why is the battery life on asus so bad?

Hi guys I am trying to decide between Asus and Dell to get a new notebook but have heard the battery life is bad on Asus, for a company that makes such good notebooks and motherboard why is the battery life so bad? I want a light gaming notebook with decent battery life..how many hours are you getting on your asus notebooks?

 

You can't really have a gaming notebook and good battery life. The presence of a powerful dedicated gpu will drain the battery life significantly over an IGP.

If you want powerful hardware for gaming, you can't expect ultraportable-like battery life.

And don't think Asus is the only manufacturer with this problem. A 14" thinkpad with the base battery and dedicated gpu gets barely 2 hours of battery life. A Dell 1520 with a high capacity battery gets around 3 hours.

 

You definitely can have a gaming notebook (HD 2600/8600M GT) and good battey life (3.5-4h), we live in the 21 century. However, you won't find this notebook in the Asus section....

And Asus is the only company that offer all of their current notebooks with sub par battery life, at least I can't think of any other company that is doing that at the monent.

 

Hmm I guess I'll have to look elsewhere to find a laptop with decent battery life in that case..I dunno why Asus doesnt fix the issue.

 

exactly - all you need is a 9 or 12-cell battery - of course, those things stick out of the back of the notebook and kill the aesthetics, but its the price you must pay for good battery life + a good graphics card...

 

No, there are notebooks like the HP 8510p/w and Macbook Pro, which are thin and light, and have both powerful video cards and good battery life, and their standard batteries DON'T stick out...

 

Actually, the main factor that affect battery life is how many cells the battery pack has. The 8510p has a 8 cell battery while most other 15" notebooks have 6. Also, from the lungboy's review of the 8510p, it gets a little over 3 hours of battery life. Most Asus notebooks (with a 6 cell battery) will get between 2-3 hours. So in terms of battery life per cell, Asus notebooks seems to be on par with the rest. Also, in some review, the macbook pro gets just under 3 hours with its 6 cell battery.

 

Actually, the HP 8510p gets 3.5-4 hours, and the Macbook Pro gets 4-5 hours.

Also, the Asus notebooks (with the 6 cell battary) get under 2 hours, while the V1s (with the 8 cell battery) gets 2.5 hours, which is terrible.

So the Asus notebooks have sub par battery life and that is a widely known fact and I know that you are an Asus fanboy, so don't worry.

 

are you quoting manufacturer "estimated battery life" times with asus "actual" battery life times? the macbook pro wouldnt get 4-5 hours unless you just turned the thing on, turned off the screen saver, turned the brightness down to zero, and just let it sit there in low power mode

my gf bought a macbook pro (15") 2 months ago - that thing gets 3.5 hours on a REALLY good day - averages 3 hours (sometimes 2 hours 50 minutes, sometimes 3 hours 15 minutes, etc) - please note, she doesnt game at ALL - shes a teacher - all she does is use word, excel, safari, and itunes and doesnt even get CLOSE to 4 hours - lol

i understand you have something against asus computers, which is apparent in your "fanboy" remark, and thats fine - asus makes gaming computers - and definitely shouldnt be looked at for battery life

im not even trying to say the asus has great battery life - not at ALL - but to pull numbers out of your @ss to misinform the general public is just unnecessary

a regular user will DEFINITELY not see TWICE as much battery life out of a macbook pro (i have no hands on experience with the 8510p - but im willing to bet in a "real world" environment, those numbers are exaggerated as well - although 3.5 hours is a definite possibility - with minimal use)

EDIT - yeah - i just read that 8510p review - looks like the actual reviewer got different, more realistic numbers - 3 hours sounds about right

 

No, I don't...

The actual battery life of the HP 8510p is 3.5-4 hours (personal experience) and every owner from this forum will confirm that. (Btw, HP claims 5 hours)

Also, I had the V1s and it gets 2.5 hours (again ask the owners) with the some settings as the HP 8510p gets 3.5-4h

No, emporiumboutique makes fanboyish post in the "what to buy" section all the time, that's the reason..

Actually, if you educate your ignorant ass a bit, you will see that Asus has some terrible battery life issue at the moment.

People can write whatever they want in their reviews and use whatever settings they want as well..

