Battery Life.

Hi, I have the new M17X and I was just wondering, what kind of battery life can I set it to in order to get the max out of it? I'm going to be going to college soon and I plan to take it with me, I cannot have a dead battery after a hour and a half of class time. Any suggestions from your experience?

 

I don't think the M17x is very practical for a college situation. I'm saying this because I have the M15x and it is borderline too big for college already. I can expect 2.5 hours out of mine with the 9 cell.

 

I get about 3 hours out of my M17x with the brightness fairly low and not many programs running.

 

What about with the power saving setting on as well as the Main Graphic Card disabled? Is t here a bigger battery than the 9 cell? What are my options here.

 

in stealth mode with low brightness and wireless you chould be able to squezze 3hours some out of it

i'm able to squeze 2h out of my m17 and i don,t have stealth mode so runing a crossfire config

and if you wan more just keep turning thing down

 

Power savings just dims the screen and puts the system into standby quicker than balanced mode mostly, it does throttle the CPU back a bit though...not that much of a difference. Main GPU disabled is pretty much a given, you'd be lucky to get 1.5 hours with it enabled..

I believe there is only a 9-cell available right now, your other option would be to get an additional battery.

How long are your classes? I'm at University and most classes are 50 min or 1 hour and 20 min..very rarely are there 3 hour classes..and when there are, they usually have power outlets in the rooms.

 

You can definitely try bringing it to college but it is very...subjective.
I personally use M17X for work/conferences/meetings/presentations/etc and walk a lot with it.
Others may say it's too big and heavy, but I can't use a laptop with a screen less than 17" for all my needs.
As for the battery life, you can easily get 2.5-3hrs (more than 2.5 hrs of constant movie playback+full brightness. Even my netbook failed to compare).
I don't think that realistically M15X can get even half of that.
I managed to squeeze almost 2hrs with SLI ON.
The bulkiness will be diminished if you use a comfortable backpack.

 

Bulkiness isn't a problem, I have a very comfortable Messenger bag and most of my classes are a block away from my dorm. I am not sure how long my classes will be yet ( Orientation in January ) but I am pretty sure they will be anywhere from 1~3 Hours.

 

3 hours is the norm

 

3 hours of what, class or of battery power?