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
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You would gain about 2-3 hours more using 6-cell MediaBay battery instead of DVDRW drive.
I personally own almost identical notebook (with T7300 CPU) packed up with 9-cell (85Wh) and 6-cell (48Wh) and I got little more then 8 hours at idle.
great stuff! This actually looks like a product you might want to buy.. I only ask myself how good these batteries are on the long run.. how many times you can charge/discharge it and if that's comparable to a standard battery.
Good review!
I went to APC's site and it seems like this product is discontinued.
http://www.apc.com/resource/includ [...] _sku=upb70
http://www.apc.com/resource/includ [...] _sku=upb70
Yeah, this "review" is kind of strange. The product manuals, if you click on the compatibility guides, are copyrighted in 2004-2005. Little late in getting the reviews in, ehh?
Sooo... is Tom's writing reviews on dead products now?
APC Universal Notebook Battery: 3h 38min
Dell 85Wh: 4h 35min
Total: 5
Wow, where did you learn math?
Personally, I like my Tekkeon MP3450. It is truly universal in that it has low amp options for powering my EEE PC - in other words it is universal for notebooks and netbooks. It also has a usb slot for powering devices that way. Sure, its only has 50 watt hours, but you can buy a secondary 50W battery and bridge them for 100 watt hours total. Add on the adapter I can buy to plug it directly into the DC output for a roll-up solar panel, and I am literally a happy camper!
Why don't you guys at Tom's aquire one of these Tekkeon batteries and give us a review?
review should be done 4 years ago.
Maybe they're just getting their 2005 mail delivered over in Germany. :-)
I was going to comment on the math used in the Battery Run Time Results table, but GWolfman beat me to it. They got the total time right in the article, though. 8 hours, 13 minutes.
Just a thought... maybe someone got burned on the legs by setting the battery on their lap while it was charging. APC would cancel it in the States due to lawsuit issues, but might still sell it in Europe where they aren't as litigous.
I like it...for some reason my silly laptop only has a 4-cell battery, non upgradable to larger capacity. Heck, its 14.1" and netbooks have 6-cell batteries.
This one has been out for a while. I got one for my Toshiba M4.. but due to unknow reason, their plug for Toshiba did not work on my laptop. I had to return it... too bad... I never have the chance to know how good it is... >_
Notebooks with the crappiest batteries are the big 17 inch models with discreet graphics - these are the ones that would benefit most from an external battery. Unfortunately the APC unit, as well as others like elektrovaya, offers lousy amp-hour performance for a 17 inch notebook.
But I did find it funny how Tom's chose to go with a small 14 inch notebook for this test with integrated graphics - not exactly a power hog to start with...
Design an 8-hour battery for something like the Toshiba X305-Q708, that will get my attention.
Agreed also, this product is terribly old. Slow news day at Tom's or lack of writing talent for new articles???
THG = fail
Product might be good if it worked. However, with the HP/Compaq MC6400 the APC doesn't work and APC doesnt' care and had nothing to say when we called them concerning the issue of their tip not working with their unit.
Just a thought... maybe someone got burned on the legs by setting the battery on their lap while it was charging. APC would cancel it in the States due to lawsuit issues, but might still sell it in Europe where they aren't as litigous.
Are you saying a European would not sue APC if the battery burned the user?
I have been using a 160 watt Electrofeul from http://www.electrovaya.com/ for 5 years now and it gives me 10-14 hours of extra life.
I have been using a 160 watt Electrofeul from http://www.electrovaya.com/ for 5 years now and it gives me 10-14 hours of extra life.
Uhmmm sounds more useful than an APC battery that is no longer produced...
Bob