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Dell inspiron 1520 review

August 31st, 2009

Dell inspiron 1520 review

The Dell Inspiron 1520 under review here is the latest 15.4” in an ever-growing succession of what can be categorized as “consumer mainstream” notebooks offered by Dell’s Home & Home Office division. Since the release of the 1520, Dell has also made available a very similar machine, the Vostro 1500, which can be purchased from the Small Business site. Unlike the Inspiron 1520, which can be configured with any one of eight different colors, the Vostro 1500 is solid black. The Vostro also provides a Windows XP option, which is unavailable in the Inspiron 1520 battery.

It should also be noted, for the benefit of anyone who is somewhat new to this website, that there is plenty of additional information on the 1520, including an excellent full-featured review by someone who actually purchased the 1520, as well as a side-by-side comparison of the 1520 and the HP dv6000t battery; this comparison includes a video that is definitely worth watching for anyone considering the Inspiron 1520, the HP dv6500t or any other 15.4” consumer notebook.

Dell Inspiron 1520 Specs:

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo T7300 (2.0 GHz/4MB L2 Cache)
OS: Microsoft Vista Home Premium
Hard Drive: 160 GB SATA @ 5400RPM
Screen: 15.4″ WSXGA Widescreen (1680 x 1050)
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT 256MB
RAM: 2.0GB DDR2 SDRAM @667 MHz (2 x 1GB)
Optical Drive: 8x CD/DVD burner (DVDRW) w/Double Layer Support
Battery: 9-cell lithium ion inspiron 1520 battery
Wireless: Intel 4965AGN
Weight: 6.4 lbs
Dimensions: 1.47-1.65” (H) x 14.12 “ (W) x 10.59″ (D)
Ports/Slots: 1 IEEE 1394 (FireWire); 4 Universal Serial Bus (USB 2.0); 8-in-1 Memory Card Reader; VGA Out; S-Video; RJ-45 Ethernet LAN; RJ-11 Modem; ExpressCard 54mm; stereo in, headphone/speaker out and dual digital mics
Initial Impressions

This Inspiron 1520 battery weighs about six and a half pounds and is considered a mainstream consumer notebook. Though Dell allows customization of the lid in up to eight different colors, our model has a conservative looking black lid. Because of that our machine lacks some of the consumer flair a “Flamingo Pink” lid would have offered. Nonetheless, my first impressions had to do with a couple of things that distinguish the 1520 from its predecessors:

The overall look is very different, in a good way.
The hardware, particularly in the form of graphics processing, will allow the 1520 to perform about as well as any notebook on the market, with the exception of outlandishly expensive gaming machines that lack any concessions with respect to size, battery life and cost.
These two characteristics are what make the 1520 such an impressive achievement. I actually briefly owned the previous Inspiron e1705 generation’s model, and reviewed the prior-generation e1405 thin-and-light notebook. I must say, the look of the current lineup is immeasurably more appealing. The old silver-and-white style always got me thinking of things like shag carpet and popcorn ceilings: sure, one can make a case for these innovations, just as one can make a case for thick white plastic trim around a notebook, but in the end (which usually comes within a matter of weeks if not months), the style grows tired, the initial promise hollow. The new Inspiron series design is cleaner, simpler and more tasteful. A cousin of the 1520, which shares its look, is the AMD-based Inspiron 1521.

Purchasing Considerations

Though this notebook was sent by Dell GK479 for review purposes and not purchased, I wanted to touch on the above topic, simply because there is something of an art to purchasing a Dell consumer notebook. There are many decisions to make, and like all decisions, they carry with them the opportunity for regret or satisfaction. I heartily endorse this web site’s forums for a little glimpse into the thought, action and subsequent level of satisfaction of other buyers.

As of this writing, deliberately moving along the Dell purchasing highway results in:

An Inspiron 1520 with a fairly basic configuration, but one more than adequate for general media and office tasks, for just over $900.
A deluxe performance configuration, virtually identical to this review machine, for just over $1500.
These prices reflect no special discounts or coupons, just today’s standard upgrades and reductions, which are plainly available to anyone who orders a 1520 today. In any case, at the high end particularly, these prices strike me as very competitive, and a savvy shopper who finds coupons, buys their own memory and times the Dell marketing promotions can do better on price.

