Alienware M15x battery life

Okay I'm thinking of getting this laptop now and am concerned about the battery life. How much battery life will it get with an i7 720qm and 1080p screen and gtx460m. All the reviews I found were with the 920xm and thus they quoted terrible battery life. I am hoping for an improvement with the 720qm. Also can anyone tell me how much of a performance difference is there between the 720qm and 2630qm. Will there be a visual performance difference, eg boot up times or will it be faster in multitasking? I am planning on adding an ssd later, so will there be a performance difference between 720qm and 2630qm, both with ssd.

 

2630qm?
Are you considering that for the M15x?
The M15x doesn't support any Sandy Bridge processors i.e. 3 #'s preceded by a 2.

 

Well,this won't please you but you won't get more than 2 hours in a M15x with your combination, 2.5 hours at the most with all settings minimised like AlienFx off, Win7 in battery saver mode, WiFi off and so on...

 

A 2630 is much more powerful than a 740...I would guess around 15-20% better. Also,it runs cooler.

 

My system I can squeeze over three hours with a 9cell. Alien FX off and screen brightness 1 notch above lowest setting. Web browsing, word processing task only.

 

If you want to use your machine on batteries, I would definitely get the 9 cell. SSD might improve battery life a little. You might get beyond 2 hours if not using heavy processing power or heavy graphics. If you want extended use not connected to the mains, I'd get two batteries - charge both and switch to the other when it gets low.

Note well - as already noted, upgrade to a Sandy Bridge (xxxx) processor is not possible - unsupported by the m15x chipset. You could upgrade to 840qm, 920mx or 940 mx - all of which could provide more horsepower than the 740QM - but at the cost of higher power consumption when gaming (probably almost the same for light processing).

Note also - m15x is now gone from the Dell web site - so your options include m11x, m14x, m17x and possibly m18x in the future - or purchasing an m15x from a retailer who happens to have one, or a private seller.

If battery life is a big concern, and upgradeability less important, you might consider the Dell xps15 - available with a 1080p screen, 2820 processor, and Nvidia 540m graphics. However, power consumption will still be an issue if you run games on battery - the laws of physics still apply.

Good luck.

Joe

 

The battery life for my 6 cell before i ruined it was around 1 hour with the 920xm, so not great!

 

I am not really thinking of upgrading to 2630qm, but I just wanted to know whether it is worth getting the m15x now that SB is out. I know that it is faster but will I be able to see the difference in everyday use. And when I am talking about battery life I mean at 30% brightness stealth mode on and a 9 cell battery, can I reach the 3hr mark

 

Im pretty sure that Ive seen people reporting 1.5-2 hours with the 720qm, although some users did have the 240gtm graphics card, so im guessing that with a 9 cell you could probably reach 2.5-3 hours with a decent card and a few power saving techniques.

 

With a 9 cell and the specs in my sig, I get about 2 hours with Alienfx off, screen at dimmest, and just wifi on. In other words, M15x battery life sucks .

 

If you want ANY kind of mobility stay away from the M15x, you dont get much in battery life, it weights a lot more than any other 15 inch notebook, its huge in size and wont fit in normal bags(due to its awkward size, bigger than many 17 inchers)
newer sandybridge laptops give you extra power, and better battery life, and atleast in the case of alienware they are also all smaller and lighter.

if money is no issue, i would suggest buying a sandybridge laptop, the M17x R3 is the replacement for the M15x, offers more power, and bigger screen for about the same size, the M14x, seems like a really good device, a LOT smaller than the M15x, but the M14x has a less powerful GPU and i would not suggest it for heavy gamers, (but 15" is borderline acceptable for gaming 17" is more respectable, not many gaming focused users like anything under 15")

 

Hey, don't underestimate the power of the M15x, this beats quite a lot of M17x R3 Hehehe

 

One other option to get more time away from AC would be to get the 9 cell battery and one of the Powerpads: PowerPad There is a 130 W/H model (compared with 85 W/H for the 9 cell). Apparently, they can adapt to different voltages..

