How does Windows 8 fare? Battery life test

CloudTags: battery , battery life , laptops，laptop batteries , Samsung NC 10

Tablets and Ultrabooks are on the rise and Windows-on-ARM (WOA) tablets are on the horizon. For Windows 8 to succeed in today’s — and tomorrow’s — market for both low- and high-powered portable devices, Microsoft needed to get rid of its “fat” Windows without losing functionality. The goal was to not just increase responsiveness, but also to improve battery life, which is obviously one of the core criteria for everyone shopping for a new laptop or tablet. How does Windows 8 fare? We’ve got answers”:

Microsoft’s promise: Less energy consumption

Redmond pushed out almost a dozen blog posts that either demonstrate their battery life/power consumption improvements or show off how new their new features (e.g. USB 3.0 support, Connected Standby, Live Tiles, Metro Apps) are built with saving power in mind.

Here are the highlights:

All background Metro-style apps will be suspended; only the foreground app consumes resources and thus battery life. If an app is not on screen and actively used, it shouldn’t drain battery. Only a set of apps will be allowed to use background activity (e.g. for music playback or printing).

Improved idle usage of the OS.
On-system drivers, such as the USB host controllers and keyboard drivers, put the device into low-powered modes sooner.
Memory deduplication mechanisms to reduce RAM workload.

Battery life benchmark: Windows 8 consumer preview

“We think of power as a critical system resource, just like CPU utilization, hard disk activity, or memory consumption.” explains Pat Stemen, a Program Manager on the Windows Kernel team, on the B8 blog.

So how power-friendly is the new Windows exactly? We wanted to put Windows 8 CP up for a test run on a variety of laptops and see how it stacks up against Windows 7 SP1. Here’s the hardware I used:

Laptop A — Acer Aspire 7551G. A Run of the mill 17-inch laptop with a Phenom II X4 CPU and 4 GB of RAM. Good for multimedia, but not particularly well-suited in the battery life department.

Lapotp B — Samsung NC 10. One of the better 2008-era netbooks. The usual yada-yada specs (Atom N270 1.6 GHz, 1 GB RAM). Low performance, extremely good battery life.

Laptop C — 13″ MacBook Air (2011) equipped with a 1.8 GHz Core i7, 4 GB of RAM and a 256 GB SSD drive.

* I didn’t test on an ultrabook, but the MacBook Air running Windows matches the most current ultrabooks in terms of specs, battery power and form factor.

All three represent very different laptops, targeted at very different audiences. Evaluating these devices should give a good glimpse of what to expect on the battery life front.

Test scenario

I used PCMark 7′s “Lightweight” test, which simulates typical workloads such as adding music to Media Player, browsing the web, copying files and scanning for malware while leaving a couple of seconds of idle time in between. I looped the test until the battery of the device ran dry. Second, I just let the laptop sit there, do nothing and just “die”. While that’s not a particular realistic scenario, it demonstrates idle usage which is very important for battery life: Remember, you’re not constantly pushing your CPU to its limit — while you’re reading something, sitting in a meeting or just waiting in between presentation slides, your laptop needs to go into idle as fast as possible and stay there until you do something. It is a good basis for judging power management.

Since third party software usually impacts battery life, I installed only the very basic programs such as Office 2010, TeamViewer, SnagIT, Adobe Reader and Flash on both machines. In all cases, I used the “Balanced” power saver mode and cranked up brightness to about 50-70%, while leaving Wi-Fi on.

Results

I repeated each test run exactly three times to avoid discrepancies. In each and every case I got pretty much same results (+/- 5 minutes). Results are measured in minutes:

Microsoft has done its homework. Idle performance of Windows 8 seems to best that of Windows 7 SP1 in every case. This is especially true on the MacBook Air: Here, idle battery life increased by 51 minutes. Even under the PCMark 7 workload, it managed to squeeze 24 minutes of additional battery life out of the machine. Our trusty old Samsung NC 10 ran for 40 more minutes in “idle” while it gave me another 20 minutes under typical workload. While that’s not a lot, it may just mean the difference between wrapping up a movie or work on an airplane and having to stare at a blank screen for the rest of the flight.

Overall: While there are no major leaps, these are all solid improvements across the board.

Lenovo ThinkPad T420 Reviews

Lenovo ThinkPad T420 Reviews

CloudTags: Lenovo , ThinkPad , T420 , Lenovo batteries uk , lenovo laptop , Lenovo thinkpad t61 batteries

As you may already know from my ultrabook editorial, I’m not entirely sold on them. There are disadvantages to being thin.

And as if to remind me of it, a Lenovo ThinkPad T420 suddenly appeared at my doorstep. Okay, that’s exaggerating a bit – I did know it was coming – but the timing of receiving an old-school laptop couldn’t have been better. Not only because I wanted to take a closer look at a laptop purposely designed to not be thin, but also because we haven’t had a ThinkPad T series for review in, well, forever.

