When to change the battery of your notebook or MacBook

On laptops running Windows 10 and Apple laptops there are very useful tools with which to check the health of the batteries

Battery, cross and delight of users. In fact, despite the progress achieved in recent years, lithium batteries continue to be delicate and after a while they begin to not perform as well as before, that is, they lose autonomy. A problem that affects both smartphones and notebooks.

No matter how careful you are, all batteries are destined not to last forever. If kept well, however, decay happens slowly and gradually. As many experts advise, by implementing a few simple steps, in fact, you can keep your batteries healthy and extend their charge cycles (which are limited). That said, in any case it is important to know what are the conditions of the batteries of our devices, so you know when it is appropriate to change it and thus avoid unpleasant surprises.

How to do? On computers running Windows 10 and MacBooks there are very useful tools with which to check the status of the batteries.

Windows 10

Microsoft on Windows 10 - but also on Windows 8 - allows you to know the condition of the laptop's battery, through a function accessible from the "Command Prompt". The utility, once launched, performs an analysis of the battery and then saves the report on the computer. The file is in HTML format, which means that all the information contained within it will be visible from the browser.

In the document there is a lot of data and numerous statistics, divided into several categories, ranging from the manufacturer to especially the current charge capacity and estimated battery life under optimal usage conditions. The information provides an overview of the condition of the laptop's battery and if understood correctly, can help the user understand when to change it.

Launching the Windows tool is very simple. Go to the search bar and type in "cmd". Alternatively, you could also press the "Windows" + "X" key. After that, copy and paste the following character string: powercfg /batteryreport /output "C:battery_report.htm into the Command Prompt. At this point, click enter and you are done.

MacBook

Not only on Windows PCs you can perform a battery analysis. On macOS, in fact, there is a utility similar to the one in Microsoft's operating system. And even in this case, knowing the battery condition of the Apple laptop is really very simple. In the report you'll find a lot of information, including the number of charge cycles reached, which is essential to evaluate how much time the battery has left before it stops working.

To read all this data, you just have to first press "About this Mac" from the "Apple" menu. Next, among the different items in the "Hardware" section, find and press on "Energy". A window will open with various information about the battery, including the number of recharge cycles, probably the most important data to understand the health situation of the battery.

Another way to know the condition of the MacBook battery is to press on the icon present in the home of the computer: it will open a menu with a section dedicated specifically to this issue. The MacBook will provide indications about the battery health (ranging from Normal to Change ASAP) that will let you know if you need to replace it.