How do I know the type of laptop battery I have?

There are several different types and sizes of laptop batteries. To determine what type of laptop battery you have, remove the battery from the computer and look at the bottom or top of the battery. 

As can be seen in the picture to the right this Dell battery shows that it's a Li-ion battery, has a model number of Li-ion II, rating of 10.8V, 4050mAH, Part number, and a charging current of 2.5A.

Common types of laptop batteries are: Li-ion, NiMH, and Ni-Cad

Third-party utility

If your battery is not labeled or you're unable to read the information on the battery consider using a third-party utility that's capable of giving you detailed battery information. For example, BatteryCare is a free software utility capable of doing this.