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    Satellite Pro U300 Battery Life?

    Discussion in 'Toshiba' started by JLondon, Jan 21, 2008.

  1. JLondon

    JLondon Newbie

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    Hi

    Does anyone know any Battery Life statistics for the U300? My office may get me one (the U300-13P, specifically) - but the Toshiba web-page has no info on battery life. I called and their tech support was fairly non-useful as well.

    I'd be running XP, not Vista, if it matters.

    I saw a couple of reviews saying it wasn't great which worries me, I'd want at least 4 hours or more use from it (Word processing and spreadsheet stuff mostly)

    Thanks

    -Justin
     
    JLondon, Jan 21, 2008
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  2. jujube

    jujube Notebook Deity

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    jujube, Jan 21, 2008
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  3. cloud_nine

    cloud_nine Notebook Evangelist

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    The U300 series can easily achieve 4+ hours on a normal 6 cell battery. I've done this countless times in back to back lectures at my university, taking notes in class with MSword and ocassionally web surf during breaks. I really can't imagine how long it would last with a 9 cell battery.

    Generally, all Toshiba's come with an amazing amount of software that literally chokes the notebook. The complaints about the loud fan, mediocre battery, average performance, etc. all stem from this problem and most reviewers fail to recognize this as a huge detrimental factor (NBR review aside).

    Once you trim all the excess software (and it will take some time) and play with the power options in Vista, you can easily get 3+ hours on MSword. Tweak it further using the guides in the Windows OS forum and you can achieve 4+ hours.

    Personally, I prefer Vista over XP. The power options is Vista is very advanced and tweakable. For example, there are options to throttle the CPU speed to save battery life, this in turn keeps notebook temperatures down, which in turn saves even more battery life by not having the fan turned on! You can probably achieve the same result with 3rd party power management software, but it just isn't as well integrated as Vista's power options and can be buggy at times.

    It will take time and a little bit of elbow grease to get good performance of of the U300 series, but it is very well worth it!
     
    cloud_nine, Jan 21, 2008
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  4. JLondon

    JLondon Newbie

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    Thanks for the links and information. I wonder if anyone has used a 9 cell battery with the U300? But I'd also think it adds weight and size to the unit too?

    I've heard conflicting things about XP or Vista - Toshiba sales said on XP the battery lasts longer, but Cloud 9 Seems to say Vista has better power management features. Anyone else want to advise?
     
    JLondon, Jan 22, 2008
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  5. cloud_nine

    cloud_nine Notebook Evangelist

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    Weight with the 6 cell is 4.6lbs. The 9 cell unit will add 0.5 lbs to the unit, so you're looking at 5.1 with the 9 cell. Not really featherweight, but it's a price you pay for extended battery life.

    XP doesn't come with any power management features.
     
    cloud_nine, Jan 22, 2008
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