Laptops, processors, and battery life

[eklass]

Basically, I'm looking to get a laptop sometime this summer, and one of my big things is needing it to last around 3 hours on battery (about the time to go to 2 classes plus a little extra). I've been hearing that things like Intel's Centrino help extend battery life, as I'm sure would AMD's Athlon-M. But is there a big differenc betwene a P4 and Celeron system?

Could someone with some input provide me with a rundown of thier experienes and/or knowledge on the subject of how different processors affect the life of a laptop battery. Also, for most of the time I have the laptop on, I will want to be on a Wireless LAN; I know this takes a lot extra battery, although I have no problem turning down the screen birghtness and reducing the clock speed on the processor (if available).

Thanks.

 

[PCHPlayer]

At work I have a second battery in the slot where a floppy would normally go. So you may want a model that supports 2 batteries.

 

[Carbonadium4]

not many laptop supports that fancy feature.. i had the dell 8600 and now the d800 which did it.. I think some of their other models has the cdrom/battery bay. I think some ibm with removable cdrom has that feature too

 

[Arcanedeath]

Most Centrino laptops support 4+ hrs on battery, on average AXP-m based laptops are 2.5-3hrs and A64 mobile laptops are around 3hrs, P4 or P4-m laptops are 1.5-2.5hrs in general. These are not hard facts just averages for more common laptop models based on these types of processors (note none of these are ULV or LV processors which tend to have better battery life) Hope this helps.... for what your looking at I'd suggest a Centrino or A64 based laptop, prob. a Centrino though since you'll be luging it around alot.

 

[oldman420]

and centrino has built in wifi support which is cool

 

[JBT]

My Centrino last about 4 hours. I love the thing