Hewlett-Packard is now offering new "green" Enviro series batteries for its notebooks, which utilize improved lithium-ion battery technology by Boston-Power Inc. that extends battery lifetime to at least three years, and that cuts recharge times nearly in half.
One of the more popular complaints involving notebooks relate to battery lifespan, especially for heavy use notebooks which see frequent charging and discharging, and exposure to heat. In an effort to improve the functionality of mobile devices, battery technology evolved from nickle metal hydride and nickle-cadmium based designs to lithium-ion, however drawbacks remained. Lithium-ion based batteries still suffered from permanent capacity loss, and troubles with heat.
Graphics and CPU manufacturers have offered mobile based chipsets to help alleviate the drawbacks of portable computing and their need for frequent battery recharges, but despite that, battery technology has continued to struggle to keep up with the demands of consumers and the needs of constantly evolving processing technology.
Fortunately, companies like Boston-Power Inc. are amongst the ones at the forefront of efforts to improve lithium-ion battery technology. In the partnership with Hewlett-Packard, a number of HP notebooks now have the ability to replace current battery solutions with the Enviro series.
According to the Boston-Power information page, HP's Enviro series are made using Boston-Power's Sonata battery design, which boasts numerous improvements to lithium-ion technology. Amongst the improvements are nearly halved recharge times, retained capacity for the life of most notebooks (three years), more per-charge battery life compared to most six cell designs, and improvements on safety.
The Enviro series batteries may now be purchased directly at the HP website for select models at a price of $149.99 each, and will soon be offered as an option on new laptop orders in the coming weeks.
