55++ 70++ 9 cell confussion

From what I understand the t430 has a new 9 cell battery which gives it 15 hours of life. The 70++ it is. So it must be better than the old 55++. At the lenovo website the t420 is now being advertised as having 15 hours of battery life. If I remember correctly they used to be advertised at 8 or 10 hour life. My question is is the t420 now being shipped with the new 70++ battery? can I buy 70++ and 28++ slice and stick it into t420? searching for a 55++ battery or a 27++ slice on the lenovo website shows no results. does this mean they discontinued those in favor of the new batteries? unfortunately their respective pages don't say which laptops they fit

 

Ignore those numbers. There are 3 Batteries available for the T420/430. A 6c with 56 or 64Wh (not sure), a 9c with 94Wh and the Slice Battery which has 9 cells as well. (94Wh). The only thing Lenovo has changed about the Batteries is a chip that prevents it from being loaded in older TP's. For example, the T430 Battery will work in the T420, but you won't be able to load it.

The T420 will run 15h at max. with the 9c. Double that (Slice) and you get the 30h that Lenovo has been advertising since April 2011. If they ever said something around 8-10h they either meant the 6c, or it was a typo.

 

isn't it the other way around - without the chip-enabled batteries, you won't be able to charge the battery in the 2012 series and on notebooks right? I thought I read that the newer batteries will work fine in the older generations physically and electrically compatible, but you can't take an older generation battery and use it in a 2012 model notebook.


Correct me if I am wrong, but that was my understanding of the new Thinkpad models and batteries...

 

that's incorrect.   the new chipped batteries not only work in older systems but will be what ships once old stock has depleted.   there's an official TIP circulating about this change, plus the new style batteries will ship with a cross-reference matrix explaining the substitution.

 

The difference is that the older batteries won't work in new systems, not the other way around.

 

Yeah ok, I meant T420 doesn't work in T430. Got a bit mixed up there.

 

If you have the older batteries (like the 55+ for the T420) in the T430, it will present the following error after posting: "The battery installed is not supported by this system and will not charge. Please replace the battery with the correct Lenovo battery for this system. Press the ESC key to continue."

Another message will appear in windows. The old battery can be used, but it will not charge.

 

This change was extremely inconsiderate. They could have at least waited until a physical battery change to implement this "feature".

Not only does this inconvenience loyal customers by rejecting genuine ThinkPad batteries that should be compatible, but it adds confusion as well. I'm sure this wasn't the idea of the engineering team...

 

According to a post by a Lenovo employee on their forums, the authentication for new systems is a result of "RapidCharge" technology that charges the battery to 80% in 30 minutes. He said that Lenovo did not want to have batteries that were not designed for such charging subjected to it, as it could cause problems.

http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/W-Series-ThinkPad-Laptops/27-Slice-vs-28-Slice-Differences/td-p/788873

 

Thanks for the information.

It's nice to know there's some justification, though a system that only rapid-charged supported batteries and normally charged other batteries would have been much better. And I think I personally would have preferred the increased compatibility to the rapid charging. Oh well...