[Discuss] My God! It's Full of Batteries!

[Richard Pieri]

On 3/16/2012 10:38 AM, Jerry Feldman wrote:
> IMHO, 9-10 ho0urs of battery time is reasonable for a laptop/tablet, but
> the downtime to recharge can be significant.

Indeed, and that leads to another cooling problem: batteries generate 
heat as they charge.  Faster charging yields higher temperatures. 
That's not typically a problem for notebooks with 60-90 Watt power 
bricks, but tablets are supposed to charge from USB which is 10 Watts 
for the plug-in charger.


Steve asked:
> Is the lack of air flow a good or bad thing? Are the new iPad going to
> make good hand warmers?

I'll give credit to the ARM architecture: it's much more power efficient 
than x86.  The aluminum back panel is an excellent radiator but it's 
*huge* compared to the die so you're not going to be using it to keep 
your hands or your cat warm during winter.  Unless it's charging, in 
which case the entire area of those massive battery packs is is going to 
be heating up that panel.  Well, as much as 10 Watts can manage. :)

-- 
Rich P.