ATAR Notes: Forum

General Discussion => General Discussion Boards => Technology and Gaming => Topic started by: Spreadbury on January 12, 2011, 01:23:24 am

Title: Laptops with long battery life?
Post by: Spreadbury on January 12, 2011, 01:23:24 am
I'm looking around for another laptop for uni, and I need one with longer battery life than my acer aspire 5536 provides me with (slightly less than 3 hours). I had a quick look around JBs online store, but couldn't find any details on battery life.

All i'm looking for is a laptop that can take notes really, weight isn't such an issue (i'm used to carrying around a heavy bag) but a longer-lasting battery is a must, and hopefully someone can suggest a laptop that wouldn't be overly expensive- certainly not a macbook.

Any help is appreciated.
Title: Re: Laptops with long battery life?
Post by: TrueLight on January 12, 2011, 02:00:25 am
ive said this before in this board, my sister has asus ul50vt which has a long battery life although now it doesnt have a 12 hour battery life but depends what you do and if you keep it on battery saving mode. Not sure the price nowadays...there is the ul30, ul50 and ul80 so probably between $900-$1300 i would guess... actually msy sells ul50 for $1089
Title: Re: Laptops with long battery life?
Post by: Spreadbury on January 12, 2011, 08:35:25 pm
my friend pointed me in the direction of this laptop https://www.jbhifionline.com.au/computers-laptops/netbooks/toshiba-nb300-00q-10-netbook/585798

I looked through the other topics I could find, lots of suggestions for macbook pros...
Title: Re: Laptops with long battery life?
Post by: TrueLight on January 12, 2011, 09:02:56 pm
it depends what you want from a laptop if you just want a long battery life and just typing notes then yeah get any old laptop that has long battery life but if you want it to do a bit more then you might have to get something else

yep alot of people like macbook pro but depends if you want a mac and how much you want to spend
Title: Re: Laptops with long battery life?
Post by: Predator on January 13, 2011, 05:54:11 pm
On the Acer line there are the eMachine range. They aren't too outstanding spec wise and likely a lot lower then what you are using right now. Although they are in the cheap range from when I was looking at some.
You could always have a back up battery? Everytime you get home charge both and then the next day you will have full battery life again.
Title: Re: Laptops with long battery life?
Post by: Mao on January 13, 2011, 07:54:47 pm
What, that's silly. Windows laptop =/= good battery life. You have 3 options:

1. Get an eee-pc, put linux on it, learn to use linux, deal with lack of applications, enjoy adequate battery life.
2. Get a macbook (pro), pay $$$. I can take my 13" MBP to work at uni, do everything I need on it for 8 hours straight, and go home with 20% battery left.
3. Wait until the new AMD chips are shipped in their new netbooks.
Title: Re: Laptops with long battery life?
Post by: Predator on January 13, 2011, 08:02:51 pm
3. Wait until the new AMD chips are shipped in their new netbooks.

That is a good point that one if he was to get a new laptop.
Are you referring to the Fusion ones?
Apparently they are going to be better then the Atom which if possible is quite good power consumption wise.
Title: Re: Laptops with long battery life?
Post by: Mao on January 13, 2011, 10:02:14 pm
3. Wait until the new AMD chips are shipped in their new netbooks.

That is a good point that one if he was to get a new laptop.
Are you referring to the Fusion ones?
Apparently they are going to be better then the Atom which if possible is quite good power consumption wise.

Yep, these guys: http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/04/amd-announces-first-fusion-chips-10-hour-battery-life-with-dir/

Still, I am right now a huge disbeliever in MSWindows in portable computing. Comparing the battery performance of bootcamp vs OSX (or Linux) on the macbook, there is a huge difference (2.5hrs + very hot everywhere vs 9~10 hrs + cold to touch). The MacBook perform the same tasks just as well (if not better), and give much more functionality (multitouch, virtually no lag, smooth operation everywhere), imo it is worth the investment (if it is not going to be a 'multi-purpose' laptop which you are going to do everything on, get a desktop for that).
Title: Re: Laptops with long battery life?
Post by: ninwa on January 19, 2011, 03:00:21 am
Running my eeePC on the most battery-saving setting, with Windows XP (none of that fancy schmancy pretty crap on Vista/7), and nothing open except Word, got me around 6 hours battery life.
Title: Re: Laptops with long battery life?
Post by: taiga on January 19, 2011, 03:18:20 am
I only get 2 and a half on my computer nowadays, any tips on increasing it?
Title: Re: Laptops with long battery life?
Post by: Russ on January 19, 2011, 01:14:34 pm
New batter, turn wifi off, turn bluetooth off, dim screen, throttle CPU/GPU if possible, close background programs.

To be honest, 2.5 hours on an aging laptop is pretty good
Title: Re: Laptops with long battery life?
Post by: Dr.Lecter on January 25, 2011, 02:46:36 pm
You probably have a 6-cell battery. Order a replacement 9-cell battery from the Acer website.
Title: Re: Laptops with long battery life?
Post by: jaccerz on January 25, 2011, 08:31:02 pm
i have a msi wind u130. if you buy it from tecs it comes with a 6 cell batt.

i get between 6-8 hours if just using word