Laptops with the Longest Battery Life? 751
Yi Ding asks: "Recently, I have been investigating laptops for clients, and the majority of the complaints about current laptops is battery life. Most laptops just don't have enough juice to even finish a single DVD or write an article for 4-5 hours in an internet cafe. Of course, one can lug around extra battery packs, but it's a pain and often defeats the purpose of having a laptop in the first place, portability. What have your experiences with battery life been and where can I find the longest lasting, reasonably robust, laptop?"
The ones with the longest life (Score:5, Funny)
Re:The ones with the longest life (Score:2, Funny)
Psion 5mx (Score:5, Interesting)
If your clients are just looking for something to check email, web access and are willing to save in
But of course, it's not the newest and latest, and the screen is black and white. But if your clients are geeks, there is a linux version of it.
Good retailer of refurbished ones [fsbusiness.co.uk]. Linux version [sourceforge.net].
If anyone buys one, please mention my name: Dave Smith. I'm riding a small motorcycle round the world and Paul at Psionflexi has been really helpful.
Toshiba Satellite (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Toshiba Satellite (Score:5, Funny)
Comes with a lot of games [google.com] too!
Lame (Score:5, Funny)
One nice thing is that nowadays this approach is quite interoperable with PCs and Macs. Tools to convert to the 3M format have been available for decades and now tools to convert from 3M to a digital format are almost as ubiquitous. On the down side there are some claims that the 3M approach can harm the environment, after all, it does grow on trees. On the other hand a high proportion of discarded equipment can be recovered and processed for reuse.
Re:Toshiba Satellite (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Toshiba Satellite (Score:5, Funny)
I've yet to find anyone who can decode what I have written.
Sometimes not even me.
Re:Toshiba Satellite (Score:3, Interesting)
I have a Toshiba M-200 and I enjoy similar luck. The difference is it is a Tablet PC. Damn I love this thing. No built in optical drive, though. Great for browsing from the couch and doodling. Basically what I bought it for. 1400 by 1050 screen to boot.
IBM X40 (Score:5, Informative)
Total weight is only 1.6kg with the battery, and the laptop is great for everything except graphics-intensive games. The downside is that there is no DVD drive except with a docking station, and it has only a 10.4" screen running 1024x768.
It suits me perfectly for a transatlantic flight though and plays DivX very well for several hours
Re:IBM X40 (Score:3, Interesting)
> not to access the drive at least a few times per
> minute. It would be nice if there were.
Of course there is a way. It's called laptop_mode kernel patch and 2.6 kernel has it (also, the 2.4 kernel from fedora 1, has it). If you have that, then you mess a little with
And the
Re:Toshiba Satellite (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Toshiba Satellite (Score:3, Informative)
My 500mhz Powerbook G4 got 5 hours dim, minimal disk access, reduced processor speed when battery was new. Replaced battery recently, it got ~7, but only for a few weeks; it now gets 6ish. This is very much in power-conservation mode (screen actually off at times), but it's doable and the GUI is still there.
~J
Re:Toshiba Satellite (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Toshiba Satellite (Score:3, Informative)
My iBook G4 800 12" gets about 4-5h with full brightness, and around 5-6h dimmed.
This, of course, with processor scaling set to low in the Energy settings.
-- michell
Called! (Score:5, Informative)
For power conservation, I let the processor cycle down as needed, and I spin down the HD after 5 minutes. I also have the brightness dialed back to about 70% when on battery - that's usually good enough for me. But that's all the steps i need to get over 4 hours. If I were a little more aggressive, I might be able to break 5.
Part of the difference I think is the newer PPC 7457 processors - I believe they're pretty light on the power consumption (I don't have the actual specs handy).
Re:Toshiba Satellite (Score:4, Informative)
I use the thing every day on my commute to work.
This is on a factory model, no aftermarket batteries, no special hacks.
For articles, specs, other basic stuff (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Toshiba Satellite (Score:3, Funny)
I know that one. It's called CAFFEINE. Works for people too!
