Cut the Cord- Use That Laptop Without Plugging In
This guy worked like this for an hour so he could be plugged in. He was barely able to walk from working hunched over. His battery was full when he arrived, and he had no further appointments for the day.
Laptops are useful things. You can throw them in a bag and pull them out almost anywhere when you need to get work done. You see people using them almost everywhere these days, from coffee shops to restaurants. They are mobile computers after all, and the key word in that phrase for me is mobile. One of the main features of laptops that makes them so mobile is the ability to use them unplugged. They have batteries, and while all day battery life is still largely a pipe dream most notebooks will run for a good portion of the day. That’s why I regularly get amused when I see laptops in use, they are almost always plugged into an outlet. I have to wonder what the point is to always use a tethered laptop?
Now before you sound off that I get to play with lots of notebooks, and that I am overlooking the fact that battery life deteriorates over time, listen to what I have to say. I don’t work mobile as much as I use to, but my observation of how mobile workers always want to plug in was garnered over years. In my past life I would work all over the place; it was not unusual to see me working in four or five different locations on a given day.
I never plugged in my laptop, even with that mobile lifestyle, while outside of my own office. I always carried a spare battery in my gear bag but no power adapter. Truth is I seldom had to swap the second battery into the notebook. I found with aggressive power management I could get a solid 4+ hours of constant use on any notebook I was carrying. Today’s notebooks can usually get 5 or 6 hours of solid use on a charge, and almost no one is using the computer for that long on a given day. Not outside the office, anyway.
I have observed mobile workers for years and it is uncommon to see one working on a laptop in a mobile venue without plugging into the nearest available outlet. I have asked hundreds of these workers why they don’t use the laptop unplugged and almost always get the same answer. They are afraid they might be in a situation where there are no power outlets and they want to make sure the battery is full. That makes sense but it means that most of these folks never, ever use the laptop unplugged. They are too busy always topping off the battery.
The reality is most of us are rarely very far from power outlets. They have them in coffee shops and just about every venue a laptop is commonly used. I have attended countless meetings where four or five laptops were in use, and every single one of them was plugged into an outlet. It often made for amusing cable clutter, and I’ve seen people trip over them. Most of these meetings lasted less than two hours so I have little doubt that all of these laptops could have lasted the duration on battery power handily.
My conversations with laptop users makes me think that most have the unreasonable (to me) fear of running the battery dry. They fear the rare situation when they have to work unplugged but the well is dry. It’s a real fear but to me it’s not a good reason to plug my laptop in, 99.99% of the time. Just in case. How about you? Do you always plug in, or do you always work untethered?
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When working from home, I never plug my Dell. It usually a good indication if I run out of juice that I am working too much – or at least too much via the laptop and not the desktop.
When working out – which is usually just on trips, I tend to be much more battery aware.
At home with entertainment activities, we use the Acer 9″ partially without cables, since this is the best way to run around the kids with Skype on with the parents on the other side of the ocean.
Tal
Ouch! You got me! (he says as he unplugs his HP Tablet from wall socket).
Wow, smart article. COMPLETELY agree, it follows the same logic as those people running out right now to buy groceries & top off their fridge out of fear that the world is getting ready to come to an end.
This is about as reasonable as making fun of people who continue breathing just because there’s always going to be more air around.
EVERY time I try to use one of my stupid laptops (HP, Dell and 2 Macs) I’ll just be getting on a roll when BLAMMO! No more juice. Every time. I look up and wow, if I think about it, I guess I was sitting here for 3 hours (time sure went fast). So I guess it takes about 3 hours of ramping-up time for the creative juices to start flowing.
I use my computers for all the cool stuff they can do now: PhotoShop, music recording, film editing, iPhone programming, regular-old programming, writing, site design, surfing, learning, chatting, etc.
In my opinion, the only thing that laptop batteries are good for is UPS functionality – at least when the power goes, I won’t lose my work. Unless I’m not plugged in.
I couldn’t agree more, it blows my mind. Not to mention the fact that if you never use your battery it won’t be there for you when you need it, because you know these same people never ever condition the battery.
There is one exception though and that is the airport. For whatever reason I never get lucky enough to have a power port on the plane so I like to make sure I have enough power to last me through the flight.
In most cases I use the battery unless I am charging it. I move around a lot throughout the house. I am constantly going up to the 3rd floor(where my bedroom is, and back) durring the school semester, for the most part, I don’t even take my power supply with me to school. my battery will last throughout the day. I have two batteries for my tablet. the regular and extended. I try to always have both charged when I leave someplace. in most cases I won’t have to switch to the second battery, but it happens enough that I always keep it charged.
I believe that is a remanescent fear build on the short battery life of the first laptop models, and the lack of experience of the users, this thinking of how many laptop/notebook users buy a spare battery during their ownership, mostly they stick to the aging original battery, even though it lasts 15 minutes!
Not all of us want to cripple our machines just to proove a point. If a power point is available then I can use my machine at full brightness and with everything on then I’ll plug in, but only if I’m going to be there a while. I have 5+ hours of battery life, but when possible I’d prefer to have full power available.
Gordon
When I’m running from place to place I never bring the cord with me. Being on the road morning till evening will just mean I bring that 2nd battery along. No big deal.
All day use sitting at meetings though, I will certainly plug in. I have yet to walk into a conference room that DIDN’T have power available, and ignoring the opportunity is like passing by the free gas offer at the corner pump. As Gordon above said, plugged in means I can work at full speed and full brightness – when you’re sitting at a desk 9-5, that’s the way to go!
I must admit I have terrible battery life with my non-aggressive MacBook Pro power management skills. But part of the reason I plug in is out of fear that the next place I work — whether it be in a different conference panel, a car, another cafe — won’t have power. By plugging in I have maximum flexibility and minimum worthless dead laptop.
same here – though I must admit I am less careful about plugging in with my new MacBook Pro (which has greater capacity)
Then again, I put gas in my car when it gets to 1/4 tank, but my wife can tell me how long the low gas light will stay on before you really need to get gas.