Review: Vaio UX-180 Battery: Part 1

It's already a well-known fact that the battery life on the UX180P leaves much to be desired. Exactly how much is the topic of this installment in the feature-specific review series. This will be another multi-part review, as I still need a week or so to run all the tests.

The standard capacity lithium-ion battery (VGP-BPS6) that ships with the UX has an estimated battery life of 2.5 to 4.5 hours. Because top numbers on a range like this are usually based on unrealistic settings and usage patterns, I always look at the lower number to figure out how long I can be away from an outlet.

Since 2.5 hours isn't too long, I decided to spend what is becoming too many days staring at the battery indicator in the tray icon while putting my UX through its paces. It takes about 3 hours to charge the UX, so I can't run more than a few tests per day - hence the time it's taking to finish this review.

Parameters

All tests are being done using the default VAIO Optimized Power Scheme.


Although there are many other power management options and endless custom settings, I'm running all the tests under what Sony itself deems to strike the best balance between battery life and performance. In keeping with this balance, I also have the screen brightness and volume set to their mid levels.

These are the settings I always use anyway, so keeping them as is makes sense. I don't think anyone should compromise their preferences just to eke out a handful of extra minutes.

Every test begins on a full charge (96% on indicator for some reason) and ends on a nearly depleted battery (5% on indicator, when the UX can be set to automatically enter hibernate mode). I decided not to fully drain the battery because, as you may remember from this post, a complete discharge of a li-ion battery shouldn't be done too often (certainly not several times a day!).

Stay tuned for the results from 18 audio/video battery tests in Part 2 and 18 Internet/word processing battery tests in Part 3. (Now you know why it's taking so long...)



Jenn K Lee is a Contributing Editor for Mobility Today. She currently runs her own blog Pocketables. At Pocketables, you'll find her reviews and musings on portable consumer electronics and related accessories by a real user who actually owns the stuff, not a paid reviewer who gets to play with it for a week. Jenn has to buy everything on her own, just like you. If you would like to read more of Jenn's work go and visit Pocketables.