TXN bettery life blows away TZ

I was deciding between the TX and TZ series. I decided to wait for TZ since it would run Vista better. One of my friends decided to take advantage of the clearance pricing of the TXN25n at BB. I was right about it struggling with Vista, so I helped him down(up?)grade to XP. We ran out of time at work, so I took it home with me to finish the job.

With XP it runs things as well as my TZ. What I realy wasn't ready for was the battery life. IT WON'T DIE!!! I thought that my Pansonic CF-W2 had heroic battery life. This blows it away. It really leaves my TZ in the dust. I am starting to wonder if I should have saved the $1400 and gone with the TX

 

Yes, battery life is the one thing the TX beats its successor at. The Core Solos suck less juice than Core Duos, XP will drain less than Vista and the TXs have higher capacity batteries than the TZ, thats the really strange part which I don't understand why Sony would do, put smaller batteries in the TZ.

For instance, the standard battery capacity is about 7200 mAh vs 5200 Mah in TX to TZ and extended is 14000 mAh to 7400 Mah.

 

probably so it can be as light and thin as possible

 

If I was choosing between the TX and TZ, I'd choose the TZ for the keyboard alone. I finally got a chance to try a TZ out at Best Buy, and the keyboard is a tremendous improvement, IMO.

 

Yes, but they seem to be about the same size and weight. Both have optical drives, both have 1.8" HDs. Both also use the same chipset. It is a fairly fair fight. I have never seen a battery perform like the TXN's

 

how long did the tx lasted for? (vs the TZ)

 

You can import TZ from Japan with single core.

 

Thats the Celeron M version, no TZ is available with Core Solo, either Celerom M or C2D.

 

Yeah Celeron has a single core thats what i mean.

 

would a tz with a celeron m out preform a tx with a core solo? since the celeron is based on the banias core with only 512mb of cache as oppose to 2mb from the core solo

 

I was installing things for about 4-5 hours and it was still at 50%. With the standard (medium) battery, my TZ goes about 4-6 hours total.

 

Hey Teekster, think maybe you could do detailed battery benchmarks on both?

So the TZ's batteries have lower capacity than the TXs and are more power hungry due to the dual core processors, why Sony why? The battery life is still very good considering I'm used to a Turion X2 processor. Ugh.

No, the Core Solo is the superior processor bar none. Maybe Sony should have given an option for a Core Solo in the TZ for those that need every bit of battery life. In Japan, the TX also had the option of Celeron M, actually all of the T series in Japan have.

 

For those that need the extra battery life and less weight, Sony introduced the G. The TZ was developed to serve a different market segment.

 

Does anyone reckon that throttling or undervolting the Dual core TZ down might increase the battery life without effecting things such as web browsing and word processing (office 2007). Could one of the TZ's cores be disabled so its essentially a single core like the TX. I'm running a 1.83 C2D Asus R1F and never get close to running it at 100% cpu but also never leaves the house because its battery is crippled.

Also anyone heard of any 3rd party batteries available yet or are we trapped by the same hardware lock to Sony batteries as i've read in other Sony threads. Is it also true that TX owners were able to get 3rd party batteries with higher capacities than Sony offered and was there a size increase if so?

Sorry for all the question, runtime is the biggest concern for me. Thanks.

 

That is incorrect. Amperage is only part of the equation (P=IV) - Sony has increased the voltage of their batteries in the TZ compared to the TX (10.8V vs 7.4V).

The standard/medium battery (VGP-BPL11) is rated at 10.8V, 5800mAh, which is equivalent to 62.64Wh. The TX's standard battery (VGP-BPS5A) is rated at 7.4V, 7800mAh, which is 57.72Wh. That's an 8.5% increase in battery capacity.

The large battery (VGP-BPX11) is rated at 8700mAh (93.96Wh). The TX's large battery (VGPBPL5A) is rated at 13000mAh (96.20Wh).

 

Is it true Sony might be releasing the TZ's with a Core Solo 2 option later down the line? and when? If the battery life is that much of a difference should I have waited? =( ?

