Re: This is for the O.E.M's supporting the TabletPC.

2009/2/19 André Pang <[email protected]>:
> On Feb 18, 2009, at 9:33 AM, Ben wrote:
>
>> You seriously want an embedded non changeable battery that lasts a
>> paltry 8 hours, compared to the figures of more than twice that (19
>> hours) for the new smaller, lighter, cheaper Dells? To top it off, the
>> 17" is anything but portable for daily use, so who cares how long the
>> battery lasts anyway - not to mention using it as a desktop
>> replacement will be horrible for your neck and eyes (got the physio
>> bills to prove that one).
>
> I'm sure I'm going to regret starting an Apple flamewar here later, but:

Oh come, why not. The night is young.

> * The vast majority of customers do not ever buy a second battery, and have
> never even swapped out the main battery.  If those 90% of customers can
> forgo a replaceable battery and, in return, achieve a far longer battery
> life, that's a pretty good trade-off.

Perhaps they should get rid of the optical drive and Firewire ports
and only leave one USB port and then they could fit an even bigger
battery in... :-P

> (The figures are somewhere around
> 90%; Apple do survey their customers, and they aren't stupid.)

> I've always
> bought an extra battery for my laptop so I can use it for longer on the
> road, but am perfectly happy to have a single, non-replaceable battery if
> the battery life is far better.

Remember Li-on loses 20%/year of capacity regardless of use at room
temperature, if kept at 40% charge. 0% will hurt it the worst. Take it
up to 35 degrees (those MacBookPros run hot from memory) and you'll
lose 40% total life per year. How long do you keep a laptop for?

In fairness, I'm about to toss my MacBook after a year, but that's
only because I'm fed up of the edge of the keyboard lacerating me and
the edge of the housing is crumbling off (it's a design flaw I've seen
another one with the EXACT same problem in the EXACT same area).

> * The 17" is perfectly portable for daily use.  I carry it around with me
> every day in a pretty small backpack[1], and have been using it for about a
> year now.

The 13" MacBook fits into the LCA '07 bag just nicely. Only problem is
the battery/battery controller in it is stuffed and randomly decides
30-40% of charge is actually 0 and turns off by itself.

I don't want to wear a backpack and neither do most people I know. If
it suits you that's fine, but it's not really in the conventionally
portable league.

> * Battery life on many Dell & Sony laptops are better because the machines
> simply aren't as powerful.

Dual Core Intel with an nVidia Quadro not good enough for you?

You get 9.5 hours from the 9 cell optional, which still brings either
the E6400 or E6500 in at well under 3Kg.
Add another 9.5 hours with the 800 gram battery slice, which has its
own charger port, or just carry a second standard battery and reboot.

You've also got the flexibility to ditch the CDROM and stick another
hard drive in there (but the CD-ROM remains accessible even with the
battery slice).

> Lots of consumers may complain about a non-replaceable battery, but very few
> of them actually ever end up replacing it.

Just wait till it start to deteriorate.

Ben
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