Sign in with
Sign up | Sign in
APC’s Universal Notebook Battery Booster
By ,
1. Boost Your Notebook Battery Run Time

With every product generation, the notebook industry promises increased battery run times, but the advances are in fact small, and run times still mainly depend on the power provided by the notebook battery. More efficient processors and platforms, drives and LED-backlit displays certainly help a lot. Real leaps, however—say to 10+ hours of battery life—just aren’t within reach.

APC offers an alternative that lets you increase your battery runtime by several hours, but it requires you to pack an additional 750 g (1.65 lbs) into your travel bag...

Power Drains…

Each part inside a notebook requires a certain amount of electric power. The electrical draw of the system isn’t constant; it varies depending on the state of the each component. Displays are the largest power-eaters, as they have to operate transistors and their backlight—larger and higher resolution displays typically require more power than smaller ones. But there is also quite a power requirement range among notebook system components.

Modern notebook processors may require little power when there is nothing to do, but they can go up to 35 watts of power consumption at full load, depending on the processor model and power classification. Notebook platforms using graphics units built into the chipset are the most efficient, while notebooks utilizing a discrete mobile GeForce or Mobility Radeon always consume at least a bit more power than integrated solutions. In terms of storage, flash SSD drives have the potential to deliver impressive throughput and quick access times with very little power consumption. Most devices require considerably less power when they are idle, so it makes sense to operate your notebook as close to idle as possible, to maximize battery run time.

…and Power Sources

Dell’s Latitude E6400 supports additional battery packs.Dell’s Latitude E6400 supports additional battery packs.

While there are alternative energy sources on the horizon, such as silver-zinc batteries (see ZPower), none of them are ready to be deployed into the mainstream right now, where huge quantities of batteries are required. Notebooks typically utilize lithium-ion or lithium-polymer batteries, which are organized into so-called “cells” (typical capacities are three, six, or sometimes nine cells). While the power level of a battery depends on the specific model, a 6-cell battery will generally give you twice the battery run time of a 3-cell model. Battery capacities are rated in Watt-hours (Wh).

Dell’s Latitude D630 can be equipped with 9-cell batteries.Dell’s Latitude D630 can be equipped with 9-cell batteries.

The 9-cell batteries obviously provide the most juice, but they are often too large to be accommodated within the standard rectangular notebook footprint, and hence stick out a bit from the back. To expand capacity without this physical size expansion, some notebook vendors offer additional modular batteries that can be inserted instead of a machine’s optical drive; these are especially common on portable business notebooks (13-15”).

Another option is to attach additional, external battery packs, which are available from some of the notebook makers for specific models. And APC allows you to do the same with the product we reviewed: the Universal Notebook Battery.

[Update:]
As we found out, APC has discontinued all of its mobile products, hence you may be able to get a deal on these products, but without any serious warranty backup.

Check prices for APC's Universal Notebook Battery 70

2. APC’s Universal Notebook Battery

The grey area on the front of the battery stack indicates the power level after pressing the round button for at least two seconds.The grey area on the front of the battery stack indicates the power level after pressing the round button for at least two seconds.

We received the 70 Wh version of the Universal Notebook Battery from power specialist APC. The company also offers models at 50, 60, 80, and 90 Wh. All are flat, external battery packs with selectable output voltage and a set of nine different power connectors, so they can be used with a large variety of notebooks, regardless of the manufacturer, platform or form factor. You simply plug the Universal Notebook Battery into your notebook’s power port. APC provides a compatibility list, which you can use to check whether your notebook can be powered by this product.

Built-In Flexibility

The 50 Wh entry-level battery is a lithium ion product, while all other models—including the 70 Wh type that we received for review—are based on lithium polymer cells. APC calls it a “stand alone battery stack”, which means that you can position it any where you want, though most people will put it underneath the computer. Thanks to a 1.2 m (4’) power cable, you can also operate the Universal Notebook Battery next to your notebook.

The product is only available in a black color, but it is well finished. Unfortunately, our test sampled smelled horribly, and the smell did not go away even after days outside the plastic packaging.

The device not only lets you provide power to a notebook, it also sports an additional USB port. This port can be used to charge USB devices (up to 500 mA) such as a cell phone, GPS device, or an iPod—this can come in handy, whether or not you need the Universal Notebook Battery to power your notebook.

Charging

There is no dedicated power supply for the Universal Notebook Battery—just plug your notebook’s power supply into the APC battery to start the charging process. There is a battery level indicator on the front of the device. You will find a button next to it. Once pushed for at least two seconds, the LED indicator will inform you of the power level in six increments.

It is possible to charge both the APC battery and your notebook battery at the same time. Simply connect the power supply to the Universal Notebook Battery while it is connected to your notebook’s power port. Be aware that the charging process can take several hours, especially if you use your notebook at peak power while charging both batteries—the power supplies aren’t designed to supply the notebook and charge two or more batteries simultaneously. If you find yourself needing to speed up charging frequently, it may make sense to purchase a more powerful notebook power supply.

Use the included Y-type power cable to connect the APC battery to your notebook and your notebook power supply.Use the included Y-type power cable to connect the APC battery to your notebook and your notebook power supply.APC provides nine power adapters to connect the Universal Notebook Battery to as many notebook models as possible.APC provides nine power adapters to connect the Universal Notebook Battery to as many notebook models as possible.

