22 Years' Battery Customization
Jan 21, 2022 Pageview：656
Batteries are one of the most important hardware in the world of electricity today. They store and provide electrical energy that powers most of the devices we use.
Your laptop will not give you optimum performance without a good battery. However, not many users use to give a thought to them.
In this guide, we are going to discuss the types of batteries modern laptops use. There are several, and you need to know all of them if you want the best performance.
What Types Of Batteries Do Laptops Currently Use And What Are Their Benefits?
Have you ever looked under the hood of your laptop to check the battery? Modern laptops come with built-in batteries, which makes it hard for average users to open. But sometimes it’s good to know these things. It can help you get a better deal when you go to buy.
Four main types of batteries are used in laptops. They are nickel cadmium (NiCad), nickel metal hydride (NiMH), smart batteries and lithium ion (Li-ion). The latter is perhaps the most common because of its higher capacity and general performance.
Battery Capacity
Before we look at these options, it’s important to learn about the battery capacity. This can be considered as the power delivered per batter weight. It also involves the rate of self-discharge and useful cycles.
You may have come across the term battery power. Most people confuse it with battery capacity. Power is what you see as watt-hour per kilogram. It’s not capacity but it determines the capacity of a battery.
A self-discharge cycle means that all batteries lose power while in storage. And cycles is how many times your batteries charge before losing their capacity.
Different factors affect the performance of your battery. The major one is temperature. Discharge rates in batteries increase with an increase in temperature. Hence, it’s advised that you store batteries in cooler temperatures.
Now let’s look at the different batteries used in laptops today:
Nickel-cadmium
Nickel-cadmium batteries are no longer very common today. Research shows that they had a life span of 1500 cycles. However, they have a chemistry that causes them to have a memory effect.
Memory effect is a chemical reaction that happens when a battery is not fully charged or discharged. Crystals form from the effect, inhibiting a full charge. In simple terms, the battery ‘remembers’ a lower charge and takes a full charge. Hence, there is never a full discharge.
NiCad batteries require to be exercised regularly. They must be fully charged and discharged to keep them at optimum performance.
Maintaining these batteries is important if you are using them on your laptop. Experts have discovered that they lose 10% of the charge within 24 hours after charging and storing. Hence, the battery will be dead within five months unless you exercise it regularly.
Despite these challenges, NiCad batteries are quite effective. They are powerful in terms of power. And their life cycle when well maintained is quite good.
Also, they are the cheapest batteries on the market. You will have no issues finding a replacement when your battery runs out.
Nickel Metal Hydride
The next type of battery in laptops is nickel hydride. These are batteries that put more emphasis on weight. Hence, they are the best alternative to NiCad.
Although these batteries had a very short shelf life, their performance was much better. They discharge at 30% per month. Also, they only have 500 cycles. They are the lowest performer in all battery chemistries.
However, they are better than NiCad when only discharged a bit before charging. Your laptop gets more power when you work with the battery unplugged from the charger.
NiCad must be fully drained, but NiMH requires partial draining. They are quite effective for someone who cannot remember to let the battery discharge fully before charging. Also, they are cheaper.
Lithium-ion
Most laptops today use lithium-ion batteries. They offer the most powerful advantages. These batteries come with an energy density of 150watt-hours per kilogram. They have no memory effect like the other two types above.
Also, Li-ion batteries have the lowest self-discharge rate of about 10% per month. This gives them the best storage life of all batteries. You can still get 70% from a battery you stored for three months.
Like any other battery, however, they also have disadvantages. For instance, their chemistry is volatile. But modern technologies include electronic protection circuits that keep the batteries from overcharging and over-discharging.
Generally, Li-ion batteries are the best cells you want in your laptop. Many of them today have a larger capacity and yet they are lighter. You can use one for a longer time on a single charge.
Smart Batteries
Smart batteries are not a type of battery per se. But they are worth mentioning. These are batteries that come with internal circuit boards with chips, allowing communication with the laptop to monitor battery performance, output voltage, and temperature.
These batteries will have 15% better performance compared to normal batteries. Their increased efficiency gives them greater power.
What Kind of Cell/Battery Is Used In Laptops and Why?
What many users call a battery is actually a pack made up of different cells. A cell is a single battery used in running small devices like remote controls, toy cars, and so on.
Laptop batteries are built using lithium-ion cells. This is because they are the most powerful battery chemistry in the world today.
Lead-acid cells are used in car batteries. This is because they perform better in offering the maximum energy required to start the car.
Which Battery Is Best For Laptop?
There are so many battery manufacturers in the world today. It’s a bit hard to say which one is the best unless you test the laptop.
However, there are several laptops that come with the longest battery life. One of them is Dell Latitude 9510. There is also Apple MacBook Pro 2020, and HP EliteBook x360 1040 G7. But these laptops and you can forget about battery issues.
Generally, go for lithium-ion batteries. Not only are they powerful, but they are easy to find too. We hope you can get one that meets your needs.
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