Trusting the processor speed or memory capacity on the spec sheet of your new PC is a fairly safe bet, but what about the battery life estimate? Some manufacturers' claims about how long their laptops can go without a charge are overstated, the BBC reported this week.
The results of battery tests performed by the UK-based consumer products review website Which suggest that some PC makers claim a battery life that's 50 percent longer than their batteries actually last under real-world conditions.
Among Which's findings is that the Dell Inspiron 15 5000 lasted just under four hours, despite Dell's claim that the battery can survive up to seven. At the other end of the spectrum was Apple's 13-inch MacBook Pro, whose battery lasted two hours longer than Apple advertised.
"We believe that that these tests are representative of the real world use that a laptop would get," Which wrote in a blog post. "As the figures we arrived at are often drastically different to the manufacturer claims, we have to wonder how their own estimates are arrived at."
Of course, the discrepancy between an independent battery life test and a manufacturer's claim is only a problem for you, the prospective computer owner, if your "real world" matches the tester's "real world." In Which's case, that means actively browsing the web over a Wi-Fi connection until the battery is depleted. There are lots of variables in such a scenario, however, including the browser version and the individual websites accessed during the test.
Recognizing that each user subjects his or her PC to different tasks throughout a typical day, here at PC Labs we use a standardized battery rundown test that supports all operating systems, including Windows, Chrome OS, Linux, Android, and OS X. (Here's the complete guide to how we test laptops).
The results from PC Labs for the 13-inch MacBook Pro (11 hours and 53 minutes) align closely with those from Which. Meanwhile, PC Labs found that the Inspiron 15 5000 lasted 5 hours and 8 minutes, about an hour longer than Which's result. It's worth noting that as of this writing, Dell makes no specific battery life claim on the Inspiron 15 5000 website.