handle your laptop computer’s battery life will have an effect on its general battery well being. Try to not drain the battery too shortly with higher battery life-saving habits.

Technology

5 Of The Best Wireless Mice For Working On The Go

I virtually carry this toddler at any time when I journey with my laptop computer. It could not seem like a lot, however it will get the job carried out and takes up so little room. The rounded form and the dramatic slope of the buttons match very comfortably in my hand, although its smaller dimension takes a bit of to get used to. CHERRY opted for a chargeable battery, which was the best name. I can stand up to 2 months of steady use out of the MW 9100 earlier than it must be recharged through its USB-C port.

The MW 9100 connects through Bluetooth 4.0 or the included 2.4GHz RF receiver. Either choice works properly, and you may take pleasure in nearly lag-free use. One of a very powerful options of any mouse is its DPI, or dots per inch. This is measurement of the mouse’s sensitivity, or how briskly or sluggish it should transfer on display screen regardless of how briskly you are bodily transferring the mouse. The solely downfall of the MW 9100 that will hassle some customers is the DPI vary, which solely permits for 1,000, 1,600, and a couple of,400 DPI. If you want a decreased sensitivity, that baseline 1,000 DPI should be a bit of an excessive amount of for you.

Using the CHERRY KEYS software program, you may reprogram many of the inputs, together with the 2 aspect buttons. Overall, the CHERRY MW 9100 wi-fi mouse is an easy, responsive, and really compact choice you may need to take into account on your subsequent outing. At solely $29.99, the MW 9100 is a budget-friendly choice positive to boost your on-the-road productiveness.

Technology

Are ‘High Endurance’ MicroSD Cards Worth The Extra Cost?

Just like deciding on a laptop computer, you select a microSD card based mostly on what you propose to make use of it for. You may very well be utilizing it simply to avoid wasting video games in your Nintendo Switch, however you could possibly simply as simply be utilizing one to retailer footage from a continually operating safety digicam. If you’re somebody within the latter class who plans to make use of these playing cards on an extremely frequent foundation, then maybe the “High Endurance” selection is best for you.

For that 512GB SanDisk mannequin, it boasts the flexibility to file as much as 40,000 hours. The quantity of house on the cardboard does not enable for that, so which means it holds up extraordinarily effectively with fixed writing and re-writing, which many playing cards do not do. Taking it up a step additional is the Max Endurance mannequin, which may file as much as 120,000 hours on its 256GB version. Samsung even ups that quantity to 140,000 on its 256GB Pro Endurance card.

For these solely utilizing them on an occasional foundation, you most likely can save a few bucks and go together with the bottom choices. But should you want long-lasting playing cards for plenty of recording, these “High Endurance” playing cards will arise much better than your customary choices.

Laptops, News

AMD’s New Ryzen 8040 Series Laptop Chips Put The Focus On AI

amd logo Tobias Arhelger/Shutterstock

AMD’s laptop computer APU line bought a refresh on Wednesday within the type of the Ryzen 8040 sequence, and no less than going by the announcement, AI is the precedence and major dividing line from the earlier 7040 sequence. “We continue to deliver high performance and power-efficient NPUs with Ryzen AI technology to reimagine the PC,” stated Jack Huynh, SVP and GM of AMD computing and graphics, in a press launch. “The increased AI capabilities of the 8040 series will now handle larger models to enable the next phase of AI user experiences.”

On paper, the brand new APUs learn as similar to the 7040 sequence, with the 8040 sequence that includes Zen 4 CPUs and RDNA 3 GPUs made utilizing the identical 4nm course of as its predecessor sequence. The 8040 model of the AI-centric neural processing unit, or NPU, is, in accordance with what AMD told Ars Technica, roughly 1.4x sooner than its 7040 counterpart, however AMD additionally conceded to Ars that this was primarily a byproduct of elevated clock speeds. AMD Technical Marketing Manager Donny Woligroski additionally advised Ars that firmware and driver tweaks ought to be a key differentiator in producing a “real generational improvement,” as nicely.

“It’s been unimaginable to see AMD and Microsoft’s lengthy partnership transferring into the following wave of know-how, bringing AI innovation to our shared clients,” Pavan Davuluri, CVP Windows + Devices, Microsoft, added in AMD’s press launch. “We’re so excited to see Ryzen 8040 Series processor-powered devices come to life in the Windows ecosystem and can’t wait to see what developers and customers do with all of this innovation.”

