PowerBook batteries

J

jeff.macaddict

macrumors regular
I love my 15" AlBook-it is the high end 15" model and has no white spots on the screen. But, I will admit, there are times when i wish I had a PC notebook-strictly for the battery. PowerBook and iBook batteries doon't last long enough to really do a whole lot. Now, I don't mind switching batteries, but I don't want to turn off my 'Book to do it.

What if we resurected an old Apple idea. From the G3 age. Say that the SuperDrive/ComboDrive was a removable one that went into a bay that you could also put a second battery into. This could double or more than double your battery life. And frankly, I wouldn't mind whatever hassle was required to swap a drive with a battery. If anyone agrees or disagrees, I give you permission to reply. ;-)
 
That is always a good option to have. But With the new look I think that may take away the look.

I hope battery technology improves one day... There will be fuel cell powered notebooks sometime in the future. The run off of a hydrogen cell... it is a neat idea but still a long ways off from public consumption.

Hydrogen is a dangerous toy...LOL
 
I love the idea of bays like the old powerbooks used to have. Gives you the choice of what's most important. There are definitely times when the choice of a 6 hour lifespan away from AC would be nice!

That said, I'm curious what kind of life are you getting, and what kind of life were you getting?

My AL 15" lasts 3 hours normally, 2.5 - 2.75 if I'm hammering it.

I've never had an intel based notebook last more than 2 hours, even under the best of circumstances!
 
I don't think you have to switch off your 'Book. Just close the lid, putting it into sleep and swap the battery.
 
Re: battery life

I usually get 2.75-3 hours. More like 2.5 if I'm typing with iTunes playing on headphones. Sometimes, I can squeeze four hours, sometime 4.25 if I try really hard. No bluetooth, no airport, no external mouse, no music, no games, no optical drive, no opening and closing a bunch of programs. Just try typing alone, maybe with some internet browsing, (ehternet, no airport) with the screen as dim as possible (second tick), with stufff above off. Also set the setting for maximum battery life.

If you want to play games, don't even think about getting involved without plugging in first. You'll lose track of time, and then-BAM!- the battery's dead.
 
I think I get great battery life on my Tibook. I get better battery life than my friend's new Dell. Ever since installing Panther I get 3:30 consistently with iChat, Safari, Mail, Airport, Word, and X11 on half brightness. Not to mention I'm opening and closing other apps and doing other stuff too.
 
Originally posted by 7on
I don't think you have to switch off your 'Book. Just close the lid, putting it into sleep and swap the battery.
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that works on the powerbooks but NOT the iBooks.
 
Tibook 15 and I get 3hrs and 45 mins on avg. When I use the conservation option I get around 4hr and 30mins

The lowest time I ever got one once with just 3hrs. I get more battery life out my Tibook then both my friend's Dell and Panasonic Toughbook.
 
Originally posted by sparkleytone
that works on the powerbooks but NOT the iBooks.
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wow. i never knew that. why is that? that just sucks for iBook owners.

as for a PC laptop having a longer batter life... i'm curious what exactly were you thinking about when you typed that? :p

a Pentium M notebook would be your only option if you're after battery life in the PC world, but then they've got intergrated graphics, or just plain crappy graphics. for all the features that a PB includes, it's a good deal. it's got plenty of power if you're plugged in, and good battery life if you're on the road.
 
Originally posted by cb911
as for a PC laptop having a longer batter life... i'm curious what exactly were you thinking about when you typed that? :p
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If he's not talking Pentium M, then he is probably referring to his double battery idea. I have a 2 year old Inspiron 8100 that had 2 media/battery bays + built in optical drive. The thing is huge, hot, and weighs a ton, but with 2 batteries, I get 4.5 to 5 hours of battery life easy (even with two year old batteries) and that is doing real work, code (typing), compile (thrash harddrive), test render (slam CPU), rinse and repeat.
 
