Looking for long battery life...

Student Lounge College Life
1

<p>Well, not necessarily the best battery life, but I would like somewhere between 4 and 5 hours on powersaver mode - maybe around 2-3 on the highest settings with a bright screen. I would also like it to have a discrete graphics card and a processor of around 2.0 GHz. A standard 80 G of hard drive space would be plenty, and memory doesn't really matter since it can be upgraded. I would prefer a 12.1" screen, though I'm willing to go a little up or down. Durability and weight don't matter. I live in the US and can buy laptops online. </p>

<p>Any recommendations?</p>

2

<p>I think the laptops with the best battery life hands down would be any Apple laptop.
My Dell XPS M1530 gets a little more than 4 hours with the 9 cell battery on power saver mode.
I would think that the smaller XPS would have comparable battery life.</p>

3

<p>you realize you're asking for a lot..? and is there such thing as a 12.1" laptop with a discrete graphics card....</p>

<p>just look at brands you like, find the models that have discrete graphics cards, and the find which ones offer larger batteries (~9-12 cells). the XPS is probably worth looking at.</p>

4

<p>My MacBook Pro will get over five hours on a battery and that's not even on the lowest power settings when running Mac OSX. It will get under three hours running Windows XP. Probably a lot less than that running Windows Vista. So the operating system makes a big difference. Sure, Dell can bump up battery life with a more powerful battery as they have to offer Vista (or XP for more money).</p>

5

<p>Thanks, everyone. I don't like working with Macs, but I'll take a look at the XPS.</p>

6

<p>Macbook, seriously. I've never seen a windows laptop get more than 3 hours. NEVER.</p>

<p>My macbook gets 10 hours if I'm not online and I dim the screen. No joke.</p>

7

<p>I've spent a week with my Dell M1330 and it easily gets over 5 hours on battery. But it doesn't have a discrete graphics card.</p>

<p>This is running Vista x64 with the 6-cell battery.</p>

<p>If you want something with strong battery life and a discrete card, you'd want an LED backlit screen, 4200 RPM disk, knowledge on undervolting your system, etc.</p>

<p>I'm in a conference where about 250 people have MacBook Pros. The most amazing thing about these people is that the MacBook Pro is like an extension of their body.</p>

8

<p>Thanks for all the help, but I've already got a laptop. Supposedly, it should have about 4.5 hours on an 8-cell battery, though I haven't tested it yet.</p>

9

<p>the battery most likely sticks out and makes the notebook weigh about 6 pounds</p>

10

<p>"the battery most likely sticks out and makes the notebook weigh about 6 pounds"</p>

<p>Check my other thread on the subject of sticking out. It terms of weight, it's still under 5 pounds w/o the power cord.</p>

11

<p>"Macbook, seriously. I've never seen a windows laptop get more than 3 hours. NEVER."</p>

<p>I get 4 hours on my Toshiba on basic settings, 5 hours on basic settings with the screen dimmed, and 6 hours with various powersaving settings. The notebook is about 6 pounds, though anyone who's not a wimp shouldn't mind the difference of a few pounds... :/</p>

12

<p>Take a look at any laptops on the new Montevina platform. Most of them should be able to pull off 5hr on a 9-cell battery.</p>

<p>I'd also recommend the Thinkpad X-series if you didn't need a discrete card. Those can go up to 12hr in battery life.</p>

<p>A good integrated card these days can decently run even the latest 3D games, although not at max settings.</p>