4 cell battery life Z61t in Vista, what is appropriate?

[pufftissue]

I installed vista,

And with the screen on max brightness...1 hr when just browsing the web.

Stretching it the longest it can go, maybe 1.5 hours with it on low brightness.

I am shocked at how poor this is with the 4 cell.

Is this appropriate or am I missing something critical?

In general, I think that thinkpads' battery lives are way overrated...but still....

I am not the most frugal battery user, but I've owned many laptop brands and use them the same way, so I an unequivocally say that this thinkpad is the worst of the bunch. Using an apple macbook pro the same way, max brightness, I can go 2.5 hrs for sure....and the macbook pro weighs the same. (I'm going by how they feel in the hand, b/c I kept thinking that the macbook pro was supposed to be 1.2 pounds heavier, but it's most definitely not. I tried not holding one or the other for a week, and I still consistently felt the macbook pro as being lighter.) The point is that the macbook pro's battery might be a bigger, but pound for pound, I thought that the thinkpads were the champs for battery life, but I am wondering if I need to revisit that. I wanted about 3 hours of battery life with a stock, non-sticking out battery and still being able to read the screen comfortably. Modest needs.

[duffy]

I get a little over two hours using the 4 cell with XP. Your experience with Vista sounds about right. In the machines I've tested with Vista I've seen about a 10-20% loss in battery life. A Z61t with a 7 cell is about the same weight as a MBP. I get about 3.5 - 4 hours in XP with that battery. Vista will obviously be less. The Z series is more of a consumer model so the batteries are a bit small. The T series is designed more for business and is available with larger batteries. On my T60 with 9 cell I get about 5.5 hours.

[pianowizard]

In general, I think that thinkpads' battery lives are way overrated....

I don't think battery life is one of the things Thinkpads are famous for. The only exception seems to be the X60s with an 8-cell battery, which lasts for 8 hours, but in general I don't hear people rave about Thinkpad battery lives.