Battery Life

Laptop makers consider Intel and ARM hybrids

Paul Mah — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 00:58:23 -0500

Remember laptops that come with dual switchable graphic chips? Well, the same strategy could be adopted for the CPUs of laptops, as laptop makers mull ways to stretch battery life to make their devices stand out. One possibility would be to create a hybrid netbook that comes with both Intel CPU and ARM-based processors in a single device. The idea is that the more energy efficient ARM processor could be tapped for providing basic services such as email and Internet--much like a PDA or smartphone. By eliminating the need to boot up completely, unless required, battery life could theoretically be extended to around 15 hours, according to the Inquirer. The Intel processor would only be engaged for more computationally-intensive applications. The obvious downside of course, is that some sort of dual operating systems setup will be needed, which presents more complexity, in terms of usability.

For more information:
- check out the article at the Inquirer

Related Article:
Intel Atom Dual Core processor debuts

HP claims 24-hour battery life for notebook

Paul Mah — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 03:45:15 -0400

Hewlett Packard has unveiled its own contender in response to Dell's announcement of its new Latitude E6400 notebook with up to 19 hours of battery life. With a monster 12-cell lithium ion battery pack, HP claims that its new EliteBook 6930p is able to achieve 24 hours of runtime. Of course, this adds an additional 1.8 pounds to the laptop, which weighs 4.7 pounds with a "standard" lithium ion battery. It must be noted that since everyone is used to stretching the limits of battery performance, the actual "standard" usage life remains to be seen. Still, it is undeniable that as sales of laptops continue to dominate in the area of personal computing, it is inevitable that manufacturers reach out to globetrotting enterprise road warriors seeking to push the edge of mobility.

For more on the story:
- check out this eWeek article

How your mobile phones and laptops lie to you

Paul Mah — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 07:27:58 -0400

Your mobile phone and laptop are constantly lying to you. Referring to the signal strength and battery life displays on such devices, blogger Dan declares,"Neither display is actually telling you what you think it's telling you." For example, four or five bars of reception on your mobile phone does not necessarily equate a high-quality conversation. The reason is because the signal bar does not take into consideration the amount of interference at your current location, or the signal-to-noise ratio. Ditto that for Wifi signal strength.

It gets worse when it comes to battery meters--especially those for mobile phones. Dan highlights how mobile phones seem to spend most of their time showing a full or almost full reading. However, the situation goes downhill--to flat, pretty quickly once the gauge reaches the halfway mark. Dan attributes this to pressure from marketing departments to reflect higher performance than is actually the case.

To check out what Dan has to say:
- check out the blog entry at Dan's Data