I saw the best looking Aus Z33 today but it had no battery life....

The build was great, the keys were good, the screen was sharp.....but while I demo'd it the battery drained like water going down a bathtub.....no way you would get more than 1 1/2 hours out of this 12.1" notebook.....

I wish Asus made a 12" that had battery life.....

Anyone know why the battery is so weak?

Thank you

Elliot

 

There's a 9-cell battery that gives it 5-7hrs of life, but it sticks out the back about an inch.

 

yeah, cysus is right. The 12 inch models Asus have optional 6 and 9 cell batteries for sale. A 9-cell costs around $120-$150, and its almost standard to buy the optional extended battery for these models. The 3-cell that is included is more for looks/weight. (Approx weight 3-cell .3lb, 6-cell .6lb, 9-cell .9lb)

If battery life is an issue to you, I would just get the z33 with a second extended battery.

Having the extended battery stick out the back isnt that bad, many of the notebook that you will see in bestbuy (from companies like sony, medion, ect) will have models that have standard batteries that "stick-out." Also, the most popular 12 inch notebook, the IBM Thinkpad x40 comes standard with a 4 cell battery that has the exact same battery life as the z33. Likewise, many x40 users upgrade their battery.

 

I have the Z33a and have been fairly happy with the battery life. On the standard battery, I get ~1.5 hours with wireless running. I've done a little bit of tweaking with Centrino Hardware Control. I bet I could get around 2 hours if I turned wireless off (like when I'm typing this) and other tweaks.

However, I am waiting on the extended battery (backordered).

dave

 

You can't complain about the battery life it gets with the standard 3 cell battery, especially with the performance you can get in the machine........ For a fairly high end system, you can still get about 1.5/2 hours ......... For a 3 cell battery, that's 30 minutes + per cell which is really good.

 

I noticed today that my battery meter is reading closer to 2 hours when I pull the plug. The battery must be improving with age (like all of us!)

-Dave

:asus:

 

You could try undervolting and whatnot... plus with various tweaking, I'm sure someone could squeeze roughly 2+ hours on the standard battery.

 

Again, it obviously depends on the cpu / hard drive and settings you use..... but 2 hours on a normal configuration of a z33 would be ideal. Frame that w/ a 9 cell battery and you can expect 6 hours..... that's not bad at all.