T400 9-Cell Vs. 6-Cell + Ultra-Bay

So as the title says, which would you pick and why?

I think both choices will average around the same runtime.

As an Engineering student, long battery life is a must for me. So I bought the 9-cell but, I hear many users complaining on the size of this battery. Now I'm having second thoughts about my choice. What do you guys think? BTW here is my config:

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Peace out G money's

 

I have z60t. It is nice and compact (only a little bigger (higher) than T400).
Recently I was forced to buy a new battery and in the absence of 4-cell I bought a 7-cell one. I don't like it. It protrudes significantly and wobbles as any TP's battery.
If I had bought T400 now I would have ordered 4-cell + Ultrabay 3-cell for compactness of the combo

 

i was looking into this too when i bought my t400. i read a few reviews of the ultra bay that said not to get it. the reason is cuz the laptop will always fully discharge the ultrabay before switching to the battery.

what that means is that the ultrabay doesn't last that long under the abuse (draining a battery fully puts a strain on it)

if true that would be a shame.. hopefully someone else can chime in

 

This might be true, as Ultrabay is a feature based more on expansion and convenience, more than performance. Maybe Lenovo software is able to control the charge and discharge Percent, can anyone confirm?

 

No, the software in it's current version is not able to do that, sadly.

My Ultrabay Battery was down to 60% after 12 cycles and is now down to 50% after a few more cycles.

I would suggest you get the 9 cell. Perhaps I just got a bad one, but still I would get a 9 cell.

 

I currently have a t61 with a 7-cell battery and the ultrabay. Been running this setup for over a year now. Unfortunately it has come time to buy a new ultrabay battery, beacsue it's able to hold only 65% of its charge after 150 cycles (according to power manager).

In my opinion, unless you need a CD/DVD drive then get a 7-cell + ultrabay. The 9-cell battery seems way too big and bulky. Plus, you can't open the lid a full 180 degrees (cause that matters anyway).

I also believe that since the pc drains the ultrabay first, it preserves the main battery because the main does not have to drain as quickly. In fact, my 7-cell has only been through 65 cycles.

 

The Ultrabay battery has a higher purchase price per Whr then the main batteries, so you could perhaps better have to buy a new main battery then two new Ultrabay batteries.

Down to 65% after 120 cycles? Well, that a lot better then mine

 

on my old inspiron 8600 the bay battery discharges to just 9% in vista (without drivers), then the main battery is taken, and it's more than 3 years old. i guess it's the laptop which chooses which battery to load by itself, not software in first place. strange that even the new thinkpads can't do better than that.

i vote for an added inch or so for the next thinkpads, so batteries don't stick out. honestly, who actually would vote against marginal extended notebook diameters if the battery was sitting flush? that big ugly thing has to be somplace anyhow, why not make it flush.

i vote to add some inch for the next thinkpad generation for the battery, and add a gigantic wacom touchpad in turn for the gained space.

 

And a return to 4:3 screen

There is a lot of room wasted on under and above the screen itself on the Widescreen ThinkPads.

Have a battery that sticks out like the 6 cell on the 14" W (T61) is quite handy. You can keep your left arm under the laptop and your hand around the battery while typing with your right hand.
Without sticking-out battery there is no way that you can hold it so steady.