Laptop and battery life

I dont understand the logic in trying to "save"money on the most important investment for you business. You know how hard it sucks to be using a shitty laptop it will distract you from making real monies online.

My suggestion is dont look on anything below $2000 and save yourself a whole lot of stress and headaches.

-M
 


Having a good batheri laptop indeed helps you. Going on cheap accessory, you will turn into a nightmare.!
 
You get what you pay for in this case. Different batteries different durations, also you can use several batteries one after another. Just shop around.
 
You can use your laptop battery for long time but you will follow some instruction such as only one time charged your laptop battery don't use always charging, your power backup supply should be good, always use Malware Removal security for laptop, update your laptop OS drivers and finally clean your laptop parts for vacuum cleaner.
 
tatrasim said:
Will start flying around a lot soon and my laptop battery sucks now, so I can't get anything done on the plane. Used to hold a charge well but a year+ later doesn't even hold for an hour. I will need it to hold 10+ hours as I have a ton of time to get from west to east coast, 10+ hours back. I may need to get a new laptop as well, would appreciate any suggestions/links. No macs, also, preferably something under $1k.

Also, shoot any suggestions to keep the battery life long term. Don't feel like buying new batteries/laptops every year.
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The ThinkPad T520 is rated at 20-30 hours of battery life (depending on where you look) with the 9-cell rear battery (upgrade from the 6-cell) and the slice battery (an add-on battery which props the laptop up a bit). The screen quality is rather low, but if you're not picky about such things, you can probably make due. They offer what's called a high-gamut display which is supposedly much better and has a 1920x1080 resolution, making it a full 1080p display. The problem with high-gamut displays is that they're designed for photo editing, which causes a bit of over-saturation of the colors in some programs other than things like Photoshop. For that, you'll need a custom color scheme--luckily, they're publicly available on the Internet.

You can also wait for the upcoming ThinkPads, which are slated to use Intel's new Ivy Bridge architecture. In a nutshell, IB is supposed to have better power efficiency (basically because it's smaller tech), so battery life should improve on the next line. However, many people feel that ThinkPads have been steadily decreasing in quality, so it's your call.

Don't get the X220, it's a ChinkPad piece of shit.
 
I'm in the same boat and looking to upgrade. I have a sony vaio that is at least 4 years old lol. I just rarely use it so haven't bothered to upgrade, but I just got back from a trip last week and had to use it, and boy does it suck. And the battery only lasted for about 90 minutes, and that is the replacement battery I bought that is only about 18 mos old tops.

Thanks for the reminder. Guess I will go laptop shopping today. Wish I was an apple fan. Macbook air is such a nobrainer. What's the windoze equivalent of a macbook air??
 
dsiomtw said:
What's the windoze equivalent of a macbook air??
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The best alternative that I'm aware of is the Asus Zenbook, but it's a piece of shit and I do not recommend it. I could be wrong, but I believe that you can install Windows on the MBA. So, if you're interested in the MBA, wait until the new one comes out, buy it, and install Windows. (Best choice in that form factor, perhaps, but not the best choice overall.)
 
About said:
I believe that you can install Windows on the MBA. So, if you're interested in the MBA, wait until the new one comes out, buy it, and install Windows.
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You can via bootcamp or parrallel but why? It's going to suck up your battery life like crazy.

Wait for Asus Zenbook's new update.
 
prince said:
You can via bootcamp or parrallel but why? It's going to suck up your battery life like crazy.

Wait for Asus Zenbook's new update.
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What are those, virtual machines? You can't run it natively? Anyway, Asus makes terrible laptops with awful build quality. If you're more worried about aesthetics than function, then it's a rational choice, but otherwise you're buying an inferior product.

Edit: Based on some quick googling it looks like Windows can run natively on many Apple products. Do your own research, but in my opinion if you want the "ultrabook" form factor without Mac OS, go with the MacBook Air refresh and install Windows. For what it's worth, when I'm not bullshitting on the Internet, I do IT work part-time (>implying I don't just suck the cocks of the higher ups at an IT firm) so I have a lot of experience with large numbers of these laptops.

That, or just get a ThinkPad T520 and be done with it.
 
Asus UX31 seems like a good option. Why go through all that crap with the macbook when you can get a UX31 for $999? I just found a 2 week old one on craigslist near my house for $750. I might go grab it today. Shit is twice as good as the 5lb sony I paid $2500 for less than 5 years ago. Crazy! I don't need ultra high performance and something like this is more than enough for basic shit when I'm on vacation.
 
dsiomtw said:
Asus UX31 seems like a good option. Why go through all that crap with the macbook when you can get a UX31 for $999? I just found a 2 week old one on craigslist near my house for $750. I might go grab it today. Shit is twice as good as the 5lb sony I paid $2500 for less than 5 years ago. Crazy! I don't need ultra high performance and something like this is more than enough for basic shit when I'm on vacation.
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Build quality, longevity, etc. If you just need something for consistent basic performance, it makes more sense to get something that isn't shit and won't fall apart in six months, since any modern laptop is overkill for basic performance for at least the next 3 years, if not much more. Normally, I'd be arguing against purchasing a Mac since they carry a huge markup, but if you insist on the ultrabook form factor, there's no way around the fact that Apple's competitors are currently producing absolute garbage. And the new MBA is going to have that game-changing display. Anyway, I'm just trying to be helpful. It seems like most people are doomed to retroactively justify whatever purchasing decision they've already internalized, which is definitely the wrong way to go if you want to buy a good laptop (or a good anything for that matter).

