Carrying and swapping Laptop Battery on the plane is no fun. What if you could have a powerful battery extender capable of powering
the notebook from your laptop's slim-line carrying case? Here we review the APC UPB90 universal laptop battery and find it to be an effective, but expensive product.
Packaging and Unboxing Rating
The battery was sent directly from American Power Conversion in Chino, California by standard three to five day shipping and arrived in four business days. Well boxed and taped, the unit was
packed in bubble-wrap and was in a plastic blister pack for retail rack display. The blister pack was inside an anti-static sleeve. Although I'm not a big fan of blister packaging, I was pleased
to see that the edges of the IBM 08K8198
Battery pack were notched for easier opening.
Setup Rating
Setting up the UPB-90 involved first identifying the power tips to use with the notebook. My test machine was a ThinkPad R52 and the included chart identified the correct tips as type "B/B." Three connections are involved. The first is from the notebook's power adapter ("power brick") to the UPB-90's power cord, and this used the B jack. The second is to the universal battery itself, and this used a proprietary adapter. The third, and located on the longest cable, is to the notebook using the IBM 08K8197 Battery B tip.
The OLED display indicated that the battery was 49% charged at first power-up. It went to 100% using the notebook's power adapter in less than two hours. It's rated for full charge within 3.5 hours, so this was in line with the specifications.
Here's a diagram from the documentation that shows the connections.
Image: APC
Here is the UPB-90 connected to the ThinkPad R52 IBM 92P1075 Battery.
Product Features Rating
As such things go, the UPB-90 is a bit of a luxury product. Some features, such as the OLED display and the voltage auto-sensing and auto-setting, are only found on the higher-end devices. Its light weight and notable thinness, however, are somewhat representative of this class of product, except for the very cheapest models.
The image below will give you an idea of how thin it is.
Fit and Finish
The top of the unit is covered in a pseudo-rubbery, finely-pebbled finish that is a finger-print magnet. I'll be glad when this trend for laptop IBM ThinkPad R40 Battery and cell
phone finishes passes. Eleven star-screws hold the case together from the bottom. No flex or creaking were evident when the device was squeezed with light pressure. Fit and finish and quality of
construction appeared to be excellent.
Ports and Connectors
The UPB-90 features two five-volt USB ports suitable for recharging portable devices such as MP3 players, cell phones, and PDAs capable of charging from a USB sync cable.
Information and Diagnostics
The OLED display itself proved IBM ThinkPad R32
Battery somewhat hard to photograph. Actually, it was both clear and sharp, and, although small, easy to read. Looking at it, the thought occurred to me that if I placed it in the APC
roller case that I am also testing and with which the UPB-90 is supposed to be compatible, that beautiful display would be either (1) at the bottom of the case, or (2) upside down.
In the first image, I tried a close-up without flash, and the color representation is realistic. In the second image, I tried a contrasting background and got a false color for the display. It
adequately demonstrates the sharpness of the display, though.
Many of the individual screens offer a choice of the information displayed. For example, for both "Charging" and "Capacity," the options are a percentage, a time IBM 02K6928 Battery remaining, or a bar-graph
representation.