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Can you name any current laptop model that uses cylindrical cells? I haven't encountered any cylindrical cells when opening a laptop in well over a decade.

moffkalast 2y ago
My old G771 definitely has them, though that one is like 8 years old or so now? The Gigabyte A5 looks like it might have one, but it's hard to tell without tearing the battery apart. I'm sure lots of gamer laptops still run on 18650s. But yeah they mostly do lipos these days for thinness and weight reduction despite the obvious drawbacks. I wouldn't really ever buy a laptop with a lipo myself, shit's just gonna inflate and split it in half. It's not just laptops anyway, EVs, power tools, flashlights, power banks, li-ion drop in replacement car/ups batteries. Anything that has a lipo has at some point had a cylindrical model too.
- wtallis 2y ago
  I'm not questioning whether cylindrical cells used to be popular for laptops; they were an iconic part of old ThinkPads. But I've opened up plenty of chunky gaming laptops in recent years from Asus, Dell/Alienware, MSI, Razer and have seen nothing but LiPo batteries. I think cylindrical cells may have genuinely disappeared from the laptop market at this point, unless they're still around in some niche that's significantly more obscure than big heavy gaming laptops. Most laptops these days that opt for a thick enclosure are doing it for the sake of the cooling system, not for the sake of fitting in a thick battery. Edit: I looked at the Gigabyte A5 and agree that it's probably using cylindrical cells. It appears to be a Clevo system, so there were probably other brands reselling as well. But it's not quite a current model (3 year old processor), and the reviews seem to agree that the battery is one of the worst things about the machine, because the capacity is way too small for that class of machine.

moffkalast 2y ago

My old G771 definitely has them, though that one is like 8 years old or so now? The Gigabyte A5 looks like it might have one, but it's hard to tell without tearing the battery apart. I'm sure lots of gamer laptops still run on 18650s. But yeah they mostly do lipos these days for thinness and weight reduction despite the obvious drawbacks. I wouldn't really ever buy a laptop with a lipo myself, shit's just gonna inflate and split it in half. It's not just laptops anyway, EVs, power tools, flashlights, power banks, li-ion drop in replacement car/ups batteries. Anything that has a lipo has at some point had a cylindrical model too.

wtallis 2y ago
I'm not questioning whether cylindrical cells used to be popular for laptops; they were an iconic part of old ThinkPads. But I've opened up plenty of chunky gaming laptops in recent years from Asus, Dell/Alienware, MSI, Razer and have seen nothing but LiPo batteries. I think cylindrical cells may have genuinely disappeared from the laptop market at this point, unless they're still around in some niche that's significantly more obscure than big heavy gaming laptops. Most laptops these days that opt for a thick enclosure are doing it for the sake of the cooling system, not for the sake of fitting in a thick battery. Edit: I looked at the Gigabyte A5 and agree that it's probably using cylindrical cells. It appears to be a Clevo system, so there were probably other brands reselling as well. But it's not quite a current model (3 year old processor), and the reviews seem to agree that the battery is one of the worst things about the machine, because the capacity is way too small for that class of machine.