One thing I found interesting while configuring a couple of 1520s on the Dell laptop battery site was the price of a RAM upgrade from 2GB to 4GB: $850. Had I selected a higher-priced starting point, meaning a more full-figured set of warranty and support options, the cost of these 2 gigabytes of RAM would have moved away from the direction of a cool grand, but not by much. I saw no mention of this upgrade including a complimentary iPhone or round-trip flight to London, but it is there and available. That said, I would definitely opt for the T7300 CPU and the 8600M GT graphics included in this review model, if at all possible. While these enhancements will probably add three or four hundred dollars to the final price, they are well worth the cost and will almost certainly give the 1520 a longer useful life.

Design

As noted, I like the look of the Inspiron 1520 and see it as a vast improvement over the Inspiron e1505 battery, the 1520’s predecessor. However, one thing I’ll mention is that my own preference is the black lid of this review model because I find, in pictures at least, that the machines with colored lids have too much color for me. Two distinct colors, in this case silver and black, are just about right. I also like the aforementioned Vostro 1500, very similar to this 1520 and available at the Dell Small Business site, because of the all-black look, including a black keyboard, and the possibility of Windows XP. Though many won’t, I see a black keyboard and XP as decided advantages.

Also a welcome change is the placement and position of the keyboard and touchpad. The prior line of Inspirons featured a somewhat odd shaped keyboard that was set very close to the LCD, and a rather large touchpad placed in the middle of a vast sea of silver plastic. While this did allow the palm rests to accommodate even the most monstrous palms, the new Inspiron 1720 battery line, as represented by this review 1520, has a slightly smaller touchpad and a more centered keyboard; this redesign makes for more comfortable typing and touchpad operation, besides being more aesthetically harmonious.

(view large image)

Build

The Inspiron 1520 feels very solid. The only issue, which has been mentioned elsewhere, is the screen latch, which does have some play. Aside from this lack of a nice, snug fit, the latch did not bother me, and I found nothing in the build quality that would make me hesitant to purchase a 1520. Firm but gentle pushing and prodding revealed no flex or weakness.

Input and Output Ports

The Inspiron 1520 has the following ports selection:

(4) USB 2.0 Ports
Integrated 10/100 LAN and 56K Modem
IEEE 1394a
8-in-1 Card Reader
VGA Video Output and S-Video
Stereo In, Headphone/Speaker Out and Dual Digital Mics
ExpressCard 54mm Slot

Color and brightness were both good on the WSXGA glossy LCD. While I like and would myself choose this option, other resolutions are available: 1280×800 WXGA, in both glossy and non-glossy, and 1440×900, glossy only. This represents improved LCD variety and is a major selling point of the 1520; there is something for nearly everyone. Careful scrutiny revealed only one utterly trivial imperfection in the screen: an eighth of an inch or so of uneven backlighting at the bottom of the LCD, which was only visible when I looked very closely while running a screen saver with a dark background. There has been some discussion in this site’s forums about “grainy” LCDs in the 1520, but I detected none of this. However, I am admittedly not a good cohort for those studying LCD perfection; generally (but not always) I’m okay with the screens I use. Everest Home lists the screen as an SEC3350, a Seiko Epson manufactured LCD.

Graphics

The NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT is currently among the cream of the crop in notebook GPUs. Athough RivaTuner indicated that the 8600m in the Inspiron 1520 had DDR3 memory, in reality it is DDR2, which may be dissapointing to some. All the same, it’s a powerful card and there were no graphics-related problems during my time with the 8600M. For those interested in gaming considerations, there is plenty of real-world information in this web site’s forums.

Sound

As always, or almost always, when discussing notebook sound: more than adequate for getting the gist, feel and intent of what’s being played, but definitely lacking in bass. Headphones or external speakers will provide a much more lifelike experience.

Multimedia Features

This 1520 came with a remote, snugly ensconced in the ExpressCard slot, as well as an array of physical media buttons on the front of the notebook. Both the built-in buttons and the remote worked as expected, forwarding and pausing and muting in accordance with my wishes.

Processor and Performance

Thanks to the very strong components, performance was always good, regardless of the stress put on system resources such as RAM and CPU. The new Santa Rosa platform coupled with an Intel T7300 CPU, together with a stronger GPU, outperformed my “old” T2400-based Dell Precision M65 by a wide margin on all benchmarks.

