Laptop Battery Tech: HP and Lenovo Take Charge

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One of my pet peeves about laptops is battery life. That's pretty much a high-priority statistic for any device that isn't constantly plugged into a power outlet. To squeeze an hour or two from my four-year-old Lenovo, I have to switch off WiFi and Bluetooth, turn down the screen brightness to something just above "completely dark", and try not to spin the computer's cogs and wheels too much.

Maybe I could just power the darn thing off a bunch of Energizers:



I was really hoping for this to come true: Laptop batteries that last 30 years without needing to be recharged. Based on beta-voltaic power cell technology, this baby will be able to power your laptop until you retire (if only the computer lasts that long). Alas, it is not yet an on-shelf item at Office Depot.

But, what's this I hear? Super-dooper laptop battery life for real and on sale right now? Let me put my beer down next to the other empties for a second and splash some cold water on my face. Lenovo and HP have just announced laptop batteries that can run without a charge for over 30 hours. It's not a battery-for-life (like this January 2008 blog about lithium-soaked nanowire batteries), but the claim of 30-hours on a single charge is true.

Now for the caveats.

HP says:
Battery life will vary depending on the product model, configuration, loaded applications, features, wireless functionality and power management settings. The maximum capacity of the battery will decrease with time and usage.
Sounds like if you run anything more than the handy little spotlight on the top edge of the laptop lid, you are back down to the standard 6 or 8 hours on a new battery - but that will also decrease over time, depending on how much you use it. Sounds like a rather broad qualification.

From Lenovo:
For extreme battery life needs, the ThinkPad T420, with its standard 9-cell battery and optional 9-cell slice battery, provides up to 30 hours of computing power.
Yeah, if I tack on a couple more 9-cell batteries to my aging clunker, I might be able to run my laptop for a week. But I'd need a set of motorized wheels to transport the thing, like this guy.

All joking aside, this has amazing potential. Right now anything more than 6 or 8 hours of battery life for a laptop (or tablet, or even my Nokia phone) is pretty good. 30 hours is a huge leap. Hopefully the technology will get cheaper and lighter so that eventually the day will come when a monthly or bi-monthly laptop recharge will be as commonplace as the laptops themselves.
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Comments

  1. Dave EFebruary 27, 2011 at 7:34 AM

    Interesting!

    ReplyDelete
  2. ASUS LaptopDecember 29, 2011 at 6:36 PM

    Disabling various scheduled tasks that you may have running in the background can conserve CPU cycles and thus increase battery run time.

    ReplyDelete
  3. ASUS LaptopJanuary 4, 2012 at 8:49 PM

    If your laptop is very old it may have a nickel-metal hydride battery. If this is the case completely drain and recharge the battery once a month to maximize its capacity to hold a charge.

    ReplyDelete
  4. ASUS LaptopJanuary 9, 2012 at 9:12 AM

    If your laptop is not going to be used for an extended period of time such as a week or more remove the battery from the laptop and store it by itself.

    ReplyDelete

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