The most beautiful 12" Powerbook is the BEST (Score:2, Informative)
Re:The most beautiful 12" Powerbook is the BEST (Score:2, Informative)
Re:The most beautiful 12" Powerbook is the BEST (Score:4, Informative)
Re:The most beautiful 12" Powerbook is the BEST (Score:5, Informative)
I once watched "The Thin Red Line" DVD on a cross-country airplane trip, so I know the PowerBook gets at least three hours from the battery even with the optical drive, the backlight, and the sound running. Of course I had the wireless devices disabled and the CPU speed set to the minimum.
Re:The most beautiful 12" Powerbook is the BEST (Score:5, Funny)
Re:The most beautiful 12" Powerbook is the BEST (Score:5, Informative)
IBM also won't give you a DVD burner, and you don't get an optical drive of any kind unless you are lugging around the Ultra(Heavy)Base docking station. Dell's 12" has only external optical drives, unpowered FireWire ports, and again no DVI port.
Also good luck getting Linux to run right with the Intel Pro(tected source code) Wireless LAN and the Intel Extreme(ly proprietary) Graphics adapter.
So I have to say, after shopping the competition, the Apple laptops are unique.
Re:The most beautiful 12" Powerbook is the BEST (Score:3, Informative)
False, they also have a small USB 2.0 combo drive, which draws power from the USB port. The X40 and the combo drive together are still smaller and weight less than the 12" PB.
As you said yourself, everyone has different requirements. If you need a 12" laptop with powered Firewire, built-in optical drive, good 3D accelleration, dvi port, and trackpad,
Re: Uniqueness of Powerbooks (Score:3, Interesting)
One of my good friends bought a high-end Sager
Re:The most beautiful 12" Powerbook is the BEST (Score:3, Interesting)
My largest complaint about my non-DVI 12" PBook (1st generation, 867 MHz) is it's miserable battery life! When it was new, I got some 3,5 hours when the display was rather dimmed, wireless ifaces turned off and CPU usage remained low.
Now, when it is year and two monts old, I no longer can get anything over two hours. Also recently the battery meter has gone really weird, jumping from low charges to full during charging, and falling suddenly from hig
Re:The most beautiful 12" Powerbook is the BEST (Score:3, Informative)
You probably need to replace the battery with a new one. Li-Ion batteries have a specific number of charge cycles that they will last for, after which point they do not hold as much of a charge. Also, the output voltage will not remain as consistent as it once was, causing the battery meter to give inaccurate results.
Re:The most beautiful 12" Powerbook is the BEST (Score:3, Insightful)
A backlit keyboard, better video card and higher screen resolution ?
The 12" PB has the potential to be a great machine, it's just a pity it's such a poor cousin to the other PBs. 9/10 times buyers would be just as well served with a 12" iBook.
Re:The most beautiful 12" Powerbook is the BEST (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:The most beautiful 12" Powerbook is the BEST (Score:3, Informative)
I've often found... (Score:5, Funny)
I've also found... (Score:2)
Re:I've often found... (Score:4, Informative)
Now...admittedly, there are systems that will play a full DVD on a single charge, but if this is a priority for you, then you should own two batteries anyway.
In other words though...while the system certainly matters, how you use it can matter more. (Of course, nothing will save you if you get one of those portable systems that are all Desktop hardware shoe-horned into a portable chassis).
Re:I've often found... (Score:3, Informative)
Trade off (Score:5, Insightful)
Cheers!
Erick
Not quite ... (Score:5, Informative)
Most "features" of a laptop don't really consume extra power if not utilized. For instance the DVD drive only consumes power if it's actually spinning (and mencoder can can take care of that).
To reduce the power consumption of the cpu simply put it to the lowest frequency (speedstep). 600MHz is generally enough to play a movie (DVD or .avi). As far as the LCD screen is concerned - simply reduce its brightness.
I'd personally recommend the Centrino processor line - good perfomance at reasonable power levels (as opposed to Pentium 4 Mobile).
