Solving the myth of laptop battery life

2»

Comments

  • edited April 2009
    Realistic benchmarking is no doubt, the need of the hour. Whether it be automobile, IT or Engg, you need standards that are based upon real life situations. As the author has rightly quoted, certain standards like the 80 Plus gold are meant to deliver. Over advertising is a fact and Major players easily do away with their claims by adding clauses like "Upto" and "Conditions apply". So whom can you trust? None but your own experience and expertise. Reliable and independent benchmarking organizations must form and the time will come when Mfrs will look upto these certifying bodies with respect. For the highly optimistic, you can expect atleast some Mfrs to really listen to your feedback and do what is in their lot to make claims transparent like never before.
  • edited April 2009
    Great post! I aplaud the community for calling this out. I understand and agree that its not an AMD vs. Intel thing, its a consumer vs. OEM thing!

    How do we, the little people make an impact? Do we tweet to the Best buy CMO on twitter?
    Do we email or tweet Nigel Dessau?

    Next steps?
  • SoundySoundy Pitt Meadows, BC
    edited April 2009
    Atterno wrote:
    Realistic benchmarking is no doubt, the need of the hour. Whether it be automobile, IT or Engg, you need standards that are based upon real life situations. As the author has rightly quoted, certain standards like the 80 Plus gold are meant to deliver. Over advertising is a fact and Major players easily do away with their claims by adding clauses like "Upto" and "Conditions apply". So whom can you trust? None but your own experience and expertise.

    Well, and the price... in many instances, the most accurate indicator of relative quality is simply relative cost - or to coin a phrase, you get what you pay for.

    Obviously it's not ALWAYS the case - sometimes you're simply paying more for bling, bells-and-whistles, little-blinky-lights, or a brand name. But if you can eliminate those from the equation, the remainder is generally the overall quality of the device, and the more expensive unit is typically the better one.

    (Of course, that doesn't apply so well to the battery-life discussion, it's more of a generality when it comes to technology).
  • BuddyJBuddyJ Dept. of Propaganda OKC Icrontian
    edited April 2009
    Audiguyy, the next step is to figure out how to get a legit test devised. Discussion here is valuable. Nigel reads it.

    If you can come up with some tests, give them a try and post the results. I know Thrax has some good ideas and will be trying them on his MSI Wind soon enough.
  • wpeltolawpeltola Indiana
    edited April 2009
    As I stated in AMD's blog, I find this to be an interesting topic. My so-called four hour battery on my D420 laptop gets about one hour from full charged to totally dead. The laptop is a year old and I don't really use it nearly as much as I do my desktops.

    It will be great to have an organization committed to standards and practices in this field. Thanks for reading and great article Cliff !
  • Cliff_ForsterCliff_Forster Icrontian
    edited April 2009
    Just wanted to add that I am in the process of forwarding this to a number of OEM PR people to gauge their interest and to get feedback. I will follow up.

    Keep the ideas coming.
  • RADARADA Apple Valley, CA Member
    edited April 2009
    Not sure I agree with this "3 to 5 year life span" on Lithium Ion batteries, though I can only go by my own experiences.

    My only computer right now is my 5 year old Dell Inspiron 8600 with an Ati 9600 Turbo video card. I bought it new on Feb 9th, 2004.

    I'm still on the original battery - I routinely use it on and off AC power and still gets just over 4 hours of general use time out of the battery.

    I just used it to watch Bourne Ultimatum last week. Got through the whole movie on one charge..
  • AlexDeGruvenAlexDeGruven Wut? Meechigan Icrontian
    edited April 2009
    While I can see the detriment it would have in the normal consumer market, in the business and enthusiast market, I'd love to see a dual benchmark (similar to what cellphone manufacturers provide with their 'Standby' and 'Talk' numbers).

    Give us an 'Idle' number to tell us how we need to set our power-profile, but also give us a 'Minimum' or 'Heavy Usage' number that tells us essentially the lowest amount of use we'll see with the machine. I would love to be able to look at a box and see even a * next to the battery life with a note that says "Battery life varies significantly according to usage profile. Under heavy load, this configuration has been tested to 1.25 hours", or something to that effect.

    Real information, and gives the people that really care the details they want.
  • QCHQCH Ancient Guru Chicago Area - USA Icrontian
    edited April 2009
    While I can see the detriment it would have in the normal consumer market, in the business and enthusiast market, I'd love to see a dual benchmark (similar to what cellphone manufacturers provide with their 'Standby' and 'Talk' numbers).
    I think we are all in agreement with multiple benchmarks based on the use. The issue is different tests for netbook verses laptops. We feel there should be one predetermined set of tests done on all portable computers regardless of their perceived market of laptop or netbook.
Sign In or Register to comment.