Are you curious about the Asus Eee PC 900’s battery life? With conflicting reports on the rated capacity of batteries shipping with the Eee PC 900, the issue of battery life is now a significant concern. The first review units of the second generation were tested with a 5800 mAh but the first batches in Hong Kong included a much lower 4800 mAh battery. Consumers were obviously not happy and Asus offered a 5800 mAh replacement battery.
One of the first few users to get an Eee PC 900 shares with us his findings on the life of the 4400 mAh battery. Running Windows XP with brightness at 50% and sound volume at 80%, he managed to get 2 hours and 24 minutes before the Eee PC breached the 7% critical warning in Windows XP. Not bad, though far from Asus’ claim of 2.8 to 3.5 hours.
Personally, I’d be happy with 2:24 on a cheap ultraportable. And considering he was at 50% brightness, a notch just above the lowest would probably yield another 10 to 20 minutes. If only I can afford another Eee PC.
3 replies on “Asus Eee PC 900 Battery Life”
I’m sure if you check other laptops for their battery life, they too are always hard pushed to meet the life stated in the manual.
To be fair to the manufacturers, it does also depend on how the batteries are treated.
Lithium Ion batteries do not like to be over discharged and is often the cause of the horrific explosions you sometimes see on video sharing websites like YouTube.
Well, it seems no manufacturer has been exactly truthful about their battery life estimates. It seems they test their systems simply with the OS running and nothing else, with minimal peripheral use.
Fact is, most “compatible” Li-ion batteries, especially the cheap ones sold on eBay, do not supply anywhere near their advertised capacity. I am an engineer with battery testing equipment and I have tested computer, camera, and camcorder batteries. I have found these Chinese wonders to typically come in at 40% or less of rating. Manufacturer (ie, ASUS, Canon, Dell) batteries usually come in within 5% of rating.
The range of capacities for the same size 18650 (4/3A) cell used in computer packs is 1200-2900 mah, depending on where it was made and who made it. Japanese and Korean cells are usually better and higher capacity than Chinese cells. Want to save some money making lithium-ion cells? Leave out half the lithium! And that is exactly what they do.
I bought a “10600 mah” EEE PC battery from a vendor on eBay to test and it clocked in at a whopping 2550 mah, 25% or rated capacity. I got one hour 7 minutes run time on my EEE PC 900 (XP SP2, full brightness, “3D Pipes” screen saver running, wifi radio on). The ASUS 5800 mah battery came in at 5775 mah and 2 hours, 57 minutes. This is a typical performance for ebay batteries.
If you want the capacity printed on the battery, bite the bullet and buy it from the manufacturer of the device. You will pay more – usually a lot more – but you will get a higher capacity, longer lasting battery.