Maybe I've just not looked hard enough yet.

I got to looking out of curiosity for now into what laptops are out there, in case anything changed lately that I've missed.  Mainly looking to see what might be available a few months down the road, as one of our 2 laptops is having some issues after being dropped oh TOO many times.

And I thought I'd search for those with Core i7 and SSD.  I suppose it wouldn't matter what it has for the drive, b/c it can always be replaced.

Anyway, I found this one on ebay.  

It's a ThinkPad with 256GB SSD, 16GB Ram (nice, definite overkill for most applications - for now), etc.  

The one thing I noticed that I don't recall seeing before was a "Dual Mode Battery"

Anybody heard of a Dual Mode Battery?  Anyone know of any references where I could learn about it?  Is it anything special in reality, or is it just market-speak?

Well, while typing, did some more looking.  Did find this:
http://shop.lenovo.com/us/notebooks/thinkpad/w-series/w510

Mentions dual mode batteries on their laptops, but don't explain anything about them.

This sounds like the same thing, but more in a general sense:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium_iron_phosphate_battery

And going off the wikipedia reference, talking about LiPo batteries.... so are the Dual Mode batteries, LiPo battereis in laptops, or are they something different?

If so, from talking to an acquaintance who has gotten into flying model airplanes in the past year, the LiPo batteries sound like what would be a GREAT next step for laptop batteries.

Thanks for any thoughts, references, etc.

 Taken from the Lenovo forums....Rich

Ken
Posts: 119
Registered: 12-05-2007
Location: RTP
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[Solution!]
Re: New Power manager
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01-26-2010 08:00 AM

Dual Mode refers to a new feature supported by some of our new battery packs in products launched this year. You'll see an 'Automatic' check box in the 'Charge Mode' area in the battery maintenance tab within Power Manager (if the installed battery is a Dual Mode battery). With this feature, power manager can modify how your battery is charged to maximize the lifespan of your battery. If you are a light user of battery power or mostly an AC user, you will benefit most from this feature.
 

Thanks, he told some of it, but not a whole lot.  Anyway, at least it's something.  I think I'll try to watch this area for a while to see if there is anything to it over time.

Dual mode batteries - you know:   
Dead/Mostly Dead & Charged but overachieving battery life indicated.