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User Review of N-Charge II Laptop Battery
First and foremost, the battery simply does not last as long as the first-generation battery did. I used both batteries on flights to Japan from the west coast of the U.S. -- that's about a 10-hour flight. The first-gen battery lasted close to seven hours, and was consistent in showing me the strength of its remaining charge through the whole flight. The second-generation battery lasted more like five and a half hours, and the battery went from showing moderate charge (two lights) to dying completely in less than an hour. That is not at all what I expected from a display.
Secondly, and only slightly less important, are the changes in the shape. The first-gen battery was the perfect shape and size to fit under my laptop, even when I used it with laptops with a slightly different footprint; the battery was large enough (length & width) that even larger laptops were still stable resting on it. It was also thin enough that having a footprint mismatch wasn't a big problem (either in terms of ergonomics or in terms of stability for the laptop). The second-gen battery is a horrible form factor. Just plain and simple, it doesn't appear to have been designed to take into account how people will use it. It's too tall to fit nicely under a laptop with a different footprint and the small size (length & width) ensure that any laptop resting on top of it will be completely off-balance.
I don't know what the company's use cases were for the device, but the most common times I use the external battery are either when I am sitting somewhere with no desk or power (and hence all my devices need to be on my lap or on the floor, but I have space to spread them out), or when I am on an airplane and have the same power scenario as the first case, but also am severely cramped for space in general.
If I have space (but no desk) then I need a long enough cord to get from my power supply to my laptop. That means that either the battery has to fit under the laptop (in which case it can have a short cord) or it needs to have a nice long cord (much longer than the short non-extendable one provided). N-Charge has failed to provide for either of these options.
If I'm on an airplane, the battery needs to fit under the laptop. Period. I might be willing to place it in the seat-back pocket, but the second-gen battery is too thick to fit well there. I might be willing to have it in my backpack on the floor in front of me (though that is so awkward that it is almost certainly dangerous if I have an emergency) but the cord is far too short for that.
I think the change to three charge lights (instead of 5 in the first version) was pointless, and that more information is better than less -- but I can accept it, so long as they are accurate. Unfortunately, they aren't. They don't seem to represent 1/3 of the charge each, more like 1/6, 1/3 and 1/2 respectively.
The new power adapter tips are easier to lose and don't fit my laptop port as well as the first-gen plugs. This has caused my laptop to end up being disconnected from the battery spontaneously and it appears to be slowly damaging the socket in my laptop, possibly due to wiggling.
At this point, I am planning on trying to return the second-gen battery and go find someone who will sell me one of the first-gen batteries on e-Bay. I'm tremendously disappointed and hope that N-Charge's third generation shows better design.
Thanks to Occams Razor for the review; Slashdot's new Hardware section could use your reviews, too.
Newer laptop batteries are making these sort of gadgets not-so-nifty.
That battery is bigger that most laptops!
- Hey man, show me your new laptop!
- Sorry man, it's my new battery!
10+ hour battery life? Nice. My aging presario1500us is downt o ~2 hours n a full charge. I wander what the in use life span of one of these would be...
I always felt that my batteries did better after a couple of charges. Maybe the new one was too new?
I guess this would make wearable applications for this battery just not happen. Oh, well, back to old AA-size batteries for me!
Zhrodague.net - I do projects and stuff too.
If all you say is true about the product(discounting a shape thign as i can imagine , difrent folks blah) then this is horrifc behaviour by the company . . .
Releasing an inferior sequal is bad enough in the entertainment world , in the hardware world though its down right lunacy
a new version of a piece of hardware is expected to improve it in a few key areas or perhaps in one drasticaly with a slight loss in another(such as doubling the battery life on an mp3 player but reducing the capacity by 10%)
having something with a significantly lesser battery life and no notable advantages is a confusing at best unless they decided to sell it for a significantly lesser sum
The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
yeah, airport security sometimes look at you when you have a battery pack you soldered together yourself, but no one has stopped me yet.
Leave the battery in the bag and plug in over Wi-Fi!
Sometimes you just need the right technology for the job at hand.
http://www.planetnz.com/palmheads/tandy.php
-- John.
Found a link here: http://store.yahoo.com/valencetech-store/.
There doesn't seem to be too much difference between the two products (other that the form). Am I missing something?
sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.