This is a return to form for me. I owned several ThinkPads during my late teens, my college days, and the years just after college. My favorite was a T42 with a 14-inch display.

Of course, laptops have come a long way since then. The ThinkPad T420 we received for review is a good example of a mid-range model. Let’s look at the hardware specifications.

t420specifications Lenovo ThinkPad T420 Reviews

According to Lenovo’s website, this configuration is the second pre-configured option available. It can be had for about $1000 after an eCoupon provided by Lenovo. All of the features above are standard, even the 1600×900 display and Nvidia graphics. They are standard only for this model, however – some less powerful versions are available at lower prices.

The only option that came with our review unit was a 9-cell battery, which will set you back $50. We received both the 6-cell and the 9-cell batteries, so we will be testing the laptop’s battery life with both.

Design

At first glance, the T420 doesn’t seem much different from the T42 I used about six years ago. The classic ThinkPad black matte construction remains present, of course, and it does a good job of obscuring the more subtle details of the chassis.

Not that there’s much to obscure. Besides the laptop’s ports and a display lid’s latch at the front of the laptop, there’s nothing notable here. That’s the point. A business laptop is supposed to be like a business suit – handsome, but unobtrusive.

I don’t think everyone agrees with this philosophy, but this isn’t meant to be a debate about it. This T420 remains true to the core ThinkPad ideal of obsessive functionality. You either get it, or you don’t. If you do, then you’ll love how this laptop is built.

Durability is evident throughout the chassis. Picking up the laptop from any edge results in no groans of protest, nor is any flex evident when pressing upon various surfaces of the laptop (the middle of the display lid is an exception – but almost all laptops show some minor flex there). The display is attached by two large metal hinges that make it possible to open 180 degrees. More importantly, these hinges do not allow for any display wobble when typing.

Connectivity includes VGA and DisplayPort, four USB 2.0 ports (one of which is an eSATA combo port), a card reader, a 34mm Express Card Slot and a combo headphone/microphone jack. This impressive array is improved if you don’t have the discrete graphics option found on our laptop – the space freed by the missing GPU allows for the addition of two more USB 2.0 ports. USB 3.0 is notably lacking.

Most of the ports are located near the middle or rear of the chassis, and none are located on the front, which means that connecting devices will interfere less with your working space. The power cable connects at the only proper spot – the rear of the laptop – keeping the cord and adapter out of your way.

User Interface

Like the design of the chassis itself, the keyboard on the T420 is a bit of a dinosaur. It has refused to change over the years, ignoring the trends towards an island style keyboard layout. Even HP’s enterprise laptops have switched over to the more modern design.

But modern doesn’t always mean best. As I pointed out in our retrospective of the Acer Extensa 5420, an old-fashioned laptop keyboard like the one found here has strengths. The most noticeable is key feel. When you press a key, it responds with significant travel, and it doesn’t bottom out harshly. You can easily tell when you’ve fully depressed a key without looking at your display or the keyboard, resulting in more confidence when typing at high speeds.

The layout is a bit fussy, as is often the case with ThinkPad laptops. The FN (or function) key is where the Ctrl key is supposed to be, and this will cause new users to stumble. Lenovo also uses double-height Esc and Delete keys which feel awkward at first, but are probably more effective once you’ve learned them.

Below the keyboard is a small touchpad. It’s adequate. If you buy the T420 you’ll need to love – or learn to love – the trackpointer in the middle of the keyboard. The ThinkPad implementation remains the best, and once you become accustomed to it, you may never want to go back to a touchpad.

Lenovo IdeaPad S2 10 Reviews – Unexpected Competitor for Asus Transformer Prime

Lenovo IdeaPad S2 10 Reviews – Unexpected Competitor for Asus Transformer Prime

CloudTags: Lenovo , IdeaPad S2 , lenovo batteries , tablet , Lenovo thinkpad t61 battery , lenovo s10 batteries

Lenovo has had a great start of the year in 2012, having announced and released quite a few new devices, and alongside with their new laptops and Ultrabooks, they’ve also announced a couple of tablets. The IdeaPad K2 and S2 are the successors to the first models that were released last year, and they both look like an attractive option for their respective markets.

While the K2 is more of a high end business-oriented slate with a quad core processor, fingerprint reader and all that, the IdeaPad S2 is a consumer tablet with a small detail that should make it more attractive in the eyes of a potential buyer: it has a keyboard dock, just like the Asus Transformer Prime (practically making it a direct competitor). But can it compete with the current flagship tablet?

Just so we’re clear, we’re talking about the 10 inch S2 – there was another prototype at CES 2012 with a 7 inch display, and that will undoubtedly cause some confusion, although the specs are pretty similar, so if the smaller model gets released, you’ll have to choose just by display size.

