Timothy Murphy wrote:
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

Look inside it? If it appears to have electronics - like an IC - it's
likely to be reasonably intelligent. Basic ones - like supplied with some
cheap drills merely use a DC power supply and a series resistor.

Laptop battery chargers seem much more intelligent.
Mine switches off when the battery is full,
as I can see from the computer,
which seems to have considerable knowledge of the battery -
what its original maximum charge is,
what is the maximum charge it has recently had, etc.
(Incidentally, I can put batteries holding different charges
in my laptop - a Sony Picturebook.)

It's more likely the battery pack which is "intelligent" with a charge
monitoring chip that can be interrogated by the laptop.

MBQ