Laptop Batteries

[Anileve]

I was thinking of getting this one. My laptop's battery life is the standard 2 1/2 hours. I am looking for something which would extend the usage time. Any ideas? I was thinking of this one, techi gurus, any thoughts?

 

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=2614

 

 

[vava]

Let me get this straight - you want to lug around an *external* power source in addition to your laptop/battery/powerpack etc.? Pretty soon that "portable" begins to get very heavy, non? I know it's a little over 1.5 lbs, but add that to your laptop, the bag, the power adapter etc....

 

Another thing I noticed, which seems strange to me, is that this unit acts as an AC source, so if you don't change your power management settings yourself, your PC will treat it like AC power (so the hard drive won't spin down frequently and the screen wil remain in a "full power consumption" mode). If you forget, or if you're plain lazy, you'll use up the extra battery life much quicker - plus it seems that your PC will also be charging it's batteries off this source... so this unit,s battery life will be considerably lower than indicated in the article I would think.

 

If 3 hours not quite enough, why not carry a second battery? Depending on the $$ that might also be an option.

[abass80]

if the cost of getting a secondary battery is much more than the cost of this and u don't mind having another piece of hardware and extra wires in front of u, then get the APC!

 

personally i would recommend u to get a secondary battery, because the fewer devices u have next to u when working, the better u do ur job! :D

 

 

[Anileve]

Very valid points guys. I think I'll just end up buying a second Acer battery pack. I wish they would come up with batteries that last longer than 3 hours. It's funny they mention 5 hours, but with those configs it's impossible to see anything on the screen let alone do any kind of work.