That laptop battery is not going to last forever. They never do. The cost of a new battery can set you back quite a bit, and always relying on wall outlets can be a hassle. If your battery is not up to par and dies quickly it may be time to replace. You don’t always have to rely on others for all of your battery needs. This is a short introduction to how to do it yourself, and rebuild a laptop battery. This makes a fun project, but can be a bit dangerous. Safety first.

Batteries are an essential laptop element. The technology available today, and the vast amounts of power spots make batteries an under the radar risk. However, if you are in a car ride, or an eleven hour plane ride to Japan a battery is what you need. Of course, everyone knows the basic tips. Stuff like, dim your screen, minimize processes, disable the wireless and so on. These tips can help get that bit of extra playtime on your flight, but there are more.

We’ve taken a stab here at compiling some of the more popular items that you might be looking at while out and about, drawn across from various sources across the web for your convenience. Of course a lot of these actual rankings are purely subjective (for instance if you have tiny square fingertips you might like the iPhone keyboard more than I do) but they do at least provide some means of comparison.