But, here is another review, if you feel like reading..
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3994

 

^ did you even read what you quoted - i say:

"im not even trying to say the asus has great battery life - not at ALL"

and then you say: "actually...asus has some terrible battery life issue at the moment"

?!?!?

its almost like you pretended i said the opposite of what i actually did just to use the "ignorant ass" line - lol

you tell me to educate my "ignorant ass" and then go on to repeat my sentiment - that kinda kills your credibility...

and you can go on harping about the macbook pro's 4 hour battery life - its just not true:
- my "real life" test - about 3 hours on average (much less if playing a dvd - maybe a full half hour less)
- cnet rates it at 2 hours 54 minutes
- pcmag - 2 hours 25 minutes
- nbr (which is, im assuming, where you got your 4 hour figure on half-brightness) - just under 3 hours:

even that review labels the battery as just "ok" - and note - if i cut my brightness down, run no games and just do word processing and listen to music on my g1s - i can get over 3 hours easy - unfortunately, thats not how i (or a MAJORITY of notebook users) like to use my notebook

 

Ok guys I didnt mean to start a fight here but I do agree from all the reading that I have done that Asus battery life is not as good as other notebooks but they still do make some good notebooks. I cant afford a macbook pro but want a decent laptop thats light and can do some gaming on it..any asus suggestions? Nothing 17 inch though..I just want to hear some opinions from asus owners.

 

G1S is not what I'd call "light". The V1S is lighter, smaller, and is a reasonable quality notebook, with a similarly powerful graphic card (to the G1) I believe. And (huge advantage IMHO) it doesn't look gaudy, but professional and business-like.

Some are worried by its build quality and mention a lot of flex -- others are happy about it. You need to read some reviews and form your own opinion about that.

Be aware that currently the V1S has a bug that prevents it to be run with both main and modular battery. If you don't plan to use modular batt, it's not an issue, but otherwise you should wait until it's sorted out or go for something else.

 

That was related to your "but to pull numbers out of your @ss to misinform the general public is just unnecessary" comment

I didn't say the MBP would get 4 hours with full brightness, of course you should cut it down but that notebook has only a 6 cell battery at the end.

 

Enough flaming here people please, lets have a factual and sensible discussion please rather than people pulling opinions out of their or anyone else's ass.

Thanks

 

OK, sorry......

Just to let you know, the HP 8510p is one of the thinnest and lightest (6.1 lbs) 15.4" notebooks around and can be had for 1400$ with decent specs.

http://www.shopblt.com/cgi-bin/shop...01000100U015_BN28031P.shtml&order_id=!ORDERID!

 

Was lurking on this thread, and I'm sorry Dreamer. You're coming off way too hard on this subject. Asus isn't as bad as you say they are, and Macbook Pros are not as good as you say they are, are the HP 8510s as good as you say they are? Well, let us decide shall we, instead of trying to spoon feed your opinions onto this thread.

Just stating the facts here.

EDIT: I just looked a HP 8510p review and it does look pretty good. A well balanced machine and a worthy competitor to the G1S-A1 in terms of performance and gaming, so to Dreamer's credit he does have a point. If it indeed has 3.5 hours, It may be worth looking deeper into.

 

Just to clarify things up, my w7s with a 6 cell battery gets 2.5 hours battery life. Don't know where you got "Asus 6 cell batteries get less than 2 hours". Also, I have good reasons to like Asus. I have used other notebooks before and have found Asus to be most reliable.

 

Yes, but your Asus is a 13.3" notebook with the 8400M G... you consider it a gaming notebook...?

And the others mentioned in this thread are 15.4"... Check out the 15.4" and even the 14.1" Asus notebooks and you will see what battery life they have with the 6 cell battery.

 

My A8js with a T7200 and Go7700, 7200rpm 200gb HDD, 6 cell battery, with light usage (no wifi, just word, excel, and stuff like that), gets me around 2h30m . If I turn the wifi on with some light web surfing I lose about 10 mins. Tha battery is almost 1 year old, that only has a 6% wear according to NHC. So, not bad for a 1 year old laptop. If I was able to get a 8 cell battery on it (which I can't due to the way the battery is placed), I would easily get the 3 hours or more (150mins/6*8=200mins, ie, 3h20 roughly speaking)

 

I'm talking about the current Asus models, the Asus A8js is a previous generation model.

