HP clocks up 24-hour laptop battery life
Five hours more than Dell
HP has beaten Dell - in the laptop battery longevity hype stakes, that is. It's produced a notebook with a full-day runtime, it claims - five hours longer than Dell's most recent battery life boast.
Register Hardware readers will not be surprised to learn there's a catch. Several catches, in point of fact.
First, you need to add an optional-extra secondary battery to the EliteBook 6930p to come within striking range of the claimed duration.
Punters will also need to make sure their 6930p uses not only one of Intel's new 80GB solid-state drives but also an "HP Illumi-Lite LED display". They'll have to run Windows XP - not Vista, you'll note; so much for the latest technology.
HP's EliteBook 6930p: all day runtime?
They'll also have to install new Intel graphics drivers - which presumably is pre-set to reduce the backlight and to perform other power-saving integrated GPU tweaks - and a new Bios from HP.
Do all that, and you might get you 24 hours of battery life. But not yet - HP's miracle screen, which "boosts battery run time by up to 4 hours compared to traditional LCD displays", won't be available as a system-configuration option until October.
HP also noted that "battery life will vary depending on the product model, configuration, loaded applications, features, and power management settings", so it's entirely possible you have to max out the laptop's power-conservation settings and turn the display down to its minimum brightness level to get the claimed runtime.
HP - as per all other laptop makers with the exception of Dell - didn't say how it had tested its machine to get the claimed battery life.
When Dell unveiled its 19-hour laptop - again, that's with an extra battery on board - it said it used the MobileMark benchmark to come up with that figure.
HP didn't say how much the suitably specced EliteBook will cost, but given the price of the Intel SSD, it's likely to be at least $600 on top of any given currently available 6930p HDD configuration.
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COMMENTS
Keeping Up With The Vistas
Sayeth the Register: "Punters will also need to make sure their 6930p uses not only one of Intel's new 80GB solid-state drives but also an 'HP Illumi-Lite LED display'. They'll have to run Windows XP - not Vista, you'll note; so much for the latest technology."
Funny, I thought Vista was still in Beta. I certainly wouldn't use it in a production site.
Wouldn't that actually make XP the latest technology? At least the latest *stable* technology...
Extra battery?
Anyone could buy enough extra batteries to make their laptop last 24 hours...
How much does it add to the weight.
They should really standardize the battery tests in some way
@Paul
"I suspect there are very few people that are truly out of range of mains power (or a cigarette lighter power point in a car) for more than eight hours."
What hinterland backyard are you living in?
How about the "very few" people who travel on long haul flights and are not fortunate enough to travel in first or business class?
You don't even have to be on an 8 hours flight, because usually you might want to use your laptop on the way to the airport, in the boarding lounge, on the plane, then at the other end after arrival and in the bus/train/taxi on your way to the hotel.
That should be while playing a DVD
So to standardized on these battery times, they should quote the time the battery lasts while playing a DVD movie.
I can confirm this is bollocks
I have confirmed from a reliable source (works at Dell tech support) that the 18 hours battery life is not expected while running Windows XP or Vista. Rather the systems will come with an integrated ROM with a cutdown version of Linux optimized for low power. You'll be able to browse the internet, play media and that's about it. 18 hours while running that special version of Linux.
