HP Says Better Design, Lack of Sony Battery Packs Help It Dodge Recall

"HP utilizes a different battery charging design than Dell and different battery protection system than Apple," the vendor said in response to queries from CRN.

"HP has no plans to recall notebook battery packs in conjunction with either the Aug. 24, 2006 Apple notebook battery recall or the Aug. 14, 2006 Dell notebook battery recall, HP has been in contact with Sony, the manufacturer of the battery cells in question, and Sony has communicated that HP should not be impacted by these recalls."

HP also noted that it does not use Sony battery packs in its mobile systems. "However, like other manufacturers HP does use some Sony 2.4 amp hour cells in HP branded battery packs manufactured by third-parties," the vendor said in its statement to CRN.

"To date, HP has received no reports of overheating causing a battery failure in Sony 2.4 amp hour cells used in battery packs manufactured for HP notebook PCs."

Sam Haffar, president and co-CEO of Computex, a Houston, Texas HP solution provider, said the fact HP is not having battery problems is a testament to the company's engineering prowess. "All Dell does is assemble stuff," said Haffar.

"They are really a clone builder. HP is a manufacturer. They don't have R and D. All of HP's systems go through rigorous testing. We are an HP service center and we have not seen any (notebook) failures at all."

Computex actively sells HP's engineering prowess as a differentiator versus Dell, said Haffar. "We win a lot of sales by taking HP and Dell units and putting them side by side," he said. "We let the customer do the comparison. It's very obvious which is the better product."

Meanwhile, other solution providers are gearing up to head off a possible battery shortage caused by the recall of 4.1 million Dell laptops and 1.8 million Apple laptops to replace Sony battery packs.

Pat Walsh, owner of Computer Station of Orlando, said he has not had any customers affected by the battery recall, but was confident he could get replacement batteries from Battery-Biz of Newbury, Calif. Battery-Biz, in fact, sent Walsh an email advising him not to be caught off guard by the increase in battery demand.

"Rest assured that Battery-Biz uses the highest quality components to ensure the safety of our products," the email blast stated. "None of our laptop batteries are associated with the Dell recall and no Hi-Capacity products or DURACELL products produced by Battery-Biz use Sony cells."