I saw a really good deal at Costco (Canada) today. HP 15.6" 1366x768 HD Brightview LED/i7-760/6GB RAM/ATI 5650/640GB HD/for only $849.99 after rebates. Never saw another laptop like this, even from Acer. So my question is because this laptop has really high specs processor and memory wise, would it be way to strenuous on the basic 6-cell battery? At first I would get like 2 hours out of it, but what about after a few months? A few years? I'm still unsure if it has ATI graphics switching technology yet, but if it does, would that help a lot? Would an Intel HD + i7 + 6GB RAM still eat a lot of the battery? By the way I'm not a heavy gamer. I play games perhaps once a week at most. I use it mostly for work and design. I'm only thinking about getting this because it's a great deal and sort of future-proof. Thanks.
Yeah, don't expect to get more than a few hours out of a 6-cell with those kinds of specs, and batteries definitely don't get better with age. But with all the money you save, you might as well go out and buy a bigger battery. The screen resolution's a little low for today's standards, but since you're mostly interested for the deal and future-proofing, I'd say go for it. Also find out if the drive is 5400 rpm or 7200 rpm. Even though you've got a mighty-fine i7 and 6GB RAM, a slow hard drive can still hinder performance a bit.
Yeah you really shouldn't worry too much about how a battery is gonna be after a few years, that's a good time for a replacement anyway. Either the battery or the whole thing.
I'm kind of worried about the battery even now, because I need to take it to classes. If it starts choking after only a few months (drops to like only 1-hr battery life), then I'll have to spend like another $100 on batteries, and maybe even more since the i7 won't be changing. So my general question is to anyone who owns an i7 laptop, is it really a battery killer under normal usage (internet, word, Photoshop, etc)?
