Slashdot Mirror
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.
My IBM x40 gets solid 5-6 hours on its standard battery.
B
This'll condition the cells. Usually its something like regular charge time x 1.5
After that, its good to cycle the battery another time or three to get max capacity out of it.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
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 --
Most empower adapters also double as a car charger as well.
I did this too. I went to radio shack and bought some stuff and soldered it together. Worked a charm with 12 D size batteries.
Make sure you actually check the voltage though. A 1.5V alkaline battery is usually quite significantly more than 1.5 volts.
I stopped trying to use it on flights it after 9/11.
The Internet is full. Go Away!!!
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)
It's a pretty simple compatibility guide - the product is compatible with all laptops listed. The different colors are just to differentiate between the different adapter tips you need for the different laptops.
-- If no truths are spoken then no lies can hide --
Ahem. Seconded.
:-)
I get 7+ hours out of an ancient Sony P3 1GHz bog standard desktop replacement class Vaio (3+ years old) under linux after throwing out the horrid puke sony ships for battery and replacing the battery and the CD with 2 x Chinese OEM 4800 mAh and using cpufreqd to keep the CPU frequency as low as possible when idling.
All I want is that the idiots at KDE HQ stop calling sync after each disk write operation to calendar and settings. I was almost ready to rebuild the entire thing with sync redefined as NOOP at one point. That will give me 1 more hour
But definitely, do not see any case whatsoever for using an external battery. If you need that charge level simply throw out your CD and line up 1 or 2 cheap and chearfull Chinese or Korean OEM batteries. They quite often have 20-30% higher charge then the branded stuff and cost twice less.
Baker's Law: Misery no longer loves company. Nowadays it insists on it
http://www.sigsegv.cx/
I got the impression he used one battery on his trip there and the other battery on the trip back. I'd think he'd have charged his laptop battery back up whenever he got to whatever hotel/etc. he was staying at.
Anyway, he says his flight is 10 hours each way. If the first battery lasted 7 hours and the second lasted 5.5 hours, it's clear he couldn't have tested them on the same flight.
"People that quote themselves in their signatures bother me" - athakur999
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).
First class flying bastard. Most of us geeks that fly for work have to take coach, which almost never has power receptacles.
BTW, it's silly to go from DC to AC back to DC. Just get a DC/DC converter. Targus sells one that works with most laptops, and can be used in either a plane or a car.
Try this laptop battery refresh article. I thought I needed a new battery on my T20, did this a couple of times, and now it works great!
In Win2K/XP, create a new power profile that doesn't ever turn the laptop off or suspend it. Save it as "Battery Refresh" or some other name so you don't inadvertently select it. (Also disable all warning messages). Then just unplug and walk away. Your laptop will run till it drops. Recharge without turning on the laptop. Repeat 2-3x for a REALLY dead battery if needed, cuz that'w what did it for me.
I was getting 20 minutes, at the most, out of my battery until I did this.
You have a constitutionally protected right to be wrong, and I the right to ignore you.
I was on a flight a couple of months, sat in united economy plus and there was electrical outlets in the seat back in front of me - plugged my laptop in and played TotalWar for almost the whol 5 hour flight. Without AC it usually drains my battery in less than 2 hours, so I was a happy camper..errr air traveller.
What you do not understand is that the aviation regulators become paranoid when thinking about batteries exploding/smoking because of a defective charger.
This is the main reason why the notebook power outlets built in the seats cannot be used for charging. FAA prohibits this use.
In the past, there have been cases of smoking batteries because a charger would not stop (one example I know of involved the IC from our competitor, sweet!). LiIon/LiPoly are especially nasty when overheated/ignited.
Of course, customer pressure may lead eventually to the FAA relaxing the rules. After all, on every recent flight I've been, at least one person in every seat row was having a notebook turned on on his lap (even on flights supposedly for pleasure, e.g. flying to Lihue, Kauai).
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.
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
And I repeat- I had both the primary battery and the expansion unit. I'm using just the primary battery right now and it gives me 2 hours, nothing more. If it gave me 5 hours, I'd be estatic.
Yes, but you may find the off-load terminal voltage of that setup is closer to 20.7V at full charge. Most laptops don't like overvoltage and the initial "off state" current will be fairly low, certainly not enough to significantly lower the terminal voltage of a low internal resistance lead-gel battery.
Be very careful if you're thinking of following this advice and also make sure you fuse the lead at both terminals, as close to the battery as possible and, preferably, between each 6V battery. Lead-gel cells, as I said before, have an extremely low internal resistance which means they can supply some huge currents, certainly enough to cause a laptop power lead to heat up to the point that it will cause some rather nasty burns.
Resistance is futile. Reactance buggers it up.