Real world battery life of iBook 800mhz?

[Gohan]

Found a very good price on an iBook 800mhz from a friend.

One question before I buy it though what's the battery life like for the these tasks:

DVD / Divx movies

Internet browsing via wireless?

Cheers.

[JFreak]

internet browsing 5 hours - dvd movie half of that.

[NamJangNamJa]

I don't know how long the battery life of new one is. However, it is certain that DivX requires a lot of CPU power, and I have read that DivX requires more electrical power than DVD.

So I can't answer your question, however, I have to tell you that you should test the battery life before the purchase if you are buying used one. I have been using my iBook for about three years, and it was mostly hooked up to a wall jack. Now, I can't use my iBook without power because the battery life is shortened to about 15 to 20 minutes. :( :(

I guess that it happened because the battery is charged and discharged again and again while the computer is hooked up to the wall jack. In case the owner of the iBook used the computer mostly in his/her home without taking the battery out while he/she uses it, the battery life could be shortened a lot. Now I am using my iBook without a battery installed, and I use a battery only when I should.

Please forgive me in case that I wrote some broken English or stupid words.

[JFreak]

Now, I can't use my iBook without power because the battery life is shortened to about 15 to 20 minutes. :( :(

recalibrate the battery a few times and it might improve. if not, it's just dying.

or, if you're on applecare, you can try the familiar rubber-foot trick - meaning, drag the rubber foot from the battery and show the laptop to apple service, tell that it's annoying to have a laptop that cannot be held stable on top of table, and try to act ignorant about what might be wrong about it ;) few of my friends have got their batteries exchanged to a completely new one... you can't lose, because it seems you would be buying a new battery soon anyway.

[Gohan]

The iBook is brand new. It's just surplus stock, hence the good price.

All I’m really concerned about is getting 2.5- 3 hours when playing DVD’s on the move. I have a Dell (sorry) 9100 which is very powerful but gets just shy of two hours of DVD viewing and is a big and heavy old beast to cart around all the time. Hence the iBook.

[five04]

i get around 5.5 hours doing normal stuff. i turn the brightness on the screen down a lot to save power. as stated above watching a dvd is around half that time.

[rhpenguin]

what i have to say, doesnt really count, because ive changed my hardware up a bit.. but the more oppinions, the better. I see about 3.5 to 4 hours of battery life using highest performance options just on random use.