Boston-Power announced yesterday that HP will offer Boston-Power’s long-life rapid-charge lithium ion battery Sonata as an upgrade option to HP customers. The battery, which has a 3-year warranty, supports at least 1000 charge-discharge cycles before experiencing any degradation in its charge capacity. Compare this to the normal battery’s charge-discharge number of about 200 cycles. Boston-Power CEO Dr. Christina Lampe-Onnerud described the degradation over time of a conventional laptop battery: “The common user experience is that you typically are delighted with battery performance out-of-the-box, then two months later you see half the run time, and three to four months later half of that.”

What if you’re not in the market for a new laptop right now but your battery pack has passed its 200-cycle point and you are now less-than-delighted with it? If you currently have an HP laptop, the chances are good you can still upgrade to a Sonata: Lampe-Onnerud estimates that the Sonata is compatible with 80-90% of existing HP laptops.

HP is emphasizing the longer life of the environmentally-friendly pack by branding it as their Enviro pack. The packs will sell for a $20-30 premium over a conventional battery pack.