Adaptive Charging, the battery-health extending feature found on Google Pixel phones, may be coming to Chromebooks in the future. One of the best features of Chromebooks is their impressive battery life, making them great for students and educators as they can last a school day. Most Chromebooks also charge via USB-C, and some can charge pretty fast.
Battery technology has not witnessed as much development compared to fast charging technology. While most fast charging technology breakthroughs are mainly available on smartphones, some computers support fast charging too. For example, the MacBook Pro released in 2021 can charge from zero to fifty percent in half an hour with the right charger and cable. Nevertheless, companies are working on improving battery technology. One of them is Xiaomi which developed a technology to increase battery capacity while keeping the size unchanged.
Adaptive Charging debuted in 2020 on the Pixel 4 series and Pixel 5 smartphones as part of the December Feature Drop. The feature dynamically controls how quickly the phone charges. It does this by slowing down charging when the device is plugged overnight while still making sure the owner wakes up to a full battery. The advantage Adaptive Battery brings is an extension of long-term battery life as slowly charging a device doesn’t put stress on the battery when compared to fast charging. Now, a code change in Chromium first discovered by 9to5Google has revealed that a modified variant of Adaptive Charging is coming to Chrome OS.
A Different Kind Of Adaptive Charging
Unlike the Adaptive Charging on the Pixel phones that slowly charges the phone overnight, it was discovered that the version for Chrome OS is different as it “Minimizes the amount of time the device spends at full battery to preserve battery lifetime.” It will do this by using machine learning to analyze usage patterns and slowing down the charging speed. However, when the user is ready to unplug their device, it will be fully charged.
Many laptop users keep their computer plugged in even after it is fully charged. However, it has been discovered that keeping the battery level permanently at 100 percent can negatively impact the battery’s health. This is not to be confused with overcharging, as most devices have protection for that. At the moment, it is not known if Chrome OS’ Adaptive Charging will be available for all existing Chromebooks or if it will be a feature that will appear on newer devices. Regardless, it is exciting that Chromebooks are about to get even better, thanks to a combination of more efficient chips and battery improvement technologies.
Source: 9t05Google
