The inquirer has an interesting comment on ultra mobile PC battery life today.
They talk about the 7″ screens from the automotive world and they say that the backlight on these LCD screens is responsible for 30 minutes of battery life.
That equates to 2-3 watts which is about right I think based on our tests and predictions. In fact, in an idle ultra mobile PC (lets say for example, while e-book reading) the backlight would account for 30-40% of the power drain and would lengthen the battery life of the device by over an hour to 4 hours.
The best bit of the story is that they think that the power-hungry ‘Cold Cathode Fluorescent’ backlight, will be replaced by very low power LEDs before the end of the year. Sounds good to me! Every little bit helps to keep the ‘Carrypad’s Law’ of battery life on track.
power requirements of mobile devices will reduce by 20% a year – Carrypad.
This equates to the following max battery life figures:
- 2006 – Average ultra mobile PC life 4 hours
- 2007 – Average ultra mobile PC life 4.8 hours
- 2008 – Average ultra mobile PC life 5.75 hours
- 2009 – Average ultra mobile PC life 6.9 hours
- 2010 – Average ultra mobile PC life 8.3 hours.
Update. It’s 2015 now so let’s extend the prediction.
- 2011 – Average ultra mobile PC life 9.96 hours
- 2012 – Average ultra mobile PC life 12 hours
- 2013 – Average ultra mobile PC life 14 hours
- 2014 – Average ultra mobile PC life 17 hours
For more info on the predictions (and more LCD power-saving technology), see this article.
Regards
Steve / Chippy.
