Everybody knows that the laptop batteries are made of Li-Ion cells, this being one of the most less expensive technology in terms of power-consumption. They need a lower amount of energy and provide a good, not excellent source of energy for your computer, for two or three years, depending on how you use the computer. I have told you many times and written a lot of articles related to this subject, but still I feel that there are more to say.
There are also Li-polymer batteries, which are considered at this moment, in 2011, that is, the best batteries in the world. Unfortunately, the price is not the best. Their prices are high and they are not used at a large scale in producing computers. In fact, the manufacturers of computers usually don’t manufacture the batteries as well. They buy the batteries from other manufacturers. In fact, I know a story about Dell computers, who recalled thousands of batteries, the image of the Dell company being a little shaken, after they used Sony batteries inside Dell computers. After this event, I’ve heard that Dell produces their own batteries now.
But the Li-Ion technology is a rather new one. The first batteries that were released on market weren’t made of Li-Ion cells. The researchers came to the opinion that they should use ions of lithium in order to make the connections inside the battery quicker, to make the battery last longer and to make it lighter.
The chemists today struggle to find better ways to make the batteries even more lighter, more powerful than they are today and to provide energy for days, not hours. I know about a battery, that was designed also for a Dell computer (I have something with Dell today, that’s for sure, but in a good way, don’t get me wrong), for Dell Latitude computer, that lasts about up to 20 hours. In fact, it is a battery that runs with a secondary battery.
When the power from the first and main battery is consumed, the secondary battery enters the scene of action. If you use a single battery, for example, you use only the main battery, without the secondary battery positioned in its location (I have to say that this will make the computer to weigh more, because these computers have a special location in which the user or a technician can insert the second battery), the energy provided by the main battery (the only one that you use) is going to be lower, than the energy provided by the same battery, but when it has the secondary battery attached to the computer. This is amazing, because the secondary battery doesn’t work when the first one does, so it starts working only when the energy from the first battery is finished.
But with all these happening, I guess that there is an advantage and probably a use of the energy of the secondary battery, if the energy provided by a single battery is lower than the energy provided by the same battery, with a second battery attached to the computer. More information can be found on the Dell Website, I’m sure.
A Li-Ion battery, at least at the first months of its functioning provides a longer runtime, compared to other materials, such as NiMh batteries and it can be charged more quickly. The cycles of the battery after which you won’t be able to use the battery any longer have a number of 500. After this number, which includes both charging and discharging, you will not be able to use the battery at all, or if you use it, you will only use it for a few minutes.
The number of cycles doesn’t determine always the life of a battery. If you use the computer, always connected to the power outlet, the energy stored in the battery will be consumed, even if the computer needs no energy from the battery. Of course, the reverse situation can happen as well. You run the computer mainly on battery power, you charge the battery and discharge it for 100 times and you realise that the battery is no longer working. How can this happen? Well, it can happen if you use the computer in extreme conditions, not temperatures, but conditions. This means that if you use the computer running on the battery power to work with high demanding applications, like CAD software programs, you have all the chances to eat the resources from your battery as well, not only from the RAM of your computer or from the hard drive. A software program that eats many resources can affect negatively the battery as well, if the laptop runs only on batteries.
Still, this should not be an issue on the computers created these days; they should their users to run whatever software programs they like and to provide them energy, at least for the time the manufacturer guaranteed. This doesn’t happen always, that’s why we get frustrated because we pay a lot of money on technology and we end up with crap, that finds its finish at the garbage. My advice is when you buy a computer, try to buy it new; if this is not possible, get a second-hand one, but buy a new battery for it. You will get yourself out of many problems, simply by doing this.