Re:Nota Bene (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Trade off (Score:3, Interesting)
Try reading here [howstuffworks.com] or here [fuelcells.org] for starters.
Fuel cells are not gas cans, and you will certainly not be pouring gasoline into your laptop battery. Please, read before you post.
Re:Trade off (Score:3, Insightful)
But, security on aircraft are a joke anyways. You could carry bottles of almost anything on a plane. A friend of mine filled a Dr. Pepper bottle full of Captain Morgan's spiced rum, and carried it on with her. She was a bit of a drunk. (Ok, a regular alcoholic). They didn't even notice the color was wrong. Hell, Cap't Morgans looks more like gasoline than Dr
iBooks (Score:4, Informative)
Re:iBooks (Score:5, Informative)
Best of all, it's Unix under the hood. Glistening eye candy, and yet I can still fire up vi. Nice.
Re:iBooks (Score:5, Informative)
1) Logged on and did email while stuck on the plane for an hour at the gate, about 45 minutes online via bluetooth -> cell phone (at which point the cell phone battery's about to die).
2) In the air, watched 5 simpsons episodes on DVD. Battery was now at 20%, so I closed and swapped them out (nice that PB 'soft suspend' can handle a battery swap).
3) Watched 2 more episodes on second battery, then landed.
So, first battery gave me about 45 min + (25 * 5) = just under 3 hours to consume 80% of battery, which was all either DVD playing or wireless (bluetooth).
I've been through ~6 Toshiba laptops, from 486s on up to 9100s, all carrying two batteries, and I could never make it across country even using both of them.
Big fan of the PB 15" (Score:4, Informative)
Recently I've also become a big fan of the Kensignton Universal Car/Air Adapter [kensington.com]. You can also get a version that works for AC wall power too [kensington.com] so you can leave the stock brick at home. The Car/Air one is super light and works with both Empower and cigarette lighter style jacks. I cannot tell you how valuable unlimited DVDs and games are when you need to pacify a kid who can no longer be amused by more preferable diversions. And of course it's always fun when 4 hours into your flight all the other laptop users are looking longingly at your super bright screen while theirs are pitch black.
Apple iBook G4 (Score:5, Informative)
I'm a Linux user but Mac laptops are lovely, with excellent battery life. Too bad Airport Express (and power management?) isn't supported on Linux PPC.
Re:Apple iBook G4 (Score:4, Interesting)
I've routinely done cross-US flights playing MP3s the whole way.
Re:Apple iBook G4 (Score:5, Insightful)
Besides, is a wonderful tool.
Re:Apple iBook G4 (Score:4, Funny)
And if you say anything about "just use an external mouse", that doesn't work when you're actually using it as a laptop, and it's inconvenient as hell. If I wanted a portable desktop, I'd get one. But I don't, I want a laptop computer that is entirely self-contained.
Re:Apple iBook G4 (Score:3, Interesting)
While I won't go so far as to say that my iBook G4 lasts that long, it always lasts a minimum of 4 hours of continuous use on a single battery. I have the older 800 Mhz 12" model with 640 MB of RAM (fully loaded, keeps hard disk activity down). Things light as a feather, snappy, and rarely gives me any problems.
Like the OP I'm a linux user (Slackware), but I love this little iBook. It does anything I need (I've got all my typical linux t
PowerBook (Score:5, Informative)
Electrovaya (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Electrovaya (Score:5, Informative)
I'm most happy with my Fujitsu Lifebook P-2120 [members.shaw.ca] (runs Linux nicely [ngogeeks.com]). With the extended main battery and the drive bay battery, I get up to nine hours.
Of course, the cpu is a bit outdated. And I only do work on it, if I were to watch DVDs or stuff I'd probably hook it up to A/C power anyway. But I like the small size, the light weight, and the fact that pretty much everything is in it.
But I hated the fact that I had to order it from the US (I live in Germany) and it took me forever to find a retailer who would send it [laptopsinc.com], just because Fujitsu refuses to send them to Europe, and Fujitsu-Siemens in Germany doesn't even offer them.
