15.6" Laptop With Extreme Battery Life

[AfricanWoolf]

Hi,

I'm looking for a laptop to write and work on.

There are only three things that matter to me.

1. It has a 15.6" screen. This is mostly so I get a full size keyboard. I have big hands and prefer a bigger keyboard.

2. It has a battery life so long that when cockroaches roam the irradiated landscape of a post-apocalypse world they will gather beneath the glow of my still running laptop.

3. Cheap. I know that these kind of requests sound silly. Most questions I see on the internet request the best of everything and then demand that it also be cheap. My hope here is that since I'm not looking for gaming performance I might get away with something cheap.

My budget is $500 although I can go up to $650 if something amazeballs is found.

Any help would be much appreciated. I've been trawling the web and just cant seem to find something that satisfies all three of my requirements.

It seems like high battery life means either small laptop or very expensive.

I hand this issue over to better people than me.

Thank you in advance.

- Jake

 

[rdc85]

IS any Brand u prefer Lenovo / Dell / Samsung / Etc...

Since most laptop had same spec, specific brand will narrow the choice...

 

[AfricanWoolf]

IS any Brand u prefer Lenovo / Dell / Samsung / Etc...

Since most laptop had same spec, specific brand will narrow the choice...

I like Lenovo, Dell, Asus and Samsung.

I'd like to avoid acer and HP if I can. I have an ancient Lenovo and it has lasted beautifully but any of the other good brands will be more than fine.

Thanks for the help

 

[rdc85]

First searching for long lasting batt with 15,6 and cheap is hard ...

So we down to newest model (AMD Trinity and Intel Ivy bridge) for efficiency since they had improvement in battery life than old gen ...
(Ivy and Sandy sells not much different price, Llano is nice for game but bad at batt)

I'm also had lenovo notebook (So far I'm pleased)

So this one catch my eyes....

Spoiler

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834246619
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834310561
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834246615

They all had 6 cell battery.... I think it will serve well...
The 9 cell ones either to expensive or to old... (bad performance/efficiency)
Do not know about if they are full sized keyboard or not...

Some advice: The thing that i know can improve battery life...
- Disable/disconnect device that not in use like wifi/bluetooth/camera/flash disk/etc
- Turn down brightness in well lighted rooms or in sunny open air

 

[eddie z]

Hi,

I'm looking for a laptop to write and work on.

There are only three things that matter to me.

1. It has a 15.6" screen. This is mostly so I get a full size keyboard. I have big hands and prefer a bigger keyboard.

2. It has a battery life so long that when cockroaches roam the irradiated landscape of a post-apocalypse world they will gather beneath the glow of my still running laptop.

3. Cheap. I know that these kind of requests sound silly. Most questions I see on the internet request the best of everything and then demand that it also be cheap. My hope here is that since I'm not looking for gaming performance I might get away with something cheap.

My budget is $500 although I can go up to $650 if something amazeballs is found.

Any help would be much appreciated. I've been trawling the web and just cant seem to find something that satisfies all three of my requirements.

It seems like high battery life means either small laptop or very expensive.

I hand this issue over to better people than me.

Thank you in advance.

- Jake

Hello Jake,

Laptops in general have disappointing battery life...There are a few things that will enhance it...like lowering the screen brightness and avoiding using the optical drive while on battery...

The key to longer battery life is how many "cells" the battery has...So consider purchasing a laptop with an 8 cell battery or bigger..(many come with 6 cell batteries)..or perhaps you can buy an inexpensive laptop and buy a larger 8 cell after market battery..

Regards,
Eddie Z

 

[Brett928S2]

Hi

I own a laptop repair company and also sell laptops in my shops....

Manufacturers figures for battery life are out and out lies...lol

Manufacturer figure...8 hours = 2 to 3 hours in real life usage...

Answer = buy some spare batteries...

All the best Brett

 

[azathoth]

Brett is absolutely correct, whenever you hear about a laptop with "amazing 8 hour battery life".

Just ignore the statement. Lucky to get 3-4 hours idling on desktop.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834310561

(One of rdc's suggestions) looks like a great laptop, it is fast, the HD4000 good enough to play some games even. And it doesn't take as much power as the APU combination.

Again as brett has said, the best thing you can do to improve your battery life, is to simply order a second battery from the manufacturer as a backup.

 

[DarkSable]

The other question...
What about a netbook, with a wireless keyboard?

 

[kitsunestarwind]

SO far the only laptop i have ever owned with amazing battery life is my Alienware M11x R1, in its lower power mode (internal GPU no Nvidia one) and using a SSD i have had the battery last 9hrs+.
Only problem being its very expensive, tiny keyboard and very small screen. (and the battery literally takes up 50% of the laptop's internal space)

 

[AfricanWoolf]

Best answer selected by AfricanWoolf.