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Loading ...Last week I wrote a blog covering the different ways notebook battery life is being advertised in North America for the back-to-school season in what are called the “Sunday Circulars”. I dug into the last two weeks and found some interesting changes that occurred. Specifically there were changes and additions to battery life verbiage I think you will find interesting. Let’s start with the key observations.
Observations
- 23% increase over the prior two weeks in the number of SKUs advertised with battery life. (34 to 42 SKUs) 23 SKUs I observed advertised battery life or inference to it during the week of 8/10/09, and 19 the week of 8/17/09. (See raw data at very end of blog.)
- 2X increase in the number of ways battery life is being advertised.
- Four different ways observed from weeks of 7/27 and 8/3:
- “up to X hours, Y minutes”
- “up to X hours” (no minutes)
- “X+ hours” (no “up to”)
- “X cell battery for longer performance” (adds concept of battery cell)
- Five NEW ways battery life was described or inferred to the consumer weeks of 8/10 and 8/17 in addition to those listed above:
- “up to X hours of battery life that will last in class all day” (adds idea of all day computing)
- “X cell battery” (no information on what this means)
- “X cell battery will give you up to X hours of battery life”
- “X cell Li-ion battery” (no battery life claim and introduces battery type)
- Graphic with icons, small description, but no data.
- Four different ways observed from weeks of 7/27 and 8/3:
- Still in these advertisements there is still only one battery life measurement being advertised. This is like buying a car and only seeing the “up to 52 MPG,” even though you would never realize that gas mileage in city driving. Also, it’s like advertising battery life for a mobile phone and only listing “up to 300 hours battery life”. (See raw data at very end of blog.)
- Apple notebooks never list battery life, only Windows-based PCs.
- Two retailers provided disclaimers for the advertised battery life information. (See raw data at very end of blog.)
Conclusion
Net-net, more notebooks are advertising battery life or inferring it, and the different ways of describing it to the consumer has more than doubled. Some questions:
- Do nine different ways to describe battery life help set clear battery life expectations? I will let you be the judge.
- Do disclaimers or explanations behind the metric help increase awareness? Do they deserve broader application? I will let you be the judge.
- Does one single measurement of battery life help tell the whole story? I will let you be the judge.
If you would like to read more about the battery life discussion, please find the links below:
Nigel Dessau’s blogs on battery life
Pat Moorhead’s (me) blogs on battery life
FriendFeed page with select press articles
Improving Understanding of Notebook PC Battery Life Measurements
Let me know what you think!
NOTES:
Week of 8-10-09
|
Retailer |
Notebook Battery Life Listed? |
# Models (SKUs)with Battery Life Listed and Verbiage |
Battery Life Disclaimer |
|
A |
Yes |
7 SKUs-” up to X hours, mins” 2 SKUs-“up to X hours” | “Battery life tested using MobileMark 2007. Battery life will vary depending on the product configuration, product model, applications loaded on the product; power management setting of the product, and the product features used by the customer. As with all batteries, the maximum capacity of this battery will decrease with time and usage.” |
|
B |
No |
None | None |
|
C |
Inferred |
1 SKU- “X cell battery” | None |
|
D |
No |
None | None |
|
E |
Yes |
6 SKU-”up to X hours, mins” | “Battery life will vary depending on the product configuration, product model, applications loaded on the product; power management setting of the product, and the product features used by the customer. As with all batteries, the maximum capacity of this battery will decrease with time and usage.” |
|
F |
Inferred |
1 SKU- “X cell battery for longer performance” | None |
|
G |
No |
None | None |
|
H |
Yes |
5 SKUs-“up to X hours”1 SKU- “X cell battery will give you up to X hours” | None |
|
I |
No |
None | None |
Week of 8-17-09
|
Retailer |
Notebook Battery Life Listed? |
# Models (SKUs)with Battery Life Listed and Verbiage |
Battery Life Disclaimer |
|
A |
Yes |
7 SKUs-” up to X hours, mins”1 SKU-“up to X hours” | “Battery life tested using MobileMark 2007. Battery life will vary depending on the product configuration, product model, applications loaded on the product; power management setting of the product, and the product features used by the customer. As with all batteries, the maximum capacity of this battery will decrease with time and usage.” |
|
B |
No |
None | None |
|
C |
Inferred |
1 SKU- “x-cell battery”1 SKU- “x-cell Li-ion battery” | None |
|
D |
Yes |
4 SKUs-”up to X hours, mins”1 SKU-”up to X hours” | “Battery life will vary depending on the product configuration, product model, applications loaded on the product; power management setting of the product, and the product features used by the customer. As with all batteries, the maximum capacity of this battery will decrease with time and usage.” |
|
E |
Inferred |
1 SKU- “X-cell battery for longer performance” | None |
|
F |
Yes |
3 SKUs-“up to X hours” | None |
Pat Moorhead is Vice President of Advanced Marketing at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.
#1 by Robert S. - August 22nd, 2009 at 02:01
Battery life is not consistent enough to be measured in hours. “X cell battery” is actually the most honest of those choices.
If a laptop is 3-6 cells, then the customer will probably be disappointed with the battery life. If a laptop is 9-12 cells, the customer will most likely be happy with the battery life.
Those who “just want a new computer” won’t really care.
Those who know how to properly charge laptop batteries (and not keep it plugged in all the time) will know what is more desirable.
#2 by cw - August 24th, 2009 at 10:13
@Robert S.,
Actually # of cells is one of the least consistent ways to measure. Cells have different capacities ranging from cheap and low capacity (<2Ahrs) to expensive and high capacity (2.8Ahrs). That can create a significant difference in run-time.
#3 by Surya - August 23rd, 2009 at 03:39
I think you must ask the main reason directly to the consumers why they purchase a notebook.
#4 by brian piercy - August 24th, 2009 at 09:27
re Surya @2: exactly. reading this makes me think of Malcolm Gladwell and spaghetti sauce:
http://www.ted.com/talks/malcolm_gladwell_on_spaghetti_sauce.html
#5 by Steve Lign - August 25th, 2009 at 18:35
Thanks for this info, this is very useful!
#6 by KarlV - August 27th, 2009 at 18:31
So. When will the computer industry come up with a good standard for this? As it is now, the only thing you need to know is that you can’t trust anything they say. It’s all BS.
#7 by Quinn - September 9th, 2009 at 18:17
In my opinion there needs to be a standardized way to measure battery performance. I don’t exactly remember the advertised battery life for my HP dv6449us but I know it fell way short of the advertised battery life. My 6-cell battery would last me on average about a hour and a half while using it in class. The battery life of my laptop was so pathetic that I couldn’t even use my laptop for one 2 hour class. Now that I have a 12 cell battery that cost around $100 my laptop runs for 4+ hours. I wouldn’t be surprised if the batteries that come with the laptops are already defective so you will have to pay a lot of money to get a better battery. Those are just my thoughts. I liked this blog post because it is a serious issue that needs to be addressed. Later Pat.
#8 by TheTwistedTeam - October 27th, 2009 at 19:07
There can’t be such thing as standard for battery performance in terms of benchmark. Who will decide what test to include, how would be wireless used (compare 3 gigs torrent you download pinging a server through the wireless, and you will see like 10 watts difference due to wi-fi card, memory, processor and disk usage (pings doesn’t need those).
Everything you need is standard power modes, clearly stated average power consumption (average between low power idle states and max performance loaded wattage, and battery capacity in W/hr. The rest is just too much complains, and it’s uncalled for.