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    Vaio FZ348 -- 1.5 Hours Battery life :-(

    Discussion in 'VAIO / Sony' started by asifgrkhan, Jul 30, 2008.

  1. asifgrkhan

    asifgrkhan Newbie

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    Hello Folks,

    I bought the VAIO FZ348E/B at CC yesterday. The configuration is 15.4", T5450, 160GB HDD, 2GB RAM, NVidia 8400, BD-ROM.

    While the notebook is excellent in all respects, I am not happy with the battery life at all. In the Optimized (balance between performance and battery life) plan, the battery life is just 90 minutes. This is even less than my 17" AMD Athlon (not Turion) HP dv9704nr. This 90 minute battery life was observed while web browsing (no graphics/multimedia operations)

    Please let me know if this is the benchmark. I was expecting at least one more hour of battery life (2.5 hours) out of this laptop.

    Thanks.
     
    asifgrkhan, Jul 30, 2008
    #1
  2. InfyMcGirk

    InfyMcGirk while(!(succeed=try()));

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    If it's a brand new laptop (and battery), you shouldn't expect the battery life to be up to standard yet.

    Usually batteries only reach their best performance after the first couple of full charge/discharge cycles... I would give it a few more charges/discharges and make sure you are taking the normal steps like turning down the brightness a few steps, etc., before you give up on it. ;)
     
    InfyMcGirk, Jul 30, 2008
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  3. rubenvb

    rubenvb Notebook Consultant

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    Don't know about accuracy of the benchmark, but as you did it yourself, that's the one that matters!

    If you want more battery life, check the undervolting guide, it can give you at least another half hour: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=235824

    You can also turn the screen brightness down one click/notch/setting/level. That's good enough in normal conditions and gives you something in the range of 15 minutes.
     
    rubenvb, Jul 30, 2008
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  4. John Ratsey

    John Ratsey Moderately inquisitive Super Moderator

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    Try using the Battery Optimised power profile.

    Most of the power saving features may not be active when you use the Balanced profile.

    John
     
    John Ratsey, Jul 30, 2008
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  5. Skyshade

    Skyshade Notebook Deity NBR Reviewer

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    FZ is a little short on battery life compared to other 15.4" laptops, as it was designed as DTR in a crowded Japanese apartment. 1.5 Hrs is actually not that surprising for a FZ with XBright-HiColor screen and has not been fine tuned. You will need to play with power profile and turn the screen brightness down when doing normal web surfing and stuff to get the battery life up. A "cleaner" Vista re-install and turning of BD when not using (in the power profile setup) will all help.
     
    Skyshade, Jul 30, 2008
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  6. rmtschanz

    rmtschanz Notebook Consultant

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    FZ's battery life is short. Sitting idle with wireless with the 8400 and Hi-color screen, less than half on brightness level, I was able to push just over 2 hours. I would look at the FW if you want to stay with Sony at that screen size.
     
    rmtschanz, Jul 30, 2008
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  7. jetro

    jetro Notebook Enthusiast

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    Have the same model. While its not the most powerful laptop, I believe its one of the more balanced ones in terms of features. The battery life is the only thing that I hate about it. A little more than 1.5 hours is just about the average service I can get from it. I could only squeeze 2 hours after turning down the screen brightness level about 2-3 notch.
     
    jetro, Jul 30, 2008
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