recommendations for laptops with best battery life?

[glenn1]

Been looking at the deal sections for laptops lately, and don't know if I'm remembering the past with rose-colored glasses, but it seems to me that laptop battery life seems to have gone down quite a bit. A lot of posts on fatwallet, etc. seem to indicate that a little over an hour is typical, whereas I remember hot deals postings from a couple years ago where 200+ minutes was more typical.

That being said, I'm looking for a post-grad laptop for my wife. She's a relatively light user, but will need something that can run for a while for her long-ass nurse-anasthesialogist (sp?) classes. Battery life, lightweight, and durable are main concerns. Any suggestions for what to look for in terms of processor type, make/model, etc?

TIA.....

 

[IlllI]

well typically those laptop deals seem to leave out a small fact: they skimp on the battery. i assume some do that to cut down on cost, but theres bigger options usually available during checkout

comfortable screen size could be a consideration (dont want to be squinting for 6hrs a day) so maybe something with has 12in screen would suffice. maybe anything between 12-14in range. just to make sure you might want to take her to a store where they have a few different sizes set up to see if she is ok with whatever size you pick.
processor type shouldnt even be a factor. email and word dont require too much really. generally the slower the better, to get max battery life. theres even some software that can throttle down the prodessor speed to squeeze out as much as you can.
and if getting vista get 1gb minimum. vista likes ram.

 

[esun]

Laptop deals usually come on the bigger models that are more power-hungry. Power efficient laptops tend to be the more expensive ones, hence you won't see them in the budget areas usually. The exception would be the sub-notebook trend (e.g., Asus eeePC).

I'd recommend looking into sub-notebooks, since they are pretty cheap nowadays ($500-ish) and can run 4+ hours. Some popular choices would be the Asus eeePC and the MSI Wind. Very small, so they're good for taking to class every day. Both get 3+ hours (the MSI Wind with a 6-cell battery gets 5+ hours) of battery life. They aren't as powerful as full-size notebooks, but certainly powerful enough for a light user.

A more expensive choice would be something like the Lenovo Thinkpad X60, a 12" laptop that's very durable and fully featured. Also gets great battery life, is more powerful than the sub-notebooks, but will likely run at least twice as much.

 

[boomhower]

The Dell XPX1330 would also be an option. The scene size is a nice compromise of useability and portability. It has an option for a 9 cell battery that should provide plenty of run time for her.

How soon does she need it? If I am not mistaken Intel has a new mobile chipset getting ready to ship in a month or so that may be worth looking into.

 

[aceO07]

The Lenovo Thinkpad x60s/x61s gives plenty of battery life for it's size and weight. It should give > 5hours on light usage. Under 3 pounds, 12" screen and fast. Good quality and solid machine. I just toss my Thinkpads into my bookbag without extra padding. They also have a tablet version.

 

[xSauronx]

Originally posted by: aceO07
The Lenovo Thinkpad x60s/x61s gives plenty of battery life for it's size and weight. It should give > 5hours on light usage. Under 3 pounds, 12" screen and fast. Good quality and solid machine. I just toss my Thinkpads into my bookbag without extra padding. They also have a tablet version.

given a good sized battery, most anything should get a few hours of life. my mom has a dell 1500 model laptop. i use a T40 14" so to me anything bigger is a behemoth, and hers gets well over 4 hours. on a new 9 cell battery.

 

[Rottie]

I would go with Thinkpad notebook I have been reading on other forum they said the battery life last longer than others.

 

[996GT2]

The Lenovo X61s gets excellent battery life with its low voltage processor...up to 7 or 8 hours of light usage on the extended 8 cell battery. Best of all, the 8 cell is a relatively inexpensive upgrade (around $50) for the X61s.

If you really want the best battery life, wait for the new X200 next month. It's a widescreen update to the X61, and with the extended battery it reportedly got over 9 hours of usage time according to the first notebookreview.com review.