Decision review: Battery

Posted on April 8th, 2011 by Sacha Chua

After several days of accidentally unplugging my battery-dead laptop (knocking away the power cord, unplugging the wrong cable, etc.), I ordered a new battery. My laptop is still usable without a battery. I just have to put it into hibernation before moving it around. Power interruptions could result in hard disk corruption, though, and I’d rather not have to deal with two broken components.

I decided to order an official battery from Lenovo.com instead of taking a risk on a third-party battery. It wasn’t cheap, but I figured that investing in tools is worth it. I regularly set aside money for tools and opportunities, so I used that.

I ordered the new battery for full price. When I remembered that IBM has an employee purchase program with Lenovo, I crossed my fingers and sent Lenovo an e-mail to ask if I could cancel my previous order. They cancelled it for me, and I reordered it for about $30 less. Never hurts to ask!

I was thinking about the new Lenovo X220 tablet, too. I really like my X61 tablet. The X220 promises a faster processor, higher resolution, and a much longer battery life. I think I can get away without that for now, though. Waiting for used X220s to turn up on Craigslist or similar sites could really reduce my costs. (Hmm, maybe I can ask work about my laptop refresh cycle…)

My battery arrived today. I’m really glad I can unplug my laptop and move it from room to room now. Yay! =)

2011-04-03 Sun 08:32

More posts about: geek // 2 Comments »

Short URL: http://sachachua.com/blog/p/22188

Joel Garza

I am going to be sad when the battery on my x61t dies. I splurged to get the extended battery for it when I ordered it. Since I don’t use it for work and my graduate studies are on hold, it certainly hasn’t been getting as much use as yours. You definitely justified the investment. ;-)

When they refreshed my work machine I had to return the only optical drive that would fit in the expansion base. I need to figure out how to use a remote mounted drive or try out one of those optical drive emulators that mounts an ISO file.
http://sachachua.com Sacha Chua

Joel: Might be a good idea to start saving a little here and there for your battery/future gadget fund. Also, shouldn’t be too hard to mount an ISO. Good luck!

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