If you’re not satisfied with the amount of information provided by
your laptop’s battery monitor software or the Windows Power Options
applet, then BatteryMon is just the thing you’re looking for. Full
of tidbits such as status, manufacturer, device name, serial
number, unique ID, time remaining, battery temperature, chemistry,
charge cycles, charge rate, etc., the program also graphs run times
and discharge rates.
By and large, the program is easy to use, but it’s really a techie toy and it took a while for me to get up to speed on the graphing concepts. I did like the way BatteryMon minimizes to a tiny, transparent charge remaining display at the top right of your display–but considering that the Windows Power Options does the same thing in the system tray, it’s redundant. In the end, most users will be more than happy with the simple info relayed by Windows, but if you want or need to know every last detail about the batteries inside or attached to your system, give BatteryMon a whirl.
–Jon L. Jacobi