HP Enviro Battery Review

by Jerry Jackson

When it comes to mobile devices, one of the biggest ways in which you can help the environment is to limit the number of batteries that you throw away. This is a serious problem with mobile electronics like notebooks because Lithium-Ion batteries lose capacity over time and have to be replaced. HP and Boston-Power have come to the rescue with the HP Enviro Notebook Battery. This "green battery" lets you help yourself and help the environment since the Enviro battery is designed to last longer than a regular battery without decreasing in capacity over time.

Boston-Power designed the "Sonata" battery cell in order to create a notebook battery that can keep its original capacity for up to three years instead of about one year when most lithium-ion batteries start to show significant decline. HP is the only manufacturer to carry these new batteries for current notebook models at the time of this writing, with the new "Enviro" batteries selling for $149.99. HP models compatible with the Boston-Power batteries are listed below:

• HP Pavilion: dv4, dv5, dv6
• HP HDX: HDX 16
• HP: G50, G60, G61, G70, G71
• Compaq Presario: CQ40, CQ45, CQ50, CQ60, CQ61, CQ70, CQ71

When you consider regular batteries start to decline over time, this saves you money from buying a replacement battery as your notebook ages, and reduces the waste of more batteries entering landfills.

Still, with the HP Enviro battery ($149.99 MSRP) costing almost as much as a 12-cell extended life battery ($169.99 MSRP), is this really the best value for your dollar? We decided to put the HP Enviro battery to the test to see if it has any obvious short-term advantage to a standard battery.

Test Methodology

Our test system is a HP Pavilion dv4t (dv4-1140go) with the following specs:

• Processor: 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5800
• Memory: 4GB DDR2
• Hard Drive: 320GB (5400rpm)
• Optical Drive:LightScribe Super Multi 8X DVD±R/RW with Double Layer Support
• Screen Size: 14.1" WXGA (1280x800)
• Graphics: Intel GMA 4500MHD
• Wireless: Intel Wi-Fi Link 5100AGN plus Bluetooth
• Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit with SP1
• Dimensions: 1.57" Height x 13.15" Width x 9.45" Depth
• Weight: 5.18 lb
• 65W AC Adapter

The batteries used in our test include the standard 6-cell battery and the new HP Enviro 3-cell battery (details below).

• 6-cell Lithium-Ion (standard Li-Ion), date of manufacture: September 4, 2008 (10.8V, 47Wh, 4200mAh)
• 3-cell HP Enviro (Boston-Power Sonata Li-Ion), date of manufacture: February 2009 (10.8V, 47Wh, 4200mAh)

As you can see in the stock image above, each Boston-Power Sonata cell inside the new HP Enviro battery is twice the size of a standard Li-Ion cell. This is why a 3-cell Enviro battery is able to replace a 6-cell standard battery.

In the interest of full disclosure, I want to make it clear that we haven't been able to test Boston-Power's claims of long-term sustainable battery life from the Sonata Li-Ion cells. We simply can't jump forward in time three years to see if the HP Enviro battery maintains its capacity longer than a standard battery.

What we can test is whether a 7-month-old standard battery (with technically the same capacity as the new HP Enviro) lasts as long as the new battery. Why should you care? Because standard batteries begin to lose capacity as soon as they leave the assembly line. This is the entire reason HP is using the new Boston-Power Sonata cells inside the HP Enviro battery.

In fact, if you visit the HP website you will see that more than a few HP customers have written negative reviews of the standard battery ... some claiming that a three-month old standard battery lasts less than one hour!

If our tests show the older standard battery has less capacity than the new HP Enviro battery then it's safe to assume that a standard battery does indeed lose capacity in a short period of time.

We used BatteryMon to monitor the charge and discharge rates for both batteries. We wanted to replicate "real world use" in our tests but also wanted to be as fair as possible when draining the batteries. That said, we tested both batteries under both "average use" and "light use."

We conducted the Average use tests with wireless turned on, the Firefox web browser actively surfing the internet and downloading files, Microsoft Office opening email and Word documents, and screen brightness set to approximately 60 percent with Vista running in the "Power Saver" power profile without letting the notebook enter sleep mode.

We conducted the Light use tests with wireless turned on, Firefox browsing the web but not actively downloading files, and screen brightness set to approximately 40 percent with Vista running in the "Power Saver" power profile without letting the notebook enter sleep mode.

The Results

So what did we find out? The chart below indicates how long each battery lasted before the notebook shut down.