If you want something ultra-portable with everything in it that you want to use mostly for working, it's quite lovely. Unfortunately, it looks like it's not being sold anymore.
I know this doesn't quite answer your request, but it might still be a good idea to check Portable One [laptopsinc.com] (they used to be called Global Computers when I ordered from them).
Don't know about the new Fujitsu P series anymore. And, I have to say, I still hold a grudge against laptop manufacturers and computer magazines, because practically all of them advertize performance, never battery life. Most laptop tests I see do performance benchmarks, and stuff like Quake III benchmarks and all that bullshit. WTF? No one really seems to want to make an effort in constructing a laptop with long battery life. Quite frustrating, that. I don't wanna play games for half an hour. I wanna use the thing for work, preferably nine or more hours before having to recharge.
New Thinkpads and plugs. (Score:2, Flamebait)
to this article [pcmag.com] it looks like the latest model has gotten up to a six hour plus lifespan. Of course, it still costs a bundle.
I live on my laptop and it's an older IBM model, so the battery life is pretty rotten. My solution has just been to find a plug. If I'm on the road, I keep a power converter [shop.com] in the car and plug the laptop in so I can run at a full charge. It's also good for keeping the three-year-old entertai [thomastoybox.com]
IBM X31 -- 4 n change hours (Score:5, Interesting)
If you want to burn cd's, bring the base and put a batter in it and it'll last another 3 or so hours.
If you want ultra long battery life, get the super extended batter that clips onto the bottom, just like a base. It'll give you almost 9 hours!
This laptop is incredible. I highly suggest it for anyone who doesn't want to lug around a 6lb laptop.
Thinkpads (Score:4, Interesting)
I can't recommend the IBM Thinkpads too highly. They're not the cheapest laptops around, but they're really well-made. I have a T40 with an extended-life battery, and I can get nearly eight hours out of it if I'm careful (dim the screen, turn down the CPU clock, use Linux 2.6 laptop mode to keep the disk spun down as much as possible) and around six if I'm not (watching movies on DVD).
Beyond battery life, my T40 is built like a rock, a fact my head can attest to. I was in the passenger seat of my car a couple of months ago, with my T40 on my lap, when my wife fell asleep and went off the road, rolling the car four times starting at about 70 mph. The laptop bounced off my face, beating the hell out of it (my face, not the laptop) and was then ejected through the window. I'm not sure if the laptop broke the window or if it was already broken. The T40 was picked up from where it landed in the dirt about 100 feet from where the car stopped. Damage? Well, one of the USB ports was damaged (the one that had my mouse plugged into it -- we never found the mouse), the lid latch kind of sticks when you try to close the top, and the case has a couple of minor scratches.
I've had three previous Thinkpads, too, and they've all been excellent, well-built and well-designed machines. Some of the others didn't have great battery life, though.
IMO, if you want a really good x86-based laptop, buy a Thinkpad. If you want the best possible laptop, and don't need to run Windows, buy a Powerbook.
Disclosure: I work for IBM, and own IBM stock (and Apple stock, and Dell stock) but I don't think those facts affect my opinion. If you don't believe me, ask me about some other IBM products, like, say, Lotus Notes.
Re:IBM X31 -- 4 n change hours (Score:3, Insightful)
Win-D = Show the desktop (4% of my needs)
Win-E = Explore (1% of my needs)
Win-Break (hah!) = Device Manager (once or twice a year)
Do your research (Score:3, Insightful)
One man's long life is goign to be another man's power hog. It all depends on how you use the machine and how you set up the power saving features.
Apple (Score:3, Interesting)
Electrovaya (Score:2)
-Erwos
Centrino Based (Score:3, Interesting)
One problem, you won't be gaming or doing anything really CPU intensive if you want to save power. On power conserving settings, the processor runs much slower than the normal speed and the screen is not as bright, but that's going to be the case for any laptop to get the battery life it claims.
