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Boost your battery life

Posted on 11 Mar 2009 at 16:48

Stuart Andrews shows you how to make your laptop, smartphone and MP3 player batteries last longer.

We all know the nightmare scenarios: the big PowerPoint presentation when the screen goes blank halfway through; the smartphone that runs out of power while you're waiting for a critical email; the MP3 player that dies four hours into a transatlantic flight.

Yet even when we're not faced with embarrassment, frustration or disaster, empty batteries can be one of the modern world's most irritating occurrences. One of the best reasons to buy a laptop or netbook is the ability to work or surf the web from anywhere, but if the thing needs charging every 90 minutes, that advantage is largely cancelled out.

Battery and power-saving technology is getting ever more efficient, but as our devices become more powerful, batteries are struggling to keep up. Even a budget laptop will fly through most apps, but getting one to run for more than two or three hours on a single charge is another matter. Meanwhile, we use MP3 players and smartphones that should theoretically run for 24 hours or more without a charge, but in practice that figure shrinks as soon as you try to do anything serious on the device.

Until the everlasting battery arrives, there's plenty you can do to keep your mobile devices running for longer. This feature will deliver practical tips that can help extend the longevity of your laptop, smartphone and media players, and warn you off activities that will drain more energy than running a marathon in a deep-sea diving suit.

We've sought expert advice and conducted tests to find out exactly how much battery life some of our tips will preserve. Read on to find out how you could add hours of life to your gadgets.

Boost your battery life: Laptops & netbooks
Boost your battery life: Smartphones
Boost your battery life: Media players

Author: Stuart Andrews