User Review of N-Charge II Laptop Battery

Occams Razor writes to say "I recently moved from using an N-Charge I external battery to the next version, called the N-Charge II. The series I battery was really handy and well designed; it let me work/use my laptop continuously for the 10+ hour flights that I end up taking with some regularity these day. The series 1 is slim, maybe .5 inches thick (approx. 1.5cm) and has the same footprint as an IBM T40 or T41 laptop (which is what I have). This means it fit perfectly under my laptop. Unfortunately, the Series 2 N-charge (Saphion) battery appears to be the worst kind of marketing spawn. Here are the full details that I've written up in hopes that others will learn from my mistake. (And -- who knows? -- maybe the company will listen.)" Read on below for the rest.

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.

Comments

Newer Laptops

[mythosaz]

While 10+ Hours is nice, most of the newer laptops I'm reviewing (Dell D410's and D610's) have multi-hour battery life right off the shelf, and a spare battery fits nicely in the bag.

Newer laptop batteries are making these sort of gadgets not-so-nifty.

Re:Newer Laptops

[charliekowalchuk]

Seriously, this guy is going on and on about how this company is screwing themselves by doing something new, when in reality they were screwing themselves by keeping with their old "outdated" product. They realized that they need to keep up with technology. Or get left behind. I keep two batteries on my TC1100 and continously get 7-8 hours off of them combined and they only weight like a half a pound a piece because they are the 3-cell batteries instead of the standard 4 or 5 cell.

Disgracefull

[FidelCatsro]

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

Compatability guide

[M.C. Hampster]

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.

it would be nicer

[WormholeFiend]

if airlines would put electrical outlets along the aisles for people to plug their laptops in.

Reviewer step #1, get facts straight

[geekboxjockey]

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/

Not necessarily.

[ultor]

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

Progress?

[haggar]

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.