Dell Inspiron 7000 battery life options

Hi folks,
I've been tossing up between more powerful options of the Inspiron 7000 series and the effect they may have on battery life. Dell tech support claimed it would have no effect between i5 and i7, nor between integrated and dedicated graphics. I'm not so sure.

My end goal is a machine with 8 hours of battery while surfing (many Chrome tabs open) and using word processing for hopefully less than $1000 (I'm in Australia and will likely import from the US).

I'll do some video editing, photoshopping on wall charge. I don't upgrade often so I want it to last. Touchscreen is preferred.

For A$677, there's a 15in 7537 i5 with 500GB hybrid SSD and 1366x768 resolution.

At the other end, for A$1300 (inc Aust import taxes) there's a 15in 7537 i7 16GB 256GB SSD with full HD

I'm kind of at a loss to decide what to do. My gut says hang out and save up for the higher end machine. I'd put in SSD anyway, and boost the RAM assuming there is two accessible slots.

The tech also suggested putting in a bigger say 9 cell battery.

Any subjective recommendations would be very very much appreciated. I've spent days wavering between options, including the Lenovo U530 :/

 

The higher-end config should be able to get close to 8 hours of web and word usage if you're not doing anything too crazy (cranking up the brightness all the way, playing lots of flash content, etc). I don't know how much better the low-end config will be, but I think it'll be pretty close.

The difference between the i5 and i7 is negligible. The addition of discrete graphics should be negligible (because of Optimus) given that you aren't actually using it. The higher resolution screen will tax graphics a little more than the crappy one, but I don't know how significant the difference is. The hybrid drive will obviously decrease runtime... so everything really evens out.

I don't think you can get a 9-cell battery for the 7537.

 

Cheers, looks like the max is a 6-cell.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

where did you see 6-cell mate? The batteries on those 7000 sereis laps are only 4 cell and I don't think a 6 cell fill fit. Trust me mate, I'd pay 200 bucks for a good long battery anytime.

 

Hmm, eBay and a Dell site I recall but let me get a link to make sure I'm not talking nonsense.

 

The official specifications only list a 4-cell battery. That combined with the fact that it's a sealed battery would convince me that there aren't any other options...

ftp://ftp.dell.com/Manuals/all-prod...p/inspiron-15-7537_Reference Guide2_en-us.pdf

 

Yep, cant find any bigger batteries

 

I think the 13" and smaller are the only current models with sealed batteries.

From ftp://ftp.dell.com/Manuals/all-prod...top/inspiron-15-7537_Owner's Manual_en-us.pdf

is.

 

Sorry, I should have been more clear: this is what I mean by sealed battery. A non-sealed battery would be of the old sort that you can remove by moving latch, etc.

 

Oh cool, never knew that's what was meant by sealed, good to know.
Cheers guys