DEC 10

HP is giving customers a good reason to buy their laptops – starting next year they will be selling machines equipped with a new battery made by Boston Power. Dubbed “Enviro”, these improved lithium ion batteries should perform much better than most laptop batteries, which I’m sure most of us would agree are abysmal. Speaking as someone who just dropped over $150 on a new battery himself, I can say that an improvement would be welcome.

While a typical laptop battery will stay strong for about 150 charges, after which its capacity will start to dwindle, the Enviro battery is said to last over 1,000 charges. Customers will have to spend an extra 20 or 30 bucks to get it. Is it worth it? If it works, definitely. And the icing on the cake – these batteries are made with no PVC, no heavy metals, and can be recycled.

Although the battery itself will last more recharge cycles, it’s unclear if the battery life itself will be longer, as well. I personally don’t trust my laptop to give me as much battery time as the monitor indicates. It would be nice to have a machine that could be truly portable – something that could be charged overnight and last the whole day without the need to find an outlet. Not only would it be convenient to not drag a power cord around all the time, but if the majority of laptop-related electricity guzzling was restricted to the night hours, laptops could (like electric cars) soak up excess electricity coming from off-peak generation.

So if you’re a battery fiend, you might want to wait until after the holidays to buy that new laptop.

Via CNET Green Tech

Comments (5)

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Netbooks
written by Karl, December 11, 2008

Actually if you're looking for a laptop with battery life (not nessicarily a gaming laptop but a portable one) you might want to try a netbook. Netbooks like the eee pc line (made by asus) have a battery life of about 6 to 7 hours (although I'm not sure batteries will last as long in terms amount of charges as the HP ones). Netbooks also consume significantly less power than an average notebook and range from anywhere from $250 for a low end one to about $400 for an above average model. Their screens are also LED backlit and their parts are generally easily upgradable making them (to my knowledge) more environmentally friendly. They're definetly great machines if you want to do work on the road but don't want to lug around a heavy energy draining laptop.

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Mr
written by Nick, December 15, 2008

HP Batteries are no good for sure. My HP laptop is only a few months old and it works on battery for about 25 minutes at most.

No recalls, just crappy batteries.

I swore not to buy another HP or Compaq after my last laptop battery failed quickly and the AC cord sparked and shorted out due to a defect. Now I may need to follow through.

I'd suggest finding a green company with integrity and fair prices.

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written by Eco Friendly Gadgets, January 03, 2009

I totally agree with Nick,

HP batteries are really quite bad considering who they are and what they do they cant even get batteries right.

Lets hope the new ones are much better!

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written by Free Netbook, March 25, 2009

I concur any improvement would be welcome. This was a nice read thanks for it Yoni.

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HP battery 6730S
written by HP battery 6730S, September 18, 2009

My HP battery 6730S failed after 10 months (Very very bad for a seldom used laptop!)
Moreover this one is not covered by my 3years CarePack

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