For some people, the bottleneck in netbooks isn't found in their small screens, weak sound systems, or low-quality graphics. Rather, some people think that the most important aspect of any netbook is its battery life. Without a good quality battery that gives hours upon hours of usage per charge, you won't be able to enjoy whatever fancy feature your netbook offers for long. So, companies like Asus, Acer and Dell have been working hard to find ways to squeeze more battery life out of every charge that their netbook batteries go through. So far, they've all been doing great, as netbooks being released these days typically offer up to at least 6 hours of use per charge (up from the usual 2.5 to 3.5 hours with laptops and from when netbooks first came to existence).
And now, a Japanese company called Eamex claims to have found a way to improve the underlying technology in netbook batteries even further. Their idea is simple: stabilize the electrodes and prevent the deterioration of tin found in Lithium-ion batteries so that they can withstand repeated charges (of up to 10 ,000 times) and last for up to a total of 20 years. If this technology existed 20 years ago, you would still be using the Osborne 1!
But seriously, while it looks like Eamex's new technology is only targeted towards electric cars which use Li-ion batteries, it would be great to have it applied to the same type of batteries which are used on netbooks and other portable computing devices. And I think anyone who's ever ran out of batteries on their netbooks while using it on the road would likely agree.
Via Crunchgear
A post from the Asus Eee PC blog.
Japanese company finds way to prolong Lithium-ion battery life
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