anyone have T400s w/ ultrabay battery?

Is it the same battery as used by the T400 (replacing the DVD drive right)?

How is the fit, I've heard the bezel doesn't quite match up. Does anyone have pics of the battery itself and of it inside the T400s?

How is the battery life? Do you think it was worth the cost?

 

I don't have the T400 battery, but have used the modular battery on other ThinkPads. They always discharge first, so they tend to wear out quickly. You're usually better off going with a bigger battery.

 

Not in case of T400s, you only get 6-cell battery with no other options due to a new design. Modular would be the only way to expand it.

I don't have one, but assume anything with ultra-bay adapter from T400 will not fit seamlessly into T400s. I had to order ultra-bay adapter III for 2nd hdd because adapter II was for T400 and apparently sticking out.

 

I'm considering the battery as well. I can't help but wonder, however, if it's worth it. For $30 (25%) more you can get a spare 6-cell battery that lasts twice as long. Sure, you'll have to plug in or power-off/hibernate, and it means you have to carry it around separately, but you still need to plan far enough ahead to bring it or swap out the HDD adapter.

Just my two cents.

 

I've got one and it works well for me. I wasn't using the DVD drive for anything anyway, so it seemed a no-brainer to use that space for battery life.

You're correct that the bezel doesn't match perfectly. I'm sure that my mactard friends will use this as an excuse to criticize the aesthetics of my lenovo, but it's only visible if you hold the machine up and look at it from the side.

Another thought is that you can use the bay battery to "bridge" from one 6-cell to the next by popping it in only when the first 6-cell is about gone, and then swapping for a new 6-cell.

 

@mtalinm:

could you post a photo of your t400s with the ultrabay battery II in it..? (showing how bad the "incompatibility" actually is...") i just ordered a a t400s and a type II battery due to these misleading/contradictory descriptions:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/MIGR-69713.html
http://www5.pc.ibm.com/ch/products.nsf/$wwwPartnumLookup/_45K1749?open&OpenDocument&sourcesite=CHDE&epi=web_express

after i ordered the battery i was told the battery was incompatible.. so i should quickly decide whether i have to cancel my order!

cheers!

 

The battery you ordered (43R9250, as seen in the first link), works with the T400s. I have been using that exact model with mine for the past few weeks. It works perfectly well, and as an advantage over the X301, is hot-swappable. Another benefit is the fact that you can hot-swap the main battery with another if you need more battery life (the T400s is definitely not capable of all-day computing). Sorry, I don't have the facility to take a photo currently...

 

Thanks for the information! As I can't find out what model number the one I ordered would be and as the one from the second link could differ from the one you have I'll simply order a type III as well. In the worst case I would have to sell the type II battery, but as the prices I got offered are unique the disposal certainly would not mean a financial loss... ^^

Thanks again! Cheers

 

btw i just found the confirmation for what mtalinm already said:

http://lenovoblogs.com/insidethebox/?p=259

read post #38.

 

sorry I haven't gotten the picture up. but I just yanked the bay battery out of my machine and here is the part number:

43r8890

I also had a bay battery from a T41 but it won't fit, oh well.