T61 4-cell battery life?

[andrw]

I was going to get the T61 with the 6-cell battery, but Lenovo no longer offers them. Whats the battery life for the 4-cell like? Everything I've found online has been about the 6-cell. I would most likely be using the battery to browse the web wirelessly and take notes on Word. Thanks in advance.

[SHoTTa35]

well the T61 with a Nvidia card will give you about 2hrs or less with the 4 cell. If you have Intel you might get 2-3hrs. The 6 cell of-course will give 4-X hours with an intel video card while with the Nvidia it ggives 3hrs.

[richk]

If you are using word to take notes, not connected to the internet, you can turn the wireless radio off, which will help some. a 15" screen uses more battery than a 14" and more memory = a little more power.

[hellosailor]

Lenovo provide the following baseline specs for batteries on the T61 series:

Approximate operation hours are (*1):
Battery operation for 14.1 in models:
Six-cell: Up to 5.7 hours
Nine-cell: Up to 8.6 hours
Battery operation for 14.1 in widescreen models:
Four-cell: Up to 3.6 hours
Six-cell: Up to 5.7 hours
Battery operation for 15.4 in widescreen models:
Six-cell: Up to 5.5 hours
Nine-cell: Up to 8.3

I'm using a 9-cell on a widescreen T61p, and the best I've seen without draconian power consevation is under 1/2 of the rated time when I'm not using any spindles and the screen is dimmed all the way. In real life I'd guess 90 minutes for the 4-cell, two hours if you sipped through a cocktail straw. Less than that as it ages.

I wouldn't do a 4-cell unless I needed to shave ounces off something that was never going to be on battery for any real use.