For prospective buyers, it may be worth adding that this review 1520’s configuration is worth considering if one is looking for excellent performance while keeping the price reasonably modest. The T7300 is the cheapest available CPU that comes with 4MB of Level 2 cache, the 8600M GT GPU will provide optimal graphics performance, and anything less than 2GB RAM will significantly hinder performance.

Keyboard and Touchpad

Dell Inspiron 1520 keyboard (view large image)

Keys are responsive and have good travel. Overall, I’d say Dell has done an excellent job with the 1520’s keyboard, both in terms of the feel and the new placement that doesn’t err northward the way the last-generation Inspirons did, especially the e1505 and Dell e1705 battery. Individual key placement makes sense, being more or less standard, and the half-height function keys are consistent with, and just as comfortable as, their larger brethren. The touchpad, which is smaller than that of the e1505, is eminently usable and did everything I expected of it with no discomfort or untoward behavior.

Laptop Battery Life

Under fairly heavy usage, e.g., a lot of hard drive activity, wireless going and the screen set to maximum brightness, I managed to run on the battery for almost three hours. Very light usage and a dim display, but wireless still running, yielded an additional hour or so. I expected a greater disparity, given that my usage for the two tests was at opposite ends of the spectrum, but I did have wireless enabled for the light-usage test, and both times seemed fairly strong for a machine with this power. With a little tweaking, I’m sure others could squeeze more life out of the 9-cell Dell FK890 battery.

Heat and Noise

The 1520 was remarkably quiet (virtually silent, in fact) the whole time I had it, and heat was never a problem. The bottom of the unit became a little warm after protracted heavy activity, but not unusually so.

Service and Support

I have used Dell support in the past and have always been satisfied, in the end, with the experience, but I had no reason to contact support regarding this 1520.

Software

Being a creature of habit, I removed most of the “trialware,” along with some other common programs I loathe, as soon as I received the notebook. I was barely paying attention while doing this, but the whole process for this review notebook seemed to go very quickly. There were no apparent software issues, though I do find myself longing for Windows XP whenever I use a Vista machine. The availability of XP is reason #2 for my seriously considering the Vostro 1500 if I were in the market for a high-powered 15.4” notebook at a reasonable price.

Conclusion

Much of what I found while using the Inspiron 1520 is consistent with (to the point of being almost identical to) what has been written elsewhere. There was really only one thing about this notebook that bothered me, my preference for the all black Vostro 1500 battery notwithstanding: the play in the screen latch mechanism when the notebook is shut. Is this a big deal? I would say no, not at all.

There are so many positives, including the overall build quality, and so much flexibility in terms of configuration, the 1520 would seem to make a lot of sense for a wide range of notebook users, and a little bit of latch looseness should not be a determining factor. There are many fine notebook deals in the Sunday ads, as well as online, but there is often something about these machines, such as the keyboard, the graphics or the resolution, that would make me reluctant to purchase one of them. The 1520, or the Vostro 1500, for that matter, can be configured just right. If I weren’t already happy with my two laptops and in no hurry to get a replacement, I’d definitely consider the Inspiron 1520 or its nearly identical sibling, the Vostro 1500.

Via Notebook review

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Make your laptop battery last longer in some daily habits

August 28th, 2009

Make your laptop battery last longer in some daily habits

1. Use the lowest brightness settings on screen displays.

This will not work in bright areas like out doors, but sure works well indoors. Cell phones, lap-tops, and even watches have brightness controls that will help stretch the life of any laptop battery.

2. Fully charge and discharge all of your batteries.

Try to avoid “topping off” the battery if there’s enough of a charge in there to get by, then remove the battery or unplug from the charger only after it has had a chance to trickle charge at 100%, and your Sony NP-BG1, Canon BP-511, Kodak KLIC-5001 battery will last 2 or 3 years easily.

3. Use programs that take less RAM and keep useless programs closed.

A lot of laptops come with cluttered programs since the day you take them home from the store. Stuff like Yahoo messenger or Firefox with 20 tabs open takes a lot of RAM and eats up batteries super fast.

4. Keeping the volume level on all of your music playing devices is key to a longer Latitude D620 battery life.

You’ll be amazed at how much life loud music sucks out of your battery. This will also do wonders in preserving your ear-drums as well.

