Can the E6400 6-cell last through a 2.5hr 720p movie?

just curious. read the review that the 9-cell can last 4 hours. wondering how the 6-cell will last.

 

Do you have integrated or discrete graphics? I'm betting it can, but with the discrete graphics model, you may not have time for much else afterwards.

 

Here's a clue from part 2 of my E6400 (Intel GPU + 6 cell battery) review (link below):

If the 720p file is on the HDD then that would avoid the power used by the optical drive so I think it should get past 2.5 hours easily. The other big variable is the display brightness which could make an hour's difference. I think I ran my test at about half brightness.

John

 

on dvd playback, a 6 cell tops at 100 minutes.
i dont have e6400 though.

 

That's...not accurate. You can't compare a 6 cell on a 10" netbook to a 6 cell powering a 18.4" notebook. How can you make battery life claims that general?

Battery life depends largely on the configuration. I'd say that even with an Nvidia GPU and a T series processor, you could squeeze through 3 hours watching a movie with the Dell power saving features enabled.

 

I've just done a semi-scientific measurement by playing a 720p HD trailer and watching the battery power drain. At half brightness, the power drain was between 16W and 19W, so that should reach 3 hours on a 6 cell battery (P8600 + Intel GPU). Full brightness adds about 2W to the power drain. This test was with a load of applications open and no specific power management enabled.

John

 

nice, thanks for running the test

i'll be looking at a T9400 + nVidia with 6-cell. I might just go ahead and get a 9-cell and sell the 6-cell since the price difference isn't much on ebay. Is there a reputable place to buy 9-cell batteries?