Want better laptop battery life? Hardware upgrades are much better than software tweaks for improving power efficiency. Unfortunately, not all mobile computers offer easy component upgrades. Most full-sized laptops are upgradeable though, and the process takes surprisingly little time or effort. Ultrabooks, on the other hand, require a bit more elbow grease to upgrade. Four components are relatively easy to upgrade: Hard drive WiFi card Bluetooth module Battery upgrade I also illustrate where these parts lie on an HP Pavilion 17. The upgrade process normally involves just a few screws and a single removable panel, for a full-sized laptop. Smaller notebooks, such as Ultrabooks.