APC Universal Notebook Battery

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When flying you can never be sure if your aircraft will be equipped with in-seat power, especially in economy. My laptop’s battery only lasts a couple hours when playing movies, but most external extended batteries have been bulky and require another external charger - until now. The recently released Universal Notebook Batteries by APC finally solve the problem well.

The UPB70 model is very light and very thin using lithium polymer batteries and it requires no extra charger. To charge up it just plugs in-line: wall plug –> laptop power supply –> APC battery –> laptop. Both the laptop and battery get charged simultaneously. The battery also has a separate USB-charging port for your phone, iPod or any other USB-charging accessory, which is handy.

They are a bit expensive at around $150, but considering those “air power” adapters are often $120 and you can almost never use it, I think this is a deal. The batteries also come with tips for several hundred specific laptop models so you can figure out how to allow the battery to be charged in-line with your laptop cord.

Photo by APC.