Hey there all,

I purchased a Hypersonic CQ6 (3790) about a week and a half ago. Well I recieved it a week and a half ago. Great machine very good looking etc...
After talking to people at Hypersonic I was under the impression I would be getting about 4 hours with the standard battery. This is far from true, I am getting about two hours. So I than also purchased a 12 cell, and that is much better. But now I am carrying alot of laptop around with me.

Here is my dilema. I went from a Fujitsu P7010D Ultraportable to the CQ6. I knew I was giving up portablility for power since I wanted to be able to play games on my lappy again. So now I'm carying a lot of laptop but am still not all that happy with performance. I feel like if im going to carry this much weight, i might as well have gone for the EX7 (9860 equivilant).

OK, My buddy has the Dell XPS, his is only a 15.4" but powerfull, The thing that killed me was his AC adaptor. That thing was about the size of my Fujitsu... Is the 9860 AC adaptor the same size?

Will I see a huge difference in performance? I mean the CQ6 runs games WAY better than my Fujitsu did, but I cannot play at full setting, I basically have to use medium setting on games like MOHPA, Doom III, etc...

My 3dMark01 Score hovers between 13995 & 14025.

But I'm seeing MUCH higher scores comming from the 9860's...

alos ballery life? is it true the you will basically oly get about an hour and a half? What are you guys getting? I keep my screen all the way up, nd my power settings are always off. lol, i know but im being honest. So what can I expect, and how many spare batteries will I need?

What would you do, keep the smaller size and bit more portability or go for it and deal with the slight bit more weight and more power?

I'm a power user, Gamer. This machine goes with me everywhere. I am CIO of my company and having the ability to connect to our offices is always an issue, but I am also a gamer, who wants to be able to play while i'm on a 9 hour plane flight to Amsterdam etc...

Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

Gromet

G'day Gromet,

I don't own a 9860, so I can't comment on the powerbirck size or battery life, but I understand the problem you are having with power vs size. Obviously the bigger laptops will always have more power than the smaller lighter versions, but there are obviously some compromises and with the advent of sonoma ie. centrino + pci-express, there is now potential for better graphics/games performance in a lighter notebook with decent battery life also.

Given that you have just purchased an older generation centrino and don't sound 100% stoked with it, I would seriously consider sending it back. If you don't need more than 1 hour battery life, then the 9860/7620 would probably be your best replacement. If you would prefer slightly better battery however, I would look at the Acer TM8100, which has the sonoma + X700, producing performance similar to the current gen Dell XPS in games, while still maintaining approx 3.5 hrs battery life. Keep in mind though, that if you use all settings maxed and are looking for gaming battery life, then sonoma will probably struggle to give more than 2 hours with a 15.4" screen.

Alternatively there is also the larger 17" Dell 9300 due to be released in the next month or two (depending on which rumour you believe ) which is probably going to have less battery life than the Acer, but with 17" screen and capability to carry the Nvidia 6800 Go Card. This is going to give you gaming power approaching that of the 9860, with better but not brilliant battery life. I would expect that on low settings and running low intensity apps you could approach 3.5hrs battery life still with a 9 cell battery. This laptop would weigh approx. 7lbs. Note that these are estimates only taken from various rumours, as this laptop is still yet to be released. There is also the rumour of a Clevo 15" Sonoma + X800 release, but with far less details or reliability of confirmation than the Dell rumours.

So basically I would return the Aviator. If you need no more than 1 hr battery, by all means go for the 9860. If you do need more then you can either get the 8100 now (which is a very capable and versatile machine by all accounts) or wait and see what new sonoma laptops are released in the next month or so.

Cheers