Last month, I posted journals about CPU comparisons and power utilisation in ultra mobile PC and Origami devices. VIAArena have now published a nice article by Van Smith from Vans Hardware with even more details about the C7-M ULV processor including the all-important battery life tests that I couldn’t find for my article.The tests were done using laptops but from these results we can calculate likey ultra mobile PC battery life figures.
Importantly, It gives us the first test result that confirms, as we expected, that the VIA C7-ULM processor would be the best choice of processor for ultra mobile PC devices under normal work conditions. The Celeron, didn’t do at all well in this test.
VIA’s midget processor extracts an amazing 7.31 hours of runtime out of a budget notebook using a 48.8 Watt-hour battery! The Pentium-M does pretty well, but still falls nearly an hour short of the VIA C7-M ULV processor.
UMPCs – 4 hours at minimum load.
By using a VIA C7, the results show 7.31 hours of min power draw. The maths are quite easy there because the CPU clockrate has a minimal effect on battery power at idle or low-load operations. As Origami devices have about 24 watt-hour batteries, the expected life is a little over half of that with the 48 watt-hour battery.
UMPCs – under 2 hours at full-load.
The full-load VIA example is just as interesting. The laptop tested gives 3.2 hours using a 48W battery. If you take into account the smaller disk drive, small screen and lower clock processor of an Origami CPU, I think you’ll see about 55-60% of that figure for your VIA-based UMPC. That equates to about 1.8 hours under full-load. Using a Celeron, that figure will be about 1.3 hours.
UMPC’s – 2.5 hour films.
In the real world, watching a film for example, you’ll be making sure that your films are under 2.5 hours long with a VIA-based UMPC. If you’re a Celeron user, I hope you’re a cartoon fan!
Remember that the VIA processors have lower processing performance than Pentiums but for the average user, the C7-M ULV looks like the best choice for UMPC’s
Here’s looking forward to the real first side-by-side ultra mobile PC battery life tests.
Take a look at the report. Its a really good read. Well done and thanks to Vans Hardware.
I do not understand your math. If the Origami has smaller screen, etc, etc, etc, the battery life should be bigger than we saw in those tests no smaller.
Origami devices have about half the battery capacity of the laptops in the test. (24 watt-hours on Origami devices as opposed to 48 watt-hour in the test)
I’ve updated the entry to make that clearer.
Regards
Steve.
Are you sure?
From the eo manual:
Battery specs: Re-chargeable 26W Lithium Ion Battery Pack (Cylindrical Cell, 2400mAh)
Run time: approx. 2.2h
Power adapter: 19V, 3.42A, AC 100-240 Volt, 65W
Internal Battery: 26W x 2.2h = 57.2 Wh
So far, all the batteries i’ve seen have been 22-26W. The 6-cell options on some UMPC’s are double that.
A 50Wh battery would be quite heavy and the 2.2h run time figure points towards a 26W battery rather than a 50W battery.
My rather bold guess is that ‘internal battery’ figure is wrong.
Steve.
Question? When you are watching a movie the battery life does not depend a little bit on where are you running the movie? Let say, if you are watching a movie from a DVD ROM will the battery last less than if you play the movie in your HDD? What would be the impact if you play the movie in a USB Memory stick vs. from the HDD?
Good question.
Yes, it will make a difference if you watch it from a memory stick. However, when compared to CPU useage and LCD power useage, the advantage is going to be minimal. (est. 10 minutes.)
Steve.
How much confidence do you have in those figures? Some of the Q1’s allure (for me, anyway) was the extra hour of battery life quoted, but if the Celeron M is that much less efficient then the Eo just became a lot more tempting to me.
— Steve
I have a pretty high confidence in those figures.
The only thing that Samsung could do make a marked difference in battery life is to use the better screen technology that they have access to or to sneak in a bigger battery. (However, I see they have a 3-cell battery which is probably going to be a standard 20-25 Watt-hour part)
The Celeron is not a leading-edge component and shows that a price-power trade-off has been made here. I wonder if there have been other trade-offs made in the design?
Samsung are claiming 3.5 hours of battery life BUT only 1.4 hours of DVD playback. That to me sounds like ‘no-load’ and ‘medium-load’ figures and they match my predictions.
Where did you see the ‘extra hour of battery life’ quoted?
Regards
Steve.
TabletKiosk is quoting 2.5 hours estimated battery life with its internal cells, and Samsung is quoting 3.5. I just did the arithmetic :) but of course there’s no way to know if that’s a fair comparison.
As to the DVD playback time, I’d interpreted that to be the playback time with the external DVD running… after all, there’s a dedicated power socket for the “ODD”, so the DVD player would be drawing power from the Q1 instead of its own cells. Not the design choice I’d have made, prefering instead to add that weight budget to the ODD to keep the viewing time up, but perhaps that wasn’t feasible or was too expensive.
Since the Eo looks to be sold out in North America, however, it looks like the point is moot to me. Now to go harass my local retailers to get a Samsung in for me.
— Steve
As you can see, these ‘figures’ that are given on marketing literature are very difficult to define.
Its interesting they quote DVD playback times when the basic package doesnt include a DVD player!! Maybe they meant ‘video playback’ instead.
I like the look of the Samsung but I can’t help thinking that a VIA processor would be better choice.
I wonder when the Pentium-M devices will start coming out. They will boost power and give better battery life.
Steve.