longevity of notebooks and sorry state of batteries

OS

Lifer
Oct 11, 1999
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I kind of want to get a notebook, but the thing is, the battery situation for notebooks sucks. The charge doesn't last very long, the batteries have a limited charge cycle and are very expensive to replace.

I want to buy like a basic notebook that will last me 5+ years or so. It just needs to be able to check email, type and play mp3s sort of thing, but the battery thing is kind of sucky.
 

Mill

Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
28,558
3
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Batteries are around 80-120 bucks to replace. All I can say is to buy a spare at the time, or get one for cheap and keep it around. It is sad, but it is something you will have to do. Yeah, a battery will be about 10% of the purchase of the laptop, but that is the only option you have. I've heard you can run some without the battery in, and thus only use it when needed. Supposedly that will prolong the life of the battery.
 

Platypus

Lifer
Apr 26, 2001
31,046
321
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It's actually bad to buy a spare since Lithium Ion batteries start to 'die' from the moment they leave the factory. It will wear out whether you use it or not. This applies to a lot of notebook batteries.
 

RagingBITCH

Lifer
Sep 27, 2003
17,618
2
76
Originally posted by: Mill
Batteries are around 80-120 bucks to replace. All I can say is to buy a spare at the time, or get one for cheap and keep it around. It is sad, but it is something you will have to do. Yeah, a battery will be about 10% of the purchase of the laptop, but that is the only option you have. I've heard you can run some without the battery in, and thus only use it when needed. Supposedly that will prolong the life of the battery.

Majority of laptops have that capability. Some IBM's don't - can't say which ones do and which don't - but most of them can from my experience. Battery life for a brand new laptop should run like 2 hours on average if you're not watching DVD movies or recompiling a kernel (anything CPU intensive)
 

ElFenix

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Mar 20, 2000
102,393
8,552
126
i really wish i'd have gotten the second bay battery instead of the second main battery when i got my notebook. ah well.

i should find someone around here who is buying/just bought a 600m or d600 and paypal em to get me another battery
 

brxndxn

Diamond Member
Apr 3, 2001
8,475
0
76
I bout my Toshiba Satellite 3000 - S304 (P3m 1ghz, 512mb ram, 16mb geforce2go) used and it came with two batteries. When I first got it, you could tell the batteries were hardly ever used. I was able to play 2 full-length dvds off one single main battery. Ever since I got my wireless card (IBM 802.11b), battery life has dropped in half. I think the wireless cards today are still huge battery hogs. I've tried three different 802.11b cards and they all hog the battery.

They really oughta have 10-hour+ batteries now. It's stupid that batteries are so damn expensive and they don't last very long.
 

beer

Lifer
Jun 27, 2000
11,169
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Originally posted by: CheapArse
Originally posted by: DannyBoy
Havn't heard of centrino no?

Exactly...some rated up to 7 hours, though I highly doubt you would actually get 7 hours im sure it would be over 5.

They are 5+ only with 'extended' batteries that are usually $100 upgrades. My T40 lasts abotu four hours on a normal basis, and that's with the normal battery.
 
Dec 4, 2002
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They are 5+ only with 'extended' batteries that are usually $100 upgrades. My T40 lasts abotu four hours on a normal basis, and that's with the normal battery.

Actually, sony's Z1 series vaios are rated up to 7 hours on the standard battery, but like I mentioned, you probably won't get close.
 

beer

Lifer
Jun 27, 2000
11,169
1
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Originally posted by: CheapArse
They are 5+ only with 'extended' batteries that are usually $100 upgrades. My T40 lasts abotu four hours on a normal basis, and that's with the normal battery.

Actually, sony's Z1 series vaios are rated up to 7 hours on the standard battery, but like I mentioned, you probably won't get close.

I'm talking about real-world use. A 'test' consists of waking it up from hiberate and leaving it on, untouched, until windows hits 1% life.
 

IGBT

Lifer
Jul 16, 2001
17,967
140
106
Yah..your right..friggin rip off 100.00 or more for a lousey laptop battery...
 
Dec 4, 2002
18,211
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Originally posted by: beer
Originally posted by: CheapArse
They are 5+ only with 'extended' batteries that are usually $100 upgrades. My T40 lasts abotu four hours on a normal basis, and that's with the normal battery.

Actually, sony's Z1 series vaios are rated up to 7 hours on the standard battery, but like I mentioned, you probably won't get close.

I'm talking about real-world use. A 'test' consists of waking it up from hiberate and leaving it on, untouched, until windows hits 1% life.

I know...thats why I keep saying rated meaning thats what sony will tell you....you'll never see that amount of battery life. ;)
 

DannyBoy

Diamond Member
Nov 27, 2002
8,820
2
81
www.danj.me
Originally posted by: beer
Originally posted by: CheapArse
They are 5+ only with 'extended' batteries that are usually $100 upgrades. My T40 lasts abotu four hours on a normal basis, and that's with the normal battery.

Actually, sony's Z1 series vaios are rated up to 7 hours on the standard battery, but like I mentioned, you probably won't get close.

I'm talking about real-world use. A 'test' consists of waking it up from hiberate and leaving it on, untouched, until windows hits 1% life.

either way centrino offers a noticeable improvement in battery life.

I have done my own "tests" involving dvd playback and gaming on 3 centrino laptops and compared them to a standard vaio and my friends thinkpad, the centrino's always came out on top with at least another hour or 2 of life in them.
 

aircooled

Lifer
Oct 10, 2000
15,965
1
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Spend a few more dollars on a power adapter that plugs into the car/airplane, etc...

I rarely use battery power on my thinkpad. I usually have it plugged into something...