Chrome OS tip: Disable WiFi and LTE on Chromebook Pixel to minimize battery drain while sleeping
Google’s Chromebook Pixel is certainly a beautiful piece of technology. It has become my full-time laptop and main work machine, but one of my biggest criticisms is the battery life. Especially annoying is the fact that it seems to use an unnecessarily high amount of power while in sleep mode – if left unplugged, my Pixel can drain 25-30% overnight while sleeping!
Luckily, one Pixel fan on Google+ discovered that if you disable both WiFi and LTE radios before putting your Pixel to sleep, battery drain seems to be drastically lower, or almost totally eliminated.
Granted, it’s probably easier just to completely shut down the Pixel before closing the lid, if you’re really worried about battery drain while sleeping. Since the Pixel only takes a few seconds to cold boot, you’d probably spend more time navigating through your settings menu to turn on WiFi and LTE.
But perhaps more importantly, this discovery means that the problem isn’t necessarily a hardware issue. Instead, it looks like this is something Google might be able to fix in a future software update to the Pixel – that makes me less worried, and more confident in Google’s promise that Chromebooks do in fact get better over time.
If battery drain while sleeping is an issue you experience on the Pixel yourself, be sure to report this problem to Google, using the Send Feedback option in the menu (or just press alt + shift + i).
