Is it true the x200s has the longest battery life?

After googling around I came across a review which stated the x201s has better performance than the x200s, but the battery life of 8 hours was less than the 10 hours from the x200s. Is this true?

Does the x200s have the best battery life from the ultra portables? I'm travelling quite a lot and i only really need to do some c++ programming using visual studio.

EDIT: How does the battery life vary according to the processor speed? Would I be best with hte 1.2GHz?

On a sidenote..... what good tips are there to get the best battery life? On my x201 I turn off the bluetooth, I have a SSD, I look after the battery only recharging upto 90%. Are there any other tricks? I dont like to reduce the display as it really strains my eyes.

 

The biggest battery user on any laptop is the screen. The lower the brightness is the better the battery life. I take it you want the WXGA+ screeen? If not, you may wish to check out the X220 with the nine-cell and slice battery. You'll get some amazing battery life with those two. I would opt against the 1.2GHz as it's a Celeron CPU, which means no speedstep.

 

Ah yeah on Ebay there are a ton of brand new x200s with a 1.2 Celeron for dirt cheap, like 650. As always, x series laptops have BGA soldered motherboards so there's no upgrading besides changing out the entire motherboard. As ZaZ has stated, x220 offers IPS as a 50 dollar option, though only 1368x768, you can get astounding battery life with the 9 cell and the slice (23 hours) while still housing a Sandy Bridge processor (alot more potent than 2-3 generation old technology).

 

(To both of you above)

Yeh I kinda realised that after I posted. Its a shame there isn't an x220s!

I currently have an i7 620M in my x201, how would the cheapest sandy bridge i3 compare with this? Is it much slower?

 

There is actually a part number for a board with the ULV i5-2537 CPU, but I don't know if Lenovo has offered it anywhere. I'd love to have one.

 

you may try to undervolt your X201 and see whether that helps you in gaining some extra needed battery power?

 

Yes. The 1st gen i-core CPUs were faster but less efficient than older ULV/LV CPUs. I can get my undervolted L9400-1.86 2530P to idle at < 4.5-5W. A 51Whr 6-cell gets me 7hrs of real battery life. A retrofitted 100Whr from a 2560P would get me 14hrs. A X200s has virtually the same setup.

If you want the best battery life then consider a core2duo or the more efficient Sandy Bridge CPU. Can see some tips to optimize battery life on a C2D here.

Intel have removed the ability to adjust the VID in the i-core CPUs so can no longer undervolt them using software. The only software option to decrease CPU power consumption is to set your iGPU to "maximum" battery to run it at lowest clocks and if running an i5/i7, disable turbo mode as described.

Advanced modifications to the Kelvin sense circuit or the voltage regulator VID pins could see further gains if the CPU has lots of headroom but then you'd be voiding your warranty.

 

@Nando4 what softwares are you using to undervolt your CPU?

 

I use Throttlestop with settings as shown above. My L9400-1.86 CPU runs the lowest SuperLFM voltage of 0.925V at the x7 multiplier with full stability. I also run a modified fan profile so my system is silent when web surfing on battery. More battery savings there as well.

 

According to erik there was no plans for an x220s.

I doubt the cheapest SB i3 would be faster than a dual core Arrandale. Even for normal use you wouldn't really see a difference.

 

Wow.........

PassMark Intel vs AMD CPU Benchmarks - High End

i7 620M: 2788
i3 2310M: 2610



Referring to battery life....... avoid the x201? It's either high spec x200/x200s or low end x220?

 

Sandy Bridge is astonishingly faster than 1st generation of Core i- processors (at least in this benchmark). i5-2520m is 50% faster than i5-540m which has roughly same clock speed (and features). This is quite unbelievable ...

 

That is what I'd be going for: a SL9600 1440x900 X200s or an IPS X220. Why?

A x200s gives great battery life plus there are units with a 1440x900 LCD. Could perhaps organize a middleton modded bios to gain an extra 266Mhz on AC. Then a L9400-1.86 would run at 2.13Ghz and a L9600 would run at 2.4Ghz. That could handle your requirements easily.

There is a more efficient 1st gen i7-640LM (17W) version of the X201 but at crazy high ebay prices. Makes no sense to go there when can get a more efficient+powerful, mSATA capable X220 with an IPS LCD at cheaper prices during the sales.