Battery Monitor revamp

[Thomas Pfeiffer]

On 28.05.2013 12:04, Àlex Fiestas wrote:
> For what is worth (and from the Solid side of things).
>
> Batteries have improved a lot since last time we discussed this issue,
> back on the days a high CPU round of 10min would drain huge percentage
> of the power in your battery, hence the estimation was really bad.
> Additionally the estimation was done in most of the cases in the
> software side so calculation was always bogus. Now days the situation
> has changed though.
>
> Batteries are way smarter than they used to be, even the stupid ones are
> kinda smart though. In most laptops sold in the last years you can find
> batteries that implement  SBS (Smart Battery System) or similar (there
> is another one I can't recall).
> Additionally battery capacity has grown a lot while cpu power
> requirements have decreased (specially since Intel Sandy Bridge) so a
> CPU pike of 10mins will not affect that much the estimation time (and
> systems like SBS are smart enough to prevent that).
>
> Maybe usability wise showing the remaining time is not recommendable or
> it is confusing, but technically the situation has clearly changed and
> the remaining time can now be shown accurately.

I cannot see any usability disadvantage of showing a remaining time if 
it is accurate. If we can get the time with an accuracy of e.g. 10 
minutes, it is useful from a usability perspective to see the remaining 
time with a precision of 10 minutes.

Do we know whether a "smart" battery (i.e. managed by SBS or similar) is 
present? If we do and the presence of SBS or similar does indeed offer 
us accurate remaining time estimation even with fluctuating consumption, 
I see no reason not to show it in this case.