Netbooks Vs Laptops on Battery Life
Gadgetophilia has an excellent article on ‘15 ways to increase your laptop’s battery life’. Here’s a snippet with 5 of the points they’ve suggested -
4. Don’t do Processor Intensive Tasks.
6. Dim your screen.
9. Disable your wireless connection and Bluetooth when not in use. Mute the speakers when you don’t need it.
11. Cleaning your battery metal contacts every couple of months with a cloth moistened with rubbing alcohol makes transfer of power from battery more efficient.
So let me get this straight – If you don’t do processor intensive tasks, dim your screen, disable wireless, and mute the speakers you can get 2.5 hrs of battery life instead of 1.5 hrs.
Instead of handicapping your notebook for an hr or so more of battery life why not pick a netbook with 7-8 hrs or more of battery life? You won’t have to hunt for power outlets. You won’t even have to carry a power adapter.
This isn’t even an argument. Netbooks just destroy laptops on battery life and portability. Take a look -
- Most netbooks with 6 cell batteries last 5-6 solid hrs.
- Asus 1000HE improves and lasts up to 8 hrs. Its also a solid overall laptop.
- The Samsung N120 lasts up to 10.5 hrs. Like the Samsung NC10 its a rockstar netbook.
- The soon to be released MSI Wind U115 has up to 13 hrs battery life.
Rather than buy a laptop and worry about cleaning out the battery contacts you ought to consider whether a netbook meets most of your needs.
Here are things a netbook can do -
- Watch Movies.
- Surf the net.
- Work with Word etc.
And here are some things it can’t -
- Play the latest PC Games.
- 3D Graphics Processing.
For day to day computing tasks, a netbook is a great choice, and netbooks clearly beat notebooks and laptops on battery life. Its not even a contest.
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Filed under: Netbook Thoughts