FYI: Sony TZ Battery

For Your Information: I just want to talk about my experience with Sony TZ battery.

I personally have not done any proper battery tests, but I have basically used all sizes, BPS, BPL and BPX.

Ok, I'm a Sony TZ90 SSD+HDD owner. I've ordered this laptop with BPS (small) battery which does not stick out. It lasts roughly 2.5 hours using RMClock power saving (e.g., CPU throttle to about 450Mhz)

So, since I need a longer life battery,
I went to SonyStyle, and purchased BPX, which is the XtraLarge model, and basically this hold 3 times more capacity than BPS.

I liked this fat battery, but I had some problem with this,
Firstly, it was way.... too fat and heavy.. My TZ itself without a battery weighs about less than 1000g, and this BPX weighs about 475g !!. Almost 1/2 of the weight. And all this weights are unbalanced in such a way that you can feel it very uncomfortable. Or,, when moving laptop it feels very weird as 1/3 of weights are fallen to back.

So the day came,,,,within 9 days of initial BPX purchase, its clip (remove-lock) got broken (or snapped).
I am not too sure how it snapped, but I can defeintely blame that this battery's clip was faulty/weak/or its just too tiny to hold such a massive weight. If you own a TZ battery, have a look at the 'remove-lock' clip, u can see a tiny one-way clipping thingy that slides to left (unlock) and right (lock) from the inside (you will have to remove the battery to see this).

Now this BPX battery is pretty much useless without a clip as it will come off the laptop!.

Thus, I went back to Sonystyle, and they (helplessly) re-direct me to Sony Support (located about 10min away from SonyStyle). I went there, talked with those people.
Finally, they managed to order new BPX for me. Good. !
After they call me in for battery exchange, and got myself a BPX, (I gave them my broken BPX and receive a brand new unopened BPX)

But... I do not want to finish here as I know I do not like BPX anymore.....

So, I went back to SonyStyle, and I asked them to replace BPX to BPL (large).

Now, BPL has 2 times more capacity than BPS. and guess what, the weight is about 2 times of BPS, However, the actual physical size is NOT 2 times.
Merely about 1.5 times bigger.
Thus, I can guess that the BPS battery does not contain 'full' capacity,
(or I should say, Sony could have squeezed more capacity into BPS).

Anyway, I am now very happy with BPL. and the cost is so much cheaper than BPX. BPX costed 430NZD (300USD) and BPL only costed 260NZD (180USD). But, since I paid for BPX, they offered me the SonyStyle credit voucher, which I can spend in that shop within 6 month, So I guess it's okay..

Again, I have to say that these Sony people are quite useless in terms of their knoweldge, etc.
For example, they were not willing to swap BPX (even though it was NEW) to BPL because this guy tested BPX into one of the demo model, and said
"look the clip is soo strong, and it should never snap, etc,etc", But obviously, I fought back saying that saying that I am a regular TZ user and I know what I'm talking about, etc, etc.

Anyway, so for those who currently have TZ with BPS, and liked to purchase a bigger size, you have two choices, BPL or BPX.
Again, I recommend you to get BPL since it hardly sticks out, and unnoticable, and it is a lot ligher than BPX (so a lot less chance of clip snapping). And I can say that the weights are also balanced, so you can hold your laptop and feel the weights are evenly distributed.

Anyway, thanks for listening my story. Cheers

 

Thanks for the heads up. I have been trying to decide what battery I should get too. Obviously the slim battery would be best for weight/looks...but as you say it doesnt last very long. You have stated 2.5hrs when using power saving techniques. I guess it would be even less than that that if one was playing a dvd image (not from the dvd drive) and with a fairly reasonable brightness...

The standard battery would probably fit my needs better but I just wanted to avoid any extra bulges to this nice and slim device

 

cjlawrie: yes I highly recommend BPL,

BPS is too short, yes, about 3 hours using Power-save mode (running at 450Mhz) doing nothing. If I start to browse web, watch divx, then battery will probably go down to 2hours at least...
so again, get BPL, as I said, the size is NOT twice as big as BPS, only sticks out 'tiny' but the actual capacity is twice! Awesome.

Now my BPL is fully chraged, it states 6:50h left. (again doing nothing, with WLAN on)

 

My TZ shipped with the BPL - it's indeed a great compromise between light weight and battery time. I get about 4 and a bit hours with WLAN on and brightness on full using the Vaio Optimized plan. The time stated will go up to around 6 hrs or so if you leave it for a few mins doing nothing.

I acquired the BPX yesterday and whilst pretty bulky it's a not not that bad. The TZ still (just) fits in the leather case with the BPX on. I must have got 6hrs + usage so far from the first charge (same settings as above). I haven't drained it fully yet.

 

I am getting 8+ hours of usage (i.e. no idle time included) out of my BPX.

 

We have the BPL as well in our review unit, it's solid and a good compromise if you can't afford or don't want multiple batteries. The large one really defeats the purpose. I'd only want it for long flights or somethign where you could store it in something other than the bag you carry on your back for the laptop.

 

The BPL clip can spontaneously break as well. Sony of Japan wants $161 to fix it. A quick price search yields $159 for a new one.

 

I too have a broken clip BPL..What can I do with that?? Mine was purchased from Japan. Any US sonystyle will replace it???

 

I have heard of a few other people wondering why the BPL is only 1.5 times the size of the BPL battery, but I think (to me at least) it is pretty clear.

The cells are cylinders. You can clearly see them on all 3 of the sizes. The BPS isn't half the size of the BPL simply because there is that flat section that interfaces with the laptop with nothing inside. There are no cells within that portion. Its really just plastic right there.

If you compare the 3 sizes, you can clearly see the bulging round portions where the cells reside.

While it makes sense that they could have added some capacity to the BPS battery, the cells would have to be smaller making the entire battery more complicated/expensive (as if it could be any more expensive than it is now... these are the MOST expensive batteries of any laptop I have seen!)

Anyway, I do agree with everything else. I got a BPL battery with my laptop, and purchased a BPX for the long trips... I have to admit that I rarely use the BPX battery because of its bulgy and awkward form factor. The clips also make me nervous, as It seems like its gonna break right off (as many of you have obviously demonstrated )