X200/X200s battery life

[ThinkRob]

I'm considering getting an X200 or an X200s to replace my X61s.

I was going to get the X200s, but then the WXGA+ LED screen disappeared, so it's no longer a clear choice for me.

The way I see it, it boils down to battery life -- mobility is important to me, so I'm interested in getting a laptop that can last for long unplugged coding sessions.

Unfortunately, the reviews I've found have been less than helpful when it comes to determining battery life. Some of the reviews of the X200 stated that it hit 9 hours of real usage with the nine-cell battery, while others stated it only hit 7. Some reviews of the X200s said it could last for 10-12 hours without a problem, while other experiences said it died after 7.5 hours. :/

Therefore, I was wondering if some of the folks here who have an X200 or an X200s would be kind enough to post some information that might help me determine what sort of experience to expect.

Basically, I'm interested in:

1) CPU
2) What battery you have (4, 6, or 9-cell)
3) About how long you can go on a full charge
4) What sort of work you're doing on the machine
5) X200 or X200s

Thanks in advance!

[t3mp]

I was looking for the answer as well but with no results, so I am glad to see this post here.
There was only one review (laptopmag.com) according which I could compare this two notebooks.
1) CPU
X200: 2.4-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P8600
X200s: 1.86-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo L9400
2) What battery you have (4, 6, or 9-cell)
X200: nine-cell battery
X200s: nine-cell battery
3) About how long you can go on a full charge
X200: 7 hours and 52 minutes
X200s: 10 hours and 43 minutes
4) What sort of work you're doing on the machine
X200: LAPTOP Battery Test (script - continuous Web surfing over Wi-Fi)
X200s: LAPTOP Battery Test (script - continuous Web surfing over Wi-Fi)
5) X200 or X200s
Focusing on endurance: X200s has got about 36% longer battery life than X200 according the review. I think, that is the main reason to buy X200s, because some posts mentioned that CPUs are nearly equal (GHz vs MB cache) and Lenovo does not offer LED display these days. But I think between 4.Q 2009 and 1.Q 2010 should be released X210(s) with calpella platform, so maybe it will appear some other key-features to take into account.

[dfumento]

You can still purchase the X200s with LED backlit display 1440x900 from stores on the web. Check out http://www.google.com/products and try model 7466 for example. There seem to be plenty of X200s WXGA+ systems available.

Then you should get an X25-m SSD drive from Intel. I have an X200s with 1440x900 LED backlit with the Intel SSD and it works wonderfully. I highly recommend it.

I am running with the Windows 7 Ultimate RTM and I get around 8 hours of battery life with my 9-cell with mid brightness. I also have a backup 6-cell for times when I need extra battery. These battery times include doing normal work with WiFi or EVDO WWAN.

Capella platform is expected Q1 2010 which would make it early in the year.

[ThinkRob]

You can still purchase the X200s with LED backlit display 1440x900 from stores on the web. Check out http://www.google.com/products and try model 7466 for example. There seem to be plenty of X200s WXGA+ systems available.

I actually considered that, but there are two problems:

1) I have (legitimate) access to IBM EPP pricing. I haven't seen any resellers with pricing that's anywhere close to that.

2) I'm not sure how easy it would be to add on accidental damage coverage/on-site support to a system bought from a reseller. AFAIK you can do it, but you have to do it within 90 days of the purchase date from Lenovo -- which might not be doable, depending on how long the reseller's had it.

Then you should get an X25-m SSD drive from Intel. I have an X200s with 1440x900 LED backlit with the Intel SSD and it works wonderfully. I highly recommend it.

I already have one. It's in the X61s on which I type this.

I am running with the Windows 7 Ultimate RTM and I get around 8 hours of battery life with my 9-cell with mid brightness. I also have a backup 6-cell for times when I need extra battery. These battery times include doing normal work with WiFi or EVDO WWAN.

Hm. 8 hours is pretty good, considering that you're using WiFi/WWAN. Even more impressive, considering you're using a LV chip and not a ULV one.

Thanks!

[AvalonXIII]

You can still purchase the X200s with LED backlit display 1440x900 from stores on the web. Check out http://www.google.com/products and try model 7466 for example. There seem to be plenty of X200s WXGA+ systems available.

Then you should get an X25-m SSD drive from Intel. I have an X200s with 1440x900 LED backlit with the Intel SSD and it works wonderfully. I highly recommend it.

