Survey: Recent T-Series Battery Life [ Editado ]

[ColonelONeill]

Hello everyone!

I've reposted this survey on Lenovo Forums due to it's increasing popularity and the relative stagnancy on TPF. I hope to get some more of your input and support over here on Lenovo forums. (mods, I put it in this subforum because it's primarily concerned with recent T-series)

I am conducting a survey (more like research) in order to find a correlation between components (software and hardware) and battery life. I am doing this because I have two friends with identically configured T510's (except for OS architecture) with vastly differing battery lives. In addition, my own T400 doesn't quite meet the tabook ratings for battery life. But beyond that, this information will benefit those who already own a ThinkPad (how to improve their battery runtimes) and prospective ThinkPad owners (how to pick the most power efficient components). Thus I am asking for a few minutes of your time for the following information (feel free to add anything relevant; anything at all!):

Model:
CPU:
GPU (specify switchability):
HDD (including manufacturer):
RAM configuration:
Wireless Adapter:
Bluetooth:
WWAN:
Display (manufacturer if convenient):
Battery (# of cells and % wear):
Advertised Battery Life (tabook, optional):
Actual Battery Runtime*:
Usual Battery Display Brightness:

Primary OS (x86 or x64 and SP and if is preloaded):    
Firewall/Antivirus Solution:
Browser(s):
Task Resident Programs:

Please refrain from commenting on other people's posts on this thread for the sake of tidiness.

I am primarily interested in recent T-Series as the W-Series generally lives with the expectation of lower battery life, and the X-Series with higher battery life, but post anyway. 

Thank you in advance for your participation. I will post tallied results at the end of the year. Hopefully enough people will have chimed in.

Happy ThinkPadding!

* Actual battery life will be defined as the runtime under normal office conditions/light web browsing/note taking/etc with wifi on and BT/WWAN/WUSB off. It's not very rigorous, but it's a tradeoff between statistical accuracy and convenience. OPTIONAL: Extrapolations of a full battery runtime (in case you use charging thresholds) can be done using the formula Δt/Δ%, where Δt is the runtime to drain Δ%, where Δ% ie expressed as a decimal value between 0 and 1. Or you could just write "3 hours on 80%"

[ColonelONeill]

My own:

Model: T400 (2764-CTO)
CPU: P8700
GPU (specify switchability): ATI Mobility Radeon 3470 (switchable)
HDD (including manufacturer): 320GB Western Digital Scorpio Black WD3200BEKT
RAM configuration: 2x2GB DDR3 DIMM
Wireless Adapter: Intel Centrino 5300
Bluetooth: Yes
WWAN: No
Display (manufacturer if convenient): 1440x900 LED (Samsung)
Battery (# of cells and % wear): 6-cell (6% wear)
Advertised Battery Life (tabook): 6.5 hours
Actual Battery Runtime*: 3 hours on 80% (extrapolates to 3.75 on a full charge)
Usual Battery Display Brightness: 0-2

Primary OS (x86 or x64 and SP and if is preloaded): Windows 7 x86 RTM
Firewall/Antivirus Solution: Kaspersky Internet Security 2011
Browser(s): Minefield pre-release
Task Resident Programs: Rainmeter, MaxMax, eBoostr, TPFanControl, KIS2011, SRS HD Audio Lab, RMClock

[ColonelONeill]

Model: T510
CPU: i5-540M
GPU (specify switchability): NVidia NVS3100 (non-Optimus)
HDD (including manufacturer): 500GB Hitachi TravelStar 7k500
RAM configuration: 2x2GB DDR3 DIMM
Wireless Adapter: Intel Centrino 6300
Bluetooth: No
WWAN: No
Display (manufacturer if convenient): 1600x900 LED
Battery (# of cells and % wear): 9-cell (0% wear)
Advertised Battery Life (tabook): 7.8 hours
Actual Battery Runtime*: 7 hours on 90%
Usual Battery Display Brightness: 3-4 (usually 4)

Primary OS (x86 or x64 and SP and if is preloaded): Windows 7 x86 preload
Firewall/Antivirus Solution: Kaspersky Internet Security 2010
Browser(s): Chrome
Task Resident Programs: KIS2010, Skype, TPFanControl, uTorrent, Intel Management and Security Status, SRS HD Audio Labs

[ColonelONeill]

Model: T410
CPU: i5-540M
GPU (specify switchability): NVS3100M (non-Optimus)
HDD (including manufacturer): 320GB 7200RPM Seagate
RAM configuration: 2x2GB
Wireless Adapter: Intel Centrino 6200
Bluetooth: No
WWAN: No
Display (manufacturer if convenient): 1440x900 LED
Battery (# of cells and % wear): 9-cells, 5% wear
Advertised Battery Life (tabook): 8.3 hours
Actual Battery Runtime*: 4.5 hours on 90%
Usual Battery Display Brightness: 11

Primary OS (x86 or x64 and SP and if is preloaded): Windows 7 (64-bit) Preload
Firewall/Antivirus Solution: Avira
Browser(s): Chrome
Task Resident Programs: Avira, Intel Management and Security Status, BitTorrent

[raghav_lv]

