<p>I have an HP envy 17, which is a pretty nice laptop but is not exactly designed for portability. With the 9-cell I could probably squeeze about 3 hrs max out of the battery. </p>
<p>Is this enough to get by in college? Will I have enough chances to charge up the battery in between classes? For those of you in college with a laptop, what are your experiences with battery life?</p>
<p>I have a 6-cell battery that works fine, but my friend has the same laptop as me and has the 9-cell battery and it definately last longer.</p>
<p>If I had to choose again I would go with the 9-cell battery.</p>
<p>One thing to remember though is to let you laptop battery die sometimes and then fully charge it back up otherwise it wont work as well anymore.</p>
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<p>You may be able to get by your first year with that, but battery life won’t last forever.</p>
<p>You should be ok with it until the battery itself begins to deteriorate, but that shouldn’t be a big problem for at least a year. Alot of classrooms have outlets so if you position yourself wisely, you won’t have to worry about your battery during class. If not, 3 hours should be fine for a single class or even 2 depending on the length. Just watch your brightness settings and toggle wifi/bluetooth off when their not in use. Also, 17" laptops aren’t the best for battery life in general because of their screen size and usual high powered components. Not to say you couldn’t get through school comfortably with your 17" Envy (which i’ve heard is a really nice computer), but you may down the road find it a bit of a hassle to carry around constantly. I could imagine a laptop that size beginning to strain your back after a while in your backpack. Personally, if i could get away with carry the thing around all day, i’d have one too.</p>
<p>Personally, one of the more frustrating things I’ve had in college is my battery only lasts 2.5-3 hours. If I could do it over again, I would have gone for better battery life (or thought to buy a second battery). It really depends on your classrooms and whether or not there will be outlets for laptops. Some of my classes had them, most did not and usually you will not want to plan your day around figuring out how to find an outlet to recharge your battery a little.</p>
<p>The battery discharging idea is mostly inapplicable these days.</p>
<p>In the past, when several laptop batteries were NiCd, there was the memory effect, so charging batteries before they were fully discharged would shorten their useful lifespan.</p>
<p>These days, almost all laptops have Li-Ion batteries, which are much lighter and have no memory effect. That means: the battery only loses life based on the number of discharge cycles. A full cycle means that the battery has discharged the equivalent amount of power necessary to fully discharge a full battery. So, discharging it to 75% four times has the same effect as discharging it to 50% twice. It’s in your best interest to plug it in whenever possible.</p>
<p>I usually leave my laptop in my room, because my profs don’t like kids having their laptops in class. If you’re worried about battery life and would be okay with taking handwritten notes, that may be an option.</p>
<p>I’ve found I can usually plug my laptop in anywhere I go. Classrooms typically have outlets so you can just make an effort to sit by them. Libraries are typically the same way. I think it would have been easier to have a laptop with a long battery life, but it’s not really necessary either.</p>