<p>Hi, i'm currently looking for laptops and battery life is of a concern to me. How long is a typical class in berkeley and are there plenty outlets available for me to charge a laptop with? What's a good estimate for the battery life I need? 2 hours, 3 hours.. etc?</p>
<p>go with the macbook…i think it has excellent battery life (mine lasts around 4hrs after about 250 cycles) compared to most PCs. some buildings have more outlets than others and it really depends which class</p>
<p>1hr to 1.5 hrs. unless you’re in lab or something. </p>
<p>A mac does have good energy, but I mean most laptops should be able to last the duration of a class when fully charged, which is what I’m assuming you’ll do at night or something like that. </p>
<p>As for outlets, there definitely are some in buildings, but in class…you’ll usually end up not sitting in a chair or on the end of a row, and your line would be just dangling there, ready to trip the next clumsy person walking down. hahah</p>
<p>I already know plenty about laptops, but my concern is how much battery life would I need so I can accommodate and choose which laptop I need.</p>
<p>just buy an extra battery and that’ll last you through college.</p>
<p>Do people usually bring laptops to class?</p>
<p>Just stay away from Compaq.</p>
<p>technical classes? not really. humanities? sure.</p>
<p>bump, any more answers? I’m in the college of letters and science if that helps.</p>
<p>Yea, laptops aren’t used in technical classes:phys, math, engineering, etc, for obvious reasons. They are used in humanities classes. The percentage of students using laptops is pretty small, probably around 20% (I guess that’s not that small), but it certainly isn’t like everyone has one. I bought a laptop thinking I’d use it for class…i never have. Not worth lugging it around to take notes I could just as easily do with a notebook.</p>
<p>Well i type a lot faster on a laptop than i do writing, so i’d rather type.</p>
<p>^
it’s kinda hard to type equations… symbols. draw chemical structures. with computers. unless you have a tablet…</p>
<p>Don’t count on having an outlet. There are some classes that have them right at your desk (in Haas mostly, but not the auditorium) but some with 2 for a whole 200+ person classroom (Kroeber lecture hall).</p>
<p>I think most students can type faster than they can write. It just depends on the class whether it makes sense to use a computer or not.</p>
<p>Definitely depends on the class. Most computer batteries can handle the 1.5 hours that make up the longest normal non-lab courses (the ones on TuTh; the ones on MWF are only 1 hour). And you can buy the monster batteries with the extra cells. Not only does that give you more time in and of itself, you then have the normal one available (and charged) if you need it.</p>
<p>Can’t guarantee outlets anywhere. If you can find one, though, you probably won’t have much competition for it. Even in classes where 15+ people are using laptops, 90% of them are using it just for that class before heading back to their dorms and thus don’t need the juice.</p>
<p>eee pc’s have like 8 hours or something, so I’ve heard.</p>
<p>they’re like those ultraportable pc’s though, other than a word processor, you can’t do much else.</p>