Inevitable question, battery life on the Galago?

[inof8or]

The biggest gripe about my laptop is that I can't take it off the chord. I need less time off the grid now because I have a fancy smartphone to do somethings but the 1.5 hours that my panp5 gives me is still no good. Is this really something I can bring with me?

so Ballpark numbers on a scale from Power saving nut, to average, to power user, whats battery life on the Galago?

[Leslie Dorner]

4 hours according to System76 on their Twitter handle.

[inof8or]

Only 4! Still...Thought it had the fanciest new power saving chip? Disappointing.. My gf's laptop gets 6-9 with mint...

4 is not bad though considering I have a smartphone too... I guess..

[Leslie Dorner]

Remember, it's got the new Intel 4th generation Haswell Core i7-4750HQ which is a QUAD-CORE CPU with an additional 4 HyperThreads! 4 hours for Quad-Core in a less than 3.8 pound chassis is pretty decent by today's standards.

[inof8or]

Performance doesn't mater to most folks anymore. pre-2007 is long over. The percentage of people that need to cross the threshold to that type of power would be better off with a desktop or a macbook pro.

Most have different comparison standards
A nexus 10 has twice the resolution and battery life, weighs less, runs linux and its only $400 sans the keyboard.
It does mostly everything that I need a computer to do. It does't matter that it is in a different product category if it achieves the same basic goal of portable computing. This is how muggles see it and quite frankly some of the wizards see it that way too.
The only thing that will put laptops into general consumer consideration is battery life.
If the use case is "I need power, a keyboard, and I don't mind being tethered to the wall" than I'm far more likely to consider a desktop. This is more true now than 3 years ago when other portable computing options were sparse. Today's standards have nothing to do with moores law anymore. Its has to do with how the needs and problems are met and solved.

I would argue that it never had anything to do with moores law but that's another story.

[leecheroflife]

To be honest, The 4 hours doesn't bother me much. I can't really think of any time I would be away from a power source whilst using a laptop for 4 hours.

[Leslie Dorner]

So don't buy a System76 laptop. Get a desktop. Better yet, get a tablet and go to a tablet forum while keeping your comments to yourself. This is the official System76 sub-forum. This is also the Ubuntu Forums.

Laptops and especially desktops are still the choice for content creators. I'd like to see you run Final Cut Pro on an iPad today. Ain't gonna happen overnight. You know all that content that you just adore? Most of it was created using very powerful desktops, laptops, and even super computers. You want to consume that stuff on a tablet or your smart phone? Be my guest. You just won't see Ubuntu Touch powered hardware until this October 2013 at the earliest and you'll see a wider selection by summer 2014.

Do you want to support Ubuntu and GNU/Linux or not? If so, then spend your money to get a System76, Emperor Linux, ZaReason, or Linux Certified PC of your choice. I'm looking at the new System76 Galagos UltraPro, but I won't get one until next summer 2014 because 1. I buy PCs in even numbered years; my Lemu4 was purchased in July 2012, and 2. I'm waiting for more power efficiency which will result in longer battery life and I am looking for a more high end Intel integrated GPU or when Ubuntu will officially support nVidia Optimus technology this time next year.

[inof8or]

To be honest, The 4 hours doesn't bother me much. I can't really think of any time I would be away from a power source whilst using a laptop for 4 hours.

True, True! I'm sure that is the main course of logic in the product dev.

However.. just because I'm next to a power source it doesn't mean I want to think about plugging into it. At under 4 pounds you might think moving around a bit and I don't want to bring that damn cord with me. Not because I'm lazy, because I'll forget it where ever I bring it or worst forget to bring it at all. Did that once with the panp5.. when I was giving a presentation! Besides its not under 4 pounds if you also have to bring a 3 pound power brick.

