Topic: What does battery life really mean.

[Dave P]

Ok, so I was looking at a new laptop for using on my way in and out of work and generally on the move...

I found these "ultra mobile laptops" from Toshiba claiming up to a 9 to 11 hour battery life.

Does anybody know of a resource that could give a more realistic estimate? I mean, I'm sure they do have an 11 hour life, if you leave them glowing in the corner for half a day but under actual use with an internet connection and maybe a pendrive plugged in it'll be a different story.

I was also somewhat interested in Asus laptops but I haven't looked at their stuff yet. Anybody know if they're any good, I just know they have  a good reliability rate.

[Rik]

There's an industry standard for evaluating battery life for digital cameras, so many shots, so many with flash, so many viewings etc. I've never come across anything similar for computers and suspect, like you, that battery life is quoted on the basis of the lowest power consumption they can set it to and still do something.

That said, my Samsung NC10 claims a six-hour life and delivers it, but my Acer laptop claims 3 hours and delivers two.

I've never owned an Asus, just Asus components, but based on the latter, they should be OK.

[Baz]

we got my son an Asus laptop about a year ago and I have to say it is good.looks,build quality,reliability..so far..  all very good.Even down to the packaging and bundle you got with it,back up discs etc all included.so Yes very pleased.

This year my other son also got an Asus and that too was good.The only thing lacking I feel was it could have done with a bit more detailed manual but you get them on the disc any way so..

[Simon]

I guess it depends as much on the spec, as the brand.  I have an Acer laptop, which was fine at first, but is now painfully slow, and has very few apps on it.  As I don't often use it, I have to power it up half an hour before I actually want to do anything, so as to give it time to get and install all the updates, as it simply refuses to do anything else until that is complete.  I suspect this is probably down to Vista, as much as anything, but I can't be arsed to do much about it.

There's an industry standard for evaluating battery life for digital cameras, so many shots, so many with flash, so many viewings etc. I've never come across anything similar for computers and suspect, like you, that battery life is quoted on the basis of the lowest power consumption they can set it to and still do something.

Sounds like the same basis on which they claim mobile phone batteries last. 

[Rik]

 

I agree on Acer, btw, I've been very disappointed by mine.

[sam]

I had a little Asus which was pretty good... but very small.

I have an Acer Aspire 5738 now and love the thing. Though I do run Ubuntu on it and so it doesn't suffer from the memory issues that it might with Vista/Windows 7. Its a Dual Core with 4GB of RAM which really makes the difference.

Some laptops claim up to 5 hours worth of up-time on one battery–take this figure with a grain of salt. That’s probably how long the battery would last if you put on the blank-screen screen saver and didn’t touch it for 5 hours. Expect more in the range of two or three hours per stock battery under continual use. If you plan to be on flights, trains, or buses for 10 hours at a time, buy some extra batteries, make sure you have a power plug handy, or make sure you get a model that has a nice add-on battery feature that can hold a lot of juice.

http://www.geek.com/laptop-battery/

Well duh, but an interesting read.

[Dave P]

I had a little Asus which was pretty good... but very small.

I have an Acer Aspire 5738 now and love the thing. Though I do run Ubuntu on it and so it doesn't suffer from the memory issues that it might with Vista/Windows 7. Its a Dual Core with 4GB of RAM which really makes the difference.

http://www.geek.com/laptop-battery/

Well duh, but an interesting read.

''Some laptops claim up to 5 hours worth of up-time on one battery–take this figure with a grain of salt. That’s probably how long the battery would last if you put on the blank-screen screen saver and didn’t touch it for 5 hours. Expect more in the range of two or three hours per stock battery under continual use. If you plan to be on flights, trains, or buses for 10 hours at a time, buy some extra batteries, make sure you have a power plug handy, or make sure you get a model that has a nice add-on battery feature that can hold a lot of juice. ''

So I guess I can expect below 5 hours, lol.  It's still pretty impressive all things considered. Far cry from my current packard bell laptop that transfers all of the battery power into cooking any pens I happen to leave near the air vent.

[Simon]

[Rik]

Think of it as a saving on heating bills, Dave.

[sam]

Far cry from my current packard bell laptop that transfers all of the battery power into cooking any pens I happen to leave near the air vent.

lol