It has been years since I've had to use a Windows PC, having spent several years on the Mac (with minor bouts of Linux along the way). Today, however, I'm suddenly envious of my friends who haul around those monstrously ugly HP and Dell machines.
Why? Twenty-four hour battery life on the HP EliteBook 6930p, as ZDNet reports. Twenty-four hours!!! One battery. Dell was no slouch either with a 19-hour battery.
My MacBook Pro? Maybe three hours if I baby it. When I travel internationally I carry a BatteryGeek extended-life battery that gets me another eight to ten hours, but it's really heavy, making it a bit of a chore to lug around.
To get 24 hours out of the HP laptop requires a host of fortuitous events (special "Ultra Capacity Battery," updated Intel graphics driver, SSD drive, special LED display, etc.), but I'd happily pay extra and jump through hoops to get this kind of battery life from my MacBook Pro. Happily.
Heck, I already paid something like $500 to $800 for my lug-along extended-life battery for my Mac. Paying extra for something that would break my bank but not my back...? Done.
(Credit:
Battery Geek)
I fly internationally at least once per quarter. Given that flight time tends to be some of my most productive time, I need to ensure I have enough juice to get me over the Atlantic without missing a beat on email or, even more importantly, that Arsenal match I previously ripped to my Mac's hard drive with Elgato's EyeTV 250.
I used to use Electrovaya's PowerPad, but it doesn't (or didn't) support the MacBook Pro. So when I started looking around for a replacement, I discovered Batterygeek's Portable Power Station. It's bulkier than the Electrovaya battery, though more compact, and doesn't last as long (eight or nine hours, depending on how CPU-intensive my activity, compared to 10 to 14 hours). Having said that, Batterygeek has come out with new models that last as long, if not longer, than Electrovaya's (one goes for over 20 hours).
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