I checked out the compatibility guide for the device (which is in a PDF file for no reason) to see if my laptop was compatible. They have a huge list of devices, and there appears to be some sort of color coding to the whole thing, but they never explain it. It looks like if it is red, it's not compatible, but they never explain what the multitude of other colors mean in the PDF file.
Forget the whales - save the babies.
Many airlines are starting to deliver 120V (or some other voltage) at the seat.
My 4 year old acer gets infinite battery life! MUAHAHAHAHHA!
Have you looked into the inverters they sell in the airplane's boutique? Most passenger aircraft now have power recepticals under the seats and it would seem to me to be better than lugging an extra battery around. AFAIK these are DC (12V or whatever the plane uses) to AC (110V).
What I don't know is how much / if these differ from ones you would purchase for your car.
you do know that the review is actually at the top of this page. and so reposting it down here is so very redundant. the reason for reposting an article is to get around the overloaded servers, or to get around having to register with a site to read it. so why exactly did you copy and paste this article and repost it?
Of course there's not much else I can do - it's hard to argue with a "review" that's basically just a long rant about why the reviewer doesn't like the form factor. It doesn't even make any sense to complain about it; the form factor is just about the easiest thing to find out about *before* you buy the product - even if you bought it online.
Here's a second opinion, for what it's worth: I've owned the N-Charge II for several months now, and I'm extremely happy with it. I can't comment on the differences in battery life, since I never owned the first version, but I get ten hours total of productive time from the internal battery of my Vaio X505 plus both parts of the N-Charge II.
Which brings up what's probably the most important difference in this new version, oddly enough not even mentioned in the "review": The N-Charge II splits in two, letting you carry just half of it around if you only need half the battery life. This is perfect for me, since the total of 6 hours which I get with just one part is enough for most flights I'm on, and the smaller bulk avoids the silly feeling of carrying around a battery that's heavier and bigger than the ultraportable I paid dearly to get so light and tiny.
As for the form factor, I just slip it into the seatback pocket when on a plane, and otherwise I keep it in my bag. I got the extension cord so I can keep the bag on the floor while working on a desk or on my lap. But of course, if you absolutely must keep your external battery directly under your laptop, by all means get one of the competing products. Maybe next time you should read the specifications before ordering something.
-- If no truths are spoken then no lies can hide --
if airlines would put electrical outlets along the aisles for people to plug their laptops in.
Most empower adapters also double as a car charger as well.
one of these with a spare battery will get you to Tokyo with compute all the way.
e riesbean.do?series=P1
http://store.shopfujitsu.com/fpc/Ecommerce/builds
If you're over 40 a pair of good reading glasses is essential.
Has anyone tried making a battery pack out of rechargeable NIMH batteries? From what I remember, they're 1.2V, so you could just put a number of them in series to match the proper voltage, and hook up a set of those in parallel to increase capacity. I've been wanting to do this but lack a good way to hold all these batteries together.
I was looking at the data sheets for the two versions of the N-Charge.
They're both pretty light on details. But... at least the Series I data sheet gives you dimensions and capacity (in watthours)
The Series II datasheet only has the dimensions listed with the optional expansion pack, as a footnote on the bottom of the 2nd page, and no charge capacities at all. It's almost as if they're embarrassed to state anything. It's not a 'data sheet' at all.
...the newer battery wasn't quite so 'new'. It would explain the seemingly quick loss of power (going from half full to empty in an hour). Makes one wonder if the parts used were taken from old stock.
Unfortunately, Li-Ion Batteries degenerate with time, from the date of manufacture, regardless if they are used or not. A Li-Ion battery will only perform well for a 2-3 years.
See: www.batteryuniversity.com for more information. There is also great advice for dealing with "Battery Gauges" (They calibrate on a full discharge)
Who says Slashdot isn't timely or Stuff That Matters.. by coincidence I was considering buying one of these, and checking into compatibility (which is surprisingly hard).
If the external pack is as awkward as described, I'm probably better off going with two or three OEM batteries and swapping them out while hibernating. At least they're not going to make the laptop lopsided.
Interestingly, your link says that one of the conditions of use is that you don't recharge your laptop battery while using their system! You are apparently supposed to remove the battery first!
Wouldn't the 'real' Occam use an abacus?
For the unimaginative and humor challanged, it is just about the simplest computer and needs no power source.
