Since the introduction of the Portege M400 laptop, Toshiba has stated as a second battery, a slice expansion battery will act as an attachment accessory that will increase the operating time by ~3hours.
The idea is quite good actually. Instead of using the slimbay as the slot for the battery, it will take on a form as a ‘wafer-thin’ attachment that clips on to the bottom of the device and interfaces power through the replicator ports. Therefore freeing up the slimbay for optical drives.
Of course, any person who demanded extra battery life was going to get one, instead of a second main battery which would involve swapping in & out when it was low. Sadly, Toshiba doesn’t even sell them yet. As an accessory that was demonstrated and marketed at CES 2006, and promoted in the user manual, being unavailable at product launch is quite a disappointment.
Toshiba Australia informed me that they expect to sell them in April. Optimistically it could be the 1st of April, but realistically it would be more like April 30th by the sounds of it.
In my opinion, it is a poorly executed launch plan that ultimately dissatisfies and inconveniences buyers of the laptop and potential buyers of the attachment.
Update: As of 1st of August 2006, the slice expansion battery is still not available in any Australian retailers.
They’re available now (26/9/06) – I just picked one up.
Yeah I got one too. Thanks for the reply John.