[lighthouse]

In recent Years almost all Computer Manufacturers have made Netbooks - more portable, compact, new Processors that use less Power, - just about every Feature they can think of. Asus have the Prize for the most Battery Time without Mains Electricity - which added to Portability is the most important thing for any Netbook Computer. But what none of them have done is make - or work with a Company that makes - Solar Panels specifically for their Computers. a 7.5 to 9 Volt Panel with appropriate Wattage and Ampage, which - like some you can get - fold into a neat Square and go into your Laptop Backpack would mean you wouldn't have to buy a spare Battery - with its limited Charge - or even use the one included in your Computer. There are Products available but you have to be very careful to ensure it won't frazzle your Computers Transformer or be so pathetically underpowered as to be useless. Technology being what it is now - and the Products that do exist - prove that a compact and very portable Solar Panel could be easily manufactured and be very useful indeed!

Also, I realise that it might use as much Electricity to make one as it will produce but once made a Solar Panel no longer destroys the Environment - and will produce the necessary Charge for your PC for Years longer than any Battery would. I shudder to think how many spent Li-on Batteries are thrown out every Year - and what that must do for Pollution - while some of the cheaper Netbooks don't even have a replaceable Battery at all. Once the Battery is spent - so is the Computer - and they churn these things out by the Millions!

So why haven't Asus, Acer, HP, Sony or any of the others done this yet?

[JohnWill]

A Typical 50W solar panel is four square feet! This would be a bit heavy and awkward to pack around with your notebook!

[lighthouse]

I've read that the maximum your Computer needs is 30 - and that's just when it boots up. after that it runs on about 10-15. I've seen Panels that fold into a 4 or 6x17cm Bundle that is not only very compact but also only a Kilo in Weight - and these are 18 Volts at 15 Watts. So less Voltage (my Netbook works on 12) would be brilliant - and would compensate for the increase in Wattage. The days of the chunky Glass Panel are over!

The only Problem with what is available at the Moment is that they are only Mail Order - so you can't go into a Computer Shop with your Computer , plug it in and see if it works, while those selling them don't give you a List of Compatables..............but then they don't tell you how much more Computer Time you get from a High Capacity Battery than a default one either!

[lighthouse]

And for the sake of the Environment if these cheap netbooks are going to proliferate - with the non-renewable Battery - then they ought to be making an Alternative for it.........otherwise when the existing Battery is used up you also throw out a 7" TFT Screen, Keyboard, USB Sockets and a few other useful Components.

Consumerism at its ecodamaging worst!

[JohnWill]

Even assuming you're right, which I don't necessarily accept, you are also forgetting one detail of solar power. The ratings of the panels are a maximum, that's in bright sunlight oriented to receive direct exposure. For the typical use of a laptop, that's rarely going to be the environment you'll be in.

As far as the networks with a non-replaceable battery, I wouldn't buy one. For the same reason, I'd never buy the Apple junk that has a non-replaceable battery.

Curiosity got the better of me, so I pulled out my smallest laptop, an Averatec 3150 with no wireless adapter installed (I use a PCMCIA card) and running a 1.6ghz AMD processor and 640mb of RAM. I'm running without the battery so there's no charging current, and we're actually seeing the power consumption of the machine itself. It's power consumption is varies between 25 watts and 45 watts, depending on the load. At idle, but with the screen on, it settles at 24-25 watts. Under load with the disk going and processor usage, it peaks around 45 or so watts. This is measured with a Kill-A-Watt that claims accuracy of +/- 1W + 0.2%.

I'm not seeing this as a practical option for a vast majority of the folks, it would really suck on rainy days.

[K7M]

I think another reason is that typically your 50w panel would cost about double what the netbook is worth, thus defeating the purpose of the cheap netbook.