Model: T400
CPU: NT.CORE2DUOPROCT9400
GPU (specify switchability): SBB AMD M82XT HYBRID 256MB
HDD (including manufacturer): SBB 160GB HDD/7200RPM
RAM configuration: 2 GB
Wireless Adapter: SBB INT.WIFI LINK5300 

Bluetooth: VBB INTEGR.BLUETOOTH PAN
WWAN: None
Display (manufacturer if convenient): SBB 14.1"WXGA+LEDB/L BTCAMWWAN
Battery (# of cells and % wear): 6 Cells with 1 hr runtime
Advertised Battery Life (tabook, optional): 4-6 hrs
Actual Battery Runtime*: 1 hr
Usual Battery Display Brightness: Medium

Primary OS (x86 or x64 and SP and if is preloaded): Windows XP
Firewall/Antivirus Solution: Spybot/Windows firewall
Browser(s): Firefox
Task Resident Programs: Usuall; Removed Factory Bloatware. 

[Navck]

Model: T410 2516-CTO
CPU: i7-620m
GPU (specify switchability): NVS3100m no switching,
HDD (including manufacturer): Hitachi 7K320-320
RAM configuration: 2x2GB w/ one aftermarket module
Wireless Adapter: 6300, transmit set to power saving on battery but it seems to transmit at full power according to the Intel toolbox (32mW)
Bluetooth: Yes, soft off state.
WWAN: Gobi 2000 unit, software switch off state, disabled in device manager.
Display (manufacturer if convenient): WXGA+ LED, I want to say its a LG Phillips panel.
Battery (# of cells): 9 cell, ~ 1% wear maybe?
Advertised Battery Life (tabook): 8.3 hours
Actual Battery Runtime*: 7-9 hours depending on situation on average, 5 hours under fairly heavy CPU load + Speedstep (Ex: Using dBPA in the field to convert someone's MP3 player from CBR MP3s to VBR MP3s)
Usual Battery Display Brightness: Unlit Indoors: 0-3/15; Indoors w/ Lighting: 4-7/15; Indoors w/ large windows and midday-noon: 8-10/15

Primary OS (x86 or x64 and SP and if is preloaded): Stripped down services/software Lenovo preload Win7-32 Ultimate.
Firewall/Antivirus Solution: Avira, disabled when on battery or when I feel the system is safe
Browser(s): IE8 w/ IE7 Pro + Adblocking features, FF3.6 w/ Adblock

[LinYu]

Model: T61p
CPU: Intel Core Duo T7500 @ 2.20 GHz
GPU (specify switchability): NVIDIA Quadro FX 570M
HDD (including manufacturer): Hitachi HTS723210L9SA60 7200RPM
RAM configuration: 1x1GB
Wireless Adapter: Intel 82566MM 
Bluetooth: No
WWAN: No
Display (manufacturer if convenient): 1680x1050 IBM Corporation
Battery (# of cells and % wear): SANYO 6-cells, 25% wear
Advertised Battery Life (tabook): N/A
Actual Battery Runtime*: N/A
Usual Battery Display Brightness: 5

Primary OS (x86 or x64 and SP and if is preloaded): Windows 7 (32-bit)
Firewall/Antivirus Solution: Norton Internet Security 2010
Browser(s): Mozilla Firefox
Task Resident Programs: Diskeeper 2010, Acronis True Image 2011, Office 2007


Battery: My original battery died after 13 months from computer's purchase date. The one currently installed just turned 15 months. 

[LinYu]

ColonelONeill,

I skipped the battery advertised and actual run-time information because I seldom use my laptop on battery. I would say about 95% of the time I use it pluged to the wall outlet. So, it is kind of hard to tell with much certainty how long it would run under a typical load. 

With this caveat, the last time I ran my laptop on battery was approximately three months ago, on light cpu usage and the battery running, in about 45 minutes, from 98% to 10%. I would say its wear could be then around 20%..

Sorry for not being able of providing more accurate and more detailed data but will be glad to help with any other information that I might be able to gather and provide.

Lin Yu

[cptcolo]

Model:T410s
CPU: 520M 2.40 Ghz
GPU (specify switchability): Intel HD only
HDD (including manufacturer): Tntel SSD X-2
RAM configuration: 4GB 1066 MHz MCI Brand
Wireless Adapter: Intel 6200 Advanced-N
Bluetooth: disabled 
WWAN: No
Display (manufacturer if convenient):
Battery (# of cells and % wear): 9 Cells (100% for 6 cell, 99% for 3 cell)
Advertised Battery Life (tabook, optional): ?
Actual Battery Runtime*: 6-7 hours business use, 3.5 for Streaming Netflix Movies
Usual Battery Display Brightness: 7 out of 15

Primary OS (x86 or x64 and SP and if is preloaded): x64 Windows 7 Pro
Firewall/Antivirus Solution: Norton Security 2010
Browser(s): Firefox mostly
Task Resident Programs: ~95

[Mark_Lenovo]

Just a quick note - if you have a T410 or T510 and find that you have a battery that is declinging in full charge capacity and run time at an accelerated rate, you may need to update the system BIOS and battery firmware to resolve this.   Following the update, you will need to charge cycle the battery once or twice (or perform the battery reset).

Heres a link for more info - there are also similar updates available for W, SL, L, Edge series systems..

I realize that the survey and responses span several generations of systems, but I thought this was still worth mentioning .

Best regards,

Mark