Yeah, I get "multi-hour" life too! I get a "multiple" hours out of my Dell's battery... usually... almost... well, I did when I got it. Now (six months later) it's good for just almost two hours at a reasonable load (backlight bright enough to see; processor and HD usage nonzero). At peak load (intentional stress-testing) it draws a good 35W; at 45Wh remaining capacity on the battery (out of an original 53), that comes to 1h20m, or less once you factor in the fact that I'm going to want to auto-hibernate a few minutes before the battery gives out.
I like it a lot. I got it cheap with a rebate a few years ago (far cheaper than a replacement laptop battery) and it extended my refurb laptop to 6+ hrs of life. I believe you can put it under your laptop but the heat supposedly degrades battery performance.
Take performance numbers with a teaspoon of salt. What processor speed, backlight full or down, hard disk parked or used, watching DVD (ie. spinning DVD drive) or not, etc.
I had a really old laptop that I took the hard disk out of and replaced with a compact flash card running windows 3.1 and wordperfect. That sucker lasted ages on an old battery.
Tried this? Looks like it'll power everything from your plane seat without the battery to carry around.
I also loved my N-charge I which bit the dust recently and picked up the N-charge II. The size changes really don't make a lot of sense from a usability standpoint. Not only that but I have gone through two of the N-charge II's already. They are no where near as robust as the previous version.
Because empower can't supply the current my laptop needs. They can only supply up to about 70 watts.
slashdot's batteries are dead
If you need to know, check Seatguru.com They list the planes by carrier, and your itinerary should note the plane type. Some offer 12DC and others have 120AC, while some have none at all.
The store link posted earlier contains CLEAR descriptions of each of the units, the first generation unit is available in BOTH 5 hour or 10 hour versions. The second generation unit provides 5 hours or a total of 10 WITH EXPANSION UNIT. I'm assuming the author had the old 10 hour version, about 300$, and purchased the new second generation base unit (rated to run for 5 hours), which is about $150. To get the same duration as the $300 (10hr) first generation unit, you would have to buy the $150 second generation unit, and add on to it the expander which is another $150. Store with info: http://store.yahoo.com/valencetech-store/
to buy the expansion pack : it will bring the size to the equivalent of the ncharge & will boost performance over it...
;)
that's your call
We have a user here that has one of the originals. If I remember reading the materials on the original, you were NOT supposed to use a laptop resting on the unit. The heat coming out of the bottom of a laptop could damage the unit. That's probably when they changed the form factor was to prevent people from using it exactly the way you've described. The original was designed with that form factor to easily slide into a laptop bag, not sit under the laptop while in use.
while arguably a troll (which first post isn't?) it is also +5 insightful.
You do realise that certain types of rechargeable batteries take a few charge/discharge cycles before they reach full capacity..?
Great, maybe I can finally get some sleep while I use one of these to power my girlfriend's... erm, nevermind.
Shouldn't they all be 12V? so you can plug into all the car battery, airline plug(if lucky) and whatnot? what standard power supply gives 18v? or 10? or8?
12 is the natural voltage level for something like this to avoid using crazy DC-DC power converters that just waste energy
Who need batteries when you can use one of these? http://www.windstreampower.com/humanpower/hpgmk3.h tml
I can do maybe 1 movie on the plane and then I'm waaaayyy to fidgety to sit in some plane seat for a zillion hours. MSP to SNA makes me edgy when a 2 hour movie is done. LAX to Fiji (pre-Ambien) about drove me around the bend -- 10 freaking hours in the dark at 45000 feet.
That's why I prefer Ambien to extra PC batteries. Nothing quite like waking at your destination airport on the other side of the world completely refreshed, and all those boring hours completely behind you.
Ativan works OK in a pinch, but you can end up kind of punchy. Better for shorter flights, thrown down with stiff cocktail.
Does the idea that any random person can plug themselves into an airplane's power supply and apparently draw significant loads, presumably increasing fuel consumption proportionately, worry anyone?
Can't resist...
You sir, are a fvcktard. I am not African-American but I have good friends who are.
Personally? I'm routing for the bats. :)
Go, bats! GO!
PS: Nice job posting as Anonymous Coward. In this case, the name says it all.
http://www.the-gadgeteer.com/hp200lx.html
Clamshell design, 2MB RAM, 3MB ROM. Ran DOS 5.0 on an 8086 processor. Used flash memory cards. It was basically a predecessor to the PDA's, but it had a full keyboard and ran a full DOS OS. You could even run ordinary dos programs on it by just copying them over (though the display was non-VGA).
Oh yeah, it would run for a week on two AA's.
My other first post is car post.
