Petition for Request to Add Extended Life Battery for Clevo W230ST / Sager NP7330

There are two "YES" votes because poll requires two votes. Pick either one, but would prefer the first just to keep it consistent.

Please vote "Yes" in poll above if you would buy an extended life battery if offered for the Sager NP7330 / Clevo W230ST (or any variation thereof). I am doing this so that I can let Clevo and Sager know that there are many users that would gladly pay extra to buy an extended life battery for their Sager NP7330 / Clevo W230ST laptops.

This would benefit the user in two ways:

(1) Longer battery life of course
(2) Cooler running system if battery extended below bottom of laptop to prop it up, also improved typing angle

This is a public poll so your username will be visible if you vote.

Please also make a comment in this thread that you are interested in purchasing an extended life battery.

Please also send an email to the following:

[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]

You can copy/paste this text if you'd like:

SUBJECT:

Request for Extended Battery for Clevo W230ST / Sager NP7330

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Dear Clevo and Sager,

I own (or plan on owning) a Clevo W230ST / Sager NP7330 notebook and am very interested in purchasing an extended life battery. It would benefit me in at least the following two ways:
(1) Longer battery life of course
(2) Prop up the back of the laptop for improved cooling and typing angle

Please consider offering this as an option. Myself and many users at the Notebook Review forums are also interested in this option. Please see this thread for users that have expressed an interest:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/727987-petition-request-add-extended-life-battery-clevo-w230st-sager-np7330.html

Thank you for your time and look forward to your response!

 

Thanks for this. You beat me to it.

 

Awesome, will be sending an email. I would love an optional, larger battery.

 

Why the vote selection have two YES? I presume the second one is NO?

 

In the original post:

If you aren't interested then don't vote. It's like signing a petition.

 

My bad. Didn't see it.

 

Great idea, came straight here after I saw the post in the owner's thread. It is literally the only reason why I'm not purchasing this laptop. My work issued Dell 5430 while ugly and slow and not that great gets about 10 hrs of battery life on an i5 standard volt cpu... I'd like to suggest that the next laptop come with a graphics switch for selecting which gpu to use. I dont know about the rest of you, but I usually don't need switchable graphics on the fly and I HATE dealing with optimus selecting the wrong gpu about 30% of the time, it's retarded.

 

The only thing that bother me at the moment with this laptop is the battery life! Would be super happy if they release a 9-cell battery or better for that model! Great petition.

 

Wingnut, I'm glad you guys liked my old Acer's extended battery as much as I have. Indeed, this would be a highly useful addition to the W230ST, both in terms of battery life and cooling potential. I'll re-post my pic so folks can visualize...

 

Not sure if I would buy it (extended battery life is always tempting), but I would rather see them work on optimizing the power draw at idle states, and on the fan table
Also, I don't think a propped up back is a better angle for typing. Flat keyboards were invented exactly to do the opposite, and it's better on the wrists.
Maybe an alternative would be to buy a tablet for basic stuff, would not be that more expensive than an extended battery ?
And would not take more room in a bag !

 

Yep. Thanks for image. I had a similar "feature" in the 9-cell battery on my HP.

Many users would disagree with you about typing angle I think. Desktop keyboards have feet that prop it up for an angle. If it's laying flat your wrists are always flexed down. To each their own I guess.

I would like to see them optimizing the power draw too, but in reality, an extended battery is a sure way to get more battery life, a lot more actually than what any idle power draw will offer. I'd hope they still continue to optimize for power draw, it's a bit ridiculous to see the idle power draw at about 20W when it should be even in a bad case 16-18W.

If nothing else it will send a message to Clevo that the existing battery life is unacceptable and that users want more and are willing to pay more to get it. At least with a different battery Sager can make a few extra bucks, and it's an immediate fix.

 

There doesn't seem to be much wrong with power draw at idle. I got about 3.5h yesterday, just doing my medical records, while on battery. This uses the wireless, the browser and I had the brightness a couple of notches above the dimmest setting (still quite bright). For a quad-core with a small battery like this, that's about all I can expect in 2013.

The issue is that using the thing for any sort of light gaming sucks it down very fast. There's little room for software optimization in this scenario - at that point you just need greater battery capacity.

And, you're saying the solution is to...buy a tablet? I'm sorry, that just doesn't seem very relevant to this discussion.

The angle of the keyboard which is introduced is quite small (see my photo). Are you saying it's uncomfortable for you to type with, what, a 10 deg angle? Sorry again, I'll definitely take 75% more battery life for that. Plus, I (like most people) prefer the laptop tilted slightly toward me. That's why every keyboard has those little flip-out legs on the bottom. You've seen those, right?

