Modern laptop batteries

[user1397]

So I was wondering, you know how apple claims that the batteries they use in their laptops have the ability to keep being plugged in without it affecting the battery's useful life.

I was wondering if most batteries in the market nowadays are like that, or just high-end laptops have them, or is it an apple only thing, or what?

Do netbooks have them too?

edit: here's the link from the apple site: http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/battery/

[Christian Knudsen]

As far as I understand, it's not the charging that reduces the life of a battery that's always plugged in (if the battery is fully charged and the computer is plugged in, doesn't the power just ignore the battery?). It's the heat generated by the laptop as well as just having the batteries at 100% charge. I have a laptop that I only rarely use on the go, so I've removed the battery and store it in the fridge at 40% charge which will reduce wear considerably:

http://www.batteryuniversity.com/parttwo-34.htm

EDIT: And reading that Apple site, they actually don't say that having the battery always plugged in is no longer a problem, they say that they've made some improvements to the charging process.

[giddyup306]

Just about anything anymore has lithium ion batteries (everything from my Blackberry to my Makita cordless tools) . They don't have a memory like ni cad or other types of batteries. I wouldn't say this is an Apple thing, but a battery technology thing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium_ion#Advantages

Apple uses lithium ion polymer.


This type has technologically evolved from lithium-ion batteries (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium-ion_battery). The primary difference is that the lithium (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium)-salt electrolyte (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrolyte) is not held in an organic solvent (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_solvent) but in a solid polymer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymer) composite such as polyethylene oxide (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyethylene_glycol) or polyacrylonitrile (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyacrylonitrile). The advantages of Li-ion polymer over the lithium-ion design include potentially lower cost of manufacture, adaptability to a wide variety of packaging shapes, and ruggedness. Lithium-ion polymer batteries started appearing in consumer electronics around 1996.

[conundrumx]

Li-po is generally superior to Li-ion because it can be any shape, allowing devices using li-po to pack more battery into the same space. Apple claims to have all kinds of magic baked into their batteries (mine is at 91% of original capacity after 9 months and 332 load cycles), only time will tell how true it is. I can't really speak to other manufacturers, my last non Mac laptop was a Thinkpad T61p about three years ago, and battery life was no it's strong suit to begin with.

[wewantutopia]

(mine is at 91% of original capacity after 9 months and 332 load cycles)

How did you learn this?

[Dustin2128]

well this laptop had a battery life of about an hour of a half when it ran vista, boosted to two and a half with slack, but it's gone through so many charge/discharge cycles that it's back down to an hour 45.

[conundrumx]

How did you learn this?

I use CoconutBattery, but it's built right into the System Profiler as well (About this Mac, More Info, Power).

[trekrem]

(mine is at 91% of original capacity after 9 months and 332 load cycles)

That's actually pretty bad... I have a Lenovo ThinkPad X61 that I purchased new in November 2007 and the original 4 cell lithium ion battery still has 98% capacity... I have only lost 2% capacity in almost 3 years! Cycle count is around 550.

[conundrumx]

That's actually pretty bad... I have a Lenovo ThinkPad X61 that I purchased new in November 2007 and the original 4 cell lithium ion battery still has 98% capacity... I have only lost 2% capacity in almost 3 years! Cycle count is around 550.

You've done 550 in three years, I've done 332 in 9 months - something tells me my battery has taken a good deal more abuse than yours. :>

[Chris1274]

Wow, serendipity, I was just researching this subject. So what's the verdict: is it best to remove the battery from your laptop when on AC power for significant lengths of time, or is there not much advantage to that in terms of longer battery life?

[trekrem]

You've done 550 in three years, I've done 332 in 9 months - something tells me my battery has taken a good deal more abuse than yours. :>

The time is irrelevant though, you really shouldn't have lost 9% in 332 cycles. (Unless maybe due to extreme temperatures, or a bad cell, or just a crappy battery from the factory).