Battery Life Tests (more time indicates better performance)

	Average Use Test	Light Use Test
Standard Battery	2 hours, 31 minutes	3 hours, 18 minutes
HP Enviro Battery	3 hours, 32 minutes	4 hours, 20 minutes

Again, these tests don't confirm or deny Boston-Power's claim that the Sonata cells inside the HP Enviro battery retain their capacity longer than standard Li-Ion batteries, but the results of our laboratory testing seem to confirm that standard Li-Ion batteries do indeed lose capacity over time. In fact, standard batteries may start to lose capacity even faster than we previously thought.

The standard battery used in our tests is seven months old (according to the sticker on the battery) and has been used frequently inside my personal HP Pavilion dv4t since I purchased the notebook in early December, 2008. The HP Enviro battery was manufactured in February and we started using it on March 20, 2009. Both batteries have identical ratings in terms of watt hours, voltage, and mAh ... meaning these batteries should have identical capacities.

The fact that the new HP Enviro battery delivers roughly one hour of extra battery life suggests that the old standard battery has lost capacity.

Conclusion
It's hard to say that the new HP Enviro Notebook Battery lives up to the claim that it will retain its original capacity for three years. Proving or disproving such claims will require lengthy and highly controlled tests ... something we just can't do for a brand new product.

That said, our initial lab tests appear to support the idea that standard Lithium-Ion notebook batteries lose capacity over a surprisingly short period of time. If the Boston-Power Sonata cells indeed outlast traditional Li-Ion batteries then this might be a revolutionary technology, not just for notebook manufacturers, but for consumers and the environment as well.

Bottom line, if you plan to keep your HP notebook for more than a year before you replace it then it's probably a good idea to go ahead and purchase the HP Enviro Notebook Battery. This battery is a little expensive, but you should be able to use the battery longer before you have to throw it away.

Pros:

• Same size and capacity as standard battery
• Seems to last longer than a standard battery (up to three years)
• Three-year warranty (an industry first!)

Cons:

• Almost as expensive as a 12-cell extended life battery
• No way to know (yet) if it will last three years

 

Looks like a great batterty, too bad the price is less then stellar

That 3 year warranty is attractive though.

 

I wish more OEMs would make this battery available as an option on their laptops - it's nice to see improvement in battery power-retention.

An article from about a year ago in IEEE Spectrum magazine described this battery technology and followed the process by which it was invented - here's the link, for those who are interested. Here's a brief excerpt with the most technical bits:

And here's an image describing why this battery is an improvement.

 

HP currently have a $30 instant rebate on these enviro batteries so if you are into rebates you can get one for $119.99.

The theory behind these batteries seems solid, but only time will tell if they can last 3 years.

 

So, these things are supposed to charge faster. Any tests on that?

 

nbr's methodology makes no sense to me. You need to compare a new standard battery with an old standard battery to see if there is a capacity decrease. You are comparing two different variables without a control group.

I would compare a new standard batt with a new enviro batt, that would show if there is any advantage in the short run, then update results with the same two batteries 7 months from now, and again 2 yrs from now. Perhaps this exceeds the resources of nbr, but comparing old standard vs. new enviro follows no scientific sense.

 

This should be a useful development. My rule of thumb is that the normal battereis lose 1/3rd of their capacity per year.

However, I'd be interested in the small print on the warranty. How much loss of capacity triggers a replacement under warranty?

John

 

I have to agree. You should be able to simulate "age" with cycles. Take one regular battery and one enviro battery, and repeatedly run them down to 50% and charge them back up. After about 100 cycles there should be a big difference in the enviro battery if their claims hold up.

Also I'm not sure what kind of battery utility HP has, but my lenovo displays the battery design capacity, as well as its current capacity so you know exactly how much battery capacity you've lost with your old battery.

edit: here's a blog post from lenovo blogs where he seems to be dismissing hp's claims:

It would be really nice to have some nice testing to see where the truth lies.

 

The brown cardboard recyclable box (instead of a shiny plastic package) is a nice environmentally friendly touch.

 

That's where HP's 3-year warranty is potentially deceptive in my opinion.

The nice recycled cardboard box that holds the HP Enviro Notebook Battery states that it "will last you the next 3 years" and that you have "worry free power with a 3 year warranty."

The general terms of the warranty state that "HP warrants to you that the HP Accessories listed above [HP Batteries] will be free from defects in material or workmanship under normal use for the duration of the warranty period specified above [3 years]."

However, when you keep reading the fine print of the warranty it states that "As with all batteries, the maximum capacity of this battery will decrease with time and use. The battery warranty does not cover changes in the battery capacity. Your battery is only warranted from defects in materials or workmanship resulting in failure."

In other words, only if the battery "has recurring failures, at the option of HP, HP may provide you either a replacement chosen by HP that is the same or equivalent in performance or a refund of your purchase price instead of replacement."

Bottom line, your HP Enviro Notebook Battery would have to completely stop working (or close to it) during the 3-year warranty period for HP to replace the battery or give you a refund.

