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    W520 Battery Life

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by kirayamato26, Jun 4, 2011.

  1. kirayamato26

    kirayamato26 Notebook Deity

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    Hey all,

    Since there is a thread for the X220, I figured, why don't we start one for the W520, too? Sure, it's meant to sit at a desk and use its battery only as a reserve; however, this does not prevent some users such as myself from purchasing one to use mainly as an all-in-one computer as it does have great battery life. That being said, I thought that perhaps some potential W520 buyers are turned off thinking that it has poor battery life, so let's see those battery lives.

    With the rig in my signature, I get:
    Flash based web browsing (YouTube) + Word Processing - around 6hrs
    Random stuff (no games, some YouTube, web surfing, music, HD and FHD videos) - around 7hrs
    Light web surfing - around 8.5hrs

    I use the factory image + some other programs, my web browser is Firefox 4.0.1, and my brightness is 9.
     
    kirayamato26, Jun 4, 2011
    #1
  2. pkincy

    pkincy Notebook Evangelist

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    I suppose I am a bit short of that but I use Chrome as a browser.

    I do know I can watch 2 full movies on a long flight along with prep email and surfing while waiting boarding.

    That never occurred with my T61. Also the W520 runs very cool.

    Perry
     
    pkincy, Jun 4, 2011
    #2
  3. bogatyr

    bogatyr Notebook Evangelist

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    With 3 virtual machines running on VMWare Server in the background (domain controller, sql server, team foundation server) I get about 6 hours web surfing, 4-5 hours flash use.

    Brightness is 5-10.
     
    bogatyr, Jun 4, 2011
    #3
  4. Volker

    Volker Notebook Consultant

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    With 27++ slice battery: Haven't managed to run out of battery yet :)
     
    Volker, Jun 5, 2011
    #4
  5. Renee

    Renee Notebook Virtuoso

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    I have a nine cell on my W520. Id say without a doubt the battery life is better that my t61 but I have never fully discharged the battery to find out.

    I do know that the amount of charge is fairly erratic bouncing grom 41/2 hours to 31/2 hours in a sitting.

    Renee
     
    Renee, Jun 5, 2011
    #5
  6. infinus

    infinus Notebook Evangelist

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    Eek, 3.5-4.5? Sounds like you aren't being as aggressive as you could be with your power plan. I bounce around from 6-8.5 depending on what I'm doing. Real world usage seems to be about 8+
     
    infinus, Jun 5, 2011
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  7. commander

    commander Notebook Consultant

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    With a 6-cell, 3 hours of mild usage.

    optimus disabled (1000m only), 16 gig ram, 2 drives, brightness 10, max. performance.
     
    commander, Jun 5, 2011
    #7
  8. infinus

    infinus Notebook Evangelist

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    Why do you need it on max performance for mild usage? Flip that to a more conservative plan and you'll get more battery life. Plus, it'll be a bit more gentle on your battery over the long haul.
     
    infinus, Jun 5, 2011
    #8