5. To go with #4, also turn down the volume on your cell-phone ringer.

Long ring-tones may sound cool, but hearing your favorite song play every time your phone rings will drain your Dell inspiron 6400 battery in a hurry.

6. Turn off your Bluetooth whenever you’re not using it.

This can be an easy one to forget about if you’re often switching between using a Bluetooth, and the phone’s ear piece. Most people use their Bluetooth way too much anyhow, so cutting back on it’s use will lengthen the life of your Dell Inspiron B130 battery.

7. I’ve always heard that when you get a new laptop, or anything with a rechargeable battery for that matter, you should charge it over night.

Pull that bad boy out of the box and give it a nice, long, healthy charge. Even if it says full, leave it in and charging for a while.

8. When I was little I would always find VGP-BPS2C VGP-BPS2 batteries in my grandmother’s fridge.

I always wondered why, turns out she was onto something. If you have extra batteries for your phone, laptop, or anything else, go ahead and store those in the refrigerator. Just make sure not to freeze 40Y7001 40Y7003.

9. Programs that are run from a CD or DVD can be copied to and run from the hard drive, which typically consumes less power than an optical drive.

If you have music and movies you know know you’ll be playing numerous times, just rip them onto your hard drive and you’ll be styled!

10. Lastly, just using basic common sense will help extend the life of all of your Dell KD476 Dell Inspiron e1505 Battery.

If you’re not using it, turn it off! If you don’t need it, get rid of it! This is probably the most practical and applicable way to get the most out of all of your batteries.

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Why laptop battery explode?

August 24th, 2009

Why laptop battery explode?

Laptop battery is composing of enclosure, interface, cell and control circuit board, battery cell is responsible for supplying and storing the power of the laptop. Control circuit board with complex working principle and design, it controls the battery start and stop charging at proper time, control the discharge current reasonable, and it also take charge of showing the battery capacity and recycle charge times recording. When the battery in a high temperature or large current and other un-normal condition, it the control circuit board can protect the battery.

The OEM post in http://www.laptops-battery.co.uk/

The four suspicion of laptop battery explosion.

A, Battery cells interior short-circuit

The Latitude D620 battery cells has no protection function when meet large current, if single or multiple cells happen short-circuit situation, it will let cells discharge at high current. These current generate large quantity of heats will let the battery enhance the temperature, and then transfer to the other parts of laptop.

If the Latitude D600 battery enclosure is plastic material, it will deform or even get fired under high temperature, it is dangerous. The regular cells has experience strict test when out from factory, and the battery enclosure always adopt fireproof material and difficult to get fire. So the most possibility is involved with poor quality material for VGP-BPS2C VGP-BPS2 VGP-BPS5.

B, Battery cells connector wire short-circuit

The Dell Inspiron 6000 Battery, interior structure is too compact which leave opportunity for the cells. The wires in the middle are quite compact and close to the cells, if the skin of the cells and wires wore out, or the connect wires break off, then the cells will discharge at very high current and bring high temperature and cause fire final.

C, The control circuit invalidation

Sometimes, the control circuit will be invalidate for its protection part even it performed normal when use Sony NP-BG1, Canon BP-511,, when under full charge and un-normal, large current situation, the temperature will enhance and cause fire.

D Heat and abrupt incident

The laptop over heat or exterior liquid corrode, lightning strike or voltage un-normal will cause short-circuit.

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BYD Battery Become the focus Electric Vehicle caused three suspense

August 17th, 2009

Legend car industry, car head FLYER Wang Chuanfu build electric car was already present on the surface, as a matter of iron nails. Yesterday, reporter learned from deputy general manager of BYD Automobile Co., Ltd. Wang permanent Department confirmed the first batch of 200 electric vehicles will soon BYD line , and the streets as taxis in Shenzhen debut. He said that the first batch of 200 BYD electric cars in the trial after the process of improving and perfecting with Pavilion dv4000 battery inspiron 5150 battery Inspiron E1705 battery, the production will soon be, available for sale.

BYD to take the lead private enterprises to create the first of a pure electric vehicle, the matter of China’s car industry is no doubt a major miracle. It also triggered a lot of suspense. The feasibility of electric cars from their own point of view, the core issue of debate lies in batteries, electric bicycle very well-known to describe the problem to Thinkpad T30 battery IBM 40Y9797 EVO N410C battery.