 

Well, if that's true, then my battery only lasted 15 minutes the first year.

If you're going to be doing real work on your battery, they're dead after the first year. I've used mine every single day, and after a year, both of my batteries lasted no longer than 10 minutes.

Like I said in the previous thread, I wish these come up for HP Business notebooks. I'd pick one up right away.

 

This review will be updated over the coming months to test real world capacity drop (if any) in the new HP Enviro Battery.

We're not letting off HP or Boston-Power that easy.

As for why we didn't conduct "simulated age tests" (running a standard battery and the Enviro battery through 100+ cycles and testing capacity during multiple stages) ...

We made an editorial decision that the majority of our audience would suffer from glazed over eyes and just stop reading if we conducted true "simulated age tests" with accelerated discharge rates and recharging cycles. There's also a significant disconnect between "real world use" and such rapid wear and tear intended to "simulate" real world use over time.

We want to make sure that our review is accessible for the average reader ... and we also want to make sure that companies like HP and Boston-Power (and/or their competitors) can't dismiss our initial findings as "a simulation or synthetic use that doesn't represent real world use."

There are some wonderful SSD reviews out there that have been strongly dismissed by manufacturers because they don't represent "real world" use. We don't want manufacturers to dismiss valid criticism (or praise) because we used synthetic testing procedures.

Again, the key thing to take away is that this is our initial review. We will be updating this review in the coming months to validate (or invalidate) the manufacturer's claims.

 

Thanks for this important clarification.

Without there being any guarantee of performance of, for example, 75% of the new capacity, users who need good battery performance may find it more cost-effective to use the standard battery and replace it when necessary.

John

 

What's the point of this "review?" Seriously.

Think about it. You just wrote an article comparing a brand new battery with an old one. You might as well have reviewed a brand new standard battery against the old one.... we have absolutely gained no new knowledge whatsoever besides the fact that a new battery outperforms an old one. Thanks!

I know you can't test the claim of battery life over time, but at the very LEAST test CURRENT battery life holmes. Does the current battery life of the Enviro battery best a NEW standard battery? Does it charge faster?

You wrote up an entire page of BS and came up with the conclusion that well, this brand new battery lasts longer than a used battery.

Test the bloody thing against a new battery and let's see if she outperforms it. Test the battery charge time.

I am not asking you to test things you cannot, but at the very least, test bloody things you can!

"Well, this brand new Enviro battery lasts longer than a heavily used battery. I guess that means that batteries do degrade over time!!!!"

Wooooooow. Thanks man!!! We didn't know THAT!

You want to review this? Then go pick up a brand new standard 6 cell and see which battery lasts longer. Then, see which one charges faster. If you really want to be good, see how the Enviro battery performs against the extended life 6 cell battery. Test the things you can bloody test, don't just write up BS complaining that you cannot test 3 years worth of use.

Thanks though.

I hope you don't take this personal by the way, it's meant to be constructive criticism. Think about what I said- it'll make sense.

OH. By the way, what sort of HD temperatures are you getting on the DV4? Thanks mate.

 

I really wish they had this battery for the HP Compaq/HP EliteBook notebooks. The 8-cell battery used in the Compaq 8200/84000/8510 series (and possibly the Elitebook 8530 series) is notorious for completely losing its charge capacity in just over a year. Everyone said I was extremely lucky when my nw8440 still got 30-45 minutes of battery life after 1.5 years of ownership (I've gotten a new battery since then)

Let's hope this becomes standard equipment in HP notebooks soon!

 

I don't want to keep piling on this flawed review methodology thing, but seriously, since this thing COSTS AS MUCH AS AB EXTENDED BATTERY, have you thought about throw in an extended battery in the comparison mix?

I mean, so this thing degrades slower in capacity than old battery technology, but what's stopping me from just buying an extended battery with old technology that has 50% more capacity brand-new and let it degrade out that 50% in three years? For the same amount of money, I am getting an average of 25% more power in the three year usage and I am not throwing any Li-ion stuff into the land fill.

 

Man, if your story is true for a good portion of the user populations, then perhaps this is why only HP is adopting this battery -- because no other manufaturers have battery this crapy

Joking aside, I am definitely for using a more durable battery to reduce worn-out battery cells. However, I do think even in the current technology, not all batteries are created equal. Batteries for Lenovo/IBM seem to always get good reputation for holding charges through the years. And if other OEM can use whatever Lenovo/IBM was doing, we can also reduce waste Li-ion cells.

 

The HP business notebook batteries have a far shorter lifespan probably due to the FastCharge technology that HP uses that accelerates the charging process. In comparison, Lenovo's batteries take foreever to charge and after 6 months of constant charging/discharging cycles, I do lose capacity in my Lenovo batteries, so they are not "the best" ones out there either.

