Palo Alto (CA) – Hewlett-Packard (HP) said that it has crossed an “unprecedented milestone” with a new notebook that is promised to run on a single battery charge. This author is still stuck with a notebook that barely hits five hours and of course was interested what technology would be required to get to 24 hours. It turns out that there are a lot “if’s” involved and at least HP’s current product listing does not provide any configuration option that would come even close to the 24 hour claim. So don’t get too excited about a 24 hour notebook just yet.
HP’s claim refers to the company’s new 14.1” Elite 6930p notebook, which apparently achieved the 24 hour goal of continuous notebook operation on a single battery charge, as measured by “an industry-standard benchmark.” HP is quick to conclude that “with the HP EliteBook 6930p, customers no longer have to worry about their notebook battery running out before their work day is over.”
We have heard similar claims before, including 19-hours of battery life in a notebook that is promoted by Dell. But HP’s offer is enticing and prompted me to look a bit closer in the necessary configuration and involved cost, that would provide a notebook that will continuously run, according to HP, on the world’s longest scheduled commercial airline flight (18 hours, 40 minutes between New York and Singapore), or on a car trip from Maine to Florida.
HP puts quite some limitations on such a scenario by default. The 6930p would need Intel’s 80 GB SSD, which is not yet available on HP’s website, as well as a new LED display that isn’t available either (scheduled availability is October 2008.) Additionally, the notebook requires a 12-cell “Ultra Capacity Battery”, Windows XP (not Vista!), Intel’s latest graphics driver and HP BIOS. And even then, the 24 hour battery life is not promised and will depend on application use and other hardware that may negatively impact the battery life, HP said.
Left with questions what exact configuration would be required for the 24 hour battery life, we decided to contact HP’s sales support as a spokesperson was not reachable. HP’s sales support was at least as confused as we were and said that 24 hours could not be reached with a primary and secondary battery. What is possible, however, is up to 6 hours of battery life with a standard 6-cell battery and up to 10 hours more through a $190 12-cell “Ultra Capacity Battery”. 16 hours is all I could get, I was told. And before I could ask any more questions, the support person told me “Thanks for chatting with us.” and “Have a Great Day!”.
Admitted, this configuration does not include a 7% gain in battery life HP promises through the use of the SSD and a gain of 4 hours through the LED display in the case of the 12-cell battery (2.5 hours for the 6-cell battery?), which would result in a best-case battery run time of just under 24 hours. But the overall 24 hour claim sounds just like a lot of theory and very optimistic. But let’s be honest: Even if this notebook will hit only 12 hours in a real life scenario, it is impressive to see how much more power efficient today’s computers are than the systems we have used just five years ago.
HP’s claim refers to the company’s new 14.1” Elite 6930p notebook, which apparently achieved the 24 hour goal of continuous notebook operation on a single battery charge, as measured by “an industry-standard benchmark.” HP is quick to conclude that “with the HP EliteBook 6930p, customers no longer have to worry about their notebook battery running out before their work day is over.”
We have heard similar claims before, including 19-hours of battery life in a notebook that is promoted by Dell. But HP’s offer is enticing and prompted me to look a bit closer in the necessary configuration and involved cost, that would provide a notebook that will continuously run, according to HP, on the world’s longest scheduled commercial airline flight (18 hours, 40 minutes between New York and Singapore), or on a car trip from Maine to Florida.
HP puts quite some limitations on such a scenario by default. The 6930p would need Intel’s 80 GB SSD, which is not yet available on HP’s website, as well as a new LED display that isn’t available either (scheduled availability is October 2008.) Additionally, the notebook requires a 12-cell “Ultra Capacity Battery”, Windows XP (not Vista!), Intel’s latest graphics driver and HP BIOS. And even then, the 24 hour battery life is not promised and will depend on application use and other hardware that may negatively impact the battery life, HP said.
Left with questions what exact configuration would be required for the 24 hour battery life, we decided to contact HP’s sales support as a spokesperson was not reachable. HP’s sales support was at least as confused as we were and said that 24 hours could not be reached with a primary and secondary battery. What is possible, however, is up to 6 hours of battery life with a standard 6-cell battery and up to 10 hours more through a $190 12-cell “Ultra Capacity Battery”. 16 hours is all I could get, I was told. And before I could ask any more questions, the support person told me “Thanks for chatting with us.” and “Have a Great Day!”.
Admitted, this configuration does not include a 7% gain in battery life HP promises through the use of the SSD and a gain of 4 hours through the LED display in the case of the 12-cell battery (2.5 hours for the 6-cell battery?), which would result in a best-case battery run time of just under 24 hours. But the overall 24 hour claim sounds just like a lot of theory and very optimistic. But let’s be honest: Even if this notebook will hit only 12 hours in a real life scenario, it is impressive to see how much more power efficient today’s computers are than the systems we have used just five years ago.