software

Lite Test

HP and Boston Power have been testing the Sonata lithium-ion batteries for three years

Lampe-Onnerud and executives at other lithium ion start-ups, however, counter that none of these alternatives can provide the energy density and BATTERY HP ZT1190 life of lithium ion. Lithium ion batteries can also be recharged far more times than other alternatives.

The company has done a number of things to improve lithium ion battery performance and safety, according to Lampe-Onnerud. The company has also redesigned the ZT1200 BATTERY pack to have fewer cells and has made a number of manufacturing improvements, she explained.

She argued that the Sonata batteries are a "clean technology" because they are more energy-efficient. The company also seeks to use less harmful reactive chemicals and no heavy metals.

"The fundamental issue is that ever since they've designed mobile systems, they've always made trade-offs in the way they ran the processor to extend battery life," said Nathan Brookwood, a principal at Insight 64, noting that Intel's upcoming power management technology, dubbed Geyserville, should make a noticeable difference. "The best is yet to come in that regard."

HP and Boston Power have been testing the Sonata lithium-ion batteries for three years. The PAVILION ZT1200 BATTERY were designed specifically for laptop use. After three years of use, the batteries will be able to keep 80 percent of their initial charge.

"Fourth-quarter demand is strong. But shortages of batteries and DRAM could affect orders for the quarter," Compal President Ray Chen told an investor conference, according to Reuters.

Antec, known for its PC cases and power supplies, showed off its recently introduced NP100 universal laptop power adapter at Digital Life. Compatible with most Dell, HP, Lenovo, Sony, and Toshiba laptops, the NP100 includes a series of interchangeable connectors and a switch to control output voltage for different laptop models.

The cream-of-the-crop components played a crucial role in making the 24-hour battery life possible. HP says the Illumi-Lite LED display, by itself, boosts battery run time by up to four hours compared with traditional LCD displays, and the Intel SSD provides up to a 7 percent increase in battery life compared with traditional hard drives.

In addition to helping achieve outstanding battery life, Intel's SSDs provide greater durability and reliability as well as faster system responsiveness. HP claims its benchmarks show overall performance boosts of up to 57 percent on industry benchmarks, and data transfer rates almost six times faster than traditional hard disks.

While these numbers and the claimed battery life haven't been confirmed by CNET Labs' independent tests, they'd better be true as the components used in the test unit can easily dig a big hole in your wallet. Take the new SSDs, for example. They cost about 6 to 10 times more than regular hard drives.