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77 Comments
- inactive, on 11/27/2008, -4/+142We've been promised longer battery life for 10 years now. Today my new laptop still only gets 2.5 hours.
So no more "in the future" battery-related stories please. Researchers, put your new battery tech on store shelves or STFU. - datagod, on 11/27/2008, -1/+62When they explode, will they do 10X the damage?
- NomortaL1, on 11/27/2008, -2/+32big companies like to buy battery patents and sit on them :)
- Katana, on 11/27/2008, -1/+24Silicon ≠ Silicone
- bob1029, on 11/27/2008, -0/+22Ok, we need to distinguish between energy and power because apparently some people are confuzzled by this.
Power = Volts*Amps (ex: 90 watts)
Energy = Amount of Power x Time (ex: 1.2 watt hours)
Energy can also be measured in terms of amp hours if the supply voltage is known and constant.
Example: A laptop draws 4.2 amps at a nominal supply voltage of 19 volts. This is a power usage of 4.2*19 = ~80 watts. Now, the battery is rated at 7800mAh @ 19v, which means that it can provide 7.8 amps at the specified voltage for an hour. In this case, the battery would be able to provide 7.8/4.2 = 1.85 hours of power to the laptop at the required voltage.
Just for quick reference, 7800 mAh is 2.807x10^7 joules, which is about the amount of kinetic energy as a 2000lb vehicle traveling at 100mph. Lets remember this when we wish for gigantic energy densities. If we were to increase this by and order of magnitude, your laptop could contain more kinetic energy than an aircraft at landing speed. - LoneWolf01, on 11/27/2008, -1/+15Try using a brand new equivalent of your 1998 laptop's battery and sticking it in your current laptop. I doubt it would last an hour.
Yes your old laptop may have run longer, but it also wasn't running nearly as much. - inactive, on 11/27/2008, -5/+19I know whenever I see silicon I get energized.
- inactive, on 11/27/2008, -0/+13I've found it best to never, ever, argue with an electrical engineer :)
- muchachoburacho, on 11/27/2008, -1/+13"Battery life is measured in hours, not watts." Actually its measured in kilowatt hours. Your saying you expect battery makers to be so good that you can draw more power out of the battery and it will still last longer? Unrealistic expectations only lead to more disappointment.
- FAHQ2, on 11/27/2008, -1/+13While most people will have the Power to respond to your post, many wont due to a lack of Energy.
- inactive, on 11/27/2008, -0/+9 24 hours in standby mode maybe.
- aussiessuck, on 11/27/2008, -0/+8Silicone can give boobs more capacity too.
- Guspaz, on 11/27/2008, -0/+7We've been tantalized with amazing techs that will produce 10x longer lifetime on lithium ion batteries for years. But what have we actually seen? ZILCH! I'll be interested when one of these magical new techniques produces something practical.
- freediverx, on 11/27/2008, -0/+7The problem with these revolutionary new battery technologies promising 10X more capacity is that by the time they see commercial release, computers are demanding 10X more power. I don't care so much about these things unless they are going to be released immediately. I want to see real laptops (say a Macbook Pro or 'equivalent') going from 4 hours to 40 hours battery life. THAT will be the true measure of a new battery technology's impact.
Oh and regarding the HP Elite Book... "the 24-hour figure can be reached only by purchasing the ultra-capacity battery and upgrading the base model of the 6930p to include the Illumi-Lite display and 80 gigabyte version of the SSD.." I'm curious what other conditions and limitations apply... Configured for 24 hour power, what's the performance, capacity, size, weight, etc., on this machine?
Battery life specs are meaningless without an apples-to-apples comparison. - inactive, on 11/27/2008, -0/+7 In 3 years when my batteries are still draining at the same rate now I have a another story to think back on. "Hey what ever happened to that idea of using silicon to extend run time, is that coming out soon?"
- inactive, on 11/27/2008, -1/+8@ryanmsean
Wrong. The Atom uses in the region of 40 watts depending on task loading
http://www.vr-zone.com/articles/Intel_Atom_Power_C ... - inactive, on 11/27/2008, -0/+6Nope sorry. I just use my laptop a lot and don't like having it hooked into the mains all the time.
Also the 2.5 hr time quoted by me above and an absolute maximum. - Sozzi, on 11/27/2008, -1/+6you spelled "Apple" wrong
- ryanmsean, on 11/27/2008, -0/+2That is for the whole system. I'm talking about just the processor.
- DigitalisAkujin, on 11/27/2008, -1/+3Battery capacities improve at a rate of 8% while computer performance per watt is doubling every 18 months. You can have a 14 hour laptop now but it will cost you volume. In other words, More ***** in laptop = more power used.
- AngelBunny, on 11/27/2008, -0/+2actually, my near 2 year old macbook pro gets nearly 4 hours per charge fine which is like 3x better than laptops 10 years ago. also, i forget which laptop now but there is one you can buy with 12 hours per charge.
if you are a company that makes laptops and batteries cost a butt ton of $$ then arn't you going to aim for cheapest you can get withen consumer satisfaction? 2.5 hours is the rate people are happy with so if batteries get better then they just put smaller batteries in the laptops to save money. however, there are many different laptops specialized for 6+ hour use. sony has a lot of 8 hour battery life laptops. - Joghobs, on 11/27/2008, -0/+2Holy old news. I was excited about all of this at least 6 months ago.