A few years ago, appeared in the market for electric bicycles, pedal the liberation of the suffering consumers, it also highlights a number of electric vehicles of its own problems: First, the use of rechargeable batteries for electric vehicles as fuel for a major common problem is lack of motivation, Start slowly and accelerate slowly Apple A1078; Second, rechargeable batteries are usually “short-lived”; Third, the easy circuit failure, often the way “off.” As a result of these widespread problems, the electric bike several times in the market perform “a flash in the pan”, the market is very slow to start. Small electric bicycle laptop battery in resolving the issue even come a long way so difficult, as a “monster” of BYD electric cars will be going through the same test it? This will be the BYD electric vehicle facing the first suspense.

Second, electric cars cost more than conventional gasoline cars, electric cars today is also difficult to mass commercial production of one of the main obstacles. While BYD electric cars that the cost of its single laptop battery only 4 million, but the use of rechargeable batteries matching the cost and determine the vulnerability of the overall consumption of electric vehicles the cost is not a small sum. BYD electric cars will be how to effectively address the rechargeable dell laptop battery life and cost issues? This is the second largest of its suspense face.

Third, although the electric car is environmentally-friendly vehicle, but the Apple laptop battery itself is not environmental protection, the use of complex chemical raw materials created by the battery once the waste, recycling will become difficult to deal with the toxic chemical waste, scrap battery recycling has become the face of environmental protection a major issue. BYD electric cars, even if the realization of the mass production and mass consumption, and if it failed to address the concentration of waste battery recycling issues,

The environmental protection departments may not be easily released. In short, dare to eat a crab BYD car while the first one to create electric vehicles with Thinkpad X40 battery Latitude C600 battery and at the same time can be said to have produced a series of new questions. 1 China’s first electric vehicle will go from here?

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Without Battery, MacBooks Take Big Perfomance Hit

August 15th, 2009

Ever run your MacBook or MacBook Pro without the HP laptop battery installed? Most people don’t, but some notebook users pop them out when their systems are running on AC with hopes of extending the life of their Laptop battery by a few months.

While I was benchmarking third-party RAM with a MacBook Pro battery  this week, I noticed that the computer was taking a huge hit in performance when it wasn’t running on Apple-supplied memory. A minor decrease in performance might be unlikely, but a 37 percent plunge in processing power seemed impossible. After some backtracking, I realized that I had been running the benchmarks without the battery installed after I’d swapped out the stock RAM for third-party memory. The MacBook Pro Discount laptop battery was running off AC power for both tests, but the battery was installed only while I was running the benchmark with 4 Gbytes of stock RAM.

After some digging, I found that the performance drop is documented on Apple’s support Web site–though honestly, Apple’s reason for forcing a drop in processor speed doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Apple justifies the speed reduction by explaining that it “prevents the computer from shutting down if it demands more power than the A/C adapter alone can provide.” But what happens when a battery is no longer able to hold a charge? Does the processor speed drop in that case as well?

We benchmarked our 2.53-GHz MacBook Pro with 4GB of RAM using Cinebench R10’s multiprocessor test, and achieved a score of 5,549 with the battery present and 3,504 with the battery removed.

Lesson learned: The battery stays in. If you’re a MacBook or MacBook Pro owner, you’ll get the best performance out of your system when you leave the battery in. A small extension of your Dell laptop battery’s life span is not worth a 37 percent drop in performance.

If you’re operating a MacBook or MacBook Pro system with a dead battery, I invite you to benchmark your own system: Try testing your notebook with and without the dead Pavilion DV8000 battery installed. You can use a free download of Cinebench R10 to benchmark your Apple system. Be sure to close all applications and disable Airport and Bluetooth before you run the test. And please let us know your results as a comment below.

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The answer for laptop battery frequent asked questions

August 14th, 2009

The answer for laptop battery frequent asked questions

Last week I buy a Dell notebook from Dell.com, then I want to know some laptop battery tips and problems by google. I found many frequent asked questions about laptop battery, but there are various answers for them. So I send a email to laptop battery expect “Jack Smith” in http://www.laptops-battery.co.uk/ about these doubts. He reply me in the August 11, below is the reply content.

What is the six months warranty laptop battery?

Generally the laptop battery quality warranty is one year, but we can find many 6 months warranty “Original laptop battery” in ebay and other online shops? What is these six months warranty laptop battery?