 

Signed & sent.

 

As far as gaming on battery, while not recommended, there are ways to do it, especially now that Throttlestop 6.00 beta is out. By limiting FPS and CPU and GPU speed you should be able to keep power draw to a reasonable level. I'll fuss with that later.

 

Gpu probably cant hit p0 unless modding vbios, though 2d clock should play some games fine.

 

I just tried BF3 with IGP on AC power and it played great on low settings. I set vsync on and set resolution to 1280x720 at 40Hz, so FPS never went over 40FPS to limit power draw and heat. CPU did not exceed 73C! Hopefully this mod can be made eventually.

 

Very true, I guess I'll vote for it, a lil help can't hurt.

You should expect more
As an example (and I'm pretty sure you can find better ones), Hp Envy Touchsmart 15t-j000 will last 6h on minimal usage, and 4h30 idling in high performance profile, keyboard backlight turned on. That is, with a 15" screen and a 6-cell 47WHr battery. Specs here.

I said it was an alternative. You seem to need long battery life for gaming on battery, I assume many people here need it to work through the day, so some might find this alternative "relevant", even if it's not really a solution.

.... No, I said it was not a benefit to me, that's all. I'm all-in for an extended battery, don't try to guess what I think.
Furthermore, since I have a brain, I can also elevate the front so that there is no angle. Tadaaaa !

Indeed I've seen those ! But you don't seem to know why they're here
Most people prefer it that way because... they have to look for the keys : Leave Your Keyboard Feet Folded In For Better Ergonomics | Lifehacker Australia

You can check for yourself, many studies show why it's better the other way, actually !

 

It's personal preference, not all hands and wrists are created equal and lol at that image of the keyboard:



even without the feet, it's at like a 10 deg angle (edit: actually I just did a quick calculation and it's about 6 degrees without the feet)

I'm a touch typist and don't need to look at the keyboard, 80WPM+, but I prefer it propped up at a slight angle. This W230ST is absolutely flat and is bothersome to my wrists after a little while.

 

Agreed about personal preference, I was just kidding him a bit.
Gonna shop for a vertical mouse now

 

36 votes so far, keep 'em coming! Thanks.

Even if you don't know if you would buy one then please vote. It's always good to have choice right?

 

Wow this is the best idea I've seen so far. Yes please!

 

Sent my emails. Hopefully they respond/make it happen. I'd be down to have a battery like the 3820TG/4820TG's.

 

I'll be sure to send a follow up email to them showing them that 46 respondents in a few days from a single forum should help prod them along. I think multiple emails from everyone (did everyone send an email?) would help the most.

 

Yes, let's hope so. It would also obviate the need for a laptop cooler as well. Temps are well-controlled (relatively speaking - I'd prefer never to crack 90c on my CPU) via the simple expedient of propping up the back slightly.

Battery life has (unfortunately) never been a focus for gaming notebooks. The glaring exception right now is the Razer Blade 14", which is quite excellent in that regard (especially with the 70whr battery they managed to cram in there). It's unfortunate that it costs $1800, which is about $600 more than an equivalent-spec'ed W230ST. Personally, I'd rather have the $600 and the excellent IPS screen of the W230 ST.

From the Anandtech review of the Razer Blade:

I was stunned by the Blade's beautiful design, and I was equally stunned by its dire screen quality, which suffers from the same nasty "no correct viewing angle" problem that cheap TN panels typically do.

 

Yeah, the Blade 14 is *almost* perfect. If they just used a high quality / gamut 1600x900 TN panel, not even IPS, and dropped the price $300 I would have strongly considered it. Well that, and the ability to add my own mSATA drive without voiding warranty.

In any case I hope everyone who voted here sent an email. It's not as effective to send one email from me pointing to a poll as it is getting 50+ emails from 50+ people requesting the same thing.

 

Just sent the 3 emails. Any luck in the past with this sort of thing? It really would help round this out as the best gaming notebook out there IMHO.

 

Just voted and sent them the email. Thanks HT!

 

Voted and emailed. I carry around a cheap Zalman cooler, just so I can get the angle that this battery could provide.

 

I ordered this laptop model as well, but from the German distributor Schenker Technologies and would love customizable battery options too. I wouldn't only want an extended battery option though, I'd also like high quality batteries as an option, cause you could get a higher Wh figure out of same sized batteries and potentially a more stable capacity over time. That coupled with an extended battery profile would be amazing.

Companies that order the laptop from Clevo and then customize should/could also put some 'pressure' on Clevo for these battery options or offer compatible high quality batteries themselves, there might not be a need to involve Clevo if they're not interested.

