Battery life and the Sonoma treatment

Looking at the N3510, I see it only has a battery life of 3hrs, where the comparable E series has 4.5 hrs. Is the Sonoma chipset that bad for battery drain? (or maybe I'm missing lots in the specs)

What will that mean for the S series battery life once they get the Sonoma treatment? (or any other series for that matter, I say S series only because I am waiting for the refresh of the s6231).

If battery life is important to me (I want atleast 4), am I better off buying the current s6231?

 

sonoma does require more power, 27W compared to 21W for the old platform! But the N3510 has a larger battery 77.8 watt hour compared to 69.1 watt hour for the E8010. So cpu consumption alone will not account for the 1.5 hours difference in life.
Actually what could be making this difference is the fact that PCI-E consumes more power than AGP!

So you can HALF ease your mind. The CPU will require more juice, but the S6 uses built in graphics so it will not have to suffer from the effect of the PCI-E. So yes, if the battery isn't boosted, battery life will be shorter on the new line!

And on the talk of power and the new platform. DDR2 consumes less power than DDR because it runs at a lower voltage, but rams consume little power to start with, so that doesn't really make a drastic effect on the battery life.
DDR2 = No boost in speed, No reduction in power, costs a bit more ... why intel is sooooo in love with it? ... beats me! (This is also the case in desktops, other than in desktops the difference in the price tag is more significant)

 

so i'm going to have to ask you this; do you think purchasing sonoma notebooks is worth it?

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by qwester

 

davids, if i can have the option of the same model with sonoma or no-sonoma, i will go with no-sonoma!
the only good thing that sonoma has got is the improved built in graphics of the 915 chipset! other than that I really don't understand what improvement intel hoped to provide with this new platform ... maybe marketing [V] people like to hear "something new is out" and just rush out and upgrade!
If you feel like doing some reading here is a good review of the technology: http://www.tomshardware.com/mobile/20050119/index.html

 

well expandability is also important. there isn't a whole lot in the terms of pcie that is useful, let alone available. why would you choose a notebook without sonoma. i can understand not wanting to pay the premium for new tech. there is also hope for better laptop audio. i don't know, i'm still in the market for a laptop and have posted way too much hehe. i've put off a laptop purchase for 3 months and have just gotten a third star. a little embarassing. i'll feel like a real jerk when yonah is introduced into the market. intel says 06 but... i'm not as optimistic.

gosh these new machines are coming so slow though. maybe a refreshed fujitsu s6000 is worth waiting for, if only for the better integrated graphics and pcie slot.

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by qwester

 

I have the N3510 and will run some real world battery tests next week.

Brian

www.BargainPDA.com | www.DigitalCameraReview.com | www.NotebookReview.com | www.SpotStop.com | www.TabletPCReviewSpot.com

 

well, if your in the market for a thin and light or ultraportable, knowing what I do about sonoma, I hope I don't get disappointed by waiting for it's release only to see that the refresh has a significantly lower battery life.

edit: also, will the increase in FSB make such a big difference for regular use?

 

doleco, 2 points to clarify.
1- if you get a laptop with PCI-E that doesn't mean it will be expandible. Check what some people had to say about variants in the technology. There is no standard currently, not even ati nor nvidia are sticking with one standard. so no real hope for upgrades [xx(]
2- if you get built in graphics you won't have a PCI-E socket. The 915 chipset is just made this way, one or the other.

Sorry for sounding so negative before, but sometimes I get frustrated at how things are advertised and what they really are. I watched a video at Cnet where an intel representative made it seem like sonoma was such a radicle thing, while in fact its not!

 

Brian, when you do the tests can you just check how much the unit heats on the underside. Cause with the extra power consumption of the new core, a graphic chip that should generate some heat, and what seems to be little venting, i am a bit concerned about jumping in and ordering one before someone does a full review.
Otherwise this model fits perfectly into what I need, although some extra battery would have been nice [ ]