September 8th, 2008
Sony to use more accurate battery life figures
Hot on the heels of the Vaio debacle comes news that Sony will start using a new, more accurate method to gauge the life of their laptop batteries.
You know, if it doesn’t overheat in the process. (I kid, I kid…)
In all seriousness, though, PC Authority divulged an interesting tidbit of information buried in a review of one of the aformentioned Vaio laptops that the company is switching to a “more realistic” measurement for advertising notebook battery life.
Apparently, lots of big notebook vendors base their battery numbers on Jeita, a method that involved first measuring the machine at complete idle, with the screen and other settings turned to minimum, and seeing how long the laptop lasted. Then, with different settings, measuring the machine again while playing a movie file on the screen, finally averaging the two results.
But more often than not, the results didn’t add up: PC Authority reports that Sony stated up to 11 hours for the Vaio VGNTZ36GNW in their review, but really only lasted for four to eight hours.
Sony says it will now be advertising the second result only. To compare, here’s an example of the old method Sony used to measure battery life, while here’s the new method, called “Jeita A.”
Has your Sony notebook passed the battery life test? Tell us in TalkBack.
Andrew J. Nusca is an associate editor for ZDNet and SmartPlanet.
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