Is it better to use the computer without the charger and let it drain, and then charge it to it's full battery life and continue in that same pattern, or is it better to always have it in the charger. Which option is better for the computer and the battery in the long run?
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Question about battery
- Thread starter Azurius
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Run on battery whenever you need to and plug it in whenever you can. You can plug or unplug any time you need to, regardless of the charged percentage, and you never need to completely drain your battery.
The link below should answer most, if not all, of your battery/charging questions, including tips for maximizing battery performance. If you havent already done so, I highly recommend you take the time to read it. 
Couldn't see anything in those links that says you should keep a laptop on charge all the time unless you need to take it away.
I use my White Macbook on it's battery, charging it as required, sometimes as low as 15%, sometimes only 60% or higher. The battery is now 5 and half years old and is still at 83% of it's original design capacity.
I use my White Macbook on it's battery, charging it as required, sometimes as low as 15%, sometimes only 60% or higher. The battery is now 5 and half years old and is still at 83% of it's original design capacity.
The old Apple battery info page had a bunch of business on there about exercising your battery and gave an ideal usage scenario of commuting to work and using the battery then plugging it in when you got home to keep the battery in shape. All reference to this is now completely gone, and all they talk about now is how any battery usage results in partial charge cycles accumulating and eventually resulting in diminished battery capacity.
So the new Apple recommendation does not needlessly run on battery and accumulate charge cycles.
Just a guess, buy I think they figured out this whole "exercise the battery" thing caused unnecessary charge cycles and did more harm than good.
For anyone who really wants to dig into battery tech here is the Bible (link to: How to Prolong Lithium-based Batteries).