Are Drew Laptops Still Required?

[Paul R. Coen]

Originally Posted by Meaghan E. Bratichak

I'm not sure which models you are referring to, technology is not my strong suit, but my Drew computer has never lasted me more than an hour without being plugged in, and my MacBook gives me at least 4 hours working time.

That's not normal. Three reasons off the top of my head - there was a problem with the battery, in which case reporting it during the first year would have allowed it to be covered under the warranty, the power management settings on the computer are set in a way that it's using more power, or there's software on the computer that's causing a lot more system activity and using more electricity (peer to peer software could cause this - the hard drive would never spin down, more network traffic, etc.)

I can get almost 3 hours with modest power management settings on a 5-year old Thinkpad R40 with a battery that's almost 3 years old and only has about 80% of its original charge capacity.

I'd expect to only get an hour or two out of a four year old battery. Lithium ion batteries deteriorate - there's no way around it.

Normal or not, that's been my experience.... which is why I switched back to my own computer right away.

[E. Axel Larsson]

Here is the information that the first-years are receiving about the new program:
http://www.drew.edu/cla/enrolled-drewonly.aspx?id=6919

and here is the updated page on the Drew admissions site:
http://www.drew.edu/thinkbeyond/default.aspx?id=27289