laptop with the longest battery life? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: DiTBho
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 25, 2022, 04:40:27 pm
content: hiI need something that can run for up to 18-20 hours without battery charge.Basically I need a x11 / VNC GNU / Linux wireless terminal, with the ability to randomly use a wired connection.A 12 "LCD would be perfect, I need to travel, 14" is the most I can take with me, the touchscreen would be a bonus.I also need to write documents, but I don't need OpenOffice or similar, I can write documents in FocusWriter.Hence, low CPU power and no GPU needed. No multimedia needs.What would you suggest? ARM, Intel (Celeron? 10n), MIPS ... I have no problem with that.I have already bought a couple of laptops, good for my colleagues, but the battery only allows 6 hours.

author: Bicurico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 25, 2022, 07:02:20 pm
content: You forgot to mention your budget.An Apple laptop might fit your criteria, but may be much more expensive that you would want to spend.

author: DiTBho
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 25, 2022, 07:18:58 pm
content: Quote from: Bicurico on January 25, 2022, 07:02:20 pmAt the moment, only 500 Euro.Quote from: Bicurico on January 25, 2022, 07:02:20 pmM1? The M1 Air is about 800-900 Euro. Isn't there anything else?

author: Bud
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 25, 2022, 07:42:44 pm
content: I would not rely just on the laptop battery though.... It may discharge faster depending on the active/ background tasks.

author: DiTBho
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 25, 2022, 08:02:46 pm
content: Quote from: Bud on January 25, 2022, 07:42:44 pmTold what tasks are: x11, vnc, ssh terminal, randomly FocusWriter. Nothing else.

author: ledtester
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 25, 2022, 08:03:01 pm
content: What about getting a "portable laptop charger" -- i.e. an external battery power bank you can use to charge laptops, tablets, etc.

author: rob77
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 25, 2022, 08:11:16 pm
content: with a 500Euro budget forget about anything new... btw the suggested M1 will not make the 20 hours either.with that budget i would go for a second hand small laptop with a external power source. also keep in mind that with older tech you will not get under 5-10W average while actively working so you need 100-200 Wh battery capacity for the 18-20 hours of battery life and that capacity comes with it's own size and weight.

author: cdev
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 25, 2022, 08:22:31 pm
content: I don't know of any conventional laptops with battery life thats so long. I think your best shot would be to use an external power pack to charge a more conventional laptop.Will you be driving a car, with a car battery? Or will you have a bag that can carry an additional battery? Really, that is the most flexible and affordable option.. its likely. If you are outdoors, its possible you could bring and carry a solar cell, but the power you could capture on a small solar cell might be too small to use the laptop continuously.Another option might be a raspberry pi and external battery. It has its own GPU, which might take less power than any commercial laptopand its onboard GPU chip.For that reason, I would not be surprised if the RPI ended up being the least power hungry approach for you.

author: DiTBho
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 25, 2022, 08:37:44 pm
content: Quote from: cdev on January 25, 2022, 08:22:31 pmOn my old Thinkpad x61S the battery was removable. On modern laptops, the battery is integrated. You need to remove some screws to replace the battery.Quote from: cdev on January 25, 2022, 08:22:31 pmI am outdoorsy, I do not own a car here, I cannot rent one and there are occasions when I have to be outside for 15 hours. There is no power source I can use near me during this time.I can use a solar cell. This is possibleQuote from: cdev on January 25, 2022, 08:22:31 pmAny decent PI-laptop around? I tried the Pi-book in 2019, it was not good.

author: Rick Law
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 25, 2022, 10:01:54 pm
content: A decade ago when I travel a lot, I had a "universal charger" for my laptop. The universal charger can be used for AC outlet, car, or plane. That was a God-send.My laptop then was a Fujitsu P7010 (2gb ram (spec say max 1gb because 1gb dip was available at release), single thread Intel mobile Pentium 5 ULV 753 @ 1.2 ghz) - very small but with 2 batteries. The regular 6-18650 battery pack and a side battery pack that fits into the DVD slot. It advertised a 9hr run time with main battery. When both main and DVD-slot battery are full, I have confirmed10+ hoursof very heavy run time, and 12+ hours on light load. These were confirmed run-times when at one time I was in a new facility (electricity not fully wired yet), I was forced to push the durability to the limit. Best yet, with dual battery, I could swap either one out and put in a fresh one without powering down.But that only meet your 18-20 hours requirement with a battery swap in between. You would need a second or third 6-18650 regular battery pack to swap in order to reach 18-20 hours.May be you can findused laptopwith dual-battery at your budget, or used one with extended battery, Dellhadlaptops with extended pack consisting of 9-18650, I am using one right now. Even if you can find something like that used, to "hot swap" the battery, you would still need to get the extra DVD-slot battery (in good serviceable condition) which may be hard to find, and likely a used one would have the main battery not be in too good a condition either. My Dell's extended battery pack is no longer useful. I had to swap out my extended pack with a 6-18650 regular pack.Best bet is to go with a universal chargersince used laptop with good battery is going to be hard to find. Marine batteries (aka deep-discharge batteries) on the universal charger can run your laptop for days or even months if you have a few marine batteries around.