I am running with the Windows 7 Ultimate RTM and I get around 8 hours of battery life with my 9-cell with mid brightness. I also have a backup 6-cell for times when I need extra battery. These battery times include doing normal work with WiFi or EVDO WWAN.

Capella platform is expected Q1 2010 which would make it early in the year.

Are you sure that you can only get 8 hours? I can easily get upward of 10 hours using X200s with SL9400, Intel SSD, and Windows 7.
I can get upward of 8 hours using X200, Intel SSD, and Windows 7.

[jaale]

My experiences with the X200:

1) Intel C2D P8600
2) 9-cell battery
3) Windows Vista Business 32bit: 8-10 hours / Fedora 11 Leonidas 32bit: 5-7 hours
4) standard office work (text processing, www over wifi), screen at 1/3 brightness
5) ThinkPad X200 (7458WF7), CCFL backlight, 7200rpm HDD

I am very pleased with the battery life running Windows, running Linux I'm still searching what consumes so much more power.

[ThinkRob]

I am very pleased with the battery life running Windows, running Linux I'm still searching what consumes so much more power.

You might want to take a look at LessWatts.org. I've set up two ThinkPads w/ Linux thus far (and a couple other machines), and I've never found a power life problem that some careful tweaking couldn't fix. In fact, my X61s and X40 both get better battery life under Linux than they do under Windows.

thanks for the feedback though -- those are some pretty amazing numbers!

[jcvjcvjcvjcv]

My experiences with the X200:

1) Intel C2D P8600
2) 9-cell battery
3) Windows Vista Business 32bit: 8-10 hours / Fedora 11 Leonidas 32bit: 5-7 hours
4) standard office work (text processing, www over wifi), screen at 1/3 brightness
5) ThinkPad X200 (7458WF7), CCFL backlight, 7200rpm HDD

I am very pleased with the battery life running Windows, running Linux I'm still searching what consumes so much more power.

How much capacity does the Power Manager report? Is that with a new accu?

I have a brand new (well, year old, next to no cycles (7 so far) that reports 75 Whr capacity and 69 Whr designcapacity

[jaale]

You might want to take a look at LessWatts.org. I've set up two ThinkPads w/ Linux thus far (and a couple other machines), and I've never found a power life problem that some careful tweaking couldn't fix. In fact, my X61s and X40 both get better battery life under Linux than they do under Windows.

thanks for the feedback though -- those are some pretty amazing numbers!

Thanks for your hint, I'll have a look at the recommendations there. Unfortunately, I've read that Lenovo is tweaking the windows drivers for battery life, so I'm not sure if we'll get the battery life on the same level for the two OS.

How much capacity does the Power Manager report? Is that with a new accu?

I have a brand new (well, year old, next to no cycles (7 so far) that reports 75 Whr capacity and 69 Whr designcapacity

Nice . My battery is 9 Months old and I use it a lot at college, PowerManager reports 77,75Wh capacity with a designed capacity of 84,24Wh and 41 loading cycles.

[ThinkRob]

Unfortunately, I've read that Lenovo is tweaking the windows drivers for battery life, so I'm not sure if we'll get the battery life on the same level for the two OS.

On my X61s, I can consistently get 7 hours of battery usage on a full charge running Debian (stable). Running Windows XP with the latest drivers from Lenovo, the best I could get for the same usage was a little over 6 hours.

Linux power management can be quite solid, but it does take some tweaking.

Tips:

1) Use a recent kernel.

2) Use powertop and take advantage of the suggestions it provides.

3) Take a look at some of the tips on ThinkWiki.org -- they've got a couple of pages on how to reduce power consumption.

The X200 seems like it's got some seriously impressive battery life. I'm not sure how much of an advantage the X200s has when it comes to battery life, and given that the X200 starts at $705 on the EPP site, it's kinda hard to justify the approx. $150 price difference.

[jcvjcvjcvjcv]

You have to buy additional batteries to get the X200 to the same battery life level as the X200s. So if you count that in, the difference gets smaller.

[jaale]

On my X61s, I can consistently get 7 hours of battery usage on a full charge running Debian (stable). Running Windows XP with the latest drivers from Lenovo, the best I could get for the same usage was a little over 6 hours.

Linux power management can be quite solid, but it does take some tweaking.

Tips:

1) Use a recent kernel.

2) Use powertop and take advantage of the suggestions it provides.

3) Take a look at some of the tips on ThinkWiki.org -- they've got a couple of pages on how to reduce power consumption.

