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Laptop Battery Guide
With extended battery life you’ll save money, as you have to replace the battery less often. At the same time, you'll enjoy longer operational hours and higher productivity with the laptop. All laptops are not capable of handling all kinds of laptop battery types. You can check available types by browsing offers for your laptop or by consulting the owner's manual. Laptop Battery Types – NiCad (Nickel Cadmium) Batteries Nowadays, you’re unlikely to see NiCad (Nickel Cadmium) batteries for laptops. The reason is that the newer types of batteries have many advantages over the NiCad laptop battery. NiCad batteries offer less power capacity. Using similar NiMH battery, for example, will DOUBLE the available power capacity. Furthermore, NiCad batteries contain heavy metals, making these batteries very environmentally unfriendly. Better choices from this perspective are both NiMH and Li-Ion batteries. The NiCad batteries also have to be fully discharged at least once every two weeks. If this is left undone, the NiCad battery will “forget” it’s full capacity. For example, if the NiCad battery is recharged constantly at half-full mark, and the battery is not fully discharged then fully recharged every two weeks, the battery will soon start to “think” that the 50% mark is full capacity. Laptop Battery Types – NiMH (Nickel Metal Hybrid) Batteries The NiMH batteries offer one step forward in technological evolution from the NiCad batteries. NiMH batteries are less likely to develop the syndrome of “forgetting” full capacity (as is the case with NiCad batteries). Furthermore, compared with NiCad batteries, NiMH batteries will double the capacity for the same weight. NiMH batteries are (more) environmentally friendly, as they contain no heavy metals. However, recycling NiMH (and other types of) batteries is still important, as the batteries contain other toxins. Laptop Battery Types – Li-Ion (Lithium Ion) Batteries The Li-Ion batteries are a standard nowadays in laptops. This is because they deliver the same kind of capacity for greatly reduced laptop battery weight. In fact, the weight reduction can be as much as 35%-40%. Li-Ion batteries are a natural part of many business notebooks that deliver the lightest designs and achieve the longest operational times without recharging. Furthermore, these batteries do not suffer from “forgetting” full capacity. Thus, the Li-Ion batteries require much less maintenance to function properly. Another argument in favor of Li-Ion batteries is that they do not contain any heavy metals, making these laptop battery types environmentally friendly. How to Maximize Laptop Battery Performance? To extend battery life, there are some useful guidelines to take adequate care of the batteries. Taking care of the right recharging procedures, correct maintenance while the laptop is unused, and using power management features when the laptop is in use will all extend laptop battery life. Another way to increase laptop battery life is to buy batteries with internal processors (in the battery) that communicate with the laptop. These batteries will allow you to better monitor battery performance, and thus increase the efficient use of the battery. As for maintenance of new batteries, they are in a fully discharged condition when purchased and have to be fully charged before use. To reach maximum capacity, you may have to fully charge and discharge the new laptop battery three to four times. Furthermore, unless you have a Li-Ion battery, fully discharging and then fully charging the laptop batteries is a necessity even when they have not new. For those batteries, it’s a good idea to do this at least every two-three weeks. If the laptop battery is left unused for a long period of time, it is ideal to do the fully discharging, then fully recharging pattern at least once. Laptop Devices and Laptop Battery LifeAs for battery life enhancing use of devices, the use of CD/DVD combos, displays, hard drives, and other devices will be the biggest consumers of battery power. To achieve power efficient device use, you can utilize the laptop’s power management features, a feature that too many disregard. You should, however, consider using these features. The power management options, when fully utilized, will greatly extend battery life. This extension usually comes with a trade-off: your system will run at a lower processor speed and the various devices, as well as the whole system, will go into a “sleep mode” much faster when inactive. How Long Will the Laptop Battery Last? Efficient use of your laptop should ensure that you can expect to achieve at least the upper end of normal laptop battery life: 500 to 800 recharges. That translates approximately to 3+ years for the average user before you have to replace the battery to a new one. Next Generation of Batteries As for future directions in battery R&D, the Lithium-Ion Polymer technology that was introduced 1999 is becoming available. These batteries can be molded into odd shapes so that they can be squeezed around components, maximizing capacity. Another technology is developed around the old zinc battery technology, but as a rechargeable variety, and with twice the Li-Ion batteries capacity. Companies such as Zinc Matrix Power are in the process of bringing these types of batteries to market sometime in 2006. Finally, fuel cell technology seems to promise the most improvement in battery power for portables. These are batteries that combine hydrogen and oxygen to create electricity. There are already experimental products out there in this category, from MTI Micro Fuel Cells and others. |