What Does Netbook Power Cost?What Does Netbook Power Cost?

Netbooks were designed to be lightweight alternatives to heavy laptop computers. But a complaint among users has been low battery life, sometimes just a couple of hours. Manufacturers are responding with nine-cell batteries, but at what cost?So you're a mobile worker, traveling from site to site and sick of lugging around a laptop bag weighed down with an 8-pound computer along with a power cord. So you decide to invest in a netbook, thinking you don't always need all the power and bling that a nice laptop offers but rather just want the Internet, some word-processing software, and less baggage. Fine -- a netbook delivers that.

But what if you're flying across the country? Is your three-cell battery going to cut it? Sure, you could bring the power cord, but what if you're going to a conference, with no access to an outlet?

There are a couple of solutions. One is the latest crop of nine-cell batteries, which adds about four more hours of computing time. The nine-cell batteries from Toshiba and Dell can be found anywhere from $65 to $160 on the Internet. The downside? These batteries can add bulk and a bit of weight to your netbook, somewhat defeating the purpose of a lightweight, portable computer.

There are also universal notebook batteries, which are external batteries that come with adapter tips so they can be used with most notebook computers. Much bulkier are portable chargers -- and much pricier, too.

What are your solutions to the power-supply problem?

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