I personally use an old ThinkPad with a bunch of spare batteries, but I've been considering the T520 as an upgrade because of dat 18-hour battery life and relatively great build quality. I'm waiting on Ivy Bridge to see what kind of battery life improvements it can offer before I pull the trigger.
 
I just purchased a Thinkpad x130e.

It is 4lbs and has a 12inch screen.

It was designed for elementary school children so it is thinkpad tough + more.

I'll come in the mail this week, i'm gonna see how good it is. It was only $400 as well. This is gonna be my travel + coffeeshop PC.
 
SirKonstantine said:
I just purchased a Thinkpad x130e.

It is 4lbs and has a 12inch screen.

It was designed for elementary school children so it is thinkpad tough + more.

I'll come in the mail this week, i'm gonna see how good it is. It was only $400 as well. This is gonna be my travel + coffeeshop PC.
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Lenovo's "business" lines, most notably the T-series, have a magnesium-alloy skeleton which significantly increases the durability of the machines. I believe that the X1 has it as well, and possibly the X220 Tablet, although you shouldn't quote me on the last one. The x130e lacks the magnesium-alloy skeleton and its durability is more in line with typical consumer-grade laptops.

There's a chart here (they call it a "roll cage"), and if you click the individual series link you'll see which models in particular have each feature. Dell offers the same sort of thing but their machines don't compare when it comes to battery life from what I've seen.
 
Yes, you can do a fresh install and use Windows only on your MBA if you want to but the battery life is going to be somewhat shorter from what I heard...

I've tried Asus Zenbook is actually not bad at all.
 
Maybe I'm looking at things from a different angle but "build quality, longevity, etc" don't really factor in to the equation when I'm talking about a sub $1k laptop for doing basic web shit that will only be used on average a few times a month and will probably be replaced in another 1-2 years.

About said:
Build quality, longevity, etc. If you just need something for consistent basic performance, it makes more sense to get something that isn't shit and won't fall apart in six months, since any modern laptop is overkill for basic performance for at least the next 3 years, if not much more. Normally, I'd be arguing against purchasing a Mac since they carry a huge markup, but if you insist on the ultrabook form factor, there's no way around the fact that Apple's competitors are currently producing absolute garbage. And the new MBA is going to have that game-changing display. Anyway, I'm just trying to be helpful. It seems like most people are doomed to retroactively justify whatever purchasing decision they've already internalized, which is definitely the wrong way to go if you want to buy a good laptop (or a good anything for that matter).

I personally use an old ThinkPad with a bunch of spare batteries, but I've been considering the T520 as an upgrade because of dat 18-hour battery life and relatively great build quality. I'm waiting on Ivy Bridge to see what kind of battery life improvements it can offer before I pull the trigger.
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dsiomtw said:
Maybe I'm looking at things from a different angle but "build quality, longevity, etc" don't really factor in to the equation when I'm talking about a sub $1k laptop for doing basic web shit that will only be used on average a few times a month and will probably be replaced in another 1-2 years.
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So you want extremely basic functionality that even a computer from 2006 can still accomplish, build quality and longevity don't matter, you plan on replacing it in 1-2 years, cost is presumably a factor, but you're willing to spend almost as much as you would on a decent machine anyway? Why not just spend slightly more and keep it for five years instead? You're talking about buying a Kia for $15k instead of a Honda for $20k. This is basic shit my nigga, get on my level.
 
About said:
So you want extremely basic functionality that even a computer from 2006 can still accomplish, build quality and longevity don't matter, you plan on replacing it in 1-2 years, cost is presumably a factor, but you're willing to spend almost as much as you would on a decent machine anyway? Why not just spend slightly more and keep it for five years instead? You're talking about buying a Kia for $15k instead of a Honda for $20k. This is basic shit my nigga, get on my level.
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Nigga please. Extremely basic functionality? Aside from high-end gaming laptops or something all laptops have basically the same "functionality". I need a decent one - I just have no need to pay 2x as much for a laptop that's 20% faster because it has the latest and greatest processor or whatever. My laptop from 2006 has a crappy old processor and it's slow as shit, and since I actually need to use it now I figure it's time for a new one. I don't think anyone who can afford to upgrade keeps and uses the same laptop, or any computer for that matter, for 5 years. And Asus makes decent laptops according to the rest of the world. Basically none of what you said makes any sense at all.
 
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