Just got my HyperMac battery (with pics)

alphaod · May 28, 2009

Well I preordered one of these earlier this month, and it arrive today. I took some unboxing pics for your feasting eyes. It appears it arrived fully charged, so I will run some tests on it to see battery life, etc.

Some first impressions:
1) It's [freaking] huge (I got the big one)
2) It's [freaking] heavy (^^^)
3) Feels and looks sturdy (Case is anodized aluminium)
4) Smooth design (I won't be ashamed to be carrying it)
5) Car charger is very compact.

Pictures

Box:

All accessories laid out:

Car charger comparison with iPod touch:

Battery size compared with iPod touch:

Front with indicators, charge port, and DC out:

Size comparison between the battery and a 12" PowerBook G4:

Another comparison:

FYI this is the 222Wh version.

ViciousShadow21 · May 28, 2009

alphaod said:
Well I preordered one of these earlier this month, and it arrive today. I took some unboxing pics for your feasting eyes. It appears it arrived fully charged, so I will run some tests on it to see battery life, etc.

Some first impressions:
1) It's [freaking] huge (I got the big one)
2) It's [freaking] heavy (^^^)
3) Feels and looks sturdy (Case is anodized aluminium)
4) Smooth design (I won't be ashamed to be carrying it)
5) Car charger is very compact.

Pictures

what are you getting for battery life with it?

mikes70mustang · May 28, 2009

Sweet, how much?

winninganthem · May 28, 2009

Daaaamn that's big

.

ButtUglyJeff · May 28, 2009

Where are you going to mount it?

Wotan31 · May 28, 2009

alphaod said:
FYI this is the 222Wh version.

I'm just curious, what is the practical application of a device like this?

Bringing your laptop into a cave is about the only thing I can think of. Plenty of power converters to power your laptop in a car, on a boat, on a plane, even with just a car battery on the floor. If I'm truly away from all sources of electricity for that long, I'd look to a folding solar panel if I'm on the move. Or a small gas (or diesel or cng) generator if I'm stationary.

So don't take this the wrong way, I'm just curious.

dan5.5 · May 28, 2009

looks like a good accessory! How long did it take to get?

alphaod · May 28, 2009

ViciousShadow21 said:
what are you getting for battery life with it?

Advertised is 27 hours but I take that with a grain of salt; however I should expect at two-thirds that which is good enough.

mikes70mustang said:
Sweet, how much?

$500

Wotan31 said:
I'm just curious, what is the practical application of a device like this? Bringing your laptop into a cave is about the only thing I can think of. Plenty of power converters to power your laptop in a car, on a boat, on a plane, even with just a car battery on the floor. If I'm truly away from all sources of electricity for that long, I'd look to a folding solar panel if I'm on the move. Or a small gas (or diesel or cng) generator if I'm stationary.

So don't take this the wrong way, I'm just curious.

Sure I understand

In my case, I'll be flying next week from New York to China; that flight is 14 hours non-stop; add the 3-4 hours before I have to be at the airport (possibly with no AC power); then I have another 6 hour flight after that with a transfer time of maybe 3 hours. That's about 24 hours of travel with possibly no AC power whatsoever.

Another thing may be I need to charge my phone as well, and this allows that with the USB port built-in.

Trust me, I wouldn't buy it unless it was of use.

dan5.5 said:
looks like a good accessory! How long did it take to get?

I preordered it 3 weeks ago, shipped it out 2nd day air on Tuesday.

ooo · May 28, 2009

Five more days till my little 60 watt one comes in the mail. I wonder if the charger size is the same.

uiop. · May 28, 2009

That thing looks awesome. I was really excited and interested until you said it costs $500.

Congrats on the purchase though.

I wonder how much the smaller ones are. What do those little lights/buttons on the side do?

alphaod · May 28, 2009

uiop. said:
That thing looks awesome. I was really excited and interested until you said it costs $500. Congrats on the purchase though.

I wonder how much the smaller ones are. What do those little lights/buttons on the side do?

Well in answering you question, I decided to scan the instruction "sheet".

The one button shows the battery life of the battery (4 indicators, so 25% each); the other 2 are the charging port and DC out respectively. There is a USB port for charging other things. It charges anything that can be USB bus charged.

It says the battery can retain the full charge for 180 days—no way for me to really test that. I called them and I have been told that it takes about 3 hours to charge from empty which is actually faster than charging the internal battery on the MacBook Pro.

I have also been told that the units should not have come fully charged, but for some reason mine was. Mine actually looks kind of used since the plastic bezel is scratched and scuffed. And the two long sides have this shiny plastic piece; very bad idea; arrived scuffed already and is a fingerprint magnet. I hope it's not used—too tedious to do an exchange.

I will do a test run tomorrow after a recommended 8 hour first charge.

Here is the instruction sheet scanned:

And their product page:
http://www.hyperdrive.com/HyperMac-External-MacBook-Power-s/91.htm

ViciousShadow21 · May 28, 2009

wow well if im ever going to fly anywhere im am definitely going to get the 222Wh. that will make flying to europe a lot nicer.

RKpro · May 28, 2009

Looks neater than my UPS + car battery configuration I used for camping...

Aboo · May 28, 2009

Wow that does battery pack does look pretty cool. The thing is though, these days, many aircraft have seat power standard in all J/C and F, and have many seats configured with seat power in Y. This is especially true on most long-haul flights operating a 767 and newer, or an A330/340 and newer. For long haul flights, I would think an auto/air adapter would probably work best. Plus if you have the opportunity to fly J/C or F you will usually get complimentary lounge access so you will definetly have AC power access there. Many airports also offer charging stations these days.