The IdeaPad S2 has a fairly standard design, with the display on the front, surrounded by a chrome frame, and a nice matte back cover with the Lenovo logo in the middle. The resolution of the 10.1 inch display is 1280×800 pixels, which is certainly enough for most apps, but there were rumors that Lenovo might be going with a Full HD display for the final model – that would be very nice, indeed, and it would help the tablet compete with the newer Transformer Prime 700 series. The whole tablet is

The IdeaPad S2 is powered by a dual core Qualcomm Snapdragon, running at 1.5 GHz… BUT WAIT, this is no simple Snapdragon – it is actually Qualcomm’s new 4th generation Krait platform, which is much faster than the previous chips and should be able to compete with the quad core Tegra 3 on equal grounds, at least in some applications.

The Krait Snapdragon has a 1000 MHz dual channel (DDR2) memory interface, the new Adreno 225 GPU and a handful of improvements to the original architecture to make the increased performance possible. Seeing as most of the current apps and even Android itself is still pretty bad at managing multiple cores, the higher-clocked Krait will probably be even faster than the Tegra 3 in the beginning. The 1 GB of RAM also helps keep things smooth when multitasking.

Now, for the other surprise that comes with the IdeaPad S2 – the keyboard dock. This optional accessory turns the S2 into a small netbook, very similar to the Transformer Prime, doubles the battery life from 10 hours to 20, and adds more expansion options, as well (2 USB ports, a micro USB port, micro HDMI out and an SD card slot, to be precise). Just as is the case with Asus’ tablet, you’re probably going to want to get it for the best experience.

It goes without saying that the Lenovo IdeaPad S2 ships with Ice Cream Sandwich pre-installed, and of course, it has a customized interface running on top. It’s not that bad, and some people might actually prefer it to the original Android 4.0 UI, but I really hope it’s not buggy and prone to crashes like so many other custom skins on the market.

The tablet will come in 16, 32 and 64 GB versions, and it has a 5 megapixels camera on the back with support for 1080p video recording, plus a smaller 1.3 camera on the front for video calls. It has all the other standard issue features, as well – Wifi, Bluetooth, GPS, DLNA, 3.5 mm audio jack are all present and accounted for.

The Lenovo IdeaPad looks like a winner, and it can definitely compare with the Transformer Prime, but it would be nice if Lenovo and/or Qualcomm could get more coverage for the processor – everybody seems to think that it’s much more inferior to the quad core Tegra 3 (that may be the case for older chipsets, but not for the Krait, that’s for sure). If the pricing is right, it should be a great purchase, especially considering Lenovo’s quality.

Lenovo Unveils New IdeaPad Laptops for 2012

Lenovo Unveils New IdeaPad Laptops for 2012

CloudTags: Lenovo , IdeaPad , Laptops , laptop batteries uk , Lenovo battery , Lenovo thinkpad t61 , Dell inspiron 1525 batteries

Thinner and more affordable is the name of the game for Lenovo’s consumer-focused IdeaPad line of laptops.

lenovo ideapad u410 180 8114511 Lenovo Unveils New IdeaPad Laptops for 2012 Hot on the heels of the announcement of new ThinkPad corporate laptops for 2012, Lenovo is showcasing its coming consumer lineup, which sells under the IdeaPad brand. At first glance, these don’t appear to be dramatic changes from the existing lineup. With the IdeaPad U300s Ultrabook just recently released, it’s probably too much to expect dramatic changes in the short term.

The first to hit the market will be the IdeaPad Y and Z series, due for release in April. The IdeaPad Y480 (14-inch) and Y580 (15.6-inch) are high-power laptops designed for gamers and enthusiasts. They’ll come with up to Core i7 processors and GeForce 650M (for the Y480) or 660M (for the Y580) discrete graphics. Also included: JBL speakers with Dolby Home Theater V4. The IdeaPad Z380, Z480, and Z580 (13.3-inch, 14-inch, and 15.6-inch respectively) are colorful, everyday laptops with a variety of CPU and graphics options, up to Core i7 and GeForce 640M.

lenovo ideapad z480 8114545 300x207 Lenovo Unveils New IdeaPad Laptops for 2012 Shipping in May are the new IdeaPad U310 and U410 Ultrabooks. They’re similar in appearance to the U300s we previously reviewed, with a few tweaks. Gone is the SSD, replaced by a standard hard drive with solid state cache. The 14-inch U410 features discrete Nvidia GeForce 610M graphics, while the smaller 13.3-inch U310 relies on Intel’s integrated graphics. Though they are thin, they’re a little on the heavy side by Ultrabook standards. The U310 weighs 3.74 pounds, while the U410 weighs 4.18 pounds. Fortunately, they’re less expensive as well, with a starting price of $699.

Finally, the IdeaPad netbooks continue in June with the S series. Lenovo’s netbooks have gone on a diet, and slimmed down to 0.8 inches thick. The 11.6-inch IdeaPad S200 features Intel Atom processors, while the S206 utilizes AMD’s Fusion C60 processor. Lenovo claims only 4 hours of battery life for these laptops, which seems on the low side. At a starting price of $599, I can’t imagine many customers wouldn’t pay the extra money to step up to the U series.

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