Dell e6400- 19 hours battery life = 7.29 lbs.
Yesterday Dell announced a lot of new business notebooks and what got everyone’s attention was the ability to add battery options that will provide a whopping 19 hours of battery life. This is awesome for the business traveler who can now plan on working away without concern about finding a power outlet. I did some speculation about how they will provide that long battery life and some folks didn’t like some assumptions that I made. Dell stepped in and clarified what they were talking about to provide 19 hours of battery life and some technical information is now online at Dell so here’s what we know so far about how they do it and what it will cost you in weight. I look at this from a weight perspective because that’s often the biggest factor for "digital nomads" as Dell has termed the road warriors who will want this type of battery life.
Dell pointed out in our comments that the 19 hours of battery life is in reference to the 14.1-inch e6400 that they debuted yesterday. This is a sweet business laptop that is thin and very well designed. As Dell pointed out to get 19 hours of battery life you would use the 9-cell extended primary battery coupled with the extra slice battery that snaps onto the bottom of the e6400 (I assume). Here’s the specs for the 3 pieces you need to get that battery life (from Dell documentation):
e6400 notebook- 4.3 lbs (1.95 kg)
9-cell primary battery- 1.12 lbs (0.51 kg)
12-cell slice battery- 1.87 lbs (0.85 kg) (14.48 mm thick, 0.57 in thick)
Total weight- 7.29 lbs (3.31 kg)
Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s great that Dell is providing options to extend the battery life as much as possible. I have long used dual battery configurations that include a slice battery and it’s definitely the way to go to get as much up time between charges as possible. The technology that Dell is using here is nothing new, however, it’s simply throwing more battery at the run-time problem and that does come at a price in weight as you see. Is it worth it for the road warrior? Absolutely! The digital nomad must be prepared to carry this stuff around though and as you can see at over 7 pounds that is quite a load, considering this doesn’t include accessories like power adapter, etc. It would still be cool to be able to use the notebook from New York to Japan on a flight, though. 
If Dell says 19 hours I’ll take that number and divide it by 2. Still a good number thou.
Doesn’t TSA have a limit on how much battery one can take on a plane? Does the 19 hour configuration come in below this limit?
With a total of 21 cells of battery I’ll bet they get about 15 hours easy.
I believe that you could travel on flights with the battery attached to the notebook no problem. YOu can also carry spare laptop batteries in your carryons with no problem.
Using the Dell approach, one can have almost infinite battery life. It just comes at the cost of weight (and money). My now 18-month-old extended battery for my X60 tablet doesn’t quite get me 5 hrs of use anymore, but if I took four of those on a trip, I’d have 20 hrs of battery life, too. Sure, it wouldn’t be 20 uninterrupted hours as I’d have to hibernate to replace the battery every five hours, but at some point I’d have to go to the bathroom, too, I suppose.
As for the New York-Japan flight, I’d think many road warriors either know to fly a carrier that offers power outlets in their class of service or they don’t care to use the laptop the entire time
(after all, people pay a fortune for the First/Business Class flat sleeper beds to sleep…).
I think the E6400 weight includes a 6 cell battery. So I think it’s around half a pound lighter than 7.3 pounds. This seems pretty good to me since now you can’t carry spare laptop batteries on airplanes.
Jacob, where did you get the idea that spare batteries are not allowed on airplanes?
The war on batteries is limited to checked luggage for now.
http://safetravel.dot.gov/whats_new_batteries.html
Effective January 1, 2008, you may not pack spare lithium batteries in your checked baggage.
You may pack spare lithium batteries in your carry-on baggage. …
For personal use, there is generally no restriction on the number of spare batteries allowed in carry-on baggage. This is the case for cell phone batteries, “hearing aid” button cells, and AA batteries/AAA batteries available in retail stores, as well as almost all standard laptop computer batteries.
@Jacob @Oliver: Actually, there is a restriction on certain kinds of batteries; namely, you are limited to two 100-300Wh lithium ion batteries. These would be the really large universal batteries. I suppose most people wouldn’t carry more than one, though. Smaller batteries are unregulated.
Hrmm, got cut off. What I was going to ask was, what would be the benefit of buying an entire collection of batteries that are only compatible with this model, versus just buying one large external one that can be used with other laptops too?
@bluemonq — Jacob was talking about spare laptop batteries. Hence my response. There may very well be TSA restrictions on other types of batteries.
Oh, sorry guys, I misinterpreted the rule.
I notice that the ultra-portable models are boasting multi-day battery life once the “ON” feature is implemented. This could potentially satisfy those of you/us that thrive on lightweight mobility.
I am betting it’s probably something along the lines of a Windows Mobile/CE implementation so that it can work almost universally with Exchange and other e-mail services.
I’m wondering why they haven’t applied this logic to 17″ laptops.
Think about it for a moment – a 17″ laptop has the power of a desktop, with the numpad and screen real-estate that most desktop users are accustomed to. Many have the power to run CPU-heavy apps and can do decent gaming as well. It’s the 17″ models that use the most power and have worst battery life. These are also the laptops most folks would carry just from table to table, so the weight factor is mostly irrelevant.
The point I’m getting at is – I’ve yet to see a 17″ notebook out there that offers the double-stacked external batteries that you find on smaller models. A 16-cell battery combined with a 32-cell slab battery would provide the extra power that would be ideal for a 17″ laptop, and let you use it places where there’s no AC plug in sight.
Many may think I’m mad, but consider this: so many times I’ve wanted to take my 17″ to spots where I could set it down to use, but the lack of AC and limited battery kept me from enjoying the power and luxury that my 17″ offers.
I’m sure I’m not the only person out there that has a notebook that is 1.) kept on a desk most of the time 2.) has the performance they need 3.) could definitely use it in places where there’s no AC, and 4.) would most benefit from a 48-cell reserve of battery power.
A mere 2-3 extra pounds of battery would allow you to use that 17″ beast in so many more places, and so much more LONGER!!! Why doesn’t somebody realize this potential?