It's a trade-off (Score:2)
If you want long battery life then you're going to have to accept something a little heavier. There's a limiting factor called power density, which is a measure of Ah/g (or Wh/g) you can extract from a power cell. This is improving with newer cell technologies like Li-Poly (Lithium Polymer), but Li-Po's have some interesting charging requirements which make me *not* want to ha
Centrino (Score:5, Informative)
I have a Fujitsu Lifebook 5010 that reliably gets me just under 5 hours battery life, maybe more like 4 hours if I have wireless enabled (and there's a hardware switch on the case). Something like playing a DVD is going to suck even more battery, because of the need to spin the drive motor, but I'd wager I have enough juice for that most times.
Centrino isn't a blindingly huge advantage, though. Fujitsu makes a non-Centrino version of the same laptop that comes with 802.11g, and I understand it only gets marginally shorter battery life, and that's all from anecdotal accounts. Centrino does a good job, but a big reason this model's battery lasts so long is because it's 900MHz (so doesn't run as hot, so doesn't need as much energy to run the fan) and it only has a 10 inch screen.
Centrino-based ThinkPads (Score:2, Informative)
15" iBook (Score:3, Informative)
Centrino (Score:3, Informative)
Extra Battery (Score:3, Informative)
Other than that things like forcing the laptop to stay in ultra-conservative power miser mode, or getting a laptop based on a low power processor (Pentium M, Transmeta Crusoe, etc) can help. Also, if you are willing to pay for it, see if there is an extra battery for the laptop you are buying that has a higher capacity than the one that ships standard. Replace the stock with the high capacity, and you've got more battery life.
My experience (Score:5, Interesting)
Honestly it works. I work regularly in cafes for entire days. It just takes looking like a fool for a minute, asking permission, then pluging my stuff and setting up my "office" in front of everybody, I can stay there for the whole day. And also, if you go through enough cups of coffee, I guarantee you the owner won't ever ask you to get lost, because what he earns on you certainly outweighs what he loses in electricity.
Re:My experience (Score:5, Funny)
But that involves breaking the cardinal rule of geekdom - i.e. never speak to anyone if at all possible. Gruff barking/grunting should be about the tops for a general social encounter such as that.
Dell 600m Centrino - 8 Hours (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Dell 600m Centrino - 8 Hours (Score:3, Interesting)
Probably if it's like any of the Dells I use. On my Inspiron, putting a spare battery in the media bay drains both batteries simultaneously, resulting often in a much better that 2X gain in runtime. (For some reason when they drain together they drain slower.)
Toshiba Tecra M1 with Li-Ion (Score:3, Informative)
I can watch TWO DVD movies on a plane with it on a single charge.
When I bring it home and work on it in the evening, it can sit on until I go to bed with its WiFi card on full power and not run out.
I typically get 5h+
This is going to sound like an ad for IBM (Score:3, Informative)
I work as a developer and requested an IBM R50p with 1Gb RAM, which is plenty to handle Tomcat + IntelliJ + Firefox + Outlook + other crud.
On the occasions where I have to go to meetings all day, I've got 8+ hours out of the battery (taking notes, wireless network etc). Admittedly, this is the extended battery (hangs a little out of the back), but with a DVD writer, 60Gb and IBM sturdiness, its definitely the best laptop I've used.
iBook G3 (Score:5, Informative)
Nothing beats Apple laptops in my opinion, especially in the low-end. Something comparable to a 12" iBook in size, weight, and battery life, ends up costing $1500 in the PC world (at least when I checked out the Thinkpads).
Laptops with the Shortest battery life? (Score:3, Interesting)
Really? Portability hampered by a battery? (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh, come off it. The handful of ounces a battery weighs pales in comparison to most of the other accouterments a mobile fellow or gals carries around.
Besides, for most laptops, two batteries worth will far outlast any "long-life" laptop's single charge life. I'm not saying it's the ultimate in convenience, but if long life is really, really important to you, get the machine you really want and will be productive on, and then cough up for another battery.