- honeybrass, on 11/27/2008, -0/+2Wow! huge, I get 1hr, if I'm lucky. Stupid 2nd rate brand.
- ryanmsean, on 11/27/2008, -0/+2This looks promising. Right now the energy density of lithium-ion batteries is roughly 1/50th that of gasoline. With the advent of this, nanowires, ultracapacitors and new battery chemistries such as lithium vanadium oxide, fully electric powered cars could be just as energy-storage efficient as gasoline powered ones.
- DigitalisAkujin, on 11/27/2008, -0/+2Your an idiot for not seeing this article for what it really is. An unanalyzed but amazing observation by scientists when doing experiments. This is useful information for humanity. Don't be an ass.
- Val451, on 11/27/2008, -0/+2Especially in matching Pairs!
- ryanmsean, on 11/27/2008, -1/+3And now the Atom consumes 4 watts and will give you a lot more performance than a 486
- knute5, on 11/27/2008, -0/+2The auto industry has always suffered when compared to computer/high tech innovation. Now the surging trend toward mobile electronics has fostered battery advances and breakthroughs that will extend the functionality of our laptops, cellphones and also, our cars. Detroit's relevance seems to shrink more every day.
- CedEx, on 11/27/2008, -0/+2Trips to the sandbox must be a lot of fun for you.
- j3ff86, on 11/27/2008, -0/+2Unexplained fires are a matter for the courts!
- itsthehumidity, on 11/27/2008, -0/+2I've got a gigantic energy density too, if you know what I mean.
- hypermog, on 11/27/2008, -0/+2I still wish for gigantic energy densities. Some of the tech we already have today is just as outlandish.
- inactive, on 11/27/2008, -0/+2"big oil not allowing"'s days are numbered.
53 of them. - evil-doer, on 11/27/2008, -0/+2you know, it would be an excellent documentary for someone go collect all of these battery stories from the last 10-20 years and seek out the companies and persons who made the claim and try to interview them about it. i wonder how many of them would say "i cant talk about it, im under nda"?
how can all of these claims have been false? big oil must be buying up this stuff and not releasing it. - Wolfboy, on 11/27/2008, -1/+3If you put today's battery technology in a laptop from 10 years ago, you'll get a lot longer battery life.
Your modern laptop demands a lot more juice, negating the gains the battery manufacturers have made.
I used to have a laptop from the mid-1980s which ran on AA batteries for about 8 to 10 hours. The laptop was useful for its day, and didn't use much power, but didn't do a whole lot beyond basic word processing (with no spell check) and spreadsheets on an unlit, black-and-white LCD display. - muffcakes, on 11/27/2008, -1/+3So if battery life is measured in laptop hours then all we need to do is make super efficient/weak laptops and our electric cars will go forever!!!! This is awesome!
- LOCK3D, on 11/27/2008, -0/+1I'm just not American.
American culture... Big crappy cars, big fake *****, big portions of fake food, fake faces, fake teeth, fake politicians.
Bigger is not better. Fake is not better. I genuinely don't understand why you people like this crap.
- echelonist, on 11/27/2008, -0/+1Silicon already rule my world AND gives me erections.
Now just think about it:
Every time you watch porn on the net, Silicon is there to run the show under the hood AND makes boobs bigger on your screen ! I just want of that stuff in everything physical in our world.
Oh Silicon, is there anything you can't do ? - hiimcliff, on 11/27/2008, -0/+1I thought it was just me. I hardly get new news on digg.
- Janizzary, on 11/27/2008, -0/+1I'm sick of waiting for all these breakthroughs to become available (at an acceptable price) on the market!
- leandarrr, on 11/27/2008, -1/+2 HP Elite Book 6930p With 24 Hours battery backup already launched
- LOCK3D, on 11/27/2008, -0/+1elitist? How the ***** am I elitist? Because I voiced my opinion that I don't find big fake ***** attractive? Because I don't like big american cars? Is it simply because I tend to associate the infatuation for such things with American culture? The whole bigger is better mentality that seems to be so pervasive in the states.
Whatever. You may not be American, but you certainly are an idiot. - bhh2000, on 11/27/2008, -0/+1this is what we need!!!
- bob1029, on 11/27/2008, -0/+1This is true, if you were to slap together about 100 HP 6-cell batteries, you have about as much energy as the high-explosive warhead on a tomahawk cruise missile.
Performance per watt is the ultimate solution, with smaller process manufacturing, memristors, etc, this should really start to take off. We already have Intel's Atom starting to push the boundaries of instructions/watt. - Rocketbird, on 11/27/2008, -0/+1This post makes me sad. :(
- kingmanic, on 11/27/2008, -0/+1The higher the power density in batteries, the more volatile they become. I think we're pretty close to the point where the line between "bomb" and "battery" is non extant. Historic examples show my statement to be true. I think a better way to go is to move to more efficient technologies, this is already happening with both intel and AMD focusing on performance per watt vs just performance.
- Jareth86, on 11/27/2008, -1/+2Lets hear it for the free market!
- arcooke, on 11/27/2008, -0/+1Don't worry. If something bad happens, Superman will come safe you.
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