Old pc faster than ecent

[Matthew Kuiken]

Brad Johnson wrote:
> Your comments got me thinking. The 2hr battery life was measured by
> unplugging my docking station. I did not un-dock the laptop. With the
> laptop un-docked my battery life is reported as 2 hours 54 minutes
> (essentially 3 hours). I also have wifi/bluetooth and both are switched
> on. 
> 
> I personally would gladly trade a 4th hour of battery runtime for
> desktop-like performance. I'm sorry, but I do not subscribe to the
> "we're going to slow your entire laptop down to achive longer battery
> life and then sell it as a feature" mentality of many manufacturers.
> 
> The originator of this thread was complaining about the performance of
> his laptop. My suggestions were made in the spirit of helping him out.
> It was not my intention to alienate those with slower HDDs.

I wasn't really alienated until the second to last paragraph here... 
Because you seem to think it is not a feature, I needed to chime in with 
my experience.  I bought a laptop that "achieves longer battery life by 
slowing the entire thing down," and I do find that it is a feature.

Unplugging my laptop right now, the battery applet reports that I have 
5.5 hours of battery remaining.  I know from experience that it is more 
like six hours.  This is a really big deal when I get on a plane, and 
can read email, or type code for the whole flight.  Watching a movie 
reduces the battery to around 3 hours, but is still enough that I can 
make it through a full movie, and do some reading/writing if I wish.  I 
take it with me on trips over the weekend, and don't worry about the 
charger, I won't need it for the amount of time I'm gone...

I'm grateful that my laptop comes with a 5400 RPM drive.  The attention 
to saving power really pays off on this one.  It is not as fast as a 
desktop, but it is not meant to be a desktop.  It is meant to run off 
battery.  I've got a desktop for my high speed work.  BTW, it is also 
only 3 lbs, so it is small enough to be really portable.

-Matt