Comment removed (Score:3, Interesting)
Fujitsu Lifebook P-5020D - 8-11 hours (Score:5, Informative)
It's a small laptop with a slower chip (~1Ghz), which is exactly what I was looking for. The laptop almost fits in a 1-gallon freezer bag, but remains fully useful. I carry it around in the front pocket of my backpack or a thin leather valise. It plays DVDs just fine, burns CDs just quickly enough, has excellent wireless antennae, and the long battery life and portable size make it fit my needs for a non-desktop-replacement portable computing machine. Apparently you can get it to dual boot your favorite distro, but I haven't had the motivation to tackle that yet.
Incidentally, I bought the machine from Portable One [portableone.com] in San Jose, and I recommend them- good customer service and good selection, with reasonable prices.
Powerbook experiences. (Score:5, Informative)
My newer Aluminum 15" (firewire 800) Powerbook can NOT do this. I can NOT play an entire DVD from start to finish with sound and everything running at full tilt. It's possible with some fudging of settings I could get a whole movie to work -but I haven't tried.
I imagine the two biggest consumers of power during DVD playback are
1) DVD drive spinning
- this could probably be mitigated by ripping the movie into quicktime and playing off your hard drive (which I believe consumes less power than the DVD drive)
2)Powering the speakers.
- Someone clue me in here, but I imagine you'd save power if you plugged your headphones in rather than powering the onboard speaker. And you'd get a better experience plugging the sound output into an entertainment center too.
Joseph Elwell.
Re:Powerbook experiences. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Powerbook experiences. (Score:3, Informative)
You don't need an Albook running at full speed to play a DVD, whereas on an old Tibook that was a possibility (although I can run mine in low processor speed for it fine).
What's really sucking your battery, though, is that lovely 15" screen. My personal experience: watching a dvd with screen at full brightness gets a little under 3 hours of life. Watching at half brightness (an almost unnoticeable difference unless you're in direct sunlight or something) gi
Sony Picturebook + ext pack (Score:3, Informative)
A 700 MHz or so machine with a nice screen, that was very small, would be nice. I've got a Dell monster now and I never take it anywhere because it's too damn heavy.
Look at subnotebooks (Score:3, Informative)
IBM Thinkpad all the way (Score:3, Informative)
If I let it go into standby mode when not in use I never need the AC adapter the whole day. Just wonderful to go into a meeting and watch everyone else with their P4-2.6Ghz laptops (more like "portables") scramble for the one power socket in the room while I just sit back and smile
I sometimes watch DVDs on battery power while relaxing on my bed, doesn't really drain the battery as well. Imho there is no way around a Pentium-M if you want serious processing power combined with extended battery life.
Battery saving tips (Score:5, Informative)
If you have a variable speed CPU like the AMD Ahtlon XP-M then you can use SpeedSwitchXP [diefer.de] (or similar) to force it to run at the slowest speed. For the tasks you mention 500 MHz is plenty of power.
Rip your DVD to the HDD and play it from there.
Disable WiFi and Bluetooth even if they aren't actually connected. They will continously ping looking for other devices, which does hurt battery life. Most notebooks have a keyboard shortcut to disable it.
One of the most useful utils is MobileMeter [cmu.edu]. This app will show the amount of current your notebook is currently consuming, so you can play with various settings (like backlight intensity) and see the exact affect it has on power consumption.
Finally, what's wrong with using a spare battery? Modern notebooks can hibernate and resume in less than a minute, which is trivial downtime to swap batteries.
Dan East
P-M (Score:5, Informative)
How about a universal battery pack? (Score:3, Interesting)
G3 PowerBook (Wallstreet) (Score:4, Informative)
Use a laptop with Pentium M CPU (Score:3, Insightful)
I also have iBook 12" and I have used it for over 5 hours on battery. I stopped using it after 5 hours so I am not sure how much more it would have gone for.
