1mo ago

Look Ma, No Batteries! Hands On With Lenovo's Self-Charging Keyboard

www.pcmag.com Look Ma, No Batteries! Hands On With Lenovo's Self-Charging Keyboard

At CES 2025, we checked out Lenovo's new eco-friendly wireless keyboard, which ditches traditional batteries in favor of a photovoltaic panel.

Among the many laptops and desktops that Lenovo announced at CES 2025 is an intriguing peripheral: the Self-Charging Bluetooth Keyboard. This unique productivity keyboard ditches the traditional battery, instead utilizing solar and ambient light to charge and store energy.

The Lenovo Self-Charging Bluetooth Keyboard might seem like your run-of-the-mill keyboard, but it comes with a party trick that might just save you a buck in the long run. Using advanced photovoltaic technology and fast-charging supercapacitors, the keyboard actually harnesses ambient light to store energy, eliminating the need for disposable batteries.

33 comments

I’ve got a battery-free efficient keyboard already… it uses this cable connected to the computer to supply power when keys are pressed. Very energy efficient. Never needs to charge. And unlike these keyboards with a built-in lithium battery, it will last indefinitely.
- No lithium, it's got a capacitor. Those things can handle a lot of charge cycles
  
  But they still have a limited lifetime of a maximum of 10 years, regardless of cycle count.
- The keyboard uses super capacitors which are much longer lasting than lithium batteries, it also has an USB C wired connection port hidden under a cap.
- I think this looks great. I'm not going to run a 20 foot USB cable accross my living room so wireless is pretty much a must. I think the only concern I have is if it discharges if I store it and if so what the bringup time would be.
  
  Good point; I’ve used a USB extender that had WiFi at either end to handle the distance thing. Maybe it’s just me, but outside of laptops I don’t generally have a need to move my keyboards around much.

Holy damn! The tiny solar panels from 2010 are back!
F### all the stupid disposable battery requiring garbage
- I used to have a Logitech K750 solar keyboard. The battery was always dying. The only difference from a traditional charging keyboard is instead of a charging cable, I had a charging desk lamp.
  
  I have a K750, the battery is about 15 years old with daily use. The original battery was dead when I opened it, I just bought one when it was new, and it's still going.
  In another thread some days ago others shared similar experiences as you, so maybe I'm the lucky one.
  I live in a bright flat, and my computer was always near to the window, it's charge never went below 80-90%, so maybe that's the reason for its longevity.
  
  Reminds me of the at least 40 year old calculator my mother is still using, even though you need essentially a search light both for it to power on and to make out anything on the dim LCD screen. It's always been like this though.
  
  hahaha, that's a solution!

Huh. That's neat I guess.
My initial guess was it would somehow capture the energy from hitting keys. I guess that's implausible? Too little energy without making the key press resistance too high?
- Yeah that was my first thought as well for some reason. Obviously solar calculators/etc have been around for longer so that makes more sense, but I fully clicked on this hoping it was energy from key presses.
  
  yeah me too, I was curious what sort of mechanism they shoved in the switchea
- There already exist wireless doorbells and smart home light switches that harness the energy of clicking the button using a piezo crystal to use for transmitting the signal. But at least the one I have has way too much resistance to use for a computer keyboard
- Ianother problem is whatever you have that charges the keyboard, you'd need ~109 of them. I still think it'd be cool tho

Unlike conventional batteries, supercapacitors have an exceptionally long lifespan, lasting hundreds of thousands of charge-discharge cycles, whereas lithium batteries typically last only five years or less.
So, what's the conversation rate between charge-discharge cycles and years?
- It doesn't say what type of capacitor is used, but electrolytic capacitors can basically be charged and discharged indefinitely. They don't wear down . However they age based on temperature. The ones at my work have 2000h @ 105°C. For every 4 °C coolor the lifetime doubles as a rule of them.
  
  It doesn’t say what type of capacitor is used
  Yes, it does. They're supercapacitors.
- It says in the article
  Unlike conventional batteries, supercapacitors have an exceptionally long lifespan, lasting hundreds of thousands of charge-discharge cycles, whereas lithium batteries typically last only five years or less.

From an e-waste perspective not having a battery is really cool. The article doesn't mention this, but the plastic appears recycled too. I wonder how it types?

wtf this looks fucking cool

That price is better than I feared. If I needed a keyboard, this one might be it.

Incompatible with Dark Mode.
- It’s got super capacitors to store so can use in dark until they drain at least. And a usb c

From a design perspective I like how the black variant has these keys that are just the right hue of green to remind us of those solar calculator screens. On the other hand Bluetooth is pretty finicky and is not available into UEFI setup, so meh. For peripherals as fundamental as keyboard & mouse, I much prefer a wireless 2.4GHz dongle connection.
- Too bad full size usb ports have mostly disappeared from laptops, so Bluetooth is the only way. Unless they started making usb C dongles?
  
  Yes, USB C dondles, adapters and docks exist.

I have such a keyboard since >4 years (Dell iirc)

33 comments