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Tip of the Day: a bright idea for saving battery life

One of the simplest tips that you will ever get on saving laptop battery life, and one of the most effective!

Seamus Byrne Editor, Australia & Asia
Seamus Byrne is CNET's Editor for Australia and Asia. At other times he'll be found messing with apps, watching TV, building LEGO, and rolling dice. Preferably all at the same time.
Seamus Byrne
Watch this: Tip of the Day: Save battery life on your laptop

It's one of the simplest tricks in the book, but it can save you hours in laptop battery life.

Battery life is our most precious resource when we're out with a laptop all day without a powerpoint to save us. If you know it's going to be a long time between drinks for your laptop, the number-one thing that you can do to get minutes and even hours further in your day is to turn down the screen brightness!

When you're just typing up some notes or doing some basic work on the web, you hardly need the screen on at all. If you make a habit of giving yourself only just as much brightness as you need, you'll soon be achieving those 6+ hours of battery life that the laptop company promised you on the box.