X220 6-Cell or 9-Cell?

I'm planning on ordering my X220 by the 8th. I've figured out which options I want except for the battery. I've seen in videos that the 9-Cell juts out of the back of the laptop and I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. I'm looking for other people's opinions on it. I'd love the extra battery life, but I don't know how that protruding battery would feel when I'm moving it around. Has anyone felt like the 9-Cell has been an amazing decision?

 

Go for the 9-cell battery, unless you'll always be close to a power outlet. For the slight increase in weight, the large increase in battery life for a relatively low price (a 9-cell battery is very expensive after-market), I'd say its a very good choice. I don't mind it jutting out the back, since it doesn't really protrude from the underside (as in some HP laptops).

Both my T500's 9-cell battery and my X120e's 6-cell battery stick out the rear.

 

I guess I will kick in here. I'm on the road like 10 month out of the year so I use both the 4 cell and the 9cell. Same goes on my X61, I use the 4 cell at the hotel while hanging out at the desk or on the bed. Basically anytime Power is close and I need the laptop light. I use the 9 cell when I need long battery life. I can get about 3 hours 30 mins out of the 4 cell so thats not to shabby. 2 hours or less if I'm pushing it hard but basically im just reviewing wincap or icecap logs or RDP at the hotel which doesn't stress the the laptop much on the 4 cell. The 9cell I might get 4 hours if I'm lucky but I'm always pushing the crap out of my laptop running scans and such. I always try to stay plugged in if I can. The 9cell differently adds weight to the x220 and you will feel it. Does the 9cell bother me you ask? no not really it does give you something to hold on to as you carry it from one place to another so thats something. I would get both the 6 cell and the 9cell. I wouldn't get the 4 cell. Only reason I got it was I wanted my laptop the lightest it could be. Looking back 22oz is the difference I don't think I would have been able to feel.

ym

 

^What ym1 said.

I always wanted to get a combination of 9c with 4c (for light weight) or 6c.

When I remove the 9c battery, the laptop felt amazingly light and easy to maneuver so that's why I want a 4c too for the lightness. But if I had to choose only one, you can see it in my sig.

 

I also rate the 4-cell for its lightness but the weight gap between it and the 6-cell is only 110 grams. Between the 6 and 9 is 200 grams.

Weight of X220 is 3lbs (1.3kg) +

4-Cell = 0.43lbs (0.19kg)
6-Cell = 0.76lbs (0.3kg)
9-Cell = 1.13lbs (0.5kg)



http://shop.lenovo.com/ISS_Static/ww/wci/us/ww/pdf/x220_datasheet.pdf

 

I'd like to note, the 6 cell bat will get you 6 hours, the 9 cell, 9 hours.

Personally, I went with the 6 cell, but im considering getting a 9 cell, or even the sheet battery for situations which require more.

 

I guess I could also share some battery thoughts here... I just ordered my X220 with the combination of the 6 cell and the 9 cell batteries. Initially I thought of getting the 9 cell and the slice for the advertised maximum battery life, but in the end it didn't seem to make that much sense (hope I got the numbers right):

4 cell - 29 Wh, 195 g, 149 Wh/kg, here ~50 eur, ~0.58 Wh/EUR
6 cell - 63 Wh, 345 g, 183 Wh/kg, ~65 eur, ~0.97 Wh/EUR
9 cell - 94 Wh, 510 g, 184 Wh/kg, ~90 eur, ~1.05 Wh/EUR
slice - 64 Wh, 750 g, 85 Wh/kg, ~140 eur, ~0.46 Wh/EUR

Out of curiosity, it would be interesting to hear how people have justified buying the slice. Even if the price was equal to the 6 cell, the only real benefit (against getting another 6 cell or a 9 cell) seems to be the ability of charging it with the regular AC adapter when not connected to the laptop. On the downside, there's the added weight relative to the capacity, and the added height. It's not as thick as the Ultrabase of my old X series TP, but I've always felt the extra height combined with the small form factor of the X series quite inconvenient for the wrists when typing.

I can very well see myself running also long, non-interruptible computations on the X220, but it's hard to imagine not having AC available then. On the other hand, on the road there can be no AC available for extended amounts of time, but who will run the machine for several hours in a row then... especially when with an SSD, shutting down and booting up after a battery swap takes less than a minute.

BTW, are both the slice and the main battery drained simultaneously, or one after the other, or can one control this? I have no experience running an IBM/Lenovo machine with two batteries connected at the same time. In my old Dell, I felt the reduced discharge rate increased the overall lifetime of the batteries.

