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December 19th, 2020 03:00
Precision Long Cycle Life battery
Hello
I have a new Precision 3551 with a so-called Long Cycle Life battery, which is claimed to support 1000 cycles (against 300 cycles for the standard battery).
I am wondering what is the specificity of this battery: it doesn't accept ExpressCharge, but apart from that it has the same capacity (68Wh) and the same charging time (4h). Where does the improvement in the number of cycles come from ?
Since I will mostly use this computer on AC, I have read the recommendation for optimizing the battery life. For example this post recommends to set the BIOS charging thresholds to 50% (min) and 80% (max):
It makes sense for me. However to apply these settings I need to use the Primary Battery Charge Configuration in the BIOS, but all options are greyed precisely because they do not work with a Long Cycle Life battery. So I'm puzzled. Why are these settings unavailable for this kind of battery ?
DELL-Cares
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December 19th, 2020 21:00
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ejn63
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December 20th, 2020 13:00
Rapidly charging a lithium battery is one of the major factors in reducing its lifespan. That is part of why you see a longer lifecycle for this battery.
It could also be the onboard electronics are different than they are for the normal lifecycle battery. It's unlikely the cells inside are different. It is also likely the long lifecycle battery is priced at a high enough premium over the standard one to cover the replacement cost, should the battery not last the three years the warranty covers.
Geronimo
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December 21st, 2020 07:00
Yes, I expect that ExpressCharge will reduce the lifespan, but nothing prevents not to use ExpressCharge.
Both 4 cell batteries are available with the Precision for the same price.
Can we infer that the Long Cycle Life battery is nothing else than a standard battery with some firmware that totally disables the ExpressCharge option, so that the warranty is extended to three years ?