Well, I feel like I've tried everything to improve the battery life. Done eveything powertop suggested, went through all the suggestions on lesswatts.org, disabled bluetooth, screen backlight is always at 20% (same as working with Windows on battery), but still I only get about 6,5 hours which is disappointing considering that Windows runs at least 2 hours longer. I'm also using a recent kernel (2.6.30.5-43.f11.i586).

Another strange thing is that my X200 is about 10°C hotter while browsing the web with Linux (Win: 35°C/Linux: 43°C). This may be the reason why the fan is constantly spinning at noisy 3400rpm running Linux and may also cause the smaller battery runtimes. The question is: Why is it that much warmer doing the same work with Linux, compared to Windows?

[ThinkRob]

Well, I feel like I've tried everything to improve the battery life. Done eveything powertop suggested, went through all the suggestions on lesswatts.org, disabled bluetooth, screen backlight is always at 20% (same as working with Windows on battery), but still I only get about 6,5 hours which is disappointing considering that Windows runs at least 2 hours longer. I'm also using a recent kernel (2.6.30.5-43.f11.i586).

I don't use Fedora (way, *way* too buggy), so I'm not sure if there's something distro-specific that's causing problems.

That said, I suspect that you're not unloading the drivers for unused hardware (Bluetooth, WWAN, parallel port, PCMCIA, etc.) Lenovo's tools probably do most of this automatically in Windows, but Linux will require an ACPI script for it.

Another strange thing is that my X200 is about 10°C hotter while browsing the web with Linux (Win: 35°C/Linux: 43°C). This may be the reason why the fan is constantly spinning at noisy 3400rpm running Linux and may also cause the smaller battery runtimes. The question is: Why is it that much warmer doing the same work with Linux, compared to Windows?

My bet is that it's not doing the same work.

Things to check:

1) Are you running some CPU-intensive thing in the background? (Tomboy, Gnome-Do, etc.)

2) Is your Windows install set to downclock the CPU to the min. freq. on battery? If so, that'd explain the temperature difference.

3) Are you running Compiz, etc? Flashy eye-candy tends to suck up battery life like no other.

4) Are your WiFi and sound chipsets in power-save mode?

Best,
Rob

[jaale]

I don't use Fedora (way, *way* too buggy), so I'm not sure if there's something distro-specific that's causing problems.

That said, I suspect that you're not unloading the drivers for unused hardware (Bluetooth, WWAN, parallel port, PCMCIA, etc.) Lenovo's tools probably do most of this automatically in Windows, but Linux will require an ACPI script for it.

Hm, I noticed that it is a little buggy, but since I'm relatively new to Linux I assumed that it would be a general Linux thing. Can you recommend another distro that is known to work well on ThinkPads and less buggy than Fedora?

As I said, I am using Linux for about 5 months now, so I'm still a Linux newbie. Is there some guide on the WWW for unloading drivers and writing ACPI scrpits for doing that?

My bet is that it's not doing the same work.

Things to check:

1) Are you running some CPU-intensive thing in the background? (Tomboy, Gnome-Do, etc.)

2) Is your Windows install set to downclock the CPU to the min. freq. on battery? If so, that'd explain the temperature difference.

3) Are you running Compiz, etc? Flashy eye-candy tends to suck up battery life like no other.

4) Are your WiFi and sound chipsets in power-save mode?

According to PowerManager, Windows consumes about 2 Watts more than Linux, but still it's 10°C cooler. Strange thing.
No CPU-intensive stuff is running (highest process in top uses 0.7-1.5% CPU, powertop shows about 100 wakeups/second with the CPU at 800MHz for 97% of the time), Windows might downclock the CPU, but the CPU speed is set to "ondemand" on Linux, so it's running at 800MHz out of 2,4GHz most of the time.
I do use Compiz, but I read somewhere that it doesn't consume so much more power, also on Vista I have Aero enabled.
LessWatts.org says that for the Intel HDA chipsets power saving is enabled by default, how can I check that? WiFi has to be on, cause I need it, and since LessWatts says that with WiFi in power saving mode you loose the connection to older accesspoints, I rather don't use it cause my AP at home is relatively old (Netgear DG834GBv1, about 5 or 6 years old).

Oh and thank you very much for helping me solving the power issues.

[jaale]

I just found this in the Arch Linux forums, might be useful for someone else.

http://itgen.blogspot.com/2009/03/energ ... linux.html