I'm getting about 2.5 hours battery runtime on the Kohjinsha SH6 with the standard battery and there are scenarios where I want more. The standard battery is 2.6Ah @ 11.1 = 28Wh. There is a larger, double-size battery of 5.2Ah @ 11.1 = 58Wh. At the time I bought the SH6, I was quoted S$199 for an additional standard battery, although converting from the Yen price, S$160 sounds closer to the underlying cost. Still, a bit pricey for a single-use accessory.

A product that caught my attention was Battery Geek's 130Wh external. That's 4 times the standard battery (10 hours total runtime?) and would last all day. It also permits charging of the laptop so when travelling, you only need carry the BatteryGeek mains adapter. I was quite taken with this product, despite the 1Kg weight, but I couldn't find a non-US distributor and at US$299 plus shipping (S$414+), it's not cheap either.

Sometimes procrastination isn't a bad thing. At this week's IT Show at Suntec, a local distributor had
another US product from Arigo. The concept is idential to the BatteryGeek, but it is half the weight, half the capacity (60Wh) and offered at a show price of S$199 (normally S$219), so half the price.

It's voltage selectable (5V thru 19V) and has a USB port providing 5V as well. A selection of tips means it can run laptops, mobiles, cameras, DVD players and so on. You can join it together with an almost identical pack and get a 120Wh stack weighing about 1Kg. My SH6 needs 19V to run and charge; 16V isn't quite enough.

I got the single pack and I'm pretty happy. The build quality is good; even the packaging is nice, reminding me of the unboxing experience of Apple products. The salesman proudly claimed it is a US product, "Really?", I said, "it's made in the US?". "No, no, it's made in China, of course". So it's US designed and they did a nice job.

In summary, I paid less for a medium weight, general-purpose, external battery, good for an extra 4 or 5 hours runtime. The USB port (e.g. for mobile phone) and selectable voltage range are a bonus for other devices and uses beyond the SH6. Cool.