The only reason you should fully discharge a battery is to calibrate the battery meter. Full discharges have a negative effect on battery life. http://www.batteryuniversity.com/parttwo-34.htm
Hrmm... so so sad.
One day people like this will actually have an IQ over 3, till then, I greatly pity you.
I have the N-Charge II base unit and it works JUST FINE as advertised!
I use it all the time to charge my celphone, digicam, and laptop portably without having to lug around multiple power-bricks. I'm even reusing my Toshiba powerbrick from an old laptop as my stay-at-home brick to charge my Sony VAIO while I keep the Sony's brick for on-the-go.
Saved me extra laptop-brick ($50), extra digicam batt ($50), extra laptop batt ($300), extra celphone charger ($20)= $420 for $125 (valence) + $30 (low-voltage adaptor) + $20 for two tip sets= $175.
Also, more power and better flexibility than the Socket Power Pack.
Specs are sparse and more equivalent to the 65W Valence battery than the 130W, but you are very sparse on information. You're most likely not even using the expansion pack with the base unit which of course means you got half the performance. I get 4 hours out of the battery myself. No doubt even more if I ever want to add the expansion pack.
The 3 led battery display IS very uninformative, but the performance time is predictable.
This new form-factor is great for lifting one edge of the laptop up (the back) enhancing typing, and enhancing airflow underneath which you really should try out.
You COULD also just get the power-cord extender if you want to keep it inside your backpack if it's too inconvenient in the "lift-bottom" setup.
Typical of Slashdotters to comment, agree, and bitch about a product they know nothing about, but even for the reviewer to not RTFM. I guess that's typical too.
http://products.gateway.com/products/gconfig/prodh mseries.asp?seg=hm&gcseries=gtwym460&clv=Img
You can customize any of the Gateway M460's to reach ~10 hours of battery life when configured with their Primary 12-Cell lithium ion battery + the modular 6-Cell lithium ion battery.
The 12-Cell is obviously the primary battery... while the 6-Cell fits into the modular bay.
Pretty sweat setup and no accessories needed.
This is very true ,The moderators must have shares .
Sure I'm anon coward as I like my karma and this may be seen as flamebait , but the retards who moded the parent down really need to read the slashdot FAQ
It sounds to me like this person didn't do their research. From the website, you can see with the N-charge I they had 2 models. One gets "up to 5 hours" charge, the other "up to 10". They don't hook together, and the second one is twice the prica at 300$'s. The N-charge II however, has two parts that each cost 150$. If you get them both, they hook together and form what looks to me like a very decent footprint. If you use only one part, it gets about 5 hours, both parts 10 hours. Sounds like since the reviewer only got 5.5 hours, they only used one part, which would explain why they said it didnt fit under anything. They are meant to be both purchased, totalling the 300 you would pay for the better model in generation I. It just provides a flexibility to take the whole tihng on a trip, or just half if you only need that much. Also, since not everyone using it is going to use it for laptops, some might just need half and half the price.
"Valence introduces its 2nd generation N-Charge Power System, a Saphion® technology-based, universal, portable battery designed to power a vast array of mobile electronic devices. The N-Charge Base Unit provides up to 5 additional hours of notebook run-time and the flexibility to support your cell phone, digital camera, MP3 player, and more"
1 .html
The old NCharge is still available from them:
http://store.yahoo.com/valencetech-store/ncharge1
and is described as follows:
"Up to 10 hours of continuous notebook run-time or up to 5 days of cell phone talk time with the N-Charge system VNC130."
(5 hours again with the lighter VNC65.)
They don't claim it works as long as the larger, laptop shaped battery -- it's on their store.
Why do incorrect reviews come here?
Kargis
For some reason the FAA and TSA wouldn't let my wife take a lead-acid battery on the plane to power her CPAP machine for a 16 hour overnight flight. The NCharge-II battery pack was more than enough to run the device.
All those damn tips came in handy after all because sooner or later you can find one with the right shape and a close enough voltage.
The TSA wont let you take wet cell batteries on at all. FAA will let you take "non spillable" batteries, but you're not allowed to actually use them during the flight.
Something like the NCharge battery packs with their dry cell batteries can be quite a godsend.
