Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!samsung!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!apple!sun-barr!newstop!sun!amdahl!key!perry
From: perry@key.COM (Perry The Cynic)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.laptops
Subject: Re: Is your battery REALLY necessary?
Keywords: Laptop, Portable
Message-ID: <1554@key.COM>
Date: 23 Mar 90 22:11:06 GMT
References: <5448.26080b81@uwovax.uwo.ca>
Reply-To: perry@arkon.key.COM (Perry The Cynic)
Organization: Key Computer Laboratories, Fremont
Lines: 52

In article <5448.26080b81@uwovax.uwo.ca> trevorc@uwovax.uwo.ca writes:
> I am interested in discovering how many laptoppers actually use the battery 
> feature of their machines.  I have a Zenith Z-181 which has the battery 
> built in so that, even with the power pack, the battery must be toted 
> around.  I also have a SuperSport 286 from which the battery can be 
> detached and that is the way it is always operated.  I claim that one is 
> VERY rarely far from a power source and that the battery is just extra 
> ballast.  Do others share that opinion and are there any models that do not 
> have batteries but expect to be close to either 110 or 220 volts?

There's several reasons why I like to have a battery-driven laptop computer.
First, my main reason for having a laptop at all, is to take it around with me
"wherever I go". That includes drives to the park to let the sun shine on my
belly. I use it as an electronic notebook and workbench, to be there whenever
inspiration strikes me (if you forgive the poetic flash). I'm sure that if I
searched hard enough, I could almost always find a power source (e.g., some-
body's car battery), but the point is that the box (a T1000SE) takes about
three seconds from off to ready. I type my thoughts and turn it off again.
The laziness threshold to use the thing is pretty low. If I had to hunt
for a power outlet, or go beg for somebody's permission to use his power,
I would probably just let it go.

Then there's the places where you just can't get a power line: airplanes,
for example. Or try to ask that nice train operator. Or think of using your
laptop on the bus to work, or just sitting on a bench waiting for the many
things that you have to wait for on site. Five-to-fifteen minute occasions
that I couldn't use if I had to hunt for power first.

Another reason: I take the word "laptop" serious. The computer more often
than not sits (or bounces) on my lap. As you can imagine, a cable would
cramp that style. I can hop from table to bed to couch, taking the box with
me, without disconnecting, reconnecting, cursing short cables, getting the
cat tangled in the cable, having somebody stumble over it, etc.

All that of course assumes that you're actually talking about a *laptop*
computer, not a *portable*. If you move your computer from point A to point B
and back on schedule (e.g., from home to work and back once a day), you don't
need a laptop. In short, if you never expect to use your computer outside of
a small set of places (home, work, customer sites, Ma's den), you may very well
not need a battery at all. Mostly, batteries are useful for computer use
"in between". Without batteries, your laptop is just six pounds of weight
on the way. If that doesn't worry you, then indeed you should look for a model
without batteries. (Toshiba's Tnnnn where nnnn>3000 are mains power-only,
for example, mostly because they use power hungry displays.)

We're having a power outage here, and the backup unit's running low. Good bye
until another time... :-)
  -- perry
-- 
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Perry The Cynic (Peter Kiehtreiber)		       perry@arkon.key.com
** What good signature isn't taken yet? **  {amdahl,sgi,pacbell}!key!perry