Jeff Mottle Posted December 22, 2005 Share Posted December 22, 2005 Was wondering if anyone has experience with a laptop that offers long battery life. I have a Toshiba Satellite 5100 now and it's all but useless unless it's plugged in. With wi-fi I get at best 1.5 hours of uptime. Granted it is a desktop replacement. I am considering getting a laptop that is designed more for extended usage rather than ultra powerful. 95% of my usuage is email, DreamWeaver, Fireworks, word processing etc. When I first purchased my laptop I thought I'd want the ability to run MAX and such, but I've found I almost never do. I want something light, big screen (kind of a contradiction), super long battery life (5+ hours using wi-fi), and a DVD/CD drive and/or burner. I've been looking at Dell, Toshiba, Acer website and don't see anything that has long battery life. Am I lusting for a non-existant machine? Any feedback advice welcome. PS. Don't mention Sony, I have the same distane for them as Maxwell users as of late have for NL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ecastillor Posted December 22, 2005 Share Posted December 22, 2005 youre asking the 60 millions dollar question.....I was lookin for the exat same thing and couldnt come up with anything....it seems its either a powerful machines with short battery life or the other way around.... I ended up buying a more powerful machine with a crapy battery life....about 1.2 hours... Good luck and if you happen to find something please tell us about it... Merry XMAs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ernest Burden III Posted December 22, 2005 Share Posted December 22, 2005 Mine is old now, a Dell. Other than battery life it has been great. I think you need to use the second battery slot, and so forget 'light'. But forget light anyway, I carry the computer, an extra drive to swap in, a mouse and the AC adapter. It's far from light. And battery life? I can get through 9/10ths of a movie. After four years since I got mine is 1 1/2 - 2 hours the best we can do? Remember the old GhettoBlaster 'portables' that took 6 - 8 D batteries--people would have to heft them around on their shoulder to annoy the entire neighborhood. Now an ipod the size of credit card is all you need. So why aren't laptops doing better on battery life? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3dp Posted December 22, 2005 Share Posted December 22, 2005 dell m series with 2 batteries i will regular run 5-6 hours with max/doom/quake/postal/photoshop true the second battery only lasts maybe 1.5 hours but the main power cell is great (although my first only lasted 2 months and swopped on warranty but fine since the past 15 months) dell is no lightweight but it is a workstation you can carry around and get a workout at the same time :-0 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheAllusionisst Posted December 22, 2005 Share Posted December 22, 2005 Well since you already have a Toshiba, I am hesitant to mention one, but I got a Toshiba Techrs M4 Convertable tablet PC, works like a regular laptop, but also folds up into a tablet PC that allows you to draw on the screen very nice. The DVD recorder pops out to allow an additional battery, something I didn't purchase but the option is there. Straight use around 3 hours, I haven't watched a movie on it and only use it during business trips so I can't give you a comparison to what you have. XSI doesn't seem to run on it, but everything else so far has. So with the addtional batter and the DVD recorder in your bag it may do what you want. The screen isn't huge, but it is high resolution and has a dedicated Nividia card FWIW! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arnold Sher Posted December 22, 2005 Share Posted December 22, 2005 I run IBM 1gig RAM 1.7M Centrino and find a perfect balance between speed and time on the battery lasts 5 hours without any issues, in fact i haven't test it longer as i've never had an opportunity but seems to work like a bomb... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ecastillor Posted December 22, 2005 Share Posted December 22, 2005 yeah...the thing with centrino is that is not as fast....I tested one against a p4 and if you use a centrino for rendering in max its slooooow..... on the other hand the battery life is really good.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher Nichols Posted December 22, 2005 Share Posted December 22, 2005 I love my cheap Sager laptop. This powerful machine can get about 4 to 5 hours easily on doing small tasks. 2.5 on DVD watching, about 1.5 with heavier 3d work. http://www.sagernotebook.com/pages/notebooks/product2.cfm?ProductType=3880&SubType=C The key to all this is a Pentium M CPU. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher Nichols Posted December 22, 2005 Share Posted December 22, 2005 yeah...the thing with centrino is that is not as fast....I tested one against a p4 and if you use a centrino for rendering in max its slooooow..... on the other hand the battery life is really good.... My centrino 2.0 test equivilent to a 3.4 P4 when rendering (in Vray). General rule of thumb is take the speed and multiply by 1.7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bokkins Posted December 22, 2005 Share Posted December 22, 2005 hi jeff, apple mac powerbooks are light weight, has wide screen and has a battery life of 3 hours. best in wifi connectivity too. but its not that friendly to 3d. but is superb for graphics apps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thinice Posted December 22, 2005 Share Posted December 22, 2005 Just a thought. From my experience, rendering is a real killer of battery life. Can easily cut it by half or less than otherwise. So, if you are on battery, try to minimise anything to do with rendering. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ecastillor Posted December 23, 2005 Share Posted December 23, 2005 So, if you are on battery, try to minimise anything to do with rendering. ................... thats kind of hard, when you do renderings for a living, dont you think? Just kidding...I know what you mean....I only render in my laptop when its hooked up to the power supply.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SunGlare Posted January 1, 2006 Share Posted January 1, 2006 You need 12 cell battery. I bought one for my hp, instead of 6, and now I have 4-6h on full charge, depends on type of proccesing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigroo Posted January 2, 2006 Share Posted January 2, 2006 I get about 4 hours from my Vaio using Max, Photoshop & Acad. It's not the fastest around but I was swayed by the Black LCD screen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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