Large capacity battery?

Does anyone here have some experience with the FE's large capacity battery? Apparently, the SZ, AR, N, C, FS, FJ and S use the same model too.

What I'm wondering is how much it sticks out and down because it looks like there's a bump, judging from the picture on Sony's site.

How much did it improve battery life? Is it sticking downward a lot worse than it sticking straight out?

Thanks.

 

Funny thing you should ask ... I was jst about to make a post bout 'how the hell you're supposed to squeeze 10 hrs of battery life with the extended battery?' after using it for a week (once it charges 100%, unplugging then running it right down to 20% then charge (100%) then run down to 10%, etc.) the best I've managed is 4 hrs 50 mins on Power Saver mode with WLAN, MSN and internet explorer (5-7 tabs) running simultaneously.

Yes I understand that depending on what applications you run and how many at one time will have a bearing on the battery life? But come on, 10 hrs stated in the ad's (give or take a couple of hours less, cos Sony love to boast!) and I'm only getting half of the stated battery life?

mavere - yes the battery sticks out like one of those speed bumps you see on the road, but its a nice design point cos it props the SZ jst enough to let some ventilation circulate around the bottom of it! oh it sticks out approx 2.5cm outwards and 1.5 cm downwards - so ya, out is more ...

 

power saver on, bluetooth disabled, dvdrom disabled + firewire port disabled, screen brightness to the minimum and volume at 10 at most..

i have standard battery running with my specs above and can get 4 hours out of my SZ

 

Can you guys comment on the added weight of the larger battery? I'm considering it for the FZ, but not if the time convenience is outweighed (no pun intended) by the extra weight. The FZ probably uses a different set of batteries, but it's still likely relative.

 

How much is it?

 

I regularly get 7+ hours on the extended battery with my SZ. I prefer it to the standard battery (it's the only one I have with my SZ) as it also props it up a bit and gives it better airflow.

 

Do you guys know how much more the battery weighs? I'm guessing about a pound?

 

I meant price.

 

Guess this was too hard to figure out ...

http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs...langId=-1&productId=11041034&categoryId=27847

 

I've no idea why but Sony's UK website was infinitely more informative.

Official numbers are that the large capacity battery weighs 160 grams (0.35 lbs) more and sticks 1.44 cm down and 2.11 cm out.

Not too bad for the 50% extra life I guess.

 

Well, since no one posted a part number....

Thanks, though.

 

O , silly me ... i forgot that we've got that switch for stamina/speed ... i will give it a try (cos I was wondering where FenderP gets the 7+ hrs) LOL

 

Actually, I get 6 - 7 hours in speed with a bit of brightness turned down and such. What I find kills battery is using things like the DVD drive (which I turn off) and excessive HD use. Wireless doesn't eat your battery.

You have to experiment at what settings work for you, but I get pretty much the same battery life I did under Vista I did with XP.

 

FenderP when you say 'turn off', u mean by using the 'disable' option for the DVD drive in device manager right? also, virtual drives should have no affect on battery right - cos its all software related - and unless u're running it intensively?

 

Sony has special power settings in your power management. YOu should check it out. You can tweak how things run on AC vs. battery to your liking. It has nothing to do with touching device manager.

Anything that generates a lot of I/O when you're using it (virtual machines, audio, video, etc.) is the enemy. If it's just taking up space and not in use, it's not a problem. Booting up will eat up some battery life, too.

So you need to think about what you do and how it affects battery life. Disable anything unncessary, including system processes if need be.

If you leave full brightness, use tons of power, I/O, etc., no wonder people don't get close to what it's rated at. Any battery life is usually about 20-25% less that what it's rated at (which is at ideal settings for battery life). It hasn't been different in all the years I've owned various laptops. So if you have a battery rated at 10h, getting 7+ shouldn't be hard to achieve./

 

What's your battery life on the FE with the regular battery? I'm getting less than 2 hours under minimal usage. I also notice it will use 13% of battery just to start up. Are you seeing this also? Seems excessive.

 

This large capacity battery is a TERRIBLE purchase. I paid $299 in May of 2006. For the last four months I've been gettting about 1 hour of battery life, with my SZ VAIO set on "Stamina" instead of "Speed" setting.

I've read other similar complaints from people who bought this battery. I am so furious -- I purchased this from CompUSA.com and, of course, the 1-year warranty has expired. Anyone else have this problem?