Mini-Note XP Battery Life Test
On the previous battery life test the Mini-Note running Vista Business got to two hours and twenty minutes before the 10% battery life warning came up. At that point it said the battery still had 19 minutes left, so there was about two hours and forty minutes of battery time there.
This time on the XP test the Mini-Note got 2 hours and 42 minutes before the 10% warning came up. The warning said the battery had about 19 minutes of charge on it. The gives us around 3 hours of battery life.
Both tests were done on the 1.6Ghz Mini-Note with the six-cell battery by playing a Superbad DVD rip at full screen of the HD, with the volume at a reasonable level, wireless on, power mode set to Max Performance/Minimal Power management (Vista/XP), and the screen brightness set two notches down from full brightness.
May 22nd, 2008 at 2:40 am
Zees eez da 6 cell?
May 22nd, 2008 at 3:21 am
Was that with a 3 or 6 cell pack?
May 22nd, 2008 at 4:24 am
Was this with the 6-cell or the 3-cell battery?
May 22nd, 2008 at 6:09 am
Sorry, 6 Cell battery. I’ll update the post as well
May 22nd, 2008 at 6:52 am
Was the webcam on/off? Does it matter to battery life?
May 22nd, 2008 at 7:37 am
@foo
The webcam wasn’t disabled in Device Manager or the BIOS. I don’t think it would make a difference if it had been though.
May 22nd, 2008 at 6:10 pm
Excellent review. And it’s also a good indicator of the life of these things. 3 hours while watching a movie is quite decent.
May 29th, 2008 at 5:45 am
Heya,
Just one other question was this running the 1GB ram or 2GB ram, I doubt it would make a *whole* lot of difference but the possibility still exists lol.
Stuart
May 31st, 2008 at 11:36 pm
Hi! Thanks for the info! Was wondering whether you did anything to the battery before you tested? Such as a full charge & discharge?
June 1st, 2008 at 9:54 am
@midgymaru
It’s be down to 5 or 6%, but not a full discharge. It’s not good for Lithium-Ion batteries to be completely discharged. They don’t get a ‘memory’ (crystallization) like Nickel-Cadmium batteries do
August 3rd, 2008 at 10:02 pm
@Josh
You’ll actually find that lithium batteries actually contain a small circuit in them to prevent over-discharge, regardless how long you ‘try’ and run them for.
After a certain point they’ll just go open circuit at load, no matter what you do, until you recharge them.
This little circuit(about half the size of a matchbox, 2mm thick) prevents any damage to the lithium battery regardless of external conditions.
August 6th, 2008 at 10:52 pm
Hi Josh,
This is a great site. I just bought my Mini-Note yesterday and planning to use it with my software projects. I just found your site and it’s very helpoful. Thanks to this.
September 19th, 2008 at 10:39 am
I put my movies on a 8gb SD card and play them from there, it gives you another 15 to 30 mins of battery life by not spinning the hard drive.
September 22nd, 2008 at 10:13 am
asus eee pc 901 has got over 5 hours of hd movie playback =]
September 30th, 2008 at 11:44 pm
Hey, some helpful information there, thanks. I’ve got the 3-cell battery and it only lasts a wimpy 1hr 45 min. until the alarm goes of that It’s 10% and dying unlike my eeepc that can at least last for 2 hours.
I was on WINXP SP2, did browsing, downloading, with skype (webcam on) and yahoo messenger on and of course, WIFI when I tested this.
Have you tried the 3-cell battery?
So, the 6-cell battery ups lengthens it around an hour or so. Still considering getting one, it kinda makes the mini-note bigger.
November 22nd, 2008 at 9:47 am
HP 2133, battery only can lasting about 1 hour 45 minutes. Very bad and i only used for surfind internet and some of typing…better if can last about 2.5 hours..more interesting..hope HP can find better perfomance battery. thank You
April 13th, 2009 at 3:37 am
Hi, I have just bought a 2133 mini note, and so far I have not found anywhere to buy the 6 cell battery. Anyone know where the cheapest you can get them is?
Many thanks.