Full lineup of AMD’s cellular APU SKUs

AMD signage Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

According to the press launch, the brand new lineup of APUs consists of the next 9 SKUs:

  • AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS (8 cores/16 threads, as much as 5.2 GHz enhance/4.0 GHz base CPU frequency, 24MB cache, 45W TDP)
  • AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS (8 cores/16 threads, as much as 5.1 GHz enhance/3.8 GHz base CPU frequency, 24MB cache, 45W TDP)
  • AMD Ryzen 7 8840HS (8 cores/16 threads, as much as 5.1 GHz enhance/3.3 GHz base CPU frequency, 24MB cache, 28W TDP)
  • AMD Ryzen 7 8840U (8 cores/16 threads, as much as 5.1 GHz enhance/3.3 GHz base CPU frequency, 24MB cache, 28W TDP)
  • AMD Ryzen 5 8645HS (6 cores/12 threads, as much as 5.0 GHz enhance/4.3 GHz base CPU frequency, 22MB cache, 45W TDP)
  • AMD Ryzen 5 8640HS (6 cores/12 threads, as much as 4.9 GHz enhance/3.5 GHz base CPU frequency, 22MB cache, 28W TDP)
  • AMD Ryzen 5 8640U (6 cores/12 threads, as much as 4.9 GHz enhance/3.5 GHz base CPU frequency, 22MB cache, 28W TDP)
  • AMD Ryzen 5 8540U (6 cores/12 threads, as much as 4.9 GHz enhance/3.2 GHz base CPU frequency, 22MB cache, 28W TDP)
  • AMD Ryzen 3 8440U (4 cores/8 threads, as much as 4.7 GHz enhance/3.0 GHz base CPU frequency, 12MB cache, 28W TDP)

All however the final two will embrace the NPU for AI acceleration. Notebooks containing the brand new 8040 sequence APUs will ship in Q1 2024 from, in accordance with the press launch, Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, and Razer.

Tablets

5 Essential Accessories Every iPad User Should Have

Apple’s iPads have become so advanced that many people are now using them as laptop replacements. Whether you’re using your iPad like a computer or not, one accessory you’ll likely need is a USB hub. This can greatly expand the one port that comes with your iPad, allowing you to connect multiple devices.

When it comes to USB-C hubs, there are numerous options available. If you own a newer iPad with a USB-C port, the HyperDrive 6-in-1 USB-C Hub is a fantastic choice. This aluminum device attaches neatly to the side of your iPad and comes equipped with a 60W USB-C power delivery port, a USB-A port, a 3.5-millimeter audio jack, a 4K 60Hz HDMI output, and MicroSD and SD card slots. With this hub, you can effortlessly access and transfer data, as well as connect your iPad to a 4K display.

The HyperDrive 6-in-1 USB-C Hub is priced at $99 on the Hyper website (when in stock), but you can also find it on Amazon. It would be even better if it had more USB slots, as USB-A is still widely used despite being outdated. Additionally, it would be convenient to have an extra USB-C port for power delivery if one port is already in use. However, even without these extras, the hub still provides essential functionality and serves as a valuable accessory for your iPad.

Technology

Is There A Better Time Of Year To Buy A New Laptop?

When is the best time to buy a new laptop? The answer is simple: during the same time when other items have the best deals. Just like TVs, Instant Pots, and game consoles, laptops are often part of the promotions during Thanksgiving and its adjacent events like Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Cyber Week. Another good time to buy is during Amazon’s Prime Day, which happens every July.

While the term “Black Friday” is commonly associated with the idea of post-Thanksgiving sales bringing retailers’ profits “into the black,” its original meaning in the 1980s was to signify the chaos of the day, with many retail workers calling in sick to avoid the crowds.

Last year, there were significant laptop discounts during Black Friday, including a 20% discount on a MacBook Pro, a 33% discount on a Microsoft Surface Pro 8, and an impressive 45% discount on a Gigabyte G5 MD gaming laptop. Cyber Monday also offered more gaming laptop deals three days later. Overall, it is the most opportune time of the year to find discounted MacBooks below Apple’s retail prices.

During the 2023 Prime Day, the base M1 MacBook Air was reduced from $999.99 to $749.99. Although this deal was part of a special event, it has continued to be available afterwards.

Technology

How to Fix a Non-Working Laptop Touchpad

If you’re facing issues with the touchpad on your Windows laptop, the most likely cause is the drivers. Unless there is a hardware problem, which would be easily noticeable, the problem is likely related to the mouse and pointer drivers. There are two options you can try to fix the issue.

Option 1: Update the Driver

  1. Type “Device Manager” in the Start menu search bar.
  2. Open the Device Manager.
  3. Expand either the “Human Interface Devices” or “Mice and other pointing devices” tab.
  4. Locate your trackpad on the list.
  5. Right-click on your trackpad and select “Update driver”.

The update wizard will automatically check for driver updates and install them if available.

Option 2: Reinstall the Driver

  1. Type “Device Manager” in the Start menu search bar.
  2. Open the Device Manager.
  3. Expand either the “Human Interface Devices” or “Mice and other pointing devices” tab.
  4. Locate your trackpad on the list.
  5. Right-click on your trackpad and select “Uninstall device”.
  6. Confirm the uninstallation.
  7. Restart your PC.

When your PC restarts, Windows will automatically detect the missing driver and reinstall it, hopefully resolving any touchpad issues in the process.