February 11, 2005

Longer Life Batteries For Notebook Computers

When you're using your notebook computer that last thing you want is for the battery to die only 2 hours into a 6 hour trip. Using travel hours to do work is can be business persons best working time.

Many notebooks with average batteries only last 2 - 3 hours. Notebook vendors know this and are working to increase the life of batteries, such as Gateway's announcement that I shared yesterday.

Business Week's Stephen Wildstrom writes The newest version of the Pentium M, code-named Sonoma, takes this [efficient use of mobile chips] a step further. Initial versions of the processor keep the maximum clock speed essentially unchanged, at a little more than 2 gigahertz. Instead, performance is boosted by dramatically increasing the speed at which the processor communicates with other components. There's a 33% bump in the speed at which data move between processor and memory. And a technology called PCI Express allows video to be pumped to graphics adapters at much higher speeds.

The result is a considerable narrowing of the gap between laptop and desktop performance. This does come at some cost in battery life, however, with most manufacturers reporting a decline of 20 to 30 minutes of running time on similar models.

If you want a powerful notebook computer, then expect to have your battery run out quickly. To get more juice out of your battery maximize the power enhancement features your notebook has, use a battery with a longer lasting charge, and if you must (more weight though) take an extra batter.

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