author: brucehoult
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 26, 2022, 12:46:53 am
content: Quote from: rob77 on January 25, 2022, 08:11:16 pm13" M1 Macbook Pro does 20 hours of 4k/60 video playback on a charge at 50% brightness. It will of course go longer with lighter work -- maybe not all that much longer as the screen uses most of the power, so turning down the brightness would be more useful.Yes, it costs US$1299 for the cheapest configuration.Tough. Nothing else in the world is going to meet that battery spec in 1.4 kg of total weight. Not even something much much slower.iPads are cheaper and have the required software available (X/VNC, ssh). There are dongles available to give wired ethernet. But they only do about 10 hours use.

author: bitwelder
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 26, 2022, 09:50:31 am
content: Quote from: DiTBho on January 25, 2022, 08:37:44 pmAnd at least some of the Thinkpads of few years ago (e.g. the T450s) actually havetwobatteries, one internal and one external (and it seems to use the external one first), which makes possible to swap an external battery pack for a fresh one, with the laptop running and without the need to be connected to a charger.Being a few years old it should make them (and their accessories) relatively cheap on the 2nd-hand market, from e.g. businesses that are renewing their fleet of laptops with latest gen machines.

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 26, 2022, 02:25:46 pm
content: Quote from: brucehoult on January 26, 2022, 12:46:53 amWhat could be “lighter” work than video playback? Since video playback is done almost entirely in hardware, it’s an extremely light load.

author: DiTBho
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 26, 2022, 02:49:15 pm
content: Quote from: brucehoult on January 26, 2022, 12:46:53 amI can sell my Carbon X1 Gen 5, get 500-600 euro, for a new budget of 1100 euro.I can also add an extra 100-200 euro from my personal wallet.If this is the greatest solution ever, than let it be

author: DiTBho
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 26, 2022, 02:52:44 pm
content: My Carbon X1 Gen5 is i7-based. It's a five years old machine. Currently you can buy Carbon x1 Gen9.From a full a charge and the LCD always at 50% brightness, the battery goes no longer than 8 hours with the mentioned (x11 + ssh + vnc) load.Not too bad for a five old machine, but far from my needs.

author: brucehoult
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 26, 2022, 07:50:01 pm
content: Quote from: tooki on January 26, 2022, 02:25:46 pmHardware is more efficient at decoding video than software is, but its still a *huge* amount of computational work, and not free.Don't forget: normal code is run by "hardware" too -- the CPU.ssh to a remote system would be a lighter load than video playback. Or text editing. For example.

author: BrokenYugo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 26, 2022, 08:28:30 pm
content: Lenovo 100e (or other USB-C charged netbook) and a big USB-C power bank?

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 27, 2022, 11:19:02 am
content: Quote from: brucehoult on January 26, 2022, 07:50:01 pmExcept that the point of the dedicated hardware is to make itpracticallyfree, and it does. The CPU load approaches zero, and because it’s hardware designed to do that taskefficiently, it uses extremely little energy.It’s not like offloading to the GPU’s shader units, where it’s still code running on somewhat more optimized hardware. The steps in a video decoding path (decompressing, color space transformation, scaling for display) are all things that our CPUs and GPUs have dedicated hardware for, and thus do for practically free, both in terms of CPU load and energy consumption.And since it appears you’re going to be pedantic: yes, I’m aware that there are instances where one or more of those steps will be done in the CPU, like when playing back a codec that one’s computer doesn’t have a hardware decoder for. But you still benefit from the other steps being done in hardware. Of course, the most common codecs have had full hardware support for years now.Quote from: brucehoult on January 26, 2022, 07:50:01 pmDon’t be a smartass, you knowexactlywhat I mean. If the hardware being used isn’t dedicated to that function, then we speak of running it “in software” precisely to contrast when it’s running on dedicated hardware.Quote from: brucehoult on January 26, 2022, 07:50:01 pmPerhaps. But even the latter could easily become a “bigger” software task, depending on the editor: if it’s anything more than a completely dumb text editor, it may chew up a lot of CPU doing real-time analysis of the text, the way that modern word processors and code editors do.So while I’d certainly say text editing is a typically “light” load, I kinda doubt it’d be lighter than typical fully-hardware video playback.

author: NiHaoMike
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 27, 2022, 11:34:34 pm
content: How about a tablet and an external battery?

author: DiTBho
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 28, 2022, 11:39:50 am
content: Quote from: NiHaoMike on January 27, 2022, 11:34:34 pmwell, with a 12"inc LCD (forget 8", or 10"), and with a decent keyboard.I have to type a lot

author: geggi1
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 28, 2022, 12:52:59 pm
content: I got a Lenovo X240 2014 model. Got it used for about 2000 NOK (250$) in 2019 so you can probably get one for less now.This laptop got dual batteries one internal and one external.If you get a similar and a few batteries you are probably good.You should also consider replacing the internal battery if you manage to get one.If the laptop got a mechanical drive replacing for a SSD would also give you som extra time.