Most the six months warranty batteries are the old battery with the new cells, old original battery shell and protection board. You can find the detail introduce here “How to replace battery cells inside laptop battery“. As the battery protection board is old one, so the laptop battery can only work properly about six months.

For laptop battery, the higher capacity the better?

For different models (particularly different size) battery, the higher capacity battery can work longer. Exclude the size and weight factors, of course that the higher capacity the better.

However, the same battery type, the same nominal capacity (for example,Inspiron 6400 battery 6600mAh), the actual measurement capacity is different: for example One Inspiron E1505 battery capacity is 6600mAh, and the other is 6700mAh, then the 6700mAh battery is better then 6600mAh?

The actual situation may be that : In the high capacity battery’s electrode materials, increase the initial capacity of more things, and reduce the materials to stability of the electrode. It may result that after used for some charging-discharging cycles, the capacity of high-capacity battery reduce rapidly, while the capacity of low battery is still strong. Many laptop battery manufacturers often use such method to produce the high-capacity battery. After used for six months the GD761, KD476, TD347 battery standby time is too less.

Enhance the battery capacity can reduce the battery cycle life. If the laptop battery manufacturers are not make great efforts in battery material, it is impossible to truly “improve” the capacity of the battery.

It is worth to store the fully-charged battery

Lithium-ion batteries have a very bad characteristic, that is the lithium-ion laptop battery aging time. When a lithium-ion battery in storage for some time, even not in recycled, its capacity also lost in the storage. Because the lithium-ion battery anode materials begun the failure process when manufactured. Different temperatures and Pavilion DV8000 batteryy charged state cause the different consequences statute. You can the get the general conclusion by following data ( the percentage of capacity in the form):

Storage temperature – 40% state of charge ——- 100% state of charge

0 degrees ———- 98% (a year later ) ——- 94% (a year later)

That is the all, hopes that can help you.

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How Apple Made a Non-Removable Battery Sound Awesome

August 12th, 2009

When is a non-removable battery a good thing? Apparently, when Apple says it is.

How do you make a non-removable laptop battery on a laptop sound like a good thing? Dive deep—way deep—into the manufacturing and the engineering process.

That trick did wonders when Apple marketed the daylights out of its aluminum brick design on the MacBook 13-inch (Aluminum) and the MacBook Pro 15-inch battery (Dual Graphics). Armed with videos and images meant to wow viewers, the company showed how a thick slab of aluminum is molded into thin notebooks.

The battery in the new Apple Macbook Pro 17-inch battery can not be swapped out, at least not by the end user, since it is housed in a unified chassis. Apple talked in depth about how the battery bay was conceived, using terms like “advanced chemistry,” “intelligent monitoring,” and “adaptive charging.” Then a video of how the battery is manufactured was shown to the press, emphasizing the slightest of details.

In many ways, the battery is different from that of the original 17-inch Macbook Pro battery. Other laptops use cylindrical cells in their batteries – Duracell AA batteries, for instance – while Apple customized its own shapes. Instead of using lithium ion cells, as is common in most laptops, the new batteries are made out of lithium polymer, which holds a longer charge but are also more expensive. And what’s another sure-fire way to justify a non-removable battery? Use the buzz-words that every company is using: “green,” “eco-friendly,” and “recyclable”. A permanent battery means that Apple can minimize and monitor the amount of waste that goes into a landfill. Throw in the environmental catchphrases of the day—PVR-free, mercury-free, and arsenic-free—and Apple has you in the palm of its hand.

The company is claiming that the new MacBook offers between seven and eight hours on a single charge, depending on which Nvidia GPU is used, but we all know that these battery figures can’t be trusted. The original MacBook Pro 17-inch reported a score of 2 hours 25 minutes on a benchmark test we ran called MobileMark 2007. And since the original battery is rated at 60WH, a 40 percent larger battery (or so claims Apple laptop battery) should boost the capacity into the 85WH range. Other laptops with 80-85WH batteries and similar specifications usually top out at four hours of battery life. With the new Apple battery and the fancy technology, the battery should approach five hours.

Wait, let me rephrase that: It had better get 5 hours since you’ll probably have to pay Apple A1057 a bundle to replace it (because degradation and self-discharge are inherent bugs associated with batteries).

