u100-9-cellWe’ve seen 9 cell batteries for the MSI Wind before. Word on the street is that they’ll provide about 7.5 hours of battery life on a standard Wind U100 running Windows XP. I assume if you throw one in a newer MSI Wind U100 Plus with its more energy efficient CPU, you could eke out even more run time. But you know what I haven’t seen until now? A good benchmark showing how much battery life you can get out of a 9 cell battery with a Wind U100 running OS X.

Fortunately Wired Magazine’s Charlie Sorrel has come to the rescue. He picked up a 9 cell after realizing that using OS X causes his MSI Wind U100 battery to run down way faster than it would under Windows XP. As expected, the extender battery sticks out like a sore thumb. But while it’s not particularly attractive, it does tilt the computer a bit, providing what Sorrel says is a comfortable typing angle for the keyboard.

Most importantly, the battery is good for about 6 hours. A standard 3 cell battery dies after about 90 minutes if you’re using OS X.

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14 replies on “MSI Wind U100 + 9 cell battery + OS X = 6 hours”

  2. 8+ hours confirmed with Debian Testing and 9 cell Battery. Thanks bubson. Didn’t even herad of LXDE, but I like it.
    BR

  3. Debian Linux + LXDE

    circa 7,5h with Wifi on.
    No Wifi gives you 8,5h at max.
    Using 9cell battery 7800 mAh – from China ebay
    😀

  4. Thanks Matty. I wonder if the N280 can give more hours? I am talking abt full brightness and wifi on.

    According to MSI, its 7 hours, I presume that with wifi off and screen dimmed.

  5. How long can the basic U100 (not plus) last with a 6 cell and with wifi on and screen full brightness?

    1. Under Windows, the 4400 mAh is just under 4 hours. Screen brightness down a little will do about an extra 20 mins.

  6. Interesting…my Dell Mini 9 running OS X consistently gets me just under 4 hours on its 4 cell battery, with the wireless on and brightness turned down a bit. It goes up and over 4 hours with the wireless off. I am hoping for a 6 cell from Dell that actually works (the bigger 3rd party batteries aren’t great from what I hear) so I can get around 6 hours of use.

  7. With the different OS X variants and various kexts (fan control, CPU speed-stepping, even sleep and overall power usage) out there, I’m not quite convinced this is a real good measure of battery capacity vs. runtime. My original Wind got about 120 minutes of decent usage on the original 3-cell battery – and that’s with the best of the kexts at the time (and a program called Coolbook – found at https://www.coolbook.se/CoolBook.html). That’s general usage, screen brightness, blah blah blah – and completely anecdotal, but that’s the point I’m trying to make.

    Anyway – to further put some numbers out there (which may or may not matter) I’ve got a Lenovo S10 with a six-cell battery that routinely makes it to the five to six hour range.

  8. Does the N280 consume less power? Do you have any evidence of this?

    How much more less?

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