Joe

 

yes you can do that. but in what i am saying is that the M15x is not the most practical and portable machine, the new M17x is not bigger, why would you buy the M15x over the M17x R3.
the M17x r3 is smaller in depth(very similar in size), more powerful GPU, more powerful CPU, Better battery life, bigger/better screen,


the only reason to buy one is price, this has become old and prices must drop.

but to buy it for the use of mobility and then adding a big battery that will add more weight and make it bigger, does not make sense . And even worse is adding another power device that will be heavy, and put more strain on your back, is just wrong.

the M15x is a great system, but it is not good at being portable/mobile.


ill make my opinion clear.
you want a GREAT gaming laptop get an M15x, if you want a good laptop to carry around get anything else.

 

i dont underestimate the power of the M15x, i understand that in the right hands (yours in this example) the M15x will beat the M17x R3,

the r3 is just a little more future proof.

what i am saying is this is NOT the most portable system.

and to prove my point i ask you, how long does your battery last on full and low load?

 

Hehe, you're totally right of course, I was just posing a bit, hahahahah lol

Xtreme processor and battery are not the best combination (even with the SB 2920xm), but with some intelligent settings I get about 2.5-3hrs for browsing, text editing etc, but I need to make some adjustments of course, and I rarely use this system on battery.

M17x R3 is definitely a good choice, more energy efficient, bigger screen and newer technology. But it's not more portable as the M15x.

I think the M15x is still a nice option if you like to tinker a bit... just get the cheapest you can (from Dell outlet or the marketplace here) and then upgrade it.

However for most users the M17x R3 will be the better choice... I have to agree with this. The M14x is more portable and will have a better battery life than the M17x R3 (I guess, haven't heard a report so far) but it has less power than a M17x R3 or a M15x (with a decent CPU/GPU).

 

Yeah I know the M17x r3 is better than the m15x in almost every way, and if I could get it I'd have already gotten it but the problem is that I am not from the US and I am here for only a week and was looking to get a nice laptop, but the m17x r3 is only available on order currently so I was hoping to grab a m15x from a retail store.
I am from India and the m17x r3 available there is the 3d version with the 460m and it costs 3000$ so I see really no point in getting that. The m14x is not powerful enough for me.

 

Then you can get the M15x and power it up... it's still a great machine, especially with a 5850m (or even 6970m) in it.

 

i dont remember where i heard this,
but i think m17x 3 hours battery life,
m14x 5 hours battery life
the reason they get so much bettery life is because they switch to integrated graphics, which we consider immpressive compared to our battery life but if you look at normal non-gaming laptops, that is about the same.

 

I get less than one hour on a lesser spec that the one you're looking at. Dunno how people are managing two hours. I do have the 6 cell battery though.

 

I have the 6 cell battery as well. However I can efficiently downclock the CPU as well as the GPU, lower the brightness helps as well. Using Wlan draws more power than using ethernet of course, I can't get 3hr surfing with wlan.
Disabling AlienFX will help as well, and the SSD isn't power hungry either.

 

Could you explain how exactly do you down clock ur CPU and gnu and if I downclock and get it back to normal speeds often will they get damaged?
My only other option is the g73sw and I have read on the owners lounge that with good power management you can squeeze out 3hrs of battery life without downclockiing. So do you think I should get that instead? It's just that the Asus is too large.

 

I would choose an Alienware over Asus. Since you are from India (me as well ) I say go for the M15x because Dell's customer service is just bloody awesome. I've had a Asus earlier and believe me when I tell you this, their customer service in India sucks. They have only one authorised retailer in India(Nehru Place,Delhi) whereas Dell are quite known for their Next Business Day doorstep service. Since you are looking forward to but a powerful,gaming laptop, I say the service will come in handy sometime in the near future for sure.

And almost 3 hours from a performance laptop is acceptable considering it's not based on SB tech and while on AC adapter, it's very safe to say that it will kill any game you throw at it at max settings at 1080p with the exceptions of Crysis,Metro2033 and a few others.

Just my two cents.

 

Yeah thats the reason i want Alienware. So basically the best battery life i can get is 2hrs on power saver mode and stealth mode enabled. Right?

 

I literally just got three hours with a 9 cell battery (general word and website work). Note--after three hours find a outlet quick.

 

I've never got past 2.30 hours on my system no matter what settings I put it into. May be some system behaves differently than the others.