Lenovo Battery Technology 2009

[jaredy]

As persnickety has pretty much said...laptop battery tech is not all completely that different among manufacturers. There are definitely inroads to more revolutionary tech that could be applied to laptops, but they aren't exactly in production phase.

The lithium ion tech in laptop batteries right now isn't exactly rocket science...and none of the OEMs are really all that much ahead of the other in terms of leveraging new battery tech. The larger focus is on lower power consumption from hardware manufactures.

I think you're reading way too much into marketing.

[Snakecharmed]

The MBP 17" gets really good battery life because it is basically a ThinkPad T500 with a gigantic (95WHr I believe) battery (the w700 has poor battery life due to its extremely power hungry components). However, most of this battery capacity came by using a highly customized battery with almost no packaging; this makes the battery fragile and prevents the user from servicing it.

I'll chip in with this in regard to the "increased battery life due to advanced battery technology" myth.

http://www.anandtech.com/mac/showdoc.aspx?i=3435&p=13

Want better battery life? It's the OS.

I'm not gullible enough to believe a manufacturer's claims about battery life is due to whatever technological voodoo they claim it is.

Let's be real here. The new 17" MBP battery isn't some new technological revolution. It's 1.64x bigger than the Lenovo 9-cell. When you're working with 12,820mAh as you are in the new 17" MBP battery, there's a problem if you don't get good battery life. However, we're still working with Li-ion no matter how you cut it. The T400 with a 9-cell has been benchmarked to last over 9.5 hours by several sources, all while using the same "old" technology.

More to the point, OP, if your Li-ion battery only lasted a year and a day, it was either defective or improperly stored. Claiming that there's a problem with Lenovo's battery technology and that HP and Apple have far surpassed Lenovo when 1) you don't know the basics of rechargable battery technology, 2) your argument is based on a single point of empirical data (i.e., yours), and 3) you're easily sucked in by marketing hype isn't a good way to make a point. You're going to have to come up with something more insightful than "[Lenovo's] technology is old."

Everyone wants a better battery, but manufacturers have to actually deliver through validated independent testing rather than blowing marketing smoke up everyone's behind. Isn't it convenient that Boston-Power's site is complete fluff without any mention of the actual technology behind their new battery?

[sefk]

My T61p battery only had a 1 year warranty a few days after it ended my battery died.

Next time, buy the 3 years warranty.

[jaredy]

Next time, buy the 3 years warranty.

Can you get warranties on batteries? I thought you couldn't.

[SonDa5]

Next time, buy the 3 years warranty.

I have a 3 year warranty.

Doesn't cover the battery though.

Read the fine print.

[MidnightSun]

There is nothing pointing in the direction that it is "revolutionary" except the claim that it is. But since this aimed at people who don't know better, just like the Apple battery page, I really don't think you should believe it to be any better than incrementally better.
And if you DO happen to buy a HP because of the claimed battery life, make sure you take a screen print of that page, because when 12 months has gone by and you don't have the same battery life as when you bought it, you need to be able to document them claiming something that weren't true.

I read an IEEE Spectrum article about Boston Power's technology a year or so ago. The major change in the batteries produced by BP is the organization of the cells - which, in a sense, is quite revolutionary.

Here's an excerpt concerning the battery technology from the original article, found here:

TRADITIONAL LAPTOP batteries consist of six cylindrical cells, arranged as pairs wired in parallel, with three sets of parallel cells wired in series. Lampe-Onnerud sketched out a design with three rectangular cells instead, each filling the space of two cylindrical cells, all wired in a series. Could such a simple change make a difference? It could. In the parallel laptop battery, current is supposed to flow through the parallel paths at exactly the same rate. But slight temperature differences or tiny chemical imbalances between the two paths force more current into one of them. Over time, the current imbalance between the cells can go to an extreme that forces bits of lithium metal to adhere to the anode. When this happens, the battery is able to store less energy than it is designed to store, meaning a shorter computer run time per charge. And because lithium metal is highly reactive, those scattered bits of metal can fuel a fire if a short crops up and suddenly raises the temperature of the system.

Wiring three cells in a series essentially eliminates that problem [see diagram, “A Not-So-Simple Remodel”]. With only one path for the current to travel, it’s easier to control the flow of current, reducing the chance that lithium metal will be deposited, which would compromise the storage capability.

Lampe-Onnerud’s batteries don’t dramatically lose power in their first six months or so and thus won’t need to be replaced as quickly; they are designed to operate at a minimum of 80 percent capacity for three years, the life of a typical laptop computer. After three years of regular use, a traditional lithium-ion computer battery essentially has no capacity left; after a year of typical use, users will find that a battery that once had a 4-hour capacity now has a 2-hour one.

The change in form factor is only one reason for this longer life; she also changed the chemical composition of the cathode from pure cobalt to a cobalt-based mixture; understandably, she won’t give out the ingredients of her secret sauce. Jim McDowall, business development manager at Saft Batteries and former chair of IEEE’s Stationary Battery Committee, hypothesizes that she selected nickel-manganese-cobalt, a material that potentially fades more slowly than pure cobalt.

Lampe-Onnerud also spent some time optimizing safety systems and control circuitry. McDowall says safety improvements typically come at the expense of energy density, but the extra 14 percent of volume she picked up in the rectangular design may indeed make up for any capacity loss.

The Sonata can recharge faster than traditional batteries, reaching 80 percent of its capacity in 30 minutes—because, Lampe-Onnerud says, the finely tuned design means that more of the current entering the battery goes to charging it instead of heating the table on which it sits.

And that is basically it. “I simplified the system and optimized it,” she concludes.

And here's a picture.

[SonDa5]

And here's a picture.

Thanks for backing me up.

[jaredy]

Thanks for backing me up.

MidnightSun actually provided a useful article as a source :P.

[SonDa5]

MidnightSun actually provided a useful article as a source :P.

Was that sarcasm?

I did post about "Boston Power" and about Apple's new battery technology.


Do you think that Lenovo notebooks could use better battery technology?

[Matt]

Do you think that Lenovo notebooks could use better battery technology?

I think every device that uses a battery could use a better battery, but why are we singling out Lenovo here? As others have mentioned, they use the same battery manufacturers as every other company (save HP, as you've pointed out), and they even get more life out of the same battery than other companies.