New Delhi, Dec. 24 -- Ask people how they treat their laptops and you'll notice the same rituals. Someone unplugs at 99%, as if lingering longer might cause damage. Another waits for the battery to drop to single digits before reaching for the charger. A third avoids fast charging entirely, convinced it's quietly ruining their machine. Most of this behaviour comes from advice that made sense years ago, but has stuck around long after laptops moved on.

Modern laptops are far more opinionated about charging than users realise. They don't just accept power blindly. They negotiate it, regulate it, and decide how much the battery should even be involved at any given moment. The result is that many of the things people worry about today matter...