When it comes to laptops, smartphones, and tablets, would you choose battery life optimization or performance? Most of us aren't doing very intensive tasks and can deal with lower performance. If a device featured 13 hour battery life (for laptops and tablets) or actual 24 hour life (with moderate usage and, say, 8 hours of screen on time) but came with maybe a second or two of lag when switching tasks or loading tabs, then would you make that sacrifice?
Well where I'm mostly using the laptop, I have the convenience to charge whenever I need to so battery isn't necessarily a problem for me. For my laptop I would definitely choose performance over battery because I prefer to have a smoother experience while working on whatever I'm doing on my laptop. As for my smartphone and tablet, I would prefer a longer battery life as these are the devices I will mostly pull out on the go. But I'm also not expecting these to perform the same as my laptop can so lower performance is fine with me. But what's most important is that it will last me while I'm trying to read or work on the go. That's the most important as when you travel, charging outlets aren't so conveniently found.
It's to the point where even low-end processors and screens on smartphones that sip energy still don't last that much longer than the most advanced chips, which is sad and a little annoying. Supposedly, various companies are working on solutions to store more energy in the same-sized lithium batteries. The biggest issue with battery life is that manufacturers are coming up with quick charging instead of actually tackling the real problem. Sure, I can quick charge my phone in an hour, but when I don't have an outlet, I'd much rather have a battery that simply lasts longer. With my laptop, I'm lazy. Even if I'm sitting at home, I like having a 10+ hour battery to avoid the charger.
Yeah that's true when you say that they're not tackling the problem. For portable travel devices, it's not so much about how fast you can charge but more as to how long you can last without charging. Because even if I can charge it in like 30 minutes, how long can I use it before I need to charge for 30 minutes again? If I can't find an outlet, your quick charge is essentially useless to me. If you think about it, if my battery drains within 3 hours or less... I'd have to invest more time in charging then the time that I'm actually able use it without an outlet. That's not a quick charge anymore if I frequently have to run to an outlet. In fact that's more inconvenient. I'd rather have a long and solid charge and have at least 10+ hours of battery life.
I'd definitely choose battery life. A second or two of lag isn't very much; as long as the performance is good enough that I won't be tempted to throw the thing out the window, then that's fine with me. I'm used to slow devices anyway. I often bring my laptop, tablet and phone to school. I've managed to bend my laptop charger's pins by squashing them in the bottom of my backpack, and there are only a couple of power outlets in each classroom, so I'd rather not charge things there. I can spend a lot of time doing work or going online each day, therefore battery life is crucial for me.
I choose battery life. I am the kind of person who hates having to lug around a charger or a powerbank. If I could, I would just bring my gadget with me. I tend to charge my laptop or phone before going out so I would not have to bring along my charger which adds weight to my bag. A little lag is okay as long as the battery performance is excellent.
I mainly work with my laptop and tablet, and I can recharge them at my leisure at my place of work. So, I don't really need any high performance batteries. On the rare occasion that I can recharge my gadgets during work, I simply charge them up before I go out. I've never had any problems with my battery running out before finishing the tasks that I needed to achieve. For me it's all a matter of organisation.
I would choose battery life if the lag is tolerable, because it can be a hassle to always charge your device as you use it. Sometimes, the available socket is not a comfortable place to work on, so you have no choice but to wait for it to charge. I also don't like using a phone with a cord connected to it, sometimes the cord disconnects and you mess up the charging cycle.
I'd like to be experiencing each one, since my tablet often lags and the battery life operates as though someone is literally pouring it out. When I use my tablet device, I can't just use it without having it on charge. It has to be charging whilst I use the device, otherwise it is highly likely to turn off by itself, and then it is hell getting it to actually charge again. I'd probably choose battery life overall though.
It all comes down to what you're planning to do with your portable device, to be honest. I've personally got a smartphone and use it only for occassional offer browsing and that's pretty much it, so battery life would suit me better than, say, one who plays a lot of games.
I would choose performance as I am impatient at the best of times. Battery life doesn't bother me as I charge things whenever I need to and I can live without my devices for a while. I've always been a person to keep enough battery on anything in case of an emergency so I never run out of power.
I used to think that too, but you have to take into consideration that rechargeable batteries die after too many charges too. So if you have to keep charging these devices because their battery life sucks - for lack of a better word - then sooner or later, you are going to have to pay to get the device fitted with a new battery, or replace the device altogether, because a shoddy battery is known to ruin many devices.
I'm a bit of a performance freak so performance for me, I can charge my phone (and I have to) 2 or 3 times a day so battery life isn't much of an issue, it can be inconvenient at times but never has it interfered to the point where I considered switching phone for battery life.
I don't think battery life is much of an issue now since there are portable and cheap power banks. My phone is a Samsung that usually consumes the full charge in one day. But now I am using more of my power bank that I can even charge my phone with it while on my way to the office. So performance of my phone is my priority over battery life.
As I almost always use a laptop for anything I do - performance and the ability not to over heat are very definitely a greater priority to me than battery life - in fact come to think of it extended battery life would be a total waste for me - as apart from the fact that I'm in the habit of regularly charging the few small portable devices that I have so that they are always fully charged - I rarely ever use them for long enough to get anywhere near running the batteries down.
I would say for a laptop, performance is definitely more important. I am generally in a situation where I can use my laptop around an outlet, so battery life isn't all that important. I use a lot of applications that require my laptop to perform well, so that is definitely needed. I would say that a phone/tablet is a different story. Many people (myself included) do the most pointless things on a phone- browse Facebook, Instagram, etc. and don't need something with great performance for this. A basic flip phone would suffice if it was capable of using apps like Instagram and Youtube for most people. Everyone I know struggles with battery life with their phones, so this could be a direction that phone companies go in in the future. Everyone would be happier if phones lasted longer; more data being used, more apps being used, etc.
Performance would be more important to me since I could easily just keep the device plugged or charge it more often whereas there is not much remedy I can do to make a device run faster even if I did have longer usage of it. A few seconds of lag might not seem like much of a problem, and it really isn't, but it is highly annoying and if it can be avoided then I think that is the most practical choice.
For my phone and other mobile device that can fir in my pocket, I prefer the extended battery life. One of the reasons why you have those portable devices in the first place is for you to carry them around wherever you go without having to worry about an outlet. It's okay if my phone gets a bit laggy at times as long as the battery stays in for hours and I can make a decent phone call and text then I'm fine with that.
