Sony Vaio P battery life: Standard vs. Extended
When it comes to testing battery life, I've always been a bit of a masochist. A few years ago, I spent over 150 exhausting and boring hours draining/charging the standard and extended batteries for my Sony Vaio UX180P and an external DAP charger.
It wasn't fun or particularly enlightening, but here I am again. This time around, I've got some battery life figures yielded from the 2-cell standard and 4-cell extended batteries for my Sony Vaio P. I think you'll be surprised by the results.
Here are the battery details:
| Standard Battery (VGP-BPS15) |
Extended Battery (VGP-BPL15) |
| 2-cell | 4-cell |
| 7.4V | 7.4V |
| 2100mAh | 4200mAh |
| 16Wh | 31Wh |
| 4.9 ounces | 8.9 ounces |
| charges in about 2.5 hours | charges in about 4 hours |
$89.99 MSRP |
$129.99 MSRP |
Compared to the 40+ tests I performed on the just UX's standard battery back in 2006, the 12 combined tests I did for the Vaio P's batteries are far from being exhaustive. There are many other scenarios and conditions I could have tried, but I chose what I think are two of the most important ones: WiFi and video playback.
My internet usage (Firefox 3) during the tests is described below:
- No Flash video – Google Reader, multiple email accounts, website comments, Twitter, forum participation, random googling, various website visits
- Only Flash video – Hulu, UStream, Blip, and YouTube videos all viewed in windows (not full screen)
- 1 hour Flash video – Same as "no Flash video" above but with 30 minutes of UStream and 30 minutes of YouTube videos
| Standard Battery (VGP-BPS15) |
Extended Battery (VGP-BPL15) |
|
| INTERNET WiFi only, optimized mode, 4/9 brightness, no Flash video |
2 hours, 52 min | 5 hours, 45 min |
| INTERNET WiFi only, optimized mode, 4/9 brightness, only Flash video |
2 hours, 25 min | 4 hours, 41 min |
| INTERNET WiFi only, high performance mode, 9/9 brightness, 1 hour Flash video |
2 hours, 03 min | 4 hours, 28 min |
| INTERNET WiFi only, battery saver mode, 3/9 brightness, 1 hour Flash video |
2 hours, 37 min | 6 hours, 08 min |
| VIDEO on SSD No wireless, optimized mode, 4/9 brightness, mid-vol, earphones, 1Mbps XviD (640 x 336), full screen, Media Player Classic |
2 hours, 49 min | 5 hours, 40 min |
| VIDEO on SSD No wireless, optimized mode, 4/9 brightness, mid-vol, speakers, 6.5Mbps WMV (1280 x 720), full screen, Windows Media Player |
2 hours, 07 min | 4 hours, 25 min |
Note: I'll try to test WWAN, Bluetooth tethering, and maybe GPS runtimes later and update the chart. I've only been using the P at home with WiFi, though, so it may be a long time before I get the numbers up.
Considering how unobtrusive the extended battery is when attached to the Vaio P (photos here) and keeping in mind that it's only a 4-cell, I'm really impressed with it.
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