which one is better for T400, 9 cell or 6 cell?

It is a hard decision because there is no option that you can buy an additional one.

9 cell
Pros: Longer usage time
Cons: heavy, expensive (much more expensive)

6 cell
Pros: light, cheap
Cons: shorter usage time

Do you think the extra hours 9 cells provided is worth $60 + 0.4lbs?

I'm a student so it's not so frequent that I will use laptop without AC power. But usually I need to run large application such as visual studio, vmware etc. And if the difference between two cell is huge, the extra cost is worthy.

Thanks for your opinions.

 

go with the 9 cell

 

If you are going to be plugged in most of the time: 6 cell.
If you are going to be on battery most of the time: 9 cell.

It's as easy as that.

 

Agreed. I have the 6 cell and with BT and Wireless I find 4+ hours doing web and other tasks.

 

The same answer: 9 cell...I'm a student ...for me is what I need

 

I have the 9 cell...it is definitely worth it (to me). I like not having to worry about finding a power outlet, plus plugging in, etc.

I know if I got the 6 cell, the first time I ran out of juice, I would be like, ****, I could be going another couple hours if I had the 9.

 

Thanks all. I think 9 cell may be better for me. It feels bad to plug cord frequently.

 

battery life isnt THAT great yet..
go for 9-cell

 

if u'r plugged in almost always, like me... go 4 cell and keep your laptop looking slim and light. I keep an extension cord with me at all times so I can always reach a plug

 

Usually there's always a power source near me unless I am working on site so I ordered mine with 4 cell. Between 6 and 9 I think 9 cell is better since its designed to use almost same space, just extra weight

 

I personally went with the 6 cell. I am also a student. The most I will be away from an outlet is a couple hours, maybe 2 classes and then some study time before/after. I would rather have it being lighter.

 

If you have a wall outlet near by and you dont take your laptop anywhere else, except use it in your room .. 4 Cell

If you ever thought about having a problem with battery life, dont think twice go for 9cell. Between 9cell and 6cell, 9 cell is the winner. 9cell will stick out but so does 6cell and then the weight difference, it hardly doesnt matter.

So to summarize ..
If you wanna go for battery life 9cell
If you've never thought about batteries and is running on wall outleft all the time 4cell.

Oh BTW .. I have a 9cell

 

yeh and to top it off jeff, only an idiot buys a laptop and keeps it at a desk the whole time. so 9 cell or bust.

 

I went with the 6-cell because thats enough for me and the 9-cell is just ugly. I get 4-5 hours with mine wi-fi on brightness at 50-60%

 

I also took the 6-cell ... I'm a undergrad student, but most of my classes have a power outlet.

 

I went for the 9-cell. I need any extra battery life I can get when I'm at gigs where there is zero power for me.

 

i wish someone would could post photos of the 6 and 9 cell, comparison photos that is.

 

Here's the comparison pic.




Length sticking out back of system:

6-cell: 0 inches (2.3 inches deep)

9-cell: 0.83 inches (3.13 inches deep)

credits to Tim_Lenovo from lenovoforums

 

I have the 9 cell and I'm not terribly impressed - I only get about 6.5 hours in Vista with wifi on and screen at 1/3 brightness, and I'm lucky to break 2.5 hours in Ubuntu.

Not sure how other folks are faring.

 

2.5 hours in ubuntu? what?!?! i thought linux has better power management.

 

Yeah I expected better. It's pretty terrible. So far I've been able to coax like 10-15 minutes extra otu of it with some optimizations, but its still god awful.

 

In fact, between windows XP, windows vista, OS X and linux (in any flavor), windows vista has the best battery management.

 

That is also odd, because my friend with a similarly equipped T61 (well, slightly older specs, but otherwise similar) gets over 9 hours in XP with a 9cell, whereas I get 6.5 in vista with a 9cell and centrino 2(which promised better battery life)

 

Nothing says that your friend got a better battery life with the same test condition (screen brightness, wifi-on/off, speed of the HDD, etc. etc.), so your example, for the moment, proves nothing and it's very possible that you are the odd one here.

 

Thanks for the photo. ( DR. Moog say " One good synthisis worth a thousand taps") If you need your computer to be delivered as soon as possibble, you might want to order the 6 cell due to a possible shortage of the 9 cell battery. Only your hairdresser knows for sure.

 

I like the best of both worlds, the 6 cell looks, the Ultrabay battery = 9 cell power that last me 8+ hours on maximum battery/stretch. But I'm using XP and an SSD for classes 9 to 5 everyday...

 

How much the 9 cell T400 weigh compared to the 6 cell??