The old N-Charge I came in two charge versions, one about 5 hours and the other about 10 hours (same case, just more battery). However, the new (brick cube) N-Charge II model only comes with a 5-hour charge - you are supposed to purchase a second "piggyback" unit to double that. The problem is that two of these batteries are much more awkward to pack or use with a laptop (The N-Charge I fits very nicely under the PC when desk space is at a premium). The first generation battery was clearly intended for use with a laptop, this newer version appears to be an attempt to cater to a wider range of potential users.
Interestingly enough, my Olivetti M10 has always been capable of 20 hours work from 4 AA zinc-carbon batteries.
And while you might think I am justkidding, I say to hell with increased CPU performance, when they are not capable of making laptops that would last longer from a single recharge. They should be called lap-burners, with all that heat they dissipate. You'd think that, with increased performance per CPU cycle, some laptop manufacturer would havedivided the CPU frequency, to save energy at the expense of performance - often NOT the main property of a laptop.
Sigged!
Just to clarify, I wasn't comparing it to a single unit, I had the primary and the expansion pack.
Also, my internal battery was fully charged.
show that the company is definitely having problems providing useful information.
The spec sheet for the N-Charge I has at the end a useful little chart that gives hard numbers like how many Amp-hours and watt-hours that the battery is rated for. However, N-Charge II has a nice sales pitch without any hard numbers on actual battery capacity.
I bought the 2nd generation from a Best Buy last summer, and it didn't work (all lights were always on, but wouldn't put any power into my laptop, an IBM R51). After exchanging it, a similar problem reared its ugly head. I exchanged it a second time, and the third battery didn't work either. I returned it and decided that I was done with it until they made a 3rd generation.
A buncha "D" cells. Yes, a buncha "D" cells. What do you think are in some of those nifty sealed battery packs, anyway, these days?
a ble-batteries.php
http://www.thomas-distributing.com/cta-d-recharge
has rechargables, Ni-MH "D" cells rated at 12 amp-hours; yes, 12,000 milliamp-hours each, if you hafta be Green. However, the Real Deal, eTanium(TM) is rated at 21.5 AH each:
http://data.energizer.com/PDFs/x95.pdf
and even your buy-them-at-three-AM-from-7-11 variety alkalines develop 20.5 AH
http://data.energizer.com/PDFs/e95.pdf
Buy once, run down, throw them away. Cheap, cheap, cheap. You don't need a gauge; your spendy laptop has one.
Add two of these
http://tinyurl.com/4m6my
a little soldering, the right length of cord & the right-sized connector tip
http://tinyurl.com/5x4om
an Bob's Yer Uncle.
Don't add more than you need, and jump across the contacts if you only need seven cells to make the optimal voltage, instead of going over your laptop's rated voltage by more than a volt. The voltage regulator would just have to step down the power, which makes extra heat in your laptop, which slows down your processor, and accelerates battery drain.
Seven of the el cheapo "D" cells plus a jumper wire give me 20.5 AH for $10, plus $2 in parts and the connector I scrounged off a blown power supply. That's 10.7 times the capacity of the standard battery (2 hour run time) on my Fujitsu Lifebook. Geez, fly to Oz on those suckers. Then, I can go to a 7-11 there, buy another set of "D" cells, and have juice for the flight home.
If you're neither handy nor handsome, Mouser
http://tinyurl.com/6wq7g
has every power connector in the Twelve Colonies,
http://scifi.com/battlestar/downloads/podcast
everything the Lords of Kobol ever designed. Or, pay $10 to The Shack for the aforementioned iGo tip, cuz, well, iGo tips are right there in the store, where the rest of your parts are.
Too bulky? You can downsize it to "C" cells, or even "AA" cells, as seven "AA" batteries exceed the capacity of my spendy, storebought factory battery pack by 50%.
But, then, I'm a ham, one of the crash test dummies of the electronics world, and we do these things so you don't have to.
There is nothing wrong with yr Internet. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling the transmission - NSA
I'm not sure about the rest of the fleet, but the aircraft servicing London-Hong Kong-Sydney (airbus 340-600) have power sockets available. The crew will even let you borrow AC adapters (they have them available for the common models) I used to fly Cathay Pacific back to Sydney ... not anymore, these new airbus are fantastic.
I was moderated
60% Redundant
20% Informative
20% Funny
while you somehow got a +2 funny
there ain't no justice
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
I've been using the Hi-Capacity brand MaxPower90 external battery for about a year now and it's been really good. I get around 9 hours of run-time (with power management set to AC power so my Vaio is sucking juice as hard as it can) and have not seen any decline in performance since I bought it. They make a few different versions of it with different capacities (and different prices). You can find them at http://www.ebatts.com/laptop_manufacturers.aspx/ Choose your laptop model from the list and the site will display all of the available batteries. Definitely bettery than carrying an extra internal battery which only gives me around 3 hours of run-time....