Check prices for APC's Universal Notebook Battery 70

3. Configuration And Hints

APC provides a power cable that allows you to connect both your notebook power supply and the notebook to a proprietary power port on the Universal Notebook Battery. Make sure that you select the correct voltage for your notebook: there is a small switch on the right side of the device to select 15, 16, 19, or 20 V supply voltage for your machine. Look on the bottom of your notebook or on the notebook’s power supply to check the voltage (half a volt’s difference is usually fine). The switch also allows lets you turn off the APC battery.

Watch Your Power Options!

The concept behind the Universal Notebook Battery has one disadvantage: since it is connected as if it were a power supply, there is no way for your notebook (or for Windows) to know that it is actually running on a battery. As long as your system uses one of the default power modes, such as “Balanced” in Windows Vista, it will switch the system into high performance mode—which really cuts into the potential battery run time increase that the product provides! If you want to use this product the right way, you should create a new power profile that you can use when you travel with the APC battery, or switch to the power saving mode if you can live with a quick and dirty solution.

Be sure to select the right voltage for your notebook.Be sure to select the right voltage for your notebook.

Manual Battery Run Time Testing

Due to the situation just described, it’s not possible to use any of the conventional battery run time tests such as BatteryMark or MobileMark, which start their workloads after removing the power supply. The benchmarks are smart enough to cancel the run if you plug the APC battery back in, so we had to create a simple benchmark and track the time manually. We installed BatteryMon and looped a DVD vob file using the VLC player off the notebook’s hard drive until the battery (or batteries) were empty.

Check prices for APC's Universal Notebook Battery 70

4. Test System, Battery Runtime
Platform
Notebook
Dell Latitude D630, Mobile Intel GM965 Express Chipset
CPU
Intel Core 2 Duo T9500 (45 nm; 2600 MHz, 6 MB L2 Cache)
RAM
Corsair ValueRAM, 2x 2048 MB DDR2-667 SDRAM 5-5-5-15
DVD ROM
8x DVD+/-RW
Wireless
Intel 4965 WLAN (802.11a/g/n) mini Card
Screen
14.1 inch Wide Screen WXGA+ LCD (1400x900)
Graphic Card
Intel Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator X3100
Sound Card
Integrated
Power Supplies
9-cell/85 Wh Primary Battery
System Software and Drivers
OS
Windows Vista Ultimate 6.0 Build 6000 SP1
DirectX Version10
Platform Drivers Intel
Version 8.2.0.1014
Graphics Drivers
igdumd32.dll (7.14.00.10.1253)
Benchmarks and Settings
VLC
Version 0.8.6h, Playing VOB file in continuous loop
BatteryMonv 2.1


Battery
Run Time Results

We played the vob file from the notebook’s hard drive in a continuous loop to stress both batteries until they were empty. We connected the Universal Notebook Battery to the Latitude D630 notebook and launched BatteryMon 2.1 as well as the video playback. After three hours and 38 minutes, BatteryMon reported that power supply switched to battery mode, which means that the APC battery was now empty. We still had a remaining run time of four hours and 35 minutes. In the end, the Dell notebook played the video file for eight hours and 13 minutes, which gave us an 80% battery run time increase on top of the notebook’s 9-cell battery.

APC Universal Notebook Battery3h 38min
Dell 85Wh
4h 35min
Total
8h 13min


We also did some battery run time testing without any active workload, which resulted in approximately 11 hours of battery run time using both batteries. Run time can probably be even longer if you force yourself to work with very low display brightness. The second test showed the same 80% increase in run time, mainly because this is effectively the battery capacity difference between the 85 Wh Dell battery and the 70 Wh APC Universal Notebook Battery (82% gross difference).

If you maximize the notebook power saving features and limit display brightness to a reasonable level—which is certainly possible on a plane—you will be able to hit more than nine hours of battery run time when working with desktop applications.

Check prices for APC's Universal Notebook Battery 70

5. Conclusion

APC’s approach is not new, but the Universal Notebook Battery is a very solid and flexible product that will increase your battery run time roughly by the amount it increases the battery capacity. In our scenario, we used the 70 Wh APC Universal Notebook Battery to increase the run time of our Dell Latitude D630’s 9-cell 85 Wh battery. This 82% battery capacity increase resulted in battery run time increases of roughly 80% when playing DVD video off the notebook’s hard drive, or when leaving the system idle.

APC allows the easy adjustment of the Universal Notebook Battery to your notebook by providing nine different power plugs (Apple MagSafe not included), and offering four different voltage levels. Being close to your notebook’s supply voltage is usually sufficient, but check the compatibility list for details to be on the safe side.

Be sure you don’t use the “Balanced” power profile of Windows Vista, as it will have the APC-powered system run at maximum performance, hence utilizing more battery power than necessary. The additional USB port is great to charge iPods, phones or GPS devices when travelling.

Our 70 Wh sample starts at $120, which seems acceptable knowing that spare batteries can be more expensive, and that the power adapters used by certain airlines aren’t substantially cheaper, but have limited use. On the Web, we found the 60 Wh version starting at $90, and the 90 Wh top model at more than double this price. That much money, though, will probably get you a high-capacity battery for your notebook plus the 60 Wh version of APC’s Universal Notebook Battery.

[Update:]
As we found out, APC has discontinued all of its mobile products, hence you may be able to get a deal on these products, but without any serious warranty backup.

Check prices for APC's Universal Notebook Battery 70