I boosted my laptop battery life with one click. Here’s the trick

In this installment of Smart Mode, we take a look at Microsoft’s built-in Windows tools for reducing power use and keeping a laptop running longer. One of them makes a particularly big difference.

I don’t often run into a productivity tip that impresses me as much as this one did. That changed when I started experimenting with Windows’ hidden energy recommendations, a set of options meant to stretch laptop battery life.

Before USB-C battery packs became common, I used to bring a spare laptop to conferences. Pen and paper would have worked, sure, but for me, no power meant no productivity. If I needed to file quickly, I wanted a backup plan. That’s one reason I began testing laptops with streaming and office workloads to get a better sense of real-world battery endurance.

Now Windows offers an easy one-click way to improve battery life by bundling together 10 different power-saving changes. Microsoft labels them as “energy recommendations” aimed at reducing carbon footprint, but they are, in practice, power-saving tweaks. And they work. My test results are at the end.

You can find these recommendations in Windows Settings under System > Power & battery. At the top of the page, Microsoft includes a large “Apply all” button that turns everything on at once. Here’s a closer look.

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Set the power mode for best energy efficiency. This is the familiar Windows power slider, which lets you favor performance or reduce power use. For many productivity apps, the highest-performance setting is unnecessary, so lowering it can cut fan noise and extend battery life.

Turn on Dark Mode. This is not just about appearance. On modern displays such as OLED panels, dark areas can use less power because black pixels are effectively off. That said, smaller laptop screens are sometimes easier to read when they are brighter.

Set the screen brightness for best energy efficiency. Windows defaults this setting to 75 percent. Brightness has long been one of the simplest ways to conserve battery, though results vary depending on the laptop’s display type and backlight.

Put my device to sleep after three minutes, and turn off my screen after three minutes. These are easy savings if you step away from your desk often, but they won’t help much if you stay in front of the screen the whole time.

Turn on dynamic refresh rate. Many modern laptop screens can run at higher refresh rates, such as 120Hz, for smoother scrolling and cursor movement, but that uses more power. They can also drop to lower rates, sometimes 30Hz, to save energy, though that may cause some visual stutter. Windows can switch between the two automatically, but the feature is usually off by default.

Turn off HDR to conserve energy. I would leave this disabled all the time. High-dynamic range content is not really meant for everyday productivity work and is mainly useful for premium streaming and games.

Save power by optimizing screen contrast and brightness for the content shown. This is similar to the brightness setting above, but it lets Windows adjust for what you are viewing, such as a web page versus a movie. I generally leave this turned on because it can improve both image quality and battery life.

The final two options, turn off my screen saver and stop USB devices when my screen is off to help save battery, are more like legacy controls. There is ongoing debate about whether screensavers still matter on OLED displays, but it is clear that connected USB accessories such as webcams and mice can drain battery even when the screen is off.

So how do these “energy recommendations” differ from the more familiar “energy saver” mode that usually activates when the battery gets low? The recommendations generally do not interfere with laptop functionality or productivity, while energy saver can. It may pause background tasks and sync activity, which could delay important email or file backups. That can be inconvenient for always-on work, although it does help the laptop stay alive longer.

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Microsoft also offers some extra recommendations for specialized devices with particular hardware features.

I usually turn off adaptive brightness, or Change brightness automatically when lighting around me changes, when testing a laptop, but it can be very useful in everyday use. It can lower or raise the brightness of a display automatically. For years, around 250 nits was considered a good indoor brightness target for a laptop, but OLED screens change the equation. In one test, I lowered an OLED laptop to 40 percent brightness, which was only 65 nits, yet the screen remained surprisingly readable thanks to its strong contrast.

Two options are only available on laptops with a presence sensor: Automatically dim my screen when I look away and Automatically put my device to sleep when I leave. I find the first one distracting because the dimming pulls my attention away. The second is a helpful power-saving measure, assuming you trust your environment. Leaving a laptop unattended in a public place is an easy way to have it stolen, which is a far bigger problem than an empty battery.

Do these settings actually make a difference? Yes, although results can vary.

I tested both an Asus ZenBook A16 and a Microsoft Surface Laptop 7th Edition. Both use the Qualcomm Snapdragon ARM architecture, but the Asus has an OLED display while the Surface uses an older IPS panel. Since the display often consumes the most power, I wanted to see whether the results would differ.

Matthew Smith / Foundry

I did not run full battery rundown tests. Instead, I used Procyon’s one-hour office productivity benchmark to measure battery drain over an hour, with Wi-Fi left on.

I expected only modest gains, and the Asus did not change dramatically. With my default settings — performance reduced to a minimum, screen brightness left high, and almost none of the recommendations enabled — battery life dropped 17 percent in an hour, which works out to about 5.9 hours. With the recommendations turned on, the drain fell to 14 percent per hour, projecting to 7.7 hours of battery life. That is still close to a full workday, but it adds up to a difference of 1.8 hours.

On a second run, the battery drop improved again, falling from 18 percent to 10 percent, although I had raised the brightness to maximum on my normal settings.

The Surface Laptop told a much more dramatic story. Using the same procedure — brightness turned up, performance set to recommended levels, and most of the recommendations left off — Procyon recorded a 16 percent drain per hour, which projected to 6.25 hours of battery life. With the energy recommendations enabled, the battery fell by only 8 percent, projecting to 12.5 hours of continuous use. I checked again and saw an even better result: 17 percent per hour on my normal settings versus 7 percent with Microsoft’s energy recommendations enabled.

In short, a single click doubled my battery life. What could it do for you?

Productivity in the news:

• Microsoft Copilot is receiving a major update with productivity in mind. Here’s the breakdown.
• A nerdy story that combines ergonomics and monitor placement: you can get more done when you are not dealing with neck strain.
• Fed up with Windows ads? These settings can help reduce them.
• Following the recent Googlebook launch, Google has confirmed that some Chromebooks — likely including Plus models — will be upgradable to the new Aluminium OS.
• Installing Windows patches is fine when everything works, but when it fails, it can be a disaster. That still happens far too often in Windows 11.
• Meanwhile, colleague Alex Wawro asks the obvious question: Is Windows 11 finally good?

Productivity on camera:

Sandra Andrews, who leads Microsoft’s go-to-market efforts for Surface, says the overlooked story of Surface is that it is a touchscreen. That claim comes from analyst Carolina Milanesi. One would hope there is a bit more to it than that.

The Windows Clock app may be one of the most unremarkable apps on your PC, but it includes a focus mode feature that can help you stay on task.

Productivity tip of the week: Shut down your desk as well as your PC

Try ending each workday with a shutdown ritual. Reserve the last 10 to 15 minutes to tidy your workspace, review what you finished, and write down your three highest-priority tasks for the next day.

Clearing everything before you leave creates a clean line between work and personal time, which can reduce after-hours mental clutter. When you return the next morning, you avoid decision fatigue and can start on what matters instead of spending your first hour figuring out where to begin. I do not always write these priorities down, but I do try to leave with a clear plan for how I will begin the next day. On reflection, this may be an even better way to end the week and prepare for Monday.

Thanks for reading!

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