Comments on: Why We Need Mobile Device Battery Standards

By: jayatdell

jayatdell — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 20:36:31 +0000

The Inspiron Mini 9 is configured with, and has never shipped with anything but, 32WH batteries. A third-party test software program being used in the field doesn’t properly program every vendor’s battery to report power (versus current) capabilities, and so the utility is not properly reporting the actual battery capacity. We have confirmed this and all packs are 4-cell 32Whr, and will deliver more than 4 hours of battery life in typical usage.

By: Chris K

Chris K — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 16:20:02 +0000

I’d settle for just the Watt-hour rating. Everything else is semi-subjective (3-cell, 4-cell, etc. *do* mean something if we’re consistently dealing with 3.7v AA-sized Li-Ion cells, but I can’t even trust that.)

A 50 Wh battery pack, however, is a 50 Wh pack, no matter how it’s made. It doesn’t matter if the system using it sucks down 5 watts when idle, 100 watts at full tilt, etc. You can, after all, cook benchmarks to get battery life estimates to match your projections. Just look at Apple. As much as I love their products, I usually subtract at least one hour from any battery life estimate that they provide.

Give me nothing more than a Wh-rating, and the best/worst case estimates (Airplane mode, no gaming, minimal drive access vs. all radios running, full brightness, all spindles running,) and I’ll be happy, though I still wouldn’t entirely trust the numbers.

By: Kevin C. Tofel

Kevin C. Tofel — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 19:05:29 +0000

inomine, good point as I didn’t define the term correctly. Making the change to the definition, although the math involved for run-times doesn’t change. Thanks!

By: inomine

inomine — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 18:54:25 +0000

You might want to check your units. It’s Whr, watt hours, ie how many hours can the battery provide one watt for. W/hr, Watts per hour means absolutely nothing.

By: Nate

Nate — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 18:40:26 +0000

We do need some kind of level playing ground when it comes to batteries. All too often it seems like you have to dig deep and pull teeth to even find out if a netbook comes with a 3- or 6-cell battery. Providing this information up front will help sell systems! As we become more mobile, we all need this information to know if a battery will get us through the day. Better reporting programs (or better functionality built-in to an OS) would also go a long way in helping us understand how we’re burning through our watts.

By: Richard Garrett

Richard Garrett — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 18:23:20 +0000

Kevin, as usual you guys are all over it! And as long as we are talking power, I am following your off-the-grid charging experiment with a lot of hope. No telling how much energy we could save if we are all able to unplug a few transformers and power bricks. Thanks and here’s to long doses of quality sun on the south side of jkmanor northeast!

By: Kevin C. Tofel

Kevin C. Tofel — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 17:44:05 +0000

Thanks Richard. We covered the Boston Power / HP news last week: http://jkontherun.com/2008/12/10/boston-power-hp/ Definitely something I’m interesting in seeing, but bear in mind that the technology doesn’t make the battery run longer on a single charge. It benefits by allowing the battery to retain its charge over many more charging cycles.

GT2L: I completely agree. More “tech-savvy” individuals might be able to determine the battery capacity and device power draw, but these concepts are unknown to most consumers. The industry could stand to make this all a little easier for everyone.

By: GoodThings2Life

GoodThings2Life — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 17:26:09 +0000

I definitely agree on advertising the power specs more thoroughly and consistently.

I’m pretty tech savvy so I know what to look for when I buy a system, but I know that most consumers have no idea what to look at.

The MAH number is great, but only if you know what the device is supposed to draw given certain conditions.

I know Toshiba and Dell (among others I’m sure) offer Power Management software of their own, so I see no reason why those programs can’t be made to display that sort of diagnostic information on an “advanced” screen too.

For example, I’m on battery and I want to see just how much power is drawn with wifi on and display at 50% versus 80%… I should be able to get that info without booting to BIOS or finding some complicated tech program.

By: Richard Garrett

Richard Garrett — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 15:30:46 +0000

In a related bit of news, HP and Boston Computer have teamed up for a ‘green’ battery – one that recharges to its original capacity throughout its life and is said to use fewer (if any) heavy metals. HP will offer it as a $30 upgrade on select laptops beginning early ’09. This according to NPR and John Dodge at http://www.designnews.com/blog/Green_Engineering/10596-HP_Enlists_Boston_Power_s_Green_Notebook_Batteries.php