Why does a laptop say it’s at 6-8% charge, and then it dies, but when it’s at a higher charge, going from 60% to 59% takes a while?
In: Technology
Knowing how much battery is surprisingly hard. The easiest way is by reading the voltage, but the voltage only varies when [almost empty and almost full](https://photos5.appleinsider.com/gallery/24198-31518-Li-ion-Discharge-Voltage-Curve-Typical-l.jpg). This means that between ~10-90% the computer has no easy way of knowing how much power is left.
To know how much battery is left between 10-90% a power counter is used, which literally counts how much power is consumed, since you already know how large the battery is and you know how much power has been used you know how much is left.
The problem is that batteries degrade with time, and the counting always thinks the battery is perfect, so there is a point where the counting thinks its above 10% (so the voltage should stay stable) but the voltage starts falling, so you either see the battery dropping very fast, or the computer over-reports how much battery is left.
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