Vostro 1500 9 cell battery life FAQ

I've searched for info on this forum about this but all I could find was little bits here and there in threads that weren't primarily about battery life. And the Vostro 1500 will be my first laptop, so I have no clue about battery life. So a few questions:

1. How long does it take to charge a 9 cell battery fully?

2. When fully charged, how much battery life will I get from the 9 cell in the following scenarios:
a-playing a relatively demanding game
b-watching a dvd
c-browsing the internet

3. Over time I can expect the battery to show signs of age and not be as good as it first was...
a-how much use will it be before the battery starts to show signs of age?
b-how much will the batteries performance be affected?

 

I have a 9-cell Vostro 1500 and this is my "partial experience"...

1. It takes about 1 to 2 hours roughly, maybe even less, I usually plug it in and surf the web for a while and it's at 100% again, to charge from 35% to full.

2. a. sorry, I never try gaming on a laptop without AC power. except once, and I played for more than 20 mins and there's still planty of battery life left.
b. watching a DVD yields about 2 hrs.
c. About a grand total of 2 and a half hour surfing webs, online Video, and downloading @ high performance setting, I am pretty sure if you use one of the power saving profiles you may get a bit more out of the battery life.

3.a. In the manual it stated that it takes 300 complete recharge/discharge.. but I doubt it will die that fast, I read somewhere that Li-Ion battery are good for at least two years before they start losing their power.

b. No clue about this one, my first time owning a laptop as well.

fyi, all the information above are from personal experience, the actual battery life may/can be longer as I never let the battery run below 30-40%, just in case I need it on at a later time.

 

hi i just received my vostro 1500 today also with 9 cell battery. my battery reads 6hrs 15mns left. i dont think it would last that long. i personally made up my own poer profile on windows vista. i amcurrently just browsing internet adn doing not very demanding tasks, i aslo have screen brightness set to about 60% which is much easier on the eyes for reading i find other than that im still using wireless networking. plus most ppl usually quote about 5hrs on easy use.

 

browsing and doing basic apps on lower settings, I get about 5 and a half hours...WOOT