Does the Studio 1535 really have up to 8+ hours on the 9-cell?

Looking at this model right now, I see the battery option has up to 8 hrs and 42 min with the 9-cell. Is this true?

Are Dell Studios really superior on battery life, or is this over-exaggerated?

Thanks.

 

No it does not. Where does it claim that?

 

Right on the Dell site. Here's a snapshot from my desktop browser:

 

It says up to 8 hours battery life. I should imagine that if you were doing very little on your machine and you went for all of the power saving features available (e.g. no dedicated graphics, Pxxx processor etc) then you might get close. In reality though I think 8 hours on that laptop is pretty much unachievable.

 

I have a 9-cell on my Studio 1535, and the most I've ever gotten out of it is 5h 10m.

 

I say it's impossible for a 1535, and virtually impossible on a 1555. With a 9 cell 85Whr battery, the Studio has to draw less than 10W per hour to run the full 8:42, or 8.7 hrs. That's less than a lot of smaller ultra-portables running with ultra low-voltage C2Ds.

 

I've seen 7 hours a couple of times, though most of the time I get right at 6.

That's with just web browsing and basic office tasks.

My setup: 1537, 9 cell, Intel graphics, brightness low as it goes, WiFi *on*, and Linux.

--Eric

 

8 Hour battery life has already been achieved, based on some news bullets I have seen. That will become more possible, probably especially on the business machines as they market them out. Battery technology gets better all the time. All we really need is for efficiency gains in the computer world to start going to power consumption reduction rather than 'high performance'.

Ever notice that everytime there is a die shrink, you see reduced power consumption at first and then everything climbs right back up as faster speeds are released?

 

my old ASUS EEE with 3 cell archivated 4 hours...
I know it is complete different situation, but it is possible if you limited your power settings

 

It's a completely useless comparison. Your Asus EEE had to power a much smaller 10-in screen - the 15 in screen is more than twice as large. If the EEE had an even smaller screen, more power to this argument.

Furthermore, it was powered by a processor that has 10% of the TDP of the Meroms and Penryns that power the Studio 15, and its anemic integrated graphics consume far less power.

I'm not privy to the specs of the Asus battery, but I would assume that the cells in the batteries are comparable.

 

Speaking of which, Dell should improve their batteries. I don't get why they would not start using higher-capacity Lithium cells, like Asus is currently doing.

 

Because it's more expensive, and they're already asking for damn near $200 for their current 9-cell.

 

Batteries sure are bloody expensive, are they not? I wouldn't mind picking up a 6-cell for my 1537, as a spare and backup, and for when I'm just putting around the house and dont need the extra battery life... but then I saw the price and said Nahhhh (I'll put that money towards a SSD instead, heh).

I am super thrilled with the battery life of the 9 cell on my Studio 15, though...

--Eric

 

You might consider looking into Chinese knockoff batteries on eBay or something similar. They're generally a lot cheaper than the official Dell batteries (I got a 9-cell for my Studio 1535 for $60). They may not perform quite as well as the real deal, but my knockoff 9-cell still outperforms the hell out of my official Dell 6-cell.

I'm sure you can find a cheap Studio 15 6-cell for under $50.

 

I might look into that. I guess since you purchased one, you would consider the Chinese knockoff's to be "safe"?

I wanna save up my pennies for a SSD first and foremost I think.

Thanks!
--Eric

 

The higher capacity cells are reportedly not that much more expensive than the standard cells. Look at how the Asus eeePC 1000HE is priced compared to its competitors - it's cheaper than most plus it sports a 6-cell battery that holds over 30% more charge than then norm (2900 mAH per cell as opposed to 2200 mAH).

A Studio 15 sporting a 6-cell battery with 30% more charge per cell would give comparable battery life to a 9-cell battery using the standard cells, without the increased bulk. Specifically, it would be expected the higher capacity 6-cell would offer ~30% more run time, as opposed to 50% more run time offered by the standard 9-cell. The difference in operating time between the high capacity 6 cell vs. the standard 9-cell would be less than 15%.

 

Mine hasn't exploded yet.

Although it's just a minor annoyance and not a real issue, it's missing one of the rubber feet. No loss to me, I just took off the other one and I haven't really thought about it since.

 

It's an exaggeration. I'm guessing you'd need a perfect configuration using the lowest power options for every component (screen, hdd, cpu, video, etc) and ideal conditions to get over 8 hours.

I have the 1920x1200 (not LED backlit) screen on mine with a P9700 CPU, 7200 RPM HDD and an ATI 3450 graphics card. I think those are the major components that will affect battery life and I get (roughly) 4-5 hours under normal use. I have the 9 cell battery.