Owner Feedback–Samsung ATIV SmartPC is ‘Always On’

Posted on 16 November 2012, Last updated on 03 January 2014 by

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This is the feature that we’ve been waiting for low power states in Windows that match what you might see on a smartphone. Always on! Personally I  think it’s a feature that Intel haven’t promoted well enough, possibly because it makes Ultrabooks look a little old fashioned.

The new low power states have been available in hardware since Moorestown chipsets were available and you can experience them in action in Android tablets and smartphones running on Intel but in the world of Windows PCs, only the CloverTrail platform /Windows 8 offers this new level of of idle efficiency. It means you’ll get a big improvement in battery life and the possibility of always-on action.

In the last 24hrs I’ve had feedback from a user in Germany that proves it’s working.

Talkabouttech run by a mobile fanatic that I’m often sharing ultra-mobile and cameraphone thoughts with (follow Stephanie here on Twitter)  pinged me yesterday to let me know that the Samsung ATIV SmartPC running Windows 8 can run with Wifi and screen-on  in under 2W. Ultrabooks, by comparison, idle down to about 3W with Wifi and screen off! Turn the screen backlight and Wifi off on an ATIV SmartPC and you’ll be into the mW zone, an area that was exclusive to ARM-based devices running mobile operating systems until now. I bet that with some careful application management (i.e. a clean install and use of the more efficient Metro-based applications) you’ll be down in 500mw territory.  OK, it’s not quite smartphone standard but it’s at least 5X better than the best Windows PCs up to now.

“But what about when you’re using the device? inch I hear you say. Yes, like any platform that idles efficiently, power usage increases massively when you’re using it. Wifi-On, Screen backlight on, CPU and GPU working and even things like speakers, mouse usage, USB and disk access will push usage up into the 5-10W range but don’t forget that as soon as a job is done, systems can idle. In fact, power usage duty-cycles can tend towards that idle baseline so the lower the baseline, the better your average power drain.

There are other features in Clover Trail too that help when you’re doing specific media tasks. Talkabouttech are reporting that a 1080p video plays back in 3W which is enough for non-stop video on a flight from London to San Francisco. Music playback with Wifi and screen-off could, I predict, go multiple days.

We’ve already had on user review on the Samsung ATIV Smart PC here but I recommend viewing TalkaboutTech’s detailed first impressions too. Here’s the translated link for English readers. Click through to check out first-impressions and a bunch of hands-on photos.

If you’ve got experience with the Clover Trail-based Windows 8 PCs, let us know your thoughts below. Questions also welcome.

[Yes, I’m trying to get a review model.]

1 Comments For This Post

  1. Osiris says:

    My thoughts on the battery
    * These things resume very quickly, virtually instant on – as you want from a tablet
    * Still mixed about the drawdown while sleeping, could be theres some confusion around default settings and sleep going to hibernate. At times leaving a lot open and turning off the device I have lost >10% battery the next morning, other times with just one note running I lose on 3% battery life overnight. The tests aren’t conclusive.

    * In my verison of a full burn down. Screen @ 70% brightness all connections on I got 2hours of constant net browsing (vidoes, file transfers across wifi, usb etc) and 5 hours of 720p/1080p video.

    * After calibrating the battery, with the screen @ 30-40% and wifi/bt/nfc off, 2x 1hr tests of 720p/1080p video reveal an 8-9% depletion level so the devices would certainly hit the rated 10hours media viewing under those conditions.

    * I have my suspicions the dock has somewhat of a battery leak effect, seems to deplete a noticable amount quicker connected to that but at this stage have not done concrete testing. Wifi also seems to suck up more juice than watching 1080p video for the thing.

    * Boot up times are 10seconds or less so turning the device off is certainly an option more than it has been in past generations of windows tablets.

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