In three years’ time–and this is a rough estimate–if it does indeed last for more than 5 hours, the laptop battery is right back where it started: 2 hours and 25 minutes. That’s assuming that the other parts won’t die first. So that doesn’t sound too bad.

What’s worrisome is that Apple might do the same thing to the MacBook 13-inch battery and the MacBook Pro 15-inch, and while longer battery life is a plus, a removable battery gives users peace of mind that a replacement part can easily be purchased from eBay. And being able to carry multiple batteries is a plus for constant travelers, so that the laptop can last multiple days without a charge. If the MacBook Air, the iPods, the iPhones, and this new MacBook Pro are any indication, say goodbye to removable batteries.

The news is from : pcmag.com

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Recycling: Batteries

August 7th, 2009

Used Laptop battery (nickel cadmium, nickel metal hydride, lithium ion and small lead acid less than two pounds in weight) can be recycled as follows.

Lithium ion and nickel metal hydride batteries
We will recycle lithium ion and nickel metal hydride laptop battery at no charge. Send used GK479 batteries to:

Motorola, Inc.
5300 Westport Parkway
Dock Doors 221 – 222
Fort Worth, Texas 76177
USA

Shipments may be sent COD through the U.S. Postal Service (USPS). Please note the following USPS requirements:

1. All secondary Lithium ion cells and NP-BG1 batteries must be mailed in a firmly sealed package separated and cushioned to prevent short circuit, movement or damage.
2. Except for batteries installed in equipment, they must be in a strong outer package.
3. All outer packages must have a complete delivery and return address.
4. The outside of the package must be marked on the address side “Package contains Li-ion batteries (no lithium metal).”
5. The mailpiece must not contain more than three inspiron 1526 battery .
6. Damaged or recalled batteries are prohibited from mailing unless approved by the mailing standards manager.

Nickel cadmium and small lead acid batteries
We have an agreement with the Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation (RBRC), a non-profit organization, to recycle nickel cadmium and small lead acid batteries on our behalf.

Consumers in the U.S. and Canada can drop off their Inspiron 1520 battery batteries at no cost at one of thousands of centers listed on the RBRC website. Businesses must pay a shipping charge unless they decide to purchase recycling pails from RBRC.

To participate in the RBRC program, participants must complete this Rechargeable 6y270, pa3395u 1brs battery Recycling Corporation form (1 page PDF, 17 KB) and indicate in the appropriate box whether you are a business/public agency or a retail business. Then fax the form to +1 678 419 9986 and the RBRC will provide you with a RBRC Shipper ID Number and necessary information to initiate your battery-recycling program. If you have any questions regarding the RBRC you may call them at +1 800 822 8837 or visit the RBRC website.

In Germany, Motorola is a member of Gemeinsames Rücknahmesystem Batterien (GRS) foundation, an organization that collects, recycles and disposes of portable batteries. The foundation is financed by contributions from manufacturers and importers of electronic equipment.

The article is from motorola.com

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Re-engineered battery material could lead to rapid recharging of many devices

August 6th, 2009

Beltway for electrical energy solves long-standing problem

MIT engineers have created a kind of beltway that allows for the rapid transit of electrical energy through a well-known Laptop battery material, an advance that could usher in smaller, lighter batteries — for cell phones and other devices — that could recharge in seconds rather than hours.

The work could also allow for the quick recharging of Discount laptop batteries in electric cars, although that particular application would be limited by the amount of power available to a homeowner through the electric grid.

The work, led by Gerbrand Ceder, the Richard P. Simmons Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, is reported in the March 12 issue of Nature. Because the material involved is not new — the researchers have simply changed the way they make it — Ceder believes the work could make it into the marketplace within two to three years.

State-of-the-art lithium rechargeable batteries have very high energy densities — they are good at storing large amounts of charge. The tradeoff is that they have relatively slow power rates — they are sluggish at gaining and discharging that energy. Consider current batteries for electric cars. “They have a lot of energy, so you can drive at 55 mph for a long time, but the power is low. You can’t accelerate quickly,” Ceder said.

Why the slow power rates? Traditionally, scientists have thought that the lithium ions responsible, along with electrons, for carrying charge across the battery simply move too slowly through the material.

About five years ago, however, Ceder and colleagues made a surprising discovery. Computer calculations of a well-known battery material, lithium iron phosphate, predicted that the material’s lithium ions should actually be moving extremely quickly. The recharge battery as Pavilion DV8000 battery, omnibook 6000 battery, latitude d400 battery fully charging time are last too long for one night .

