X201T Battery Life

Context

I've ditched the MBA option as I've decided build quality/durability should be a higher priority for me. I am now set on deciding between an X201 or an X201T. I can get some hands on time with the X201 through a friend so I can compare and answer any remaining questions that way.

I've read a number of reviews and user opinions on the X201T (surprisingly not a whole lot) and they have battery life ranging from 4-5 hours to 6-7 hours on a variety of configurations...though none of the Entry level screen surprisingly.

Notebookreview reports it at 7:04 (70% brightness, page refreshing)
Laptop Mag reports it at 5:10 (continuous web browsing)
DeviantArt user review pegs it at 6-7 hours (low power mode)
...and a number of user posts in random forums have pegged it around 4-7 hour ranges and less helpful responses such as "the battery life sucks".

EDIT: Initially I was going to wait...but the deals going on right now are too good to pass up on.

The question

If you have an X201T (or know someone who does, etc), what kind of battery life do you get on it? (...and what kind of usage do you achieve that battery life on <- is the more important thing)

Also, would a multitouch screen introduce an additional drain on battery life over say the entry (pen only) screen?

My configuration would be an Entry screen on a core i7 with 8 cell battery and wifi if that would help. No 3G option or anything like that.

Thanks in advance~

 

Have a look here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/len...r-battery-life-info-all-recent-thinkpads.html

 

Thanks JabbaJabba. The numbers on the Battery finder match what I've read around as far as official specifications go.

However, it does look like that whatever Lenovo uses as their test scenario for their testing is not the same as the review sites/users/real world (possibly?) ... as is often the case with laptop manufacturers it seems these days.

...so looking for responses from users to give me a better view

 

I think the Battery Finder is relatively accurate. It claims 10.3 hours for the X200T, and I can get 10 hours idling with wifi, albeit with the dimmest screen, an SSD, and Windows XP. Relatively heavy browsing at the same settings gets me about 7 or 8 hours.

So suggesting that "real" usage with a optimized system is about 70% to 80% of the Battery Finder's figures, you'd get around 5 to 6 hours, which seems to be in line with the average test figure.

Of course, throw in a 7200RPM HDD, BT, 3G, a bunch of flash websites... well, the battery life will suffer. I wouldn't be surprised if some of those 4 hour guys have either high-power specs, a bloated Windows install, or just the smaller battery.

 

@Commander_Wolf: Mmm, that puts me more at ease (since my question resulted from all this variability) and I tend to operate as low as possible in brightness when on battery so I guess for my usage I'd be able to squeeze out around 6 or maybe a bit more. SSD is in the plans but probably after the postville refresh. I'll running a 5400 rpm drive so it should be good. Thanks ^_^

If anyone else has X201T experiences to share, you can help put my ease to sleep

 

Here are some of my regular usage scenarios and battery life with my x201t:

1. In class, tablet mode, wifi off, everything in power saver, screen brightness ~10-12/15. Inking in OneNote about 1/3 of the time, the rest is reading documents and notes in OneNote: about 5h to 5:30.

2. Adding wifi to above scenario downloading torrents (so basically wifi constantly active) will cut about 30min off that time.

3. Web browsing on wifi in laptop mode (no touch or inking) with everything in power saver mode and screen brightness 4-6/15 I'll get around 6h.

I have the multitouch panel and the i7-620lm processor with 4GB of RAM and 320GB 7200rpm HD.

Cheers!

x201t - Multitouch, i7-620lm, 4GB RAM, 320GB HD, 8 cell battery

x201t vs 2740p Hands-on Comparison Video
x201t Unboxing Video - x201t Review Video