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Leaving your laptop plugged in can cause its battery to degrade over time, and while your device will remain charged for the duration it’s tethered, it will fare worse off while on the go down the line. Chromebooks are well known for their incredible battery life.
Sure, you could make the case that it’s because most uses for Google’s operating system center around web browsing and simpler, everyday tasks, but as Chrome OS grows, matures, and ultimately increases in adoption rates, and as Linux and Google Play apps suck more power than websites do, there’s a clear case to be made for battery optimization development in 2022 and beyond.
Google Pixel phones have a feature called “Adaptive Charging” which uses machine learning and AI to dynamically control how quickly it gets to 100% Instead of rushing to full at a steady rate, it utilizes the several hours of downtime when you’re not using the phone in order to do so to ensure that the battery doesn’t stay topped off for a long period of time for no reason.
Well, according to a new Chromium code change discovered by 9to5Google, Chromebooks may soon receive a similar Adaptive Charging feature to mimic that behavior. Basically, Chrome OS will likely learn your habits for when and how long you charge your laptop and then adapt intelligently, allowing your battery to remain healthy, increasing its longevity. As an added bonus, your Chromebook should finish charging right when you usually unplug it, assuming you have regular habits each day.
9to5 also discovered a notification that will appear in your Chromebook’s system tray letting you know when Adaptive Charging activates and even some settings that will let you disable the feature entirely. At this time, we have no idea when this is likely to appear for users, but one thing is for sure, Google is truly thinking about the growth and future of Chromebooks as they become less of a browser-in-a-box and more of a potential power user’s productivity toolkit.
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