What do you think of external batteries?

I am buying a laptop that is only available with a weak 4400 mAH battery and since I plan on taking it with me on long train rides, I was wondering if an external battery is worth it? Is it too much cluster to comfortably use in public transport? How much more battery life would it offer at most?

thanks

 

Not sure, but I think the idea is dumb. Just get one or two more batteries or get a different laptop that has better battery life and/or the ability to use large capacity 9-12 cell batteries. Don't many trains of the type that go moderate to long distances have power outlets anyway?

 

depending on the laptop, some of the external high capacity batteries can be charged directly from the laptop power brick without having to be snapped into the laptop.

external batteries are good if you have multiple uses for them. I use my high power photo batteries (80 watt and 120 watt) on my laptop but only because I already owned the units. Getting the HP-specific adapter cable made was a small incremental cost.

 

You might want to reconsider your laptop purchase if it doesn't meet your needs. I've made the mistake plenty of time buying what I thought was a bargain laptop, but it didn't meet my needs so had to sell it and buy what I really needed.

Assess your actual battery use, and if only a second battery is needed then invest in that.

 

the laptop does suit my needs, except for the battery power. there arent really that many options for me

 

Get a spare battery rather than an external one.

An external battery will typically be drained faster because you are using it to both charge your laptop and use it on AC settings. That is, your computer thinks it is plugged in and won't hold back on using power. So you lose a lot of power efficiency over using a second battery.

 

If you don't mind me asking, which laptop?

 

Acer Aspire 7552G-N934G50Mnkk
# AMD Phenom II X4 N930 4x 2,00 GHz
# 4096MB DDR3 Ram, 500GB HDD
# ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5850 1024MB DDR3
Notebooks > Gaming & Highend > Acer Aspire 7552G-N934G50Mnkk bei notebooksbilliger.de

 

A secondary battery is a better way to go. When it comes time to change out batteries, you can hibernate the system as opposed to shutting it down - change the battery out - come out of hibernate and you will be right back where you were.

In most cases, a notebook battery is more compact in shape and lighter than external batteries.

 

Hmmm, nice spec machine. I have 4400mAh battery as well in my Sager and can get about 2 hours mainly because CPU and GPU downclock quite a bit.

For the cost of an external battery or having to buy a couple laptop batteries you might want to consider a netbook instead that can last you a good 6-8 hours if you're mainly going to be doing web and basic desktop stuff. Anything more anyhow would drain the battery that much more quickly.

 

Looking at the specs obviously that wasnt quite my plan

 

second battery pack (extended battery if really needed) is the way to go.

 

Have you considered an Alienware M11x instead? 4-5 hours of battery life in general desktop / browsing use. If you want even more battery life, get the Alienware M11x R1, which gets around 6-7 hours of battery life.

The GPU is a little weaker than the ATI Mobility Radeon 5850, but it also has a lower res LCD screen (1366x768). It is more than capable of gaming at native res.

If you don't like that, then check out the Acer Timeline X series. Loads of battery life, capable gaming machines.

 

11" screen? i think my calculator has a bigger display

 

... A little? It's half as powerful, and that's probably being generous.

 

Have you seen some of those HP with the 12 cell? Ridiculous. If they want that large battery pack they should have made it expand horizontally not vertically.

 

You can't have it all... you need to compromise something.

 

Righto you do have to compromise. My Dell Vostro 1500 has a 9 cell battery which sticks out towards the back, not downwards. I think having it straight down makes it harder to transport in a sleeve/suitcase. Or you could just hook up your laptop to a portable nuclear generator and be done with batteries.

 

Just because the machine is powerful doesn't mean you won't be doing basic tasks on battery. If you're taxing the CPU and/or GPU any decent amount, expect much less than 2 hours on battery.

I have my M11x for the times I need long battery life. I do basic tasks while on battery, however I have gamed on battery on occasion, but battery life with the machine is still stellar.

If you're planning on gaming or other high CPU/GPU useage tasks, you're going to need a power outlet.

 

Saying some1 who buying acer crap he he
Sorry but that brand is one of the bottom noname crap here.

on thopic :

No matter, if using it for gamin in battery it won't last. Unless you want to wire quite a few ups battery together in the backpack.

On the go my netbook can do most of the work I need and 10h+ run time ..

 

Well, you won't find a laptop with a 15" screen, a gaming-capable GPU, and long battery life. You need to sacrifice something. You might get away with a gaming-capable 13.3" laptop, like an Acer Timeline X. But you will need to sacrifice either screen size, or battery life.

I was just trying to make a suggestion to consider, because all of the other options recommended so far seemed unacceptable to you.

 

Even the TimelineX or M11x for that matter which has superb battery life, if you game on it, even with the integrated Intel GPU, you'll drop battery time significantly. The M11x has about 7 hour rated battery life with Intel GPU and about 4-5 with nvidia GPU, but if you game with the nVidia GPU you're looking at about 2 hours, and that's with a ULV CPU, not a full mobile one.

I don't think you'll find any good battery solution aside from a car battery to let you game on the go.

 

The only reason why the Timeline series has good battery life is because they have crazy WHr. Do realize it will take longer than normal to fully charge a 90 WHr battery. Same thing with Apple batteries. I heard the new Latitude E6420 will have like 97 WHr battery but will be given a 120/130 watt brick to charge the battery faster.

 

Will this work?

Universal Laptop Battery Li-Ion 133 Watt/Hours [Universal Battery] : Laptop Battery ACER, Best Laptop Batteries USA Store

 

As long as you have a compatible notebook (note the compatibilities in the cord tips down in the description; that list probably isn't complete), it should work. Note, though, that the battery pack isn't small; it's 270mm x 145mm x 32.5mm (10.6" x 5.7" x 1.28"). You're almost carrying another notebook at that point.

 

I'd say an extra battery or two. Even so I think the OP is barking up the wrong tree if he thinks he's going to game on that machine on battery. Most machines drop CPU and GPU speeds while unplugged and won't get near the performance on AC. Not to mention maybe getting an hour with gaming. Best to consider an alternate notebook.

 

I've personally used External Laptop Battery, Laptop Battery, iPod Battery, DVD Battery Packs, PSP Battery, External Battery Pack at Batterygeek.net on my uncles dell laptop while driving to Virginia Beach. It was about a 16 hour drive and this external battery + fully charged internal battery kept a 17 inch laptop running the whole 16 hour drive. Even watching a couple xvid movies during that time + listening to music on headphones + browsing the web on 3g wwan.

The only bad thing is this battery pack alone weighs as much as a 14 inch laptop. But it is 222 watt hours which is a massive capacity so you gotta expect weight to store that much power. I believe the internal battery was 72 watt hours so a total of 294 watt hours lasted a whole 16 hour road trip on a large 1600 x 900 17.3 inch laptop with core i3 dual core 370m and a radeon 5650m gpu and no switchable graphics. Power mode was power saving mode didn't need super high performance.

Dunno bout you guys but 16+ hours of non stop usage on a 17 inch laptop is a pretty nice feat and worth carrying around the extra 4 pounds if thats the kinda battery life you need

 

And my Elitebook would drain that thing in about 4-5 hours. It's all relative to what you have.

 

I gotta agree with you there. Any laptop that is capable of gaming, won't game very long on battery. The laptop will either throttle CPU + GPU performance on battery to save battery life, or will quickly drain the battery in under 1 hour.

The closest you will get to a gaming-capable machine on battery is the Alienware M11x. But even that will drain the battery in about 2 hours if you run the CPU + GPU at full speed, and game on battery.