I bought my current laptop back in 2006 or 2007. It was rather cheap, because life onboard ship is hard on electronics, so I didn't want to spend a lot of money on an item that was at daily risk of destruction.

It is still going strong, except the battery is dead. Even idling, the battery dies in less than 15 minutes. Sleep mode can be sustained for only an hour. I have to plug it in whenever I want to use it. It's still useful in some circumstances, as it is much more portable than my desktop machine; but it's utility in the academic setting is limited by the need to keep it plugged in at all times.

Thus I had to decide between getting a new battery and getting a whole new laptop. For $500-$700 I could get a low-end "ultrabook" which would be much lighter and yet still more powerful, with the benefit of half a decade of Moore's Law. But the old one's resale value is very very low, and it hurts my soul to throw it away. It's not like I need more processing power anyway, as I use it for office tasks and watching videos, not playing games or anything else processor-intensive.

Shopping for a new battery, I discovered I could buy an off-brand replacement battery for about $70, an official HP replacement for $90… or an official high-power battery (with twice the life) for $95.

Having received the new battery today, I am guessing the reason the high-power one is cheaper is that it was repatriated from a market where it was overstocked. The battery was made in China, but the packaging was all in Portuguese. The Brazilian market's loss is my gain.

I'm looking forward to seeing how long the laptop can run now. It will be lovely to do presentations without needing to stretch an extension cord to the nearest outlet.

Posted by: Boviate at 06:27 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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