APC Universal Notebook Battery UPB60

The solution

Are you one of those people that take their laptop on a long journey by either plane or train, you must have experienced what many of us have; You want to keep working, but your notebook is out of life as the battery is completely dead. If you are, stop reading this review, get on the net and find your favourite online store to buy the APC Universal Notebook Battery UPB60. You will be asking yourself later how you ever got by without one.

As the name indicates the UPB60 is a universal battery that can be used in combination with any brand or type of notebook, the battery is charged through your standard charger. Basically all you do is put the APC UPB60 between your adapter and the power connection on your laptop, APC bundles a lot of different types of connectors with the battery to ensure that any type of current power connection can be used. The Voltage on the battery can be manually changed between 15, 16, 18, 19 and 20 Volts, in combination with the bundle of different adapters this does make the UPB60 suitable for virtually every notebook on the market.

When you are travelling the universal battery connects to the power connection on your laptop, and it will "think" that it is connected to a power outlet. This way the notebook's own battery will be charged through the APC battery as it would charge when it was connected to a standard power outlet.

The device is suitable for people that are always on the road, as I found out when travelling to the recent IDF in San Fransisco. The flight to there is around 9 ours, and KLM has not yet equipped their seats in economy class with power outlets. The battery that is used in my Compaq Evo N620C is near the end of its life cycle, and normally allows me to work for around two and a half hours without power. The UPB60 more than doubled that, I could work for over five hours without problems, which allowed me to spend the time on board more usefull (Not taking into account two in-flight meals of dubious quality and finishing a book)

When back in Holland we coupled the UPB60 with an Acer Aspire 5680 notebook sporting a Core 2 Duo processor. the tests we have run was looping a DVD movie and just wait untill the notebook stopped working. With the standard battery the Acer could go for two hours and 35 minutes before giving up, enough for a movie, however not nearly enough for a long flight. When using the APC UPB60 the Acer could last around 2 hours and 20 minutes longer, it stopped working after 4 hours and 54 minutes. This is enough for two or even three movies!. When you would use your notebook more efficiently and actually do some work the results will probbably be a lot better, as that is not such a drain on battery power as watching DVD movies.

When you search for the UPB60 in our price overview it is available for around 135 euro's. I do think that this is good value for money, taking in account the possibilities it offers.

The conclusion is quite obvious; when you travel a lot and are constantly running out of bettery power on your notebook before you reach your destination you need to get one of these. The UPB60 is compatible with virtually any notebook out there and I think is good value for money. An inventive product like this more than deserves a Hardware.Info Gold award!

APC Universal Notebook Battery UPB60