I wish in the future machines Lenovo would include add a small, non-removable backup battery to allow hot-swapping the regular main battery. Sorry for the long rambling, hope it made some sense.

 

Kind of wish I had picked up the nine-cell when I ordered since it was only $9 to upgrade, then pick up the four-cell for around the house.

 

Where are you seeing those prices? Last time i looked at lenovo uk, they were all £100+, I think.

 

RagingPigeon, how do you plan to use it?

If you're always on the go and find yourself removed from power sources, then the larger battery makes sense. If you're using it for notes in class and browsing the web at home, the six hours you'll get are probably more than enough.

If you're using it for business, that one time when you really needed an extra 15 minutes may be worth the hassle. But if the weight, size, or style factor heavily into your purchase, you may not like the aesthetics.

I'd say it all depends on how you're going to use it.

 

Ah, sorry, I should have mentioned those were prices with student discount collected a couple of weeks ago mainly from several of the stores mentioned in Any other acadamic shops in EU other than ok1.de that ship in Europe?. At the moment, at the lapstars site the 4/6/9/slice seem to be selling for 54.90/68.00/90.00/144.00 eur with the discount. The normal prices were 119.00/129.90/156.90/156.90 eur, probably in line with what you saw.

 

It's worth it.

 

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I wish I had the choice to get the 9 cell (ordered the best seller from CC). 6 cell runs out juice fairly quickly for me, especially if I play games or doing programming/virtualization.

 

I wanted to pick up an extra 6-cell to augment the 9-cell I received with the laptop.

On Amazon, Amazon.com: Thinkpad Battery 29 6 Cell X220: Electronics, there is a seller selling it for $42. I ordered one because it's so much cheaper than other places, and since it's fulfilled by amazon I can return without issue. Is this probably not oem?

 

I'm looking for a cheap 4-cell but just noticed the 9-cell going for only £85 delivered in the UK here:

0A36283 Lenovo THINKPAD BATTERY 29 9 CELL Laptops Notebook A

They stock a whole range of Lenovo accessories too.

 

I have the one that sticks out the back as well as the slice.

Personally I would have a bet each way;

The 3 Cell and the Slice... the best of both worlds.

 

The nine cell. Both of them jut out of the bottom, which is more of an actual inconvenience than jutting out the back. The four cell is the only one to allow better thinness, so consider getting a nine cell and a four cell.

 

Let us know what you find. That's a pretty sweet deal

 

I ordered the 9-cell with the X220 and after I received the laptop with 9-cell battery I decided to order the 6-cell because I don't like the extra space that sticks out at the end. Now that I have the 6-cell, I have put the 9-cell in the closet and will use it when I am out on vacation.

 

The 6 cell battery that I picked up off of Amazon.com: Thinkpad Battery 29 6 Cell X220: Electronics, showed up today. It came packaged in a part box with Lenovo UPC/SN. Power manager says that it has a cycle count of 1, and was shipped with 40% battery life. Manufactured 5/21/11 by LGC. For $42 I'm happy.

7 left in stock

 

I had gone for a 9 cell for my x220 but would like to get a 4-cell to enjoy the best of both world. Still trying to find where I can get good deals for the 4-cell. Anybody?

 

Would love to see a pic of the label, construction, etc.

 

Sorry, dumped the box. I'm fairly sure it's an OEM battery and is the same you would receive from Lenovo? FRU 42T4865. It looks the exact same in logos/build as my 9-cell except smaller. I think LGC indicates it's an LG battery, and it shows a full charge capacity of 62.15 Wh, and is charging and discharging normally. If I have a chance, I'll see if the recycling is still at home tomorrow.

I have the 9-cell and 6-cell, and am surprised how much more quickly the 6-cell seems to charge. Hopefully, the 6 cell scales to be 2/3 of the 9-cell because I'm only getting about 4.5 hours of real life use (music, wifi always on, excel datasets and pdfs) out of the 9-cell with 13/15 brightness and mSATA+HDD(sleep).

 

Assuming you are referring to a genuine Lenovo battery, that sounds a bit off for a 9-cell, especially with mSATA. You should be getting more than 4.5 hours, even at high brightness?

 

Interesting calculations!! I'd love it.

 

I'd always go for the 9-cell given the incremental cost from Lenovo. If you go with the 4-cell, you'd have to drop a lot of money on a retail 9-cell (I'm sure they are like $150 or so). Getting a 4-cell later would be much cheaper.