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Comment by proee | Hacker News Reader

Wouldn't it be great if laptops had a "dewalt" powertool style bottom plate. You could decide if you want the "thin" or "thick" baseplate to balance between all-day battery life vs. ultra-thin portable 3-4 hour life.

This would give the option to create a solid "3-inch thick" battery that lasts a week. It would weigh a ton, but for some situations like remote fieldwork it could be a really great solution.

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This is only tangentially related to what you say, but I do like reminding people of this when we talk about laptop batteries.

FAA regulations state that single batteries larger than 100Wh cannot be brought on commercial flights. This guides a LOT of hardware development; why do you think the battery in the MBPr pre-2016 was 99Wh?

"With airline approval, devices can contain larger lithium ion batteries (101-160 watt hours per battery), but spares of this size are limited to two batteries in carry-on baggage only. This size covers the largest aftermarket extended-life laptop batteries and most lithium ion batteries for professional-grade audio/visual equipment."

https://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/as...

Good point! My boosted board electric longboard has a 99W battery. My ego longboard has a much larger battery and it was a super pain having it shipped overseas.

have you travelled a lot with the boosted? i hear that after the hoverboard fires the airlines sometimes wont allow it on board, even though its under the limit.

I have not traveled with it.

thinkpads have this. I use "the tumor" (a 9-cell battery) and it's amazing. Also, you can hibernate the computer, remove the tumor, and replace it with another tumor (or the 6-cell battery), and restart- no reboot required to switch batteries.

Some models also have internal batteries, which allows one to switch the external battery without even hibernating.

OK, I'll have to guess this is an older model TP?

No. Latest T and X series from Lenovo have them, probably other lines as well.

Not only the tumor (which also made a decent carrying handle), but also the dream bottom plate battery OP is describing: https://www.amazon.com/Thinkpad-Battery-19-Cell-Slice/dp/B00...

I didn't know that existed....

Even HP Pavilions (used to) have the option, flat or raised based on cell count

Hot swapping batteries is so amazing. I use my small one when i keep it plugged in and change to the big one when i take it out. Never have to restart my laptop just because of that.

As more laptops start charging from usb C, I expect we'll start seeing recharging bricks.

Seems to be the way phones do it now that replaceable batteries are gone.

And I'm actually not sure it's a bad thing. I used to be in the "just give a phone that's a bit fatter already" camp. But now, to be honest, I'm more inclined to think I want the thinner/lighter phone for the 80%+ of days when the thin battery has enough juice and just carry the recharging brick when I need something more.

A battery case seems more practical than a brick you dongle off the phone, especially if the phone is designed to compactly accommodate one.

Depends how easy it is to slip on and off. Also, a battery case is more or less specific to a particular phone model. You basically toss it when you upgrade to a new phone.

I've got an Anker battery pack that charges a MacBook happily over USB-C

How long does it take to charge and how big does the battery pack have to be?

The reviews for that product have some numbers: https://www.anker.com/products/A1371012

I'm working from a tablet these days, so has been a while I've charged a laptop with it, but I've seen both the MacBook and the new MBP charge from it.

> I'm working from a tablet these days

How's that going?

>Note: Not compatible with SONY Xperia XZ, Google Pixel, Dell XPS 12 9250 (2015), Dell XPS 15 (9550), Dell XPS 13 (9350) or HP Spectre x2

I'm assuming that means it won't do the 20v output that's required for the listed devices. Sigh.

I still only buy phones with replaceable battery. There is a market they are not gone.

I'm in the Philippines now, and I'm starting to see more and more people walking around with a battery brick attached to their phones.

Ive used this configuration but noticed it could be a problem for battery longevity for it to be in contact with underside hot spots, which rear positioned or otherwise confined batteries can avoid. Also as a battery pack gets bigger, it can rather beg its own independence so that it can ergonomically free lap-weight, and charge other things too. For these reasons I prefer a universal brick to a power slice.

Well, lenovo has something like that

My Sharp MM10 had swappable batteries: one was thin (total 0.54 inches for the laptop), and another would protrude out the back, but provided 8 hours of work. Not bad for 2003.

https://www.wired.com/2008/01/sharp-actius-mm/

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