If you fly Y, you can take a look at the following site for seat configuration information and the location of on-board power, and request these seats upon reservation of your ticket or during check-in.

http://www.seatguru.com

Unprocessed1 · May 28, 2009

Looks like a beast, but I guess some people need the extra battery life. It looks like the baby of the MBP.

ltldrummerboy · May 28, 2009

That thing is huge. It's great right now, but in ten years we'll all be laughing at this thing. Congrats and let us know what kind of life you get out of it.

reallynotnick · May 28, 2009

Can't say I have really been on a plain recently but will they let you take such a big battery on? Otherwise it looks pretty sweet.

macagent · May 28, 2009

winninganthem said:
Daaaamn that's big .

Totally agree, damn that is a big external battery. I am sure the battery must have affected the portability of your MBP. Also certain that the battery life of future Apple portables will continue to improve, so why buy a hyperdrive?
Is it worth the money?

miles01110 · May 28, 2009

Wotan31 said:
I'm just curious, what is the practical application of a device like this? ... If I'm truly away from all sources of electricity for that long, I'd look to a folding solar panel if I'm on the move. Or a small gas (or diesel or cng) generator if I'm stationary.

...you're kidding, right? A folding solar panel would be unreliable and large, and a gas or diesel generator requires...gas or diesel.

Aboo · May 29, 2009

HyperMac said:
The large majority of Y (Coach/Economy) seats still do not have seat power.

And J/C and F are Business Class and First Class respectively. For long haul international flights, they are easily double or triple the prices of the cheapest economy fare.

J/C and F are usually what passengers who are travelling for business purposes fly (depending on the company). Plus several frequent fliers often upgrade to these classes using eVIPS, vouchers, miles, etc. on long haul flights. Regardless of the price of the fare basis, the point is that almost every translatlantic, transcontinental, and trans-pacific operators offer power ports in most if not all J/C or F seats.

Secondly, regarding Y class - most long-haul wide body aircraft (with the exception of the older 743s have in seat AC power on over 60 percent of seats. In Y, generally there aren't very many passengers who either know of this, or plan to utilize this. If you are a diligent passenger, you can easily request a seat that has onboard seat power without too much difficulty. Besides, considering the trends in Y these days, with the pitch and recline of seats, it would be very difficult to fully use any notebook with a screen >13".

By your screen name, I am assuming that you are a representative from the company, and with all due respect, coming from an experienced traveller clocking more than 140,000 miles per year across all classes, I can assure you that finding in seat power on long-haul flights is not as difficult as you make it seem. Short-haul flights is a completely different case, where I would certainly agree with you.

madoka · May 29, 2009

I got the $300 model. I'm using it right now, as I find myself trapped in cafes without outlets for upwards of 12 hours a day. I seriously thought about buying a second MBA to last me a full day, but this gizmo is great. Mine also came charged, but I plugged it in for a few hours to make sure it was fully charged. I've used about 50% of the battery so far (according to the indicator) and I've used it for about 3.5 hours and it charged my MBA from 55% to 99%. Later this weekend, I'm looking at another long day, so I'll try it out with the MBA already fully charged. The battery does not feel warm and the usb outlet is a nice touch so I can charge my iphone/ipod. I'm already thinking about getting a second one in case I get a more power hungry macbook pro!

alphaod · May 29, 2009

So far, I've been unplugged for 14 hours and it is still powering my computer without any hiccups.

It's a MacBook Pro, running Minefield (browser), Entourage, Mail, Fluid, Adium, Photoshop CS4. Brightness is at 50%, and Caffeine is enabled (so the computer does not dim nor sleep the display). WiFi and Bluetooth are both on. I have also charged my cell phone and iPod. This is also on the 9400M.

It has already reached [my] satisfaction, now to see if it will reach the claimed 27 hours of life… I'll report back later

EDIT: So after another 2 hours of use, the external battery let go and my computer stopped charging; I noticed an issue though—when the capacity is low it can't send enough power, so the computer charge keeps flipping back and forth between battery charging and discharging, which is very bad for the internal battery. That said, I can probably last another 3.5 hours on the internal battery, so that should bring the total to around 17-18hrs. Not bad.

I will test continuous movie playback with an external FW800 drive tomorrow.

madoka · May 30, 2009

After one day mine is now broke.

Well, I left my HyperMac battery plugged in all night. When I woke up I checked the power bars and it was still at the same 2 bars when I first plugged it in at. Shortly thereafter the pushing the power button no longer shows the battery level. And when I plug in the AC adaptor, it does not light up any more.

Is there anything I can do to fix it?

MacModMachine · May 30, 2009

madoka said:
After one day mine is now broke.

Well, I left my HyperMac battery plugged in all night. When I woke up I checked the power bars and it was still at the same 2 bars when I first plugged it in at. Shortly thereafter the pushing the power button no longer shows the battery level. And when I plug in the AC adaptor, it does not light up any more.

Is there anything I can do to fix it?

great....expensive and it doesent last long...the hypermac battery looks cheap and it costs very little to make.

under 100$ canadian with the cells included....

nick9191 · May 30, 2009

Why would it have been so difficult for Apple to make one of these?

Just got my HyperMac battery (with pics)

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