I'm an independent professional mostly working 8+ hour days. Most of this currently on a laptop tethered to the wall, like a desktop! I would love to have more versatility to work where I want. 4 hour battery might work if I plan ahead and think about my energy usage. "might" however is a key thing I don't want to have to deal with giving I have bigger a better things to do than babysit a undersized battery. Especially when I would gladly pay another 75$-$300 to get one that satisfied my needs.

by my standards a $1300 7-8 battery hour laptop wins over the tablet because its the best "portable" power money can buy
Inversely a $400 10 hour tablet wins over a $1000 4 hour laptop because its the best "portable" power that coincidentally can be had a a cheap price.

[Leslie Dorner]

I'm hoping that this October 2013 will see new Ubuntu Touch powered tablets and smart phones so you and I can see how they function and how they perform especially regarding battery life. Understand that Ubuntu and especially Ubuntu Touch are in their infancy stage in terms of the number of active developers and ISVs that are willing to port their wares to the platform. By buying System76 devices and apps from the Ubuntu Software Center or its partners, you vote with your wallet or purse and make this a more attractive platform to code apps for and develop mature ecosystems.

The other thing that you have to realize is that Linux kernel 3.11 has some proposed new power management features to further optimize efficiency and preserve longer battery life from various devices like laptops. Once Ubuntu Touch is officially launched worldwide, expect to see further optimizations and efficiencies be incorporated into the Linux kernel so that desktops, laptops, servers, tablets, and smart phones will consume less power and deliver more speed, performance, and features. If things keep developing at their current pace, then the Linux kernel could show some improvements in power efficiency to make it as competitive as Windows 8 laptops and Surface RT or Surface Pro tablets and Windows 8 Nokia Lumia smart phones. For Ubuntu Touch to compete in terms of features and battery life with Apple's iOS and Google's Android, that will take a couple of more years of active development and continual refinements.

One of the biggest limitations is that you don't get to choose your battery capacity or cells with System76 products any longer. Until we as customers hammer this company to offer higher cell capacity lithium ion or polymer batteries, it will be the biggest weakness. You can optimize the Linux kernel as much as you want, but you're still limited to the size of the battery. I don't see enough customers pressuring System76 to offer different battery options at the time of purchase any longer so why should they compete with the PC industry on this front? This is the inherent problem. System76 customers aren't pressuring the company to innovate their battery technologies.

[inof8or]

So don't buy a System76 laptop. Get a desktop. Better yet, get a tablet and go to a tablet forum while keeping your comments to yourself. This is the official System76 sub-forum. This is also the Ubuntu Forums.

I honestly want to buy a s76 product again, that's why I bother to toot this horn. The same way I did 2 years ago. When I believe they came out with a gazelle with the same lame battery stat.

Laptops and especially desktops are still the choice for content creators. I'd like to see you run Final Cut Pro on an iPad today. Ain't gonna happen overnight.

I'm an Inventor by trade, videography and photography are side hobbys... It may surprise you that I spend more time doing these things than consuming. All in Linux with mostly open source software. Unfortunately one has to be persistent to do these things in Linux...So, mostly all of the content creating muggles use Macs.

I like to see legit content creation apps like, afteraffects/photoshop/final cut/csMax/inventor/solidworks ext working in linux without sketchy wine hacks. I agree with you, it ain't gonna happen overnight.

I'll just have figure it out content creation in android(linux) like I do in mint(linux). Both are not optimal but both are at least rooted in open source.

Do you want to support Ubuntu and GNU/Linux or not?

OSS development is part of my work. I just want to see Collaborative development succeed.

If, s76 and Canonical if they want to shoot themselves in the foot(s) with bad priority compromises like battery life for price and bugginess for a cutting edge desktop environment all the power to them. I'm just voicing that I'm going to move on to different "forks" if they make these mistakes.

You can optimize the Linux kernel as much as you want, but you're still limited to the size of the battery.

Proper power management in linux would go a longer way than you think, my gf's lappy gets about 2 more hours in windows then linux. I'm sure the power of OSS would put linux ahead if the problem wasn't political.

Sorry guys way off the battery life train! ....I want 8 hours.