T430 9 Cell Battery vs Slice Battery?

Hi - I can purchase a new laptop from work today, my last one was 3 years ago which is a T400.

I see this new slice battery option, our default config comes with 6 cell, I can't change that through work, but can either add a 9 cell battery or 9 cell slice battery.

Any suggestions? I believe I can use the 6 cell standard with the 9 cell slice in conjunction.

But I wanted to ask how practical is it when using it on the lap and not on a desk.

Would you guys recommend the 9 cell slice?

 

I guess it would depend on how much battery life you need. The T430 with the nine-cell I have now goes almost nine hours. If you need more than that, get the slice, but the slice does add a pound and a half of weight to the T430. That's something to consider.

 

If you need the combined 6 + 9 cell battery life, then the slice would make more sense. If a 9-cell is already more than enough, just get an extra 9-cell battery and use that. Then, you can also use the 6-cell for on-the-go when you don't need as much time on battery.

 

Thanks for the feedback, right now I have a T400 with a 9 cell battery which is good, but would like to always add more. except i don't want it to be real bulky. i was trying to google if i can see some video of the slice attached to a T420 or so but haven't found one yet.

 

I really become mad when I hear about things like these 9 hours you are and some other people are getting from the 9-cell or similar long durations for other batteries and other laptops or even people who sometimes get more than the announced battery life by the manufacturer (which is not true in first place and is probably calculated when the machine is shut off). Is there a secret that you can share with me regarding this? If someone can tell me how to just get 4 complete hours (not 9 hours) with any kind of battery without compromising the performance or the brightness of the machine, I will really be grateful for life!

 

This (bolded) is probably a key part of your crappy battery life. If you are at max brightness all the time, the battery will drain a lot faster. Under light usage, a bright screen is the biggest power hog.

 

Biggest problem with the slice is that there is only one order it's handled:

First the slice is discharged completely to 0%, then the main battery is used by the ThinkPad.

Lenovo of course claims that this isn't bad for that battery, but reality suggest another thing...

The Ultrabay batteries were used in the same way, and 30 cycles down the road they lost 50% of design capacity, making a joke out of them.

Also note that the slice battery is the more expensive one. If one of them is going to make more cycles I would opt for the main battery. I'd rather replace a €75 battery then a €105 battery.

Since the discharge order is locked you also cannot drain the main battery first and switch the empty main battery out for a full one while on the Slice battery.

These problems have persisted for years, and all Lenovo can come up with is: "Not in the current version of the Power Manager" and "It really isn't bad for the slice to get repeatedly discharged to 0%"

 

While there inexplicably aren't discharge thresholds for the slice batteries (note that there are charge thresholds, as with other Thinkpad batteries), supposedly there is a built-in capability to make that a non-issue. And in any case, you can manually switch between the two.

 

Yeah, I read about that. But 3.0 Volts on a Lithium battery = empty. The answer from Lenovo indicating it's not empty but merely "discharged to a safe level" is absurd. Allowing it to discharge further would cause physical danger. That it's safe doesn't mean it good for the battery. There is an area where it won' blow up, but still degrades very rapidly. The Ultrabay batteries discharged to that level, as do the slice batteries apparently. In the case of the Ultrabay batteries that meant very rapid loss of full charge capacity.

All that is missing is a piece of software. And Lenovo doesn't provide...

Flipping a switch is a nice option, but it should have been provided for in software.