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    Inspiron 1545: 4 & 6 cell battery differences?

    Discussion in 'Dell' started by lowercase, Jul 23, 2009.

  1. lowercase

    lowercase Notebook Enthusiast

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    Is there going to be much difference in terms of battery life between the 4 and 6 cell battery? I did read a review of the 1545 in which they referred to battery life as appalling - around 90 minutes.
     
    lowercase, Jul 23, 2009
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  2. dAdE0H0

    dAdE0H0 Notebook Enthusiast

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    Don't know about the 4 cell battery, but the 6 cell I would get an easy 2.5 to 3 hours depending on what power settings I was using.(Surfing the web)
    Movie watching around 2 hours.

    If you are planning on getting one concider the 9 cell battery as I can play an easy 4.5-5 hours just messing around and watch a blueray and still have plenty of time to surf the WWW.
     
    dAdE0H0, Jul 23, 2009
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  3. lowercase

    lowercase Notebook Enthusiast

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    Hmm adding the 9 cell battery?

    Dell seem cheap on the surface, but by the time you add all the essential extras they've doubled in price.
     
    lowercase, Jul 23, 2009
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  4. dAdE0H0

    dAdE0H0 Notebook Enthusiast

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    :D One way for them to make more cash...

    Most of the time you can buy the extra's from eBay, or online etailer cheaper than from Dell.
    I bought my 9 cell from a dealer on eBay paid $56 vs Dell $185.
    Same thing for my Blueray and memory. :p
     
    dAdE0H0, Jul 23, 2009
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  5. Fragilexx

    Fragilexx Get'cha head in the game

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    I find it difficult to believe they got 90 minutes. I last used my laptop on battery power the other day, and on power saving mode (tweaked a bit by me) and the brightness down all the way, it managed to stay powered up for 3 and a half hours. It might have even gone for longer than that, but the meeting finished so I took it back to my desk to charge it up.

    So let's see, my 3.5 hours (let's just call it that because I don't think it would have carried on for much longer) is a 6 cell. with 4 cells you have two thirds of the capacity. Therefore two thirds of 3.5 hours is 2 hours 20 minutes.

    OK, so I wasn't doing anything CPU intensive or anything, just pressing next for the next slide etc, but the display was on the entire time and I was actually using the laptop. I guess if you were accessing the HDD a lot then battery life would be less, and of course I was hard wired into the network, so that saved the power consumption the wireless would have had.

    Still, 90 minutes seems like a short time to me.
     
    Fragilexx, Jul 23, 2009
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  6. Mastershroom

    Mastershroom wat

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    Yeah, with the right power settings, minimal display brightness, etc. I'm sure 2 hours is a pretty safe estimate.
     
    Mastershroom, Jul 23, 2009
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  7. aznguyen316

    aznguyen316 Rock Chalk Jayhawk

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    does the 9-cell stick out?
     
    aznguyen316, Jul 23, 2009
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  8. MrX8503

    MrX8503 Notebook Evangelist

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    man thats crazy how little battery life you get with the 4 cell.
     
    MrX8503, Jul 23, 2009
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  9. Fragilexx

    Fragilexx Get'cha head in the game

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    Not really. This is not a netbook; there are a lot of components to run.
     
    Fragilexx, Jul 23, 2009
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  10. dAdE0H0

    dAdE0H0 Notebook Enthusiast

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    Yep, about 1/2 or so.

    Personally, to me the 9 cell is worth it.
     
    dAdE0H0, Jul 23, 2009
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