A: "My laptop's battery doesn't last long enough"
B: "Your problem is you're awake; here, take some drugs."
Actually, two, including one for my wife's laptop. I fully sympathize with Timothy, and will not purchase a series 2 because what he complains about is obvious just looking at the stupid things. Some industrial designer needs a different job, hopefully in the fast food industry. If he designed fast food boxes the way he designs N-Charge batteries, far less junk food would be sold and we all would be a lot healthier.
:-)
The rest of you may be wondering, what is so cool about these batteries? They are thin, and fit in just the right place in a laptop bag -- screen side, protecting it from impact dimples on the LCD. As Timothy mentioned, they fit in the right place for use, underneath the laptop. For this and a lot of other reasons, the old ones are the proper form factor, and the new ones are not.
But the overall system design is the best part. These batteries can be charged in series, between the AC adapter and the laptop. You can charge both units at once in the airport or at home, and keep working besides. As an external battery, you never have to shut down the laptop to swap batteries (my Linux Thinkpad is sometimes up for months at a time). As a chip designer, I sometimes run simulations that take days. I never have to futz with swapping the laptop battery. I used to. It sucked.
Another good reason for the N-Charge units is that the laptop adapter on the unit can be changed, and that changes the voltage and the connector. I am a Thinkpad kinda guy, 5mm barrel and 16V, but with IBM selling to Levono I may switch allegance to HP. I can buy a new adapter, and keep using the same battery with the new laptop. Meanwhile, I have a stack of old batteries for old Dells and old Thinkpads, all incompatable with current and future laptops -- they are just toxic waste now. N-Charge batteries are easily re-used.
One of the neat hacks you can do with these batteries is power many kinds of wall-warted peripheral. Most Linksys networking gear runs off a 5mm barrel 12V 1Amp wall wart, and will work quite happily with the 16V produced by the N-Charge battery (look inside the Linksys, and you will see a circuit that can take 25V). So I can power up an EWRT-hacked Linksys WRT54G, and hub an improvised wireless network with my friends in a park or pub. A WRT runs for about 16 hours on a VNC-130 battery, perfect for a long day's event.
I get 8 hours of computation on a fast laptop that normally lasts 2.5 hours. That gets me coast-to-coast. Yes, I can buy some wimpola 1 GHz unit that will last 5 hours on a single battery, but that is neither long enough duration, nor nearly enough compute power for a real computing task.
All that said, these batteries suck! Don't even consider bidding against me for them on Ebay! If you have an N-Charge 1, sell it to me for $10 and I will torment myself with it when this one eventually fails.
Keith Lofstrom server-sky.com
The BOFH view on extented batteries
while flying? (or visit slashdot?) And what do you do after you land in US/Japan. Go to hotel/home and take sleep? I think it is time you live life, recharge yourself?
I doubt that... stupid people tend to spawn together, so his sister will bear him a child beyond stupid.
The biggest reason to buy is taking a chance flying internationally is a big deal. You could find yourself explaining to nontechnical people who maybe don't speak english as a primary language what your "device" is used for.
If you're going to fly, you're pretty much limited to the sealed lead-acid type batteries as you mentioned, UPS ones. You can get lithium cells from a company like digikey but you also need to have a proper charger setup for them.
..don't panic
Every decent airline has a mains plug on every long haul business class seat. Works fine for me, although I hardly ever work on the plane. Usually I eat, sleep and watch a movie.
I purchased a Valence N-Charge Battery at Best Buy. They advertise 5 hours but I only got 1 hour from it on my IBM Thinkpad. When I called Valence Tech Support they told me that this was normal so I just returned it for a full refund. Then I found out about this other company called BatteryGeek (www.batterygeek.net) and for about the same price as the N Charge ended up buying thier BG 14-18-118 model Ultra High Capacity External Laptop Battery. Now I am getting anywhere between 6-8 hours of power per charge depending on the application(s) I am running. The footprint of this BatteryGeek battery is much smaller than the N Charge. Also, I prefer this BatteryGeek battery for travel because the connecting cable is long enough so I can keep the battery in my travel bag on the floor while I have it plugged into my laptop which is either sitting on a table or my lap.