X301 6-cell battery life

What kind of battery life can I expect from the 6-cell battery on the X301?

On one battery charge I would like to be able to watch a movie up to 2.5 hours on a DVD with reasonable brightness on the monitor (say 50% brightness? Does that sound reasonable to watch a movie? ) and surf the internet for 1 hour (3.5 hours total).

Is it realistic to get that from this notebook? If not, how close can I get to my needs?

I read the review on this site about battery life. It says:

So the question is, assuming the radios are off and the DVD is running for 2.5 hours, how much time should we deduct from the 4 hours 50 minutes. (If there any x301 users out there, I can throw you a little cash for doing a test)

How much does the 6 cell battery protrude from the notebook? Is it still possible to fit it in a Zero Shock sleeve?

I would like multiple opinions before I throw down some serious cash for this puppy.

 

I have a X300 I could test it on if you would like. It would have to be tomorrow but I could do it. Let me know.

ym

 

I have the results if you ever come back and ask.

ym

 

Post them anyway, he is probably not the only person that would like to know. If possible, the test setup would also help (e.g. brightness level, radio status, power profile, video player used [e.g. PowerDVD], etc.).

 

X300
6 cell battery
Energy Star profile with brightness set 1 below full.
WinDVD was used.
Wifi on.
total time 140ish mins
30% left afterwards.

I was able to get through an entire movie plus the "features" with 30% left.
Total time for the movie plus previews was about 120 mins. Give another 20 for the special features so your looking at 140 mins. I guess not bad. I think Im going do the same test on my m2400 and see what I get. My bet it won't make it.

ym

 

That seems reasonable and right in line with the OP's requirements (you could probably do even better if you lowered the brightness and turned off Wi-Fi [very likely if you used it in a dark airplane cabin]).

 

Hey. Thank you for running that test! That is pretty good battery life.

How long do you think you could surf the internet with that 30% battery life left?

If anyone wants to review my math, I would appreciate it.

>Assuming we would have more battery life left if the WIFI radio was turned off and brightness was turned off we could probably have at least 35% (conservatively) of the battery life left.

>Factoring in that the X301 has 6.1 hours of battery life compared to the X300 having 6.5 ( 6% less) we need to add 6% more battery life used.. .06*35%=32.9%. (Would the X301 possibly use more battery life than my estimate?)


So.....(67.1% (1-.329) of battery life used /140 minutes used=208.64 total minutes of battery life RUNNING THE DVD WITH RADIO ON AND BRIGHT SCREEN). That leaves a MINIMUM of (209-140= 69 minutes reamaing).

If my math is right, the x301 would give me exactly what I am looking for.

Does anyone know how much of a battery hog the DVD player is?

 

I would say 1-1.5 hours of internet browsing would easily be possible at 30%.

Optical drives in general are high drain devices (they also make a fair amount of noise). This is why I try and run video files from a hard drive (or ideally SD card) whenever possible [I don't even have an optical drive in my laptop because I rarely have a desire to use one).

 

What do you think about my estimates? How much less battery would be left if WIFI was turned off and screen was a little less bright.

From what I am reading on the internet, the battery life of the X301 is 1/3 less than the X300. That might throw a monkey wrench in all of these numbers.

From another site:

"Using the 6-cell battery, with the backlighting at 50%, WiFi on, and doing general desktop work, the X301 will generally last a little over three hours." Big difference compared to the X300.

 

I don't know where the 6.5 hours is coming from but with mine with a full charge, monitor set to the lowest bar, and max battery as the profile it only reads 4.37 hours with everything turned off. With the extra bay battery its reading 9.07 hours. With the Wifi on, monitor up to half and the extra bay bat its 7 hours.

ym

 

I can't imagine the x301 getting substantially worse battery life than the x300. If anything it should get very slightly better battery life.

They both have the same chasis, same batteries, use ULV process (10W TDP), Intel integrated graphics, and are otherwise VERY SIMILAR. The x301 is on the 45nm Montevina platform and may even use a shade less power than the x300 (65nm Merom).

I would expect your battery life on DVD playback to improve by about 20% (1-2 watts lower consumption) if you turn off wireless and drop brightness to half for both the x300 and x301.