author: fordem
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 04, 2022, 12:48:07 am
content: Take a look at the Lenovo T480, it's a dual battery laptop, 3 cell internal and your choice of 3, 6, or 9 cell externals - I believe with the 3 cell internal & 9 cell external it can deliver what you're looking for - PLUS - if you buy a few extra externals, and have them fully charged, you can run until the first external is discharged, then remove and replace with the second, without powering off or "suspending" the laptop whilst this is being done.The 480 is a 14" screen and available with a touchscreen - laptop magazine clocked it at 17+ hours with a 3 cell internal + 6 cell external, so with the 9 cell external you'd be looking at another 30% more run time, so somewhere around 22~23 hours.

author: DiTBho
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 04, 2022, 04:17:40 pm
content: I sold my Lenovo Carbon Gen5 and got a low spec Apple M1 laptop.I am unloading all the unneeded applications to save space on the hard-drive, RAM, and CPU cycles.I only need three things1) SSH with vt200 support (it's already supported by MacOS)2) X11 (you have do install an application)3) VNC (you have do install an application)I need to buy a USB-to-ethernet adapter, a super rugged bag

author: brucehoult
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 05, 2022, 02:18:02 am
content: Quote from: DiTBho on February 04, 2022, 04:17:40 pmDo let us know how it goes.

author: Lord of nothing
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 16, 2022, 06:48:26 pm
content: QuoteSorry when I have to laugh.Maybe you heard the Price for IT Equipment is going just one way up to the Moon.A 50€ GPU back then cost me now >150€. The same for Laptops, Pc, Tablet,... everything is in my Country going up.So back the Reality if someone need a Device who run so long* I can recommend (old) Military Style Rugged Laptop and Tablet. * I got for Personal use an Dell Rugged Tablet for travel by Train in Europe who its for me important to have an Device who I can swap Accu when the damn "historic Train" not have any Power Outlet and the driving time is near or above 24h "non Stop" for me.Also when it rain during an 6min change of Platform the Laptop, Tablet should not be death after. The other Problem is when there is no "regular" 230V Socket a Night Train offer an Shaver Socket who have an Thermal Fuse so I must be able to limit the consumed Power aso much as possible. Well the Tablet is able to.

author: DiTBho
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 17, 2022, 05:09:01 pm
content: Quote from: brucehoult on February 05, 2022, 02:18:02 amAfter some weeks, I can say the M1 Laptop is the perfect choice for me, and I am very happy with it.A colleague in the US bought aDell XPS 13 9300(Frost White, rather rare in Europe, but not in the US) fromeBay dot comfor something like900 Euro+ 40 Euro in commission.He says up to 11 hours continuous working.Not bad.

author: DiTBho
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 17, 2022, 05:16:20 pm
content: Quote from: Lord of nothing on February 16, 2022, 06:48:26 pmYup, I definitely had to sell my Carbon laptop to increase the budget

author: Marco
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 17, 2022, 05:54:59 pm
content: Quote from: DiTBho on February 17, 2022, 05:09:01 pmThe price differences between EU and US have gotten ridiculous. We're paying nearly double the US Dollar price in Euro now, I think there is some collusion going on.Originally I was going to suggest an Intel Evo based Chromebook, which could be had for 619$ in the US at the time ... but here it's 999 Euro, which is a little less interesting.

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 17, 2022, 06:10:33 pm
content: Quote from: Marco on February 17, 2022, 05:54:59 pmYep...

author: DiTBho
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 17, 2022, 06:23:48 pm
content: Quote from: Marco on February 17, 2022, 05:54:59 pmI agree, we are going through a difficult time recently, all the IT-area is critical.Just, consider my colleague bought a second hand laptop, not a brand new.He, like me, had a limited budget. Luckily he was in the US on business, so he bought the laptop there.

author: brucehoult
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 17, 2022, 09:21:36 pm
content: Quote from: DiTBho on February 17, 2022, 05:09:01 pmGreat! Glad to hear it. The worst would be to spend that money and then not like it, or find it can't do the job.How is the battery life in your actual usage pattern?

author: free_electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 17, 2022, 09:35:03 pm
content: LG Gram ... light, huge screen , almost all battery and lots of room inside to upgrade it !

author: DiTBho
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 17, 2022, 10:06:42 pm
content: Quote from: brucehoult on February 17, 2022, 09:21:36 pmI have been programming a weirdX11-motif-v2.0stuff for some days on a remote machine connected to the M1 with the laptop in sleep mode when not in use thanks to the utility "Screen" that makes it possible to resume sessions. Theuptimesays 22 hours of connection have passed, but I have actually actively used the laptop ~4 hours a day.I've never seen a video, played any MP3s, browsed anything, just used the shell + x11, and the battery says it's 11% at the moment.This is not the final working scenario, it's just a test to understand how much is longest battery life for what I am going to do the next month

author: DiTBho
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 17, 2022, 10:13:06 pm
content: There is a feature that I seriously envy:sway!, an i3-compatible Wayland window manager that literally flies on the hardware. My colleague is running it on his GNU/Linux laptop, while my workflow is on the top of MacOS.But it's just a minor detail =)