Laptop with good battery life

jwest · 16 Oct 2010 at 09:41

Right, I need a laptop for doing CAD (It has to be a laptop because im constantly on the move)

only requirements decent battery 6+ hours would be great, and a half decent graphics card (at the moment im using a 4650 which is fine so as long as it's not much worse than that)

budget - up to 700, but preferbly 600.

ntemples1 · 17 Oct 2010 at 20:03

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Margaret · 18 Oct 2010 at 17:37

You may want to look into a MacBook for around the £750 mark, you can get well over 6 hours and it has a good little card in there. A 320M.

You can most likely get a better specced machine for the price but the battery in the new MacBooks is great. Of course you'd have to use boot camp if you want to use Windows. (aka dual boot)

jwest · 18 Oct 2010 at 17:50

Interesting, unfortunately I cant bring myself to buy a mac.

I was thinking about either an Acer 3820TG, 4820TG or a 5820TG

Up to 8 hours battery life (12 with a 9-cell batt) and a ATI 5650, can get it for just about £650 from the continent.

Thoughts?

necrontyr · 18 Oct 2010 at 17:57

+1 for macbooks, Although your getting 4-5 hours of battery realistically in Windows, but when your listing to mp3's and reading doc's in OSX you can easily manage 7-8 hours, No other machines can be as easily purchased that provide a good level of hardware balance (not an underpowered anything) AND also provide that level of battery length.

So hurray for macbooks and BootCamp is a doddle to install. If this is a Business expense then claiming the vat ligitimises them as in your price bracket. Otherwise they might be worth consideration anyway if your willing to stretch your budget.

Addicted · 18 Oct 2010 at 17:59

just remember there is no way you will get the 8 hours battery life doing CAD stuff.
my laptop was supposedly 8 hours also, but that's if you have the screen dimmed and hardly doing anything

not sure if you've checked already, dell have some decent spec laptops around that price range for what you're looking for!

olivier renault · 19 Oct 2010 at 02:36

necrontyr said:
+1 for macbooks, Although your getting 4-5 hours of battery realistically in Windows, but when your listing to mp3's and reading doc's in OSX you can easily manage 7-8 hours, No other machines can be as easily purchased that provide a good level of hardware balance (not an underpowered anything) AND also provide that level of battery length.

So hurray for macbooks and BootCamp is a doddle to install. If this is a Business expense then claiming the vat ligitimises them as in your price bracket. Otherwise they might be worth consideration anyway if your willing to stretch your budget.

Yup. I just wished I could have a Windows equivalent to sink my teeth into (well, the Vaio Z, but it's ultra expensive). If the next Macbook refresh allows switchable graphics in Win 7, that'd be a very interesting proposition.

If you want HD 4650 performance, you'll have to look at the HD 5650, or NVidia GT330M, or their new GT4xxM range. In either case, you'll never get the full 8 hours battery life with the GPU on, more like 2h30 at most. It's just not feasible to engage the dedicated GPU and expect massive battery life when the TDP of the GPU is 30-35 watts alone.

Most laptops with those kind of GPUs have switchable graphics, meaning they perform best on batteries with the integrated GPU, and the dedicated GPU on when plugged to the mains.

If you go one class below, you have the HD 4570 / GT320M, which are about 1/2 the performance of the HD 5650.

For that kind of money, it's difficult to get a small form factor laptop with decent battery life and that kind of power. The only one I can think of is the Acer TimelineX 3820TZG with a HD 5650, but it's almost impossible to find.

You also have the Alienware M11X, that has good components in a small form factor and decent battery life, but it's over your budget. There aren't many equivalents unfortunately. Either you have to go with poor graphics performance and mobility, or good performance and poor mobility.

If you're willing to sacrifice on the graphics front, then there are many options available. Maybe the next generation will bring better balanced products with Fusion chips.

jwest · 19 Oct 2010 at 09:44

I only heard about switchable graphics the other day, do all laptops do it that have an intergrated GPU and a dedicated GPU?

olivier renault · 19 Oct 2010 at 14:06

Not all. AFAIK, it's something that the laptop manufacturer has to enable / support. The Dell Studio 15 sadly does not have switchable graphics. But most mobility notebooks have, as their focus is on battery life.

Also note that some laptops don't even allow you to use the dedicated GPU on batteries. I'm not sure why, but I suspect it's because the power draw is much higher, 50-70W on full power. Basically, if you see the power supply rating 65W or 90W, you can get an idea of how much power is actually needed to run the laptop at full load.

Most laptops with low spec graphics can use the GPU on batteries, and still give reasonable battery life. But the HD 5650 class takes a fair amount of juice to run, and are usually coupled with a i5 processor.