Bug 205707

Version:            (using KDE 4.3.0)
Installed from:    Ubuntu Packages

Sadly KLaptop seems to be no longer available in KDE4 and the battery plasmoid is only a very poor alternative since it distingishes only between 5 different battery states:
- 0 green bars: < 12.5%
- 1 green bar:  between 12.5% and 37.5%
- 2 green bars: between 37.5% and 62.5%
- 3 green bars: between 62.5% and 87.5%
- 4 green bars: > 87.5%

I'm wondering why KLaptop, which was IMO the best battery monitors in terms information, has been replaced by a super-size battery symbol giving you nearly no information about the battery. The approximation with 5 states is so bad that it is nearly useless. If you see 2 green bars you might think that you battery is at 50%. But it could be also at 38% or 62%. So guess the correct one! Right? :D

If this is supposed to be a joke than you should use only 2 states: empty and full. That's funny!
If it shall be useful than please add more information to the battery symbol. If you don't know how to do that, than take a look at KLaptop. It uses only 1/4 of the icon size of the battery plasmoid of KDE4, but is able to represent _81_different_battery_states_ (in 5x16 pixels)! The trick is to use not only a vertical progress bar but another the horizontal progress bar in each pixel row. When I saw this for the first time (some years ago) I was fascinated by this brilliant idea and thought: Yeah, that's one of the reasons I'm using KDE!

If you don't know exactly what I mean, here are some screenshots:
http://stefan.endrullis.de/kde/waste_of_space/kde3_kicker.png
http://stefan.endrullis.de/kde/waste_of_space/kde4_kicker.png

BTW: this issue is marked as _bug_ because it is a real regression compared to KDE3.