Upgrading batteries?

I need a high quality notebook for university and I have my eyes set on Evesham's Zieo N500-HD because it boasts a very good specification for the price. Unfortunately, the quoted two hour battery life isn't enough because I'll sometimes need to bring it to three hour long lectures. My questions are:

Is it possible to buy a compatible bigger battery (say, 8 or 12 cell) from a third party?
Failing this, is it possible to switch a spare 6 cell (bought direct from Evesham) with the emptied battery within five minutes (the time I have between lectures)?
Failing both of these, can you recommend a similarly priced, similar specified laptop with a longer battery life?

Thank you in advance for all your help.

 

I'm not sure - I'm waiting for an answer to that in this post:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=2035294#post2035294

Oh and I'll have yo give you rep just for mentioning Evesham - they're great!!!

 

1. Why not ask Evesham if they have bigger batteries available?

2. You should easily be able to hibernate the computer, change the battery and wake it up within 5 minutes. But there's no guarantee that the battery will run out at a comvenient moment.

3. 17" is a bit of a monster to take to classes. Will you get enough space to be able use it and spread out any relevant books or papers? And you won't be able to see the lecturer over the top of the screen. Personally, I wouldn't want to go above 14" which would also be much easier to carry around.

John

 

Look for a notebook that allows for a secondary battery (usually in the bay that the CD/DVD unit fits into. This should allow for sufficient usage as long as you aren't playing a game in the middle of lecture.

 

I have, and they've said it's not possible to upgrade the batteries to something larger but this notebook is fairly new. I've seen a few upgrade options come out over the past few weeks. In any case, I was just wondering if it's possible to buy larger third party batteries instead.

I know, I have 5 minute breaks every hour though so I should be able to manage. How does hibernating the computer work? Would I have to shut down, change batteries and boot up again or can I hibernate, switch batteries and continue working?

You make a good point there, I never really thought about that. I'll consider that in more detail, although I do want to have a powerful notebook in order to play games. 15" is really the smallest I can go for a decent gaming experience.

This is the first time I've heard of something like this. Can you give me an example of a notebook like this so I can check it out please? I definitely won't be playing games during my lectures.

I know, my dad and I bought a desktop from them in 2001 and the support was excellent.

 

There are several companies such as this one who specialise in batteries.

Hibernation is a form of putting a notebook to sleep. The RAM is dumped to a file on the hard disk and when you restart it loads that file back into RAM and you are back where you were with applications open as you left them. I have been using it for years. It helps me remember what i was last doing as well as being faster than starting Windows from scratch.

One option would be to go for a notebook with a basic GPU and an Express Card slot and then add the Asus XG station.

Dell offers a media bay battery on certain models.

Or you can currently get a Dell 6400 with X1400 GPU, 1440 x 900 display and 9 cell battery for less than £600.

Dell has some good prices at the moment because some new products are due out later this month.

John

 

I know that both Dell and HP offer notebooks that allow for "Multibay" batteries that can almost double battery capacity. In moderate energy saving mode I can get about 2:30 just typing on my NC8430 (actually I keep the screen on pretty bright). I'm guessing at least 3:30 to 4:30 with the main and multibay battery installed (anyone know from experience??).

Have a look around at the different companies websites, see what's out there and give them a call. Ask questions and see what they say and they should be happy to give you the answers.

Personally, I'm really happy with my HP. It's not a 17" screen (15.4") but the resolution at 1680 x 1050 is good for just about anything I need to do and it's a solid machine with decent overall performance.