HACKER Q&A
📣 amts

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 Accepted Answer ✓
The 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.