AMD: Notebook Battery Life Claims are Bogus
Posted 06/18/09 at 04:00:00 PM by Paul Lilly
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AMD isn't happy with the way some battery claims are made, saying the reliance on a test called MobileMark 2007 doesn't yield an accurate indicator of what to expect. The problem, says Patrick Moorhead, a vice president for marketing at AMD, is that the parameters for the test include dimming the screen the just 20 percent brightness, turning off WiFi, and making sure no music, video, games, or webpages are running. Not only is the test flawed, says Moorhead, but it also favors Intel.
"Intel is advantaged in this environment because they have optimized their architecture to have bettery battery life when the computer isn't doing anything," Moorhead said.
Intel shrugged off AMD's complaint, saying if the No. 2 chip maker is so passionate about the subject, it would "encourage them to bring any new proposals or edits to the nonprofit industry consortium called BAPCo."
But is AMD out of line? Not likely. In the June issue of Maximum PC, Editor-in-Chief Will Smith discussed the topic in his Ed Word titled "Notebook Battery Life is a Trap."
"You'd think testing battery life would be straightforward, but benchmark results rarely jibe with real-world results -- in part, because there are an infinite number of potential workloads (each tapping power differently), and battery life decays over time," Smith wrote.
AMD warns that either the industry starts better regulating itself, or there's a high possibility of a consumer filing a lawsuit or the FTC stepping in.
Image Credit: techtree.com
''Stop Whining!"
Submitted by tkddan87 on Fri, 06/19/2009 - 4:13am
I dont know about anyone else but its no secret portable pc battery listings are higher than the norm, they always test with lowest power usage. Besides its better for advertising. what sounds better 9hr battery or 2hours?! duh.
same reason car manufacturer mpg ratings are higher than driven actuals
same reason listed hard drive space is larger than actual
HDDS are a bit different
Submitted by nekollx on Fri, 06/19/2009 - 8:33am
HDDS are a bit different though. See back in the old days the marketing would use base 2 but the hardware base 10
They basicly dug themselves into a whole by not being in synch now it would just mess up every non-nerds head if succewnly ever hdd on the market lost like 20% of its capacity
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It's different, but not...
Submitted by jwalch.hawk on Fri, 06/19/2009 - 2:34pm
The hard drive issue is different from the other ones only because we know exactly what the difference is. There is an exact way to calculate the conversion between the figure the hard drive manufacturers use and what would show up as available in the OS, which is different than than the other two cases. We can approximately guess what battery life we'll get based on the advertised span, and we can guess give or take what gas mileage we will experience compared to the sticker on the window, but neither of those are as precise. But all three are deceptive marketing, which in my mind makes them ultimately the same.
Submitted by nekollx on Fri, 06/19/2009 - 2:38pm
but you have to keep in mind the orgin. Back in the old days when you Huge HD was 32 MB base 10/2 was just cleaner number likes 20 mb instead of 18.4.
Couse that ended up shootignthem in the foot as we het Terabytes and now the differents ins HUNDREDS of MB and will only get worrse with Exa bytes, decabytes, and so on.
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Submitted by jwalch.hawk on Fri, 06/19/2009 - 3:16pm
They're targetting the clean numbers. Have you noticed how hard drives always come out with nice clean numbers for capacity? Those aren't an accident of the technology - they keep researching and developing until they can build a hard drive at the next nice, friendly number before they release it. You could just easily have friendly numbers using the (correct) binary definition of 1024 rather than 1000. The "easy numbers" thing is just an excuse for the hard disk makers to deceive consumers.
Submitted by jwalch.hawk on Thu, 06/18/2009 - 4:24pm
Lolz at the quote from Moorhead. That's almost as subtle as Huang's quote about Intel protecting a decaying CPU business or some-such.
I pretty much always look at
Submitted by FrancesTheMute on Thu, 06/18/2009 - 3:12pm
I pretty much always look at laptop battery test results as a theoretical maximum. It probably would be better to do the tests using the machine as the average user would on a typical day.
The thing is, how often are laptops ACTUALLY used in a place that doesn't have access to a power outlet? My MBP is almost never on battery power, either plugged in at home on my desk, or plugged in a work on my desk. I guess people who travel a lot might use batteries more, but you can get airline power adapters now, most airports have places to plug in (if you're quick and get a spot by them!) I don't go to starbucks or other coffee shops, so I'm not sure about the availability of power outlets there.
Submitted by PCIV on Thu, 06/18/2009 - 1:47pm
I think it should be tested at Wifi on, 50% brightness (or better, at least how many lumines emitted), playing 720p H264. That would be quite taxing, and a fair test. Then again, it would pwn all the netbooks.
Not the ones with the big
Submitted by Denis63 on Fri, 06/19/2009 - 11:35am
Not the ones with the big batterys! my Acer Aspireone playes H264 video just fine, it just kills my battery life.
Battery tests should be done correspondingly for what the laptop is made for, IE Netbooks should be tested with the wifi on, brightness at medium, and by some guy crusing the web at a starbucks. how much more realistic can one get? a desktop replacement 17"+ should be tested with high quality video and full brightness, and everything in between should have a creative mix of watching video and cruising the web and playing light games. Why would you test a laptop for something its not made for?
Submitted by nekollx on Thu, 06/18/2009 - 1:02pm
gotta agree with intel here "low power idle mode" test realy dont tell the consumer ANYTHING
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Coming soon to Lulu.com --Tokusatsu Heroes--
Five teenagers, one alien ghost, a robot, and the fate of the world.
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