By
Harald Thon,
published on October 25, 2005
Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: squeezing, more, life, out, of, your, notebook | Themes: Business Notebooks
Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: squeezing, more, life, out, of, your, notebook | Themes: Business Notebooks
Contents
- 1. The Eight-Hour Battery Life Notebook
- 2. Battery Life As A Turnover Multiplier For Vendors
- 3. Battery Life Is Only The Second Most Important Purchase Factor
- 4. Battery Life Is Only The Second Most Important Purchase Factor, Continued
- 5. Intel Claims That The Display And Chipset Consume More Energy Than The CPU
- 6. A Brief Summation Of Battery History And Battery Types
- 7. Higher Energy Density: The Rechargeable Nickel Metal Hydride Battery
- 8. The Li-Ion Battery Isn't Perfect, Either
- 9. Battery Care And Preservation
- 10. Battery In The 'fridge?
- 11. Buyer Beware 1: Old Battery In A New Notebook
- 12. Typical Notebook Batteries
- 13. Frequently-asked Question 1: How Do I Determine My Battery's Capacity?
- 14. Frequently-asked Question 2: How Charged Is My Battery?
- 15. Frequently-asked Question 2: How Charged Is My Battery? Continued
- 16. More on this topic
15. Frequently-asked Question 2: How Charged Is My Battery? Continued
Professional battery management and measurement tools permit actual battery capacity to be reported as well.
Professional battery tools can tell you even more about your batteries, including real-time measurements of capacity and voltage.
Those who own multiple batteries and travel a lot, quickly learn to appreciate built-in charge meters when it comes to keeping up with one battery or another, like those from Dell and HP. A user can check charge status with the push of a single button.
A charge indicator is right on the battery pack.
Indeed, who wants to leave on a trip with a half-empty battery - or worse yet, a totally empty one?
In Part 2, we detail 20 practical user scenarios and show how power usage characteristics can have a marked influence on battery lifetime. We also communicate what to do and what not to do to help you maximize battery life time in your notebook.
- Previous page Frequently-asked Question 2: How...
- Next page More on this topic
"Better still, Li-Ion batteries exhibit none of the memory effects associated with the other two types just named."
Neither do NiCad or NiMH batteries, of course, unless you're using them in a geosync satellite power system. With a charging system as smart as the one required for Li-ion or Li-polymer, NiMH batteries don't suffer from overcharge and the resulting voltage depression (what's generally mistaken for a "memory effect" in the association cited). I wouldn't be surprised to see some notebooks returning to NiMH, albeit the new low self-discharge types.