Max Battery Life Laptop Recommendation

[jasper1605]

Hey all,

I'm starting med school in about 3 weeks and I'm needing a smallish (prefer 13") laptop to follow me around all day and take notes on. I read that the fusion core laptops last upwards or 10 hours. Is this true?

My biggest requirement is that the battery will last as long as possible. It does not need to play games or any kind of movie watching. An HDMI port would be nice to have so I can put espn3.com on my TV. My budget is $500 and below.

HP Pavilion dm1-3210us Notebook AMD Dual-Core Proc...
That's one that I'm considering, but I am open to any and all suggestions.

Thanks

 

[FordGT90Concept]

If you want long battery life, you'll want to look for low voltage/wattage CPUs, 5100-5400 RPM hard drives (or SSD), efficient integrated graphics engine, as many cells and as high of watt-hour rating as possible, and Windows 7 or Vista (power saving options--use them).

On the one you linked to, I wouldn't expect the battery to last very long largely because of that 7200 RPM HDD.

 

[jasper1605]

Thanks for the tips. What would be a low wattage cpu (or where can I find it listed?)?

 

[FordGT90Concept]

I would try looking for Core i3-2100T/HD Graphics 1000 computer. It consumes less power, generally speaking, and has higher performance per watt.

 

[Hayder_Master]

Let's give you a list of load battery usege
GPU, even it's IGP
DVD
HDD
high brightnes
speakers

don't run something use high gpu like games and videos so pick an IGP, also dvd and don't make your HDD busy like rendering or difragment or multimedia files better if look for SSD, high bright kill battery quick and better got small size screen, last thing speakers too use much power.

 

[jasper1605]

I would try looking for Core i3-2100T/HD Graphics 1000 computer. It consumes less power, generally speaking, and has higher performance per watt.

does that have a laptop variant? It seems newegg keeps sending me to desktops with that.

Also, what is the difference between the A-series processors and something like the e-350? Are the A-series just newer?

 

[FordGT90Concept]

This one has potential:
DELL Inspiron 1464 (i1464-3218PPK) Notebook Intel ...
http://www.dell.com/us/dfh/p/inspiron-1464/pd

-9-cell battery (90 WHr)
-5400 RPM drive
-35w CPU w/ relatively low clockspeed
-no frills media accelerator

...but one problem...
Color: Flamingo Pink

It would also be nice if it had a wireless radio power button (conserve power when not using wireless) but it doesn't appear to have one.

 

[jasper1605]

...but one problem...
Color: Flamingo Pink

lol yeah I saw that. Nothing that paint can't fix lol.

 

[Hayder_Master]

Now you better thing about this things
IGP,SSD,small size screen
CPU technology is important too, whatever lower nm size and low clock it will save battey life.
High ram will be useful like 4G cuz it will make low load on HDD.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Ideally, you'd find a CPU that has a 32nm processor and graphics unit. The Core i3 350M has a 32nm processor and 45nm graphics unit.

 

[jasper1605]

unfortunately i7 would kill my budget. It's a graduation gift from my pops so I don't want to go over the estimate I told him.

 

[Suhidu]

The i7 is a higher price and performance processor, and I doubt you'd get longer battery life with it. In fact, i7s are often combined with other high-power components and larger screens. Not to mention price. While there are low-power variants of the i7, I don't see why you couldn't do exactly what you mentioned in the first post on just the laptop you asked about.

AMD E-Series processors are a lower power & performance processor variant than the A-Series. The A-Series is higher performance Dual & Quad-Core processors. The E-Series is lower power Single & Dual-Core processors (dual on the laptop you're looking at). The page there on Newegg says you'll get about 9.5hrs battery life, which is surely a bit more than you'd get even at lowest screen brightness. Nevertheless, it's great battery life rating, and the hp dm1z has been well reviewed overall.

Also, you can't judge much about a laptop's battery life based on 5,400 vs. 7,200 rpm hard drives. 7,200 rpm is also faster.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

i7 was a typo (it is 350M is an i3). No i7 processor is going to give you good battery life.