Originally posted by stcanard

I've never had an intel based notebook last more than 2 hours, even under the best of circumstances!
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Then you've never had a Pentium M notebook. Our office just got a new set of IBM 14.1" notebooks with the 1.4Ghz Pentium M. 4.5 hours of run time minimum. I "benchmarked" it over last weekend. I clocked out to 5.2 hours before totally dieing and that is with audio off just doing regular browsing through a NIC. With it on playing a DVD in a loop 3.8 hours. And the device is running in the 4.5 Lbs range. It's light, compact, and fast. IBM builds a dang nice system.
 
The problem with Apple's new Powerbooks are that the battery capacity was DECREASED from the Titanium Powerbooks. The processors in the new Aluminum Powerbooks take less power, so Apple used a lower capacity battery. As soon as a third party maker releases batteries with the capacity of the Titanium Powerbook batteries, you could see up to 7 hours of run time on an Aluminum Powerbook.
 
Originally posted by SiliconAddict
Then you've never had a Pentium M notebook.
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You're right. My last one was a Celeron 400. I finally got fed up with crappy notebookes having parts die on me and went out and bought a good quality one.

Proud owner of a Powerbook now.
 
Originally posted by cb911
wow. i never knew that. why is that? that just sucks for iBook owners.
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the iBooks don't have the extra little battery to power the RAM. i believe its one of those coin sized batteries.
 
okay, so the two battery idea is a good idea. :)

just to clear something up - the new PowerBooks don't exactly have a reduced battery capacity. well i'm not exactly sure about how it relates to capacity, but Apple used a lower wattage battery in the Aluminium models, about 58W, or something like that. the TiBooks had about a 4-6W higher battery.

but don't forget that Panther significantly increased the battery life.
 
Originally posted by cb911
a Pentium M notebook would be your only option if you're after battery life in the PC world, but then they've got intergrated graphics, or just plain crappy graphics.
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Not true. There are two mobo chipsets for the Pentium M, the 855GM and 855PM. The 855GM has an integrated graphics chip, the 855PM does not.

There are at least 3 Pentium M notebooks that have ATI T2 Mobility FireGL 128MB graphics cards: the IBM T41p, IBM R50p, and the HP nw8000. That's the fastest and most RAM laden mobile graphics card on the market. As for battery life, the T41p lasts 6 hours off of its battery and, if you put in a second battery, can go to 8 hours easily (fits in the hot-swappable bay)

Besides these, there are other P-M laptops with perfectly fine graphics...
 
okay legion, i'll take your word for it... ;) :)

i was referring to the 855PM when talking about plain crappy graphics. but i didn't know about those models with the FireGL... are you sure about that? isn't that a like a high end 3D card?:confused: i'd like to see some links please. :)

well it's good to hear that the Pentium M's are finally getting some good cards. up until now i've only seen M's with GeForce 4's...
 
newer tech has released high capacity batteries from wallstreet - 1ghz ti powerbooks. You can find them at otherworldcomputing. they give a 30% boost to battery life. That coupled with panther has given my reva pb well over 5 hours of battery life.

unfortunately no high capacity batteries are available for ibooks or albooks.

i used a lombard with 2 batteries for a long time could almost squeeze 10 hours out of it sometimes (though usually it was more like 9). The extra battery added a fair bit of weight, but that extra battery life was nice. Its strange that battery technology hasn't gone anywhere in the past 5 years and that apple's laptops have actually seen progressively worse battery life. But we do have it much better than the pc world. The only pc laptops that get anywhere near the battery life a mac does are significantly underpowered, often thick or hot as well. Walk into any coffee shop and you will see the macs sitting wherever they please broswing the net while the pc folk are crowded around the available power outlets, often with ungainly antennas sticking out of their machines to provide "wifi."
 