 

I think I might just be unlucky, but all of my gadgets that use a lithium-ion battery seem to have horrible lifespans. They definitely didn't fit the "80% of original after 500 charge cycles" slogan. In fact, they seemed to lose half their capacity every year. Within 2 years, they've all degraded to the (practically unusable) point where I can only get a few shots or songs per charge. Hopefully this doesn't happen to my DSLR; because any other batteries you buy after the fact also seem to have been degraded by age.

 

Well, they all lose capacities, even this new Enviro battery, just how fast. I don't know whether Lenovo is the best -- I have pretty good luck with my Sony, too -- but obviously they are doing something different to get a lower degradation rate and that will help achieving the goal of reducing waste -- it's not like this Enviro battery is made of special material that it is completely recyclable, you know.

If what you claim is true, then perhaps HP can simply remove this FastCharge technology as a standard feature and just sell them separately for people absolutely need the feature. That will reduce the waste as well.

 

Only HP Business notebooks have this fast charge feature. And these "new" batteries are supposed to charge much faster, even faster than fast charge. But of course NBR didn't test that. Personally I do often use the fast charge on my notebook and I go through many charge cycle per week. The capacity degration seem to have slowed alittle. Went from 72whr to 68.8whr. Seem to have remained around that mark over the recent weeks.

 

Do the two batteries weight similarly? What is the cost of a standard 6-cell battery? How fast do the two batteries charge? Would it be feasible/practical to test batteries across different product lines and companies (or maybe by the companies that actually produce the batteries for ODMs)?

While I like the idea of this review, as previous posters have commented, there simply isn't enough information in the review to make a strong conclusion for supporting the HP Enviro battery.

I still appreciate the effort you have gone through in doing this review though, and I know you will be updating the review in the following months. Keep it up Jerry

 

While the new battery technology is supposed to allow for faster charging, it won't make any difference for existing laptops. I.e., your laptop was made with a charger circuit designed to operate a specific rate. Even if you drop in a new battery that is capable of being charged faster, your laptop's charger isn't going to work at any other speed than the one it was originally built for.

 

My problem with Lithium ion batteries is this: back 7 years or so ago when Lithium was still relatively new, having only replaced Ni-Mh and Ni-Cd for a few years now the batteries did not degrade like this.

I recalibrated (drained to 0 and recharged) the battery from a Compaq X1000, which must be at least 5-6 years old or more, and it can now easily get 2.5 hours on a single charge. This is a standard battery, not extended or anything. Batteries used to last 3 years or more, but all of a sudden struggle to make it past 18 months. That's what makes me angry. The technology has gone backwards.

Greg

 

this article proves nothing. the results should be more controlled. why don't NBR test for a month of two new batteries and post the results

 

I have a Vaio with a standard Sony battery that has been fairly well abused over the 2.5 years I've owned it. I usually leave it in the laptop constantly and for the first year of its life I never switched it off overnight so it was constantly exposed to heat. I am also now averaging at least 1 charge cycle per day so it must have hit 500 by now. Officially I'm on 72% of my original capacity, while real world tests give me about 60% of the original battery life. Not ideal but far better than most of the examples people have posted.

 

pre some date? not sure. power notebooks had 3 year warrantys on batteries and ac adaptors. My s96j (which was bought like a month before the change) had its battery replaced about a year and a half in, and it was suggested that i have it replaced again if the new one got down under 50 minutes, which batteries are likely to in that time period. So i dont know if your definition of "industry first 3 year" as this was basically a reseller warranty. but was still something that impressed me

 

Is it possible that after the exploding battery mess, manufacturers changed something (to reduce the risk) which somehow affected the longevity of today's batteries?

 

Thats funny. I had a viao and I can tell you that I babied my laptop and battery. I look out the battery if I was doing heavy stuff like copying CDs etc. I always made sure not to over charge it etc. The battery lost 50% of capacity within 6 months and finally in 1 year, would only hold a charge for 5 mins. I've also read online many viao owners having the same issue. I don't know, maybe you are lucky.

Oh and the review needs to be more in dept. I too do not see the logic in comparing an old battery vs. new.

 

My friend's Dell batteries did the same thing you're describing after a year or so. Maybe some cells are just made better than others. It might also be that by trying to be too clever with charge cycles and battery removal the battery gets confused and reports less capacity than it actually has. I usually charge mine to 100% if I'm removing it and it's never had any calibration issues.

 

For those interested, the said Enviro battery are on sale for $90 shipped after discount and coupon. Last day! Details can be found at this site:

http://www.logicbuy.com/deals/Coupon-HP-Enviro-Series-Notebook-Battery/11694.aspx