Will Montevina provide a significant battery life improvement for desktop replacement size notebooks?

I've really been in need of a desktop replacement, but the atrocious battery life has forced me to think just 15.4inch notebooks are for me.

that said, since montevina is supposed to give a boost in efficiency and battery, what are the chances desktop replacement (17 inch) laptops will have battery lives in the 3-4 hour range after the update?

 

i am getting 3 hours right now, by using power saving and low screen brightness.

 

yeah i mean without having to turn everything off and with a graphics card like a 8800. id say ideally 4 hours with stuff turned down ideally.

 

I had an HP with an 8600M GS overclocked and I could run 3.5 hours with wireless on, power saver and lower brightness.

I would assume montevina will allow for the 3~4 hour mark EASILY.

Keep in mind if you've got a core 2 extreme, a 8800M GTX, 2 HDDs and a full HD non LED screen on full brightness, you'll NEVER get 3~4 hours. Remember the term desktop replacement can mean a lot of things. Some have 8800s for graphics cards, some have integrated cards, it all depends.

 

what i have in mind is probably a 9300 2.5GHz Core 2 Duo, an 8800, 1 HDD, and 1680x1050. the notebooks with these specs on places that list battery life like xotic list it at 2+ hours presently.

 

Don't forget it depends on the brand and model too. Some brands/types have mediocre battery life, some have excellent. This is actually more important than Montevina or Santa Rosa.

Just check the reviews.

 

Montevina itself won't give that much of an increase in battery life. As Phil said, different companies/models are known for their battery life, for example, most Asus laptops have horrible battery life but very good specs. Lots of small energy savings can add up from tech like switchable graphics (like Sony SZ), SSDs (debate is up on this one but ask people who have owned one and I still believe it does extend battery life over traditional HD), LED backlit screen, etc.

 

people are making such a huge deal over montevina.. it will not be the HUGE difference people think imo.. a small gain across the board in performance and battery life will be expected but its not going to be nearly as some may lead you to believe

 

Do either of you know what Lenovo's reputation is in regards to battery life?

 

Above average in most reviews I've seen. But most reviews I read are (ultra) portables. For certainty check the countless reviews you can find online.

I rarely read 17" reviews.

 

Yeah, I was doing that a while ago, but I stopped for whatever reason. I'm going to start looking online again to see what I can find.

 

Slightly off topic... THAANSA3 Who is that in your avatar?

 

I agree with previous poster that Montevina is being overrated by most everyone right now. I really don't think that it will be as good as everyone is anticipating right now - seems as everyone thinks performance will be significantly better along with significantly better battery life. I however (outside of other advancements like LED backlighting outside of the chipset) think that performance of an equivalent Montevina will maybe be 10% at BEST (mostly because DDR3 at same speed is actually a bit slower than DDR2), with 10% better battery life than equivalent Penryn based Santa Rosa.

 

The answer is, it depends. If you buy one of the P-serie (25 W) Montevina processors, you will get longer battery life when running demanding tasks than if you buy a T-serie (35 W) Santa Rosa or Montevina. That 10W of savings will not be earth-shattering - you'll gain 15-20% extra life most likely - but it will help.

How much of a help it will be in low-power mode, I'm not sure. The power reductions won't be as much, but then again, neither are the power demands as it is now with Santa Rosa. You'll probably have to wait for tests to see this.

The P-serie (25 W) processors will be available up to 2.53 GHz, and the T-serie (35 W) up to 2.8 GHz. The X-serie (44 W) will go up to 3.06 GHz - certainly not what you're looking for.

What will probably have more of an impact is how large of a battery you buy. I'm guessing unknowntt has HP's 12-cell battery, which will help a lot - unfortunately most companies don't offer that large of a battery.