Is wimpy battery life leaving you power-less? We’ve got tips for getting the most from your MacBook on a single charge.
The easiest way to save power is to reduce your screen’s brightness with the F1 and F2 keys on your keyboard. You can fine-tune these settings in System Preferences > Displays.
The brighter the screen, the faster your battery croaks.
If you don’t use Bluetooth peripherals, turn that Bluetooth radio off.
Same goes for Wi-Fi. You’ll be surprised by how much these two radios zap your battery!
Older MacBook Pros let you switch between power-sipping integrated graphics cards and dedicated cards that eat batteries for breakfast. To make the switch, go to System Preferences > Energy Saver. There you can choose “Better battery life” or “Higher performance.” Note that switching cards in some MacBook Pros requires you to log out for the change to take effect.
Older MacBook Pros let you fiddle with custom settings for battery life vs. performance.
If you have a newer Pro, Apple’s stripped out this feature for reasons only they understand, but you can install handy donationware that gives you the same powers. It’s called gfxCardStatus, and you can download a copy and get installation info at codykrieger.com/gfxCardStatus.