 

I am not interested in this model, but I am thinking of the P157SM. I would love to see a extended battery for that unit that gives longer run times, and helps keep it cool, and gives a better typing angle. I have a netbook that I bought a extended battery that was 4X the size of the orginal. I love that battery. Not to mention as batteries age their life gets shorter and shorter. With extended capacity, it has a longer useable life.

So I hope they start offering extended batteries for all models.

 

Has anyone heard anything back at all from Sager or Clevo?

 

Sager told me that they would notify someone at Clevo. That's all I've heard.

 

Nope, nuttin

 

I mean they should at least say "Thanks, we'll consider it". So far 61 votes for this. I think it would be a very popular accessory.

 

Just doing some browsing on Balanced or Power Saver mode, with brightness at about 4 ticks, and wifi on, I get at least 3.5 hours on this thing, and battery never reached below 30% IIRC. So I'm thinking it could easily push 4.5hours/5hours. The extra battery would be nice though, once school starts and I'll be in and out of the library/classes.

 

It's the sort of thing that would need to be designed, tested certified (lots of this for batteries going around the world) and produced, so it would not be something that would happen instantly.

 

I've discovered just how snappy this thing is for regular office work, when I use Power Management to limit CPU speed to 50% (1.1GHz). Certainly helps the battery usage, although I've made no attempt to measure it. But, again - for Gaming this is problematic.

One thing with regard to battery-powered gaming: The max clock on the CPU goes down to 1.5Ghz, and I believe the iGPU gets downclocked pretty severely as well (regardless of settings). Would most 3D games even be playable? I've yet to test this, except with DCS World (complex flight sim, CPU-heavy), and in that case it really hammered the performance.

 

Battery and gaming don't mix. Unless there is some revolutionary development in a new form of battery, just forget intensive gaming on battery unless you want it to die.

 

Have always played on battery, never been a problem. This one doesn't seem to be very capable though.
Why would you want a new "revolutionary" tech for that ? It just won't last long.

 

Yes, I agree, but they could at least RESPOND and say, "thanks for emailing".

I was able to get gaming performance down to about 30W on the W110ER and use it on battery. I'm working on getting it set up for something like that on the W230ST, and many thanks to Prema's BIOS (beta beta stage at the moment), and modded vBIOS (the vBIOS is separate BIOS in this machine it seems) GPU clocks can run at full. You can change the CPU clocks to whatever you want using Throttlestop.

It's very capable. Just needs to be tuned appropriately. I just wish that the Intel GPU would run at full speed on battery. Stupid how it runs at only 400MHz. On AC the 1300MHz IGPU can play BF3 no problem at 720p at 40-50fps at low/med.

You will need to compromise resolution/quality settings, but it's to be expected since you're trying to minimize power consumption.

 

Voted and sent the e-mail, nice idea, hope this will work.

 

So prema gave you a modded vBios already ?
Would be interesting to compare performance and power draw between a full clocked iGPU and a downclocked dGPU !

 

Let's just say it's a third party BIOS. But that would be an interesting proposition to compare.

 

I don't own and won't own one of these laptops (I still have a W110ER), but I think it's a great idea to encourage Clevo to start producing extended batteries. Their devices are getting better by the year and battery life is that one area where they really fall down so I'd be ecstatic to see this happen in the W230ST because it means there is a prospect of it happening in a future device which I may well end up buying. I hope this gets their attention ^^

 

This is an awesome thing for their 13". I've had my W230ST for 2 days and I am madly in love with it. Why hasnt this been done?!

Make it happen!

 

Sorry for necro-bumping, but this is a interesting topic. Instead of making a new post, I wanted to bring this back up.

I was considering of buying this laptop because of the portability and power in a small size, but the battery life is holding me back slightly.

My alienware M11X (First generation) that I'm using right now gets about 5 hours battery life with keyboard light on/brightness two notch from lowest on intel GMA.

Since this laptop weighs closely to this one, but with bigger screen and better quality. I was hoping that the battery life could be improved to at least 5 hours on intel hd graphics so I can do some notetaking during long lecture classes.

 

Buy a 2nd battery, either official or external..

 

Well with the latest Bios and EC, I got 4 hours and 10 minutes of comfortable browsing. Obviously it's not ideal, 9 cell would be a great addition. I haven't seen this thread before, so might as well send some emails.

 

I'm getting 6h+ under Linux and around 5h under Windows for light weight browsing. (Screen brightness very low, no wireless.) Not great, but not bad for a gaming laptop either.

What makes me mad is my battery takes about the same amount of time to recharge. What recharging time do most of you get?

 

Which distrib' ? Any special parameter ?