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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