Fujitsu!... (Score:3, Informative)
Well, we ended up getting this one:
http://webshop.fujitsupc.com/fpc/Ecommerce/buil
The Fujitsu 7000 series has a hell of a lot of bang for the buck and if you are interested in long battery life - it's hard to beat this. Fujitsu claims that the 7000 series can run for up to 11 HOURS on battery power. This is, of course, using the modular bay for a battery.
Nonetheless, it seems he's able to get over 5 hours on just the single stock battery for non-DVD use. Centrino-based laptops are very well designed and when used with the ultra-low voltage processors are unbeatable, IMHO.
Finding a dealer though... That's the REAL challenge...
Get Thinkpad T4xp (Score:3, Informative)
15+ hours battery life here. (Score:4, Informative)
I have the extended + modular batteries, each give over 7 battery life, and I managed to squeeze over 18 hours from light to average usage (with pcmcia powered down, battery management set to performance and screen brightness on just under medium).
The laptop itself is a little slow, but seems to be perfect for reading books, watching movies/dvds and programming (with distcc). High bitrate divx play perfect, and even certain games like warcraft3 can be made playable under wine. (ATI Rage Mobility 8mb, with accelerated gatos drivers).
Also great linux support, and works pretty much out of box with everything. Sound card has hardware mixing (amazing that nforce2 and many via chips dont). There is also an optical out to plug to your hifi at no loss of quality!
Overall, highly recommended laptop that I had for around 2 years now that can be gotten dirt cheap. Slight show of tear like headphone jack has bad contact now (only if you touch the plug though, so not dramatic). Cant see me replacing it anytime soon though.
There are newer transmeta based laptops as well, and if battery and portability is your goal, they beat centrinos in every possible way (centrino requiring 2-3 times more power, bigger heavier batteries to provide similar battery life at the gain of performance).
Anyway, just my opinion, yours might differ, but over 15 hour battery life impressive by any standard.
Compaq TC1000 (Transmeta) (Score:3, Informative)
With the transmeta long-run utility set to max savings, low display brightnes and no wireless I was reading an e-book during a transatlantic flight and it still had a significant amount of spare juice in the battery at the end of the flight (well, it wasn't exactly the entire flight, I did power it down during takeoff and landing ':)
This machine doesn't have a dvd-drive so I can't comment on that (I guess I could get a decrypter and copy a movie to the hard disk but I haven't tried that)
They're very lightweight and you can find them on ebay at reasonable prices
Application startup performance is quite bad though :(
Sony Vaio TR3 (Score:3)
It has a killer sharp widescreen, and comes with basically everything you need.
With the larger battery, you can get 7-10 hours.
I was going to get the Dell 300m, until I found out that it doesn't come with a DVD player built-in. Who the hell wants to deal with a modular DVD player on a plane? Hell no!
I love the Sony TR3.
Dump the ROM Drive and RIP your movies (Score:3, Informative)
I use a Dell C600 (PIII-1000-Speedstep)
First I pack the ROM drive away and replace it with the second battery. I also carry a 3rd batt just in case. Second I also RIP my DVD's (DVDDecrypter) to the hard drive - spinning the harddrive takes far less juice than spinning a DVD. Lastly I use a hardware & user profile that has any extraneous devices, apps, utilities disabled.
Re:Plug it in, Plug it in! (Score:2, Funny)
Re:dell laptops (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:dell laptops (Score:3, Insightful)
As to the original post... you know they usually have AC power available at net cafe's, right?
Re:Lost Life (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Lost Life (Score:4, Informative)
To fix it you need to run the battery _completely_ dry. Run it for as long as you can until it enters sleep because of perceived 0% charge. Then let it sleep (of course without a charger attached) until the battery is exhausted.
The problem is that since there really is plenty of charge in the battery it can sustain sleep for many days
Since the machine will turn off when the battery is exhausted be sure to close all running applications before setting it to sleep.
Once the machine turns off you can recharge the battery again and take advantage of the full capacity.
If you are electrically inclined I guess you could place a 1K resistor between + and - on the battery to drain it more quickly.