That's for those who like reading reviews:
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3794
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=188724
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=189437

 

The F8SV-A1 is definately a smaller laptop, which is 14.1", which sport a 6 -cell battery. Problem is, it has a dedicated 8600m video that would rival even a G1S. The cells will have to be smaller to fit the footprint, in comparison, the W3J (it's predecessor) had a unique battery design that allowed larger cells fit but sacrificing thickness which allowed better battery performance of around 2.5-3hours.

It's not because of poor quality, but because of limitations of size and power balance. Unless ASUS(or any other company for that matter) discovers a technology for batteries rather than the industry standard Li-Polymer-Ion, everyone else in the market will be juggling this balance. I still find the F8SV a nice machine btw despite it's short comings. Just get an external APC (UPB50 or 70) battery and be happy!

 

The F8sv has the DDR2 version of the 8600M GT, so it wouldn't rival the G1s, which is GDDR3.

And the V2s with the 8600M GS, which is crippled with a 64-bit memory bus and performs almost like the 8400M GS, has poor battery life as well.

 

I said rival, I did not say that it would be equal in performance. Besides the benchmarks show only a slight difference between DDR2 and DDR3 in games. 14" and 15.4" laptop is a huge difference in my opinion.

 

Isn't the V2S considered as a previous generation model as well(if the A8Js is in your opinion)?

 

Well, the gaming performance difference is not slight to me but that's off topic now...

"Huge"... depends on the notebooks that are being compared, it may not be that huge.

Also, I believe most people buy 14.1" notebooks for portability purposes, which means they also want good battery life... but what portability with 2 hours?! Sorry.

In the end, I just want my mobile notebook to be mobile, you may feel differently...

 

Err, sorry but the V2s is a new laptop, and has a DX10 card, right?

And the same goes for the 15.4" version V1s, which has the 8600M GT...

 

Well, to answer the OP's original question (which he didn't specify what size notebook he/she wants), a nice light gaming notebook would be (from Asus and Dell only) the Asus W7S and Dell XPS m1330. Depending on what your definition of "decent" battery life, you'll have to read review of each of the notebooks and go from there.
Also, to answer the OP's next question about Asus batter life, for my C90s, I get ~1.5 hours and my w7s gets ~2.5 hours (as mentioned in my previous post) - all these are on battery saving mode with web browsing and using word. I doubt you'll consider the Eee, so i'll omit that.

@ Dreamer, please try to be less aggravated to other members. We are all here to help. Although I'm an advocate Asus user, I don't always recommend Asus to everyone as you stated. I've recommended others such as Sager, lenovo and many others.

 

With little regard for my own safety, I'll wade into the fray

In my opinion, what you're looking for no longer exists, which is a real shame because I'm going to be looking for one too within the next couple years. Each subsequent generation of notebooks has had lower battery life in general than the previous one, based on the last 2-3 years of observation. Asus notebooks tend toward lower battery life than the industry average because they tend to use dedicated graphics cards on more of their notebooks and also seemingly due to some issues with how they program their BIOS versions. But finding a notebook with an 8600 GT or better graphics card (for performance-level gaming) that gets close to 4 hours battery life with a standard battery is currently near impossible from any manufacturer, and most likely such machines will continue to be non-existent until new higher-capacity battery technology becomes mainstream.

 

emporiumboutique, please try to be less an advocate Asus user, and don't forget to mention details such as battery life and build quality in the "what to buy" section.

That's up to you, I don't care what you recommend quite franky.

 

Agreed. But anyway, his aggravation could be his way of charm.

If it makes you feel better, neither do I about your recommendations Dreamer.

 

Thanks dreamer and everyone else for giving me valuable information, ill be looking at the HP 8510P and will read some more reviews..hopefully the new xps 1530 is a good laptop and there will be a review on it soon.

 

If it makes you feel better, neither do I about your recommendations dvx1000.

 

LOL As far as I know, I haven't made any to the OP and I apologize for that

 

Afaik, there will be a review about the XPS M1530 soon, so if you could wait, that notebook seems interesting so far...

 

It doesn't matter, that was for future reference...

 

The question has been somewhat answered, thread closed before it wastes more bandwidth.