“If transport of the lithium ions was so fast, something else had to be the problem,” Ceder said.

Further calculations showed that lithium ions can indeed move very quickly into the material but only through tunnels accessed from the surface. If a lithium ion at the surface is directly in front of a tunnel entrance, there’s no problem: it proceeds efficiently into the tunnel. But if the ion isn’t directly in front, it is prevented from reaching the tunnel entrance because it cannot move to access that entrance.

Ceder and Byoungwoo Kang, a graduate student in materials science and engineering, devised a way around the problem by creating a new surface structure that does allow the lithium ions to move quickly around the outside of the material, much like a beltway around a city. When an ion traveling along this beltway reaches a tunnel, it is instantly diverted into it. Kang is a coauthor of the Nature paper.

Using their new processing technique, the two went on to make a small battery that could be fully charged or discharged in 10 to 20 seconds (it takes six minutes to fully charge or discharge a cell made from the unprocessed material).

Ceder notes that further tests showed that unlike other battery materials, the new material does not degrade as much when repeatedly charged and recharged. This could lead to smaller, lighter batteries, because less material is needed for the same result.

I can image that in the future : I can charge my EVO N600C battery, EVO N610C battery, EVO N620C battery in a few minutes.

“The ability to charge and discharge batteries in a matter of seconds rather than hours may open up new technological applications and induce lifestyle changes,” Ceder and Kang conclude in their Nature paper.

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation through the Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers program and the Batteries for Advanced Transportation Program of the U.S. Department of Energy. It has been licensed by two companies.

The article is from : web.mit.edu/

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Electric vehicle battery support skills

August 4th, 2009

Electric vehicle battery support skills

1. Dont store the Electric vehicle battery in powerless

It is prohibited that store the laptop battery in a state of loss. State power loss is the failure to charge battery in time after use. Stored in the battery state of loss, it is prone to sulfate and lead sulfate crystals attached to the pole on the board, plug the electric ion channels, resulting in under-charging, the battery capacity decline. Idle state power loss the longer the more serious battery damage. Therefore, the battery should be charged fully once a month when not in use, so that the battery can keep in a good health state.

2. regular inspection in time

In the use of process, if the continued line of electric vehicles in a short period of time a sudden drop in mileage of more than ten kilometers, it is likely that the battery pack at least one battery cell appears broken, soft plate, plate active material shedding phenomenon, such as short-circuit . At this point, the battery should be repaired in time to the professional bodies to check, repair or distribution group. This can be relatively extended life Dell laptop battery to maximize cost savings.

3. avoid large current discharge

Electric cars at the starting line, manned, uphill, please use pedal power to help avoid a momentary high-current discharge. High-current discharge easily lead to lead sulfate crystallization, to the detriment of the physical properties of the laptop battery plate.

4. keeping right charging time

In the use of process, should be based on the actual situation accurately grasp the charging time, frequency and use of reference normal mileage situation and pay attention to the capacity of the battery manufacturers to provide the size of note, as well as matching the performance of the charger, the charge current to grasp the size of charging parameters such as frequency . Generally batteries are recharged at night, with an average charging time in about eight hours. If shallow discharge (charge mileage after a very short period), the battery will soon be full of and continue to charge-off charge will appear, and that leads to cell loss, fever, lower battery life. Therefore, in order to discharge the HP laptop battery depth of -70% to 60% when an electric charge the best, the actual use can be converted into cycling mileage, according to the need to charge the actual situation, to avoid charging damage.

5. prevent exposure

Electric vehicles is prohibited under the sun exposure. Environment temperature is too high will increase the internal pressure of the battery cell pressure limiting valve automatically opens, is a direct consequence of the loss of water to increase the Toshiba laoptop battery, and battery cell over-activity of water is bound to trigger a decline to speed up the plate to soften, charging shell body fever, from drum shell, deformation, such as a fatal injury.

6. avoid charging plug fever

Charger output plug loose contact will lead to the phenomenon of oxidation, such as charging plug fever, fever for too long will lead to short-circuit plug charging, direct damage to the Sony laptop battery charger, lead to unnecessary losses. So when found out that the situation should be promptly or replace the connector to remove oxides.

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