Dynabook wants you to replace the battery in its new CoPilot+ laptop — eventually

two Portégé Z40L-N laptops next to each other

The Portégé Z40L-N is thin and has a battery that it's easy to replace. (Image credit: Future)

It’s possible—and even relatively simple—to replace a laptop battery, but it’s not exactly an enjoyable task. And many laptop companies would likely prefer you purchase a new laptop instead of just replacing the battery when your old one begins to fade. Even if you do opt to replace your battery, the service could cost upward of $500.

Enter Dynabook, which unveiled its Portege Z40-N CoPilot+ PC on Friday. The laptop has a user-replaceable battery inside its metal chassis. (While many laptops have user-replaceable batteries, Dynabook is emphasizing ease of replacement.)

The other thing to consider is that as a Copilot+ powered by an Intel Series 2 (nicknamed "Arrow Lake") chip, the battery life on this laptop is going to be great anyway, reducing overall battery consumption. That means you may not need to replace it for a long time. Now, is a replaceable battery kind of a less-relevant feature these days? Maybe. Here's some background on how Arrow Lake chips affect battery life.

Portégé Z40L-N laptop with replaceable battery — A look at the self-replaceable battery on the Portégé Z40L-N. (Image credit: Future)

Easily replaceable laptop batteries fell out of fashion in the mid-2010s when laptop makers focused more on form factor. Thinner laptops mean more hardware is crammed into whatever small space is available, making quick access to the laptop less of a concern. It also helps that laptop prices have dropped over the years, making it easier to replace a laptop with a bad battery rather than paying hundreds of dollars for a replacement.

Dynabook didn't provide details on how the battery is replaced. There are images showing that it appears that the battery cover slides out or needed a minimal amount of effort to remove from the chassis.

To keep the 56Wh battery healthy, Dynabook also incorporated AI to help manage the laptop's power. The AI-enhanced power management system adjusts how much battery is consumed based on the programs being used.

While there might be a demand for replacement laptop batteries, the Portégé Z40L-N is intended for business use. According to Dynabook, being able to switch out batteries would lower a company's IT costs and downtime.

Portégé Z40L-N laptop laid flat — If you need to flatten out your laptop, the Portégé Z40L-N can do that as well. (Image credit: Future)

If having a laptop with an easy-to-replace battery is of interest to people, the Portégé Z40L-N starts at $1,699. The laptop is lightweight, coming in at just under 1kg, depending on the configuration. Despite its lightweight, the laptop's magnesium alloy chassis adds to its durability. It meets the MIL-STD-810H standards, which means it can be exposed to high and low temperatures, high humidity, dust, sand, shock and even drops without breaking.

Powering the laptop is the latest Intel Core Ultra 5 processor or the upgraded Ultra 7 processor. It also has a Neural Processing Unit for its AI features that come with Copilot+PC laptops such as Live Caption, Gesture Control, and Windows Studio Effects. It also uses the AI feature, Human Presence Detection, to lock up the laptop whenever the user steps away, and it will alert them if anyone tries to get a close look at the laptop while the user was away.

The starting configuration for the Portégé Z40L-N has a 14" WUXGA (1920x1200) display, 16 GB LPDDR5 RAM, an Intel Arc 130V GPU, WiFi 7, an HDMI port, two USB-C ports, two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports, and an Ethernet port. It's currently available at the Dynabook website.

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