Geqxon - yep, I used to enjoy that. 8 hours or real work without changing batteries! You could see the screen flicker for a split second when it switched over.
Two batteries sounds great in theory but its double the weight all the time and the case area is used up.. with this approach the second battery only need to be made available when needed.. its a lot simpler... BTW a patent search by a reputable firm shows that this is indeed a new idea and has not been done before...
I had an ancient AT&T Safari NSX20 that had 2 batteries that were hotswappable. So did a TI TravelMate, and that one had em both up front with LED fuel gauges on them. And old ThinkPads used to have a small NiCd pack that let you swap the main battery with the machine suspended, not hibernated.
And of course most high-end machines with swappable optical bays take a 2nd battery that's hotswappable.
Either way you're carrying around two batteries, so what's your point? That the laptop itself is lighter when it's on...the table out of the case? Big deal. The 2nd battery has to be nearby to be useful so it's in your case. Weight is weight. Quote me on that.
Fujitsu laptops already have this (not all models I think); a main battery bay, and a modular bay that takes a battery or DVD drive (or other accessory). What sucks about it is that both discharge at the same time.
I think by case he meant the casing of the laptop. The advantage of this over 2 batteries is that it takes up less space IN the laptop, so it can be smaller, or have room for eg. a dvd drive.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
mushrooshi @ Feb 4th 2008 6:00PM
Ive got a better idea:
Use two batteries, but:
when at normal, it will use one battery at 100%
then, when you are running low, it switches to the other.
Geqxon @ Feb 4th 2008 6:14PM
Dell used to do this. Two front-loaded bays, one for the battery, the second for the optical drive OR a second battery.
thethirdmoose @ Feb 4th 2008 6:24PM
So did old PowerBooks. This isn't an apple fanboy post, just saying that this idea isn't necessarily all that great
morcheeba @ Feb 4th 2008 6:33PM
Geqxon - yep, I used to enjoy that. 8 hours or real work without changing batteries! You could see the screen flicker for a split second when it switched over.
Ric Richardson @ Feb 4th 2008 7:39PM
Two batteries sounds great in theory but its double the weight all the time and the case area is used up.. with this approach the second battery only need to be made available when needed.. its a lot simpler... BTW a patent search by a reputable firm shows that this is indeed a new idea and has not been done before...
KazO @ Feb 4th 2008 7:18PM
I had an ancient AT&T Safari NSX20 that had 2 batteries that were hotswappable. So did a TI TravelMate, and that one had em both up front with LED fuel gauges on them. And old ThinkPads used to have a small NiCd pack that let you swap the main battery with the machine suspended, not hibernated.
And of course most high-end machines with swappable optical bays take a 2nd battery that's hotswappable.
Mile @ Feb 4th 2008 8:48PM
@Rick
Either way you're carrying around two batteries, so what's your point? That the laptop itself is lighter when it's on...the table out of the case? Big deal. The 2nd battery has to be nearby to be useful so it's in your case. Weight is weight. Quote me on that.
kureshii @ Feb 4th 2008 10:38PM
Fujitsu laptops already have this (not all models I think); a main battery bay, and a modular bay that takes a battery or DVD drive (or other accessory). What sucks about it is that both discharge at the same time.
treetrunk @ Feb 5th 2008 12:22PM
@Mile:
I think by case he meant the casing of the laptop. The advantage of this over 2 batteries is that it takes up less space IN the laptop, so it can be smaller, or have room for eg. a dvd drive.