Scooopy – Scoops about Gadget, Mobile & Technology
Notebook & Netbook
Nokia’s Netbook Comes With Marathon 12-hour Battery Life
Nov 22nd
Nokia is entering the personal computer market with a small netbook computer, the Booklet 3G, which has specifications much like a cellphone: 3G, Bluetooth, GPS, and a headphone and microphone combined on one jack. It’s also got a price that gets a lot better if you sign up for a two-year contract for wireless data on AT&T $299. (It costs $599 without the $60-a-month commitment.)
The Booklet, which will be on sale exclusively at Best Buy starting in mid-November, runs Windows 7. And like Apple’s MacBooks, it is cut out of a single piece of aluminum.
The most intriguing feature, however, is not common on laptops or cellphones: 12-hour battery life.
Nokia is trying to carve out a premium segment in the netbook market, which has largely seen a race to the bottom in prices. Best Buy’s current assortment ranges from $250 to $500 for netbooks without a wireless contract and subsidy. AT&T offers three netbook models with a contract for $200 each.
AT&T’s best seller, the Acer Aspire, claims only three hours of battery life.
One way that Nokia was able to extend the battery life was to use the slowest of Intel’s Atom processors. That raises the risk that the Booklet, like other Atom-based devices, will be sluggish to use.
Nokia is clear that you wouldn’t want to use the machine to play intensive video games or to do bridge engineering. But when I played with one at Nokia’s press conference in New York Wednesday, it seemed fast enough rendering complex Web pages and displaying YouTube videos.
At the event, Glenn Lurie, the president of AT&T’s emerging device unit, said he understood that a $60-a-month data plan put the device out of the range of many potential consumers. He said that AT&T would introduce other data plans with lower prices before the end of the year, possibly including prepaid plans and those that charge users only for the days they are actually online.
Source: Nokia, NYTimes
Notebooks vs. Netbooks, What’s the main Difference?
Nov 22nd
Vodka and water. They look the same, but taste different (or so they tell me).
Similarly, netbooks may look like notebooks, but - as we’ve previously pointed out – they’re not the same.
NPD released a survey last week finding that 60% of consumers who purchased a netbook thought it would have the same performance as a notebook. Additionally, out of the 18-24 year old demographic – a major segment for netbooks – an astounding 65% said they bought their netbooks expecting better performance.
It’s no wonder that some netbook resellers saw a 30% return rate, as reported by Brooke Crothers at CNET.
Clearly, there is confusion in the market over the functionality of a netbook. And I don’t blame the consumer.
So what do we do? BusinessWeek’s Olga Kharif wrote a call to action for PC makers and retailers to better explain the difference in netbooks’ and notebooks’ capabilities. Speaking from personal experience, she writes, “I loved using [my netbook] to quickly check Hotmail or to watch a video off of YouTube. But try multitasking, such as downloading a photo or a document while streaming a video off of YouTube, and their performance falls off the cliff. Consumers need to be made aware of this before they make their purchases.”
In some cases, consumers may even encounter problems during normal Web surfing. Many Websites now have video or flash right on their homepage. If you’re a parent buying a netbook for your kid, try loading Disney.com.
As with battery life, we think the PC industry has a role in helping consumers make educated decisions. In fact, Best Buy calls out on their Website that, “Netbooks may look like laptops, but they don’t have the full capabilities of a computer.”
What I also find interesting about the NPD survey is that the percentage of consumers who bought a netbook expecting the performance of a notebook closely parallels the percentage of netbooks that never leave the home (60% according to NPD). To me, this signifies that there is an opportunity in the market for a higher-performance product that is inexpensive and lightweight, satisfying consumers’ desire for a small, powerful machine while not disappointing on performance.
Of course, AMD’s response is the“ultrathin” category. If you’re looking for a lightweight, sleek laptop that is still powerful enough to handle your day to day activities, we recommend you check out the HP Pavilion dv2, powered by the AMD Athlon™ Neo processor for ultrathin notebooks.
Source: Blogs, AMD
Demystifying Battery Life of Notebook or Netbook
Nov 22nd
Do you ever feel like the actual battery life on your notebook/netbook never quite equals the information that appears in promotional material? For example, you may see “up to five hours,” but actually get about half that. Well, you aren’t alone. I hear it all the time, and if you do a quick Twitter search on the topic, you’ll see lots of discussion.
I can assure you that no devious plot exists to mislead you. It really comes down to three simple factors.
#1: Measurements are best case: Like a car’s “highway miles per gallon” which gauges the best case (cruising at a sustained speed for an extended period without stop-and-go driving), notebook battery life is typically based on MobileMark® 2007. This benchmark primarily measures battery life while the notebook is doing nothing – not even wirelessly connecting to the Internet. A “city-driving” equivalent of notebook battery life doesn’t exist…yet.
#2: Different strokes for different folks: Notebook users are different; we all use notebooks differently, and therefore will see different battery durations. Some watch HD web videos on YouTube, some may just do email, and some play more games than others. ALL which will mean varying battery life. You can see this data from AMD here that shows the phenomenon. This even shows that battery life under system use can even vary by component manufacturer.
#3: Battery life varies over time: The longer you own your notebook, use it, charge, and recharge, over and over again, the more the battery loses its effectiveness. So theoretically, your longest battery life will be on the first day you crack open the packaging. See all the people selling new batteries for old notebooks? Some even say, battery life is variable with heat.
So what should a consumer like you do?
- Grade battery life on a “curve”, let’s say 60%. If the label says 10 hours, my guess is it’s probably only about 6 hours in real use. (UPDATE: this isn’t always linear, so be very careful with this.)
- Ask your retailer and systems providers to provide the “city miles per gallon” or using the tried and tested cellphone analogy, “talk-time”. They all have web sites and when all else fails, you can ask them over Twitter.
I may have not added back 40% of your battery life, but hopefully you know why you only get 60% of it!