Originally posted by AmbitiousLemon But we do have it much better than the pc world. The only pc laptops that get anywhere near the battery life a mac does are significantly underpowered, often thick or hot as well. Walk into any coffee shop and you will see the macs sitting wherever they please broswing the net while the pc folk are crowded around the available power outlets, often with ungainly antennas sticking out of their machines to provide "wifi." [/B]
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Very wrong... if you believe this to be true, it's time to take a look on the otherside of the fence a bit. There are plenty of P-M laptops that run at 4 hours and some exceptional ones that run to 7 and 8. They aren't underpowered and they don't run hot (especially not as hot as any of the PBs currently... compared to the current Als, some of these P-Ms are downright cold) As for thickness, Apple PBs are thinner than most, but there are those that are thinner than Apple's. (Especially the 15" and 12")

(and many have BT and wireless built in.. no ungainly antennas to be seen)

This is why mac users are called "zealots." Statements like these seem like blind following of Apple without looking at the rest of the market.
 
Originally posted by legion
This is why mac users are called "zealots." Statements like these seem like blind following of Apple without looking at the rest of the market.
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actually its statements like yours that create 'mac zealots.' mac users get tired of hearing lies made specifically to attack them. its tiring and insulting to have the fact that you are a mac user constantly thrown in your face. it is these pc-zealots who are ignorant. i don't think i've ever met a mac user who doesn't have a great deal of exposure to pcs. we see them daily and quite often are the folks fixing them for our friends and family (or even our place's of business). Don't try to play the ignorant mac-zealot card with me. you clearly have no idea who you are talking to. I do know what I am talking about when it comes to both macs and pcs, and I am well known for being the person criticizing macs, but i do so from a place of knowledge.

please don't try to knock me down and call me clumsy.
 
Originally posted by cb911
okay legion, i'll take your word for it... ;) :)

i was referring to the 855PM when talking about plain crappy graphics. but i didn't know about those models with the FireGL... are you sure about that?
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Yes. Typing on one now. (Though I have a 17" PB RevB too)
isn't that a like a high end 3D card?:confused:
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Yes. These are workstation cards for high performance CAD/CAM and OpenGL apps (ISV certified)
i'd like to see some links please. :)
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Your wish...
HPnw8000
IBM ThinkPad R50p

and my laptop...
IBM ThinkPad T41p

and ATI's page concerning the Mobility FireGL T2
 
Originally posted by sparkleytone
the iBooks don't have the extra little battery to power the RAM. i believe its one of those coin sized batteries.
Click to expand...

Are you sure about this? Are you talking about the same battery that powers the internal clock, or what? Got a link?

Last time I checked, you could do the sleep and swap thing with iBooks too... I could check on my mom's G3 iBook 600, but maybe it's something lacking in the newer models.
 
Originally posted by AmbitiousLemon
actually its statements like yours that create 'mac zealots.' mac users get tired of hearing lies made specifically to attack them. its tiring and insulting to have the fact that you are a mac user constantly thrown in your face. it is these pc-zealots who are ignorant. i don't think i've ever met a mac user who doesn't have a great deal of exposure to pcs. we see them daily and quite often are the folks fixing them for our friends and family (or even our place's of business). Don't try to play the ignorant mac-zealot card with me. you clearly have no idea who you are talking to. I do know what I am talking about when it comes to both macs and pcs, and I am well known for being the person criticizing macs, but i do so from a place of knowledge.

please don't try to knock me down and call me clumsy.
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You fell:D

Then how do you justify your prior statements? Did you forget about all the products introduced into the market since March? A mac user isn't bad (hey, I'm a mac user) but you made claims that are false which drops you into the "z" word group for your brashness at disavowing the other camp.

You, too, don't know "who you are talking to" (to borrow your words) I work with both mac users and zealots everyday and the "zealots" only hurt the users. (In fact, I'm the unusal one to have a wintel laptop in an all mac business)
 
Originally posted by ethernet76
I have a 486 that now gets 10 minutes battery life? What do I win?
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that's more of a function of the battery being old, not the computer being a PC.
 
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