 

haha if battery life is that much of a concern for you I would be happy to trade you my TXN15P for your TZ. I get about 10 hours of battery life out of mine

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=163637

 

wow I never knew the txn had that good of a battery life. Well either way I love my TZ!! I have the middle sized battery and it gives me a good 5-6 hours on full brightness and little over 7 hours with the brightness down to maybe a few notches!! I wonder how long the bulk battery could give me.. anyways I picked up a brand new tz middle sized battery that some company bought the tz's but dont need the batteries from someone on ebay for 49.99 =D Now i just need a dock.. to charge my 2nd battery so now thats 14 hours of battery time!!!!

 

Sure. You can throttle CPU for sure, you can turn the busspeed down to 400 Mhz for sure. I never tried undervolting but i think it would work.

No, I have never heard any software being able to do that.

 

Why? Isn't 7 hours enough for you !?

With the right tweaking you may even get 8 hours out of the standard battery.

 

I have both TXN15 and TZ17GN. Standard battery.
I set them to run 533 instead of 400. Level 3 brightness. DVD, iLink, Lan off. Wifi , bluetooth on. Normal use (no gaming), typing homework, surf online, MSN. End at 5% remain battery.

TXN15 (XP) - 6.5 hours
TXN15 (Vista) - 4.5 hours
TZ17GN(Vista) - 6 hours
btw
The TXN's fan stays on all the time and produces noise as some of you may heard about that before.
The TZ's fan stays on also but almost no noise at all. Sony did improve the fan.

Improve? The TZ is freaking hot!!!

I think it's because of carbon fiber.
On TXN, only the screen cover is made by carbon fiber.
On TZ, I think not only the screen cover, the body is made by carbon fiber too (not 100% sure. well, I can feel the different compare to TXN). It seems like carbon fiber does well on delivery of heat.

 

just trade me =p

 

in your test, they doesnt seem that much of a difference in battery life between tz and tx as have been mentioned earlier in the thread

 

Don't forget that the battery in TX may be a lot older than the one in TZ.

 

I can't believe I'm even reading this discussion. There's just no comparison, the TZ blows the TX away in every respect. I had a TX and between the fan noise and hard disk clicking, it drove me positively batty!

 

Also in battery life?

that's what this thread is about

 

I didn't mean to open up this can of worms. I really like my TZ in every other respect. I was merely commenting on the extraordinary battery life of its predecessor.

Sorry

 

tz 4-7hrs while txn15 5-11hr's vista estimated battery life that depending on use

 

Hey Teekster don't be apologizing. Every new iteration of a laptop series is intended to improve upon the last in every way, especially when it comes to battery life in this class of laptop.

The TX was the class leader in terms of battery life. I dont think anyone can reasonably dispute this. Highlighting the lesser battery life of the TZ only helps people to make good decisions when choosing which product to purchase and helps everyone to find ways to improve things. I would hate to see someone spend €2500 of their hard-earned money and be disappointed.

With a bit of tweaking and hopefully improvements from Vista SP1 we can make a great ultra-portable even better.

So thanks, its a lovely can of worms you opened.

 

Twenty lashes for the teekster!

 

i read this article that sums it up best the tx is sexy in a christina aguilera kind of way while the tz is sleek and sexy kylie minogue way

 

Thats from the CNET UK review of the TZ.

 

Right. The TXN battery is older than my TZ's one for sure.
TZ does have shorter battery life than TX (XP). It's still longer than SZ.

What I feel about
TZ batter than TX:
-motion Eye
-all black
-nicer keyboard
-better looking
-quieter fan
-nicer screen
-handle vista better
-the machine body feel stronger (thicker lid cover and carbon fiber body)
-thinner

TX batter than TZ:
-original come with XP
-a bit longer battery life
-cooler bottom (TZ is hot)
-better design on function keys (av mode button, play, volume, wireless)
-faster SD card performance
-it looks smaller than TZ
-the position of av buttons

 

I agree with your points on the improvements, but the "benefits" of the TX are not worth that much, whereas the improvements of the TZ are.

Going on your points:

You can install XP on the TZ, and I would rather pay for a Vista licence than another XP one.

The battery life that I am getting from the extended battery is more than enough for me.

I don't care about any of the other differences. The TZ performs with style.