[Leica] OT: i7 laptop questions

[alal at poly.edu (A.Lal)]

 Further to this thread I have some rough 'n ready data to present to this 
group.

My son took delivery of his i7 laptop- he was unwilling to accept a lowly 
i5 - a couple of weeks ago. It is a Sony F series build-to-order model with 
a 16 inch, full 1080p HD screen, blu-ray burner, 1 GB dedicated video card, 
4GB RAM, backlit keyboard, bluetooth, wireless  N, and so on and on and 
on.... IOW, just what a  respectable teenage schoolboy needs to mantain 
street-cred with his classmates.

With the new battery charged to 100% we  get a run time of  around 3 hours 
while surfing the net and playing music off the HD. Power settings at 
factory default and multiple applications open in the background. Not as bad 
as I had  feared.

His dad is interested in one of the Sony Z series laptops with an i7  - must 
mantain parity in the CPU arms race -  with a full 1080p HD screen. I expect 
the little model will have about the same run time with its smaller screen. 
Not great but adequate, and one can always buy a large battery.  So expect 
to see some mint Sumilux-Ms FS soon.

>
> Hello everyone,
>
> I'm in the market for a new laptop to replace my 7 year old IBM Thinkpad 
> (Pentium 4 Mobile at 2GHz, XP Pro). Still running well, BTW.
>
> Looking at 13 inch laptops, my preferred size, with i5 processors I note 
> that some manufacturers offer an upgrade to an i7 for about the cost of a 
> Leica lens hood. This is very tempting but I am concerned about the 
> reduction in battery life when using the more powerful chip.
>
> Can any list members shed some light on the CPU power vs. battery run-time 
> trade offs involved? I have of course, asked the manufacturers' tech 
> support but never could get a satisfactory answer.
>
> As always, user feedback and comments are welcomed.
>
> Regards,
> Akhil
>
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