Battery Eater results on the Samsung Q1
I ran yesterday's freeware recommendation, Battery Eater, to find out the minimum battery life of the Samsung Q1. Yes, you read that right, this checks the minimum life by stressing the computer's hard drive, RAM, graphics card and CPU. The assumption here is that you'll get more more battery life than this test will show because you wouldn't likely use your mobile device at 100% of its resources 100% of the time. I should note a few things right up front on this first run.
- My Q1 has 1 GB of RAM, per the self-upgrade two months ago.
- I inadvertently had the WiFi radio OFF; I'm running the test again later today with WiFi on.
- I'm using the "Max Battery Life" power setting provided by Samsung's Battery Manager application.
- The Bluetooth radio was not disabled, but was not used during the test.
Battery Eater reported back a minimum runtime of 1:44:45, which makes sense to me. I routinely get 2.5 hours of battery life by proper power management, so a minimum of 1 hour and 45 minutes makes sense. Shown below is the battery discharge graph; note the sudden drop-off in the last 10 minutes, which jives with jkOTR reader, JKK's findings:
Speaking of JKK, the same test was run on a Amtek t700 and returned a result of 1:28:15. Again, not surprising as those UMPC models have a 26 W/hr battery, while the Q1's 29 W/hr battery has approximately 10% more capacity. Interestingly enough, the minimum time difference is actually 20%, but remember, I had my WiFi off; JKK had the WiFi on, which is why I'm running the test again later this morning. Other factors, such as the amount of RAM could come into play as well.
-kct
I guess li-ion batteries have the same discharge characteristics as that of Ni-MH. Ni-MH batteries deliver a constant voltage until depleted when one would notice the sudden drop. Hmmm....very characteristic of my self. I can usually go on a nights charge of 7 hours and run continuously until 10:00pm and then I notice a sudden drop in energy.
Posted by: Stu Gisburne | August 23, 2006 at 09:13 AM
That's a good test. I think that after you repeat your test with WiFi ON you should get the 10% difference between these two devices or at least a very close number to 10.
Posted by: Ctitanic | August 23, 2006 at 09:19 AM
Well, score one for truth in advertising. Samsung quoted a 1:40 battery life when watching video on the Q1... 1:45 without the wi-fi seems to match with that fairly closely.
Myself, I tend to get 2.5 - 3 hours of use from a charge but that's usually without the wi-fi radio for half that time and with close (manual) adjustments of the screen brightness down to minimal level that's still comfortable.
-- Steve
Posted by: Anton P. Nym | August 23, 2006 at 10:14 AM
The extended life battery from Samsung Parts will give you at least 5-5.5 hours of use. It does add about 2 inches of height to the Q1 but you don't really notice it. It also makes it slightly heavier, but again not significant. The stand still works as well.
Ken siegel
Posted by: Ken Siegel | August 23, 2006 at 10:30 AM
Kevin,
I live in the Philadelphia area so you are always welcome to take a look at the Q1 ith the extended battery.
Posted by: Ken Siegel | August 23, 2006 at 10:31 AM
Kevin, I thought you had an extended battery. Can you test it too. I am eating a SlimJim and don't want to get my keyboard all greasy.
Posted by: Stu Gisburne | August 23, 2006 at 01:07 PM
Stu, I have two external Universal LiON batteries, one is 118 W/hr and one is 130 W/hr. I'd have to test these overnight because I can get a full day out of these.
Posted by: Kevin C. Tofel | August 23, 2006 at 01:14 PM
Thanks Ken! I may have to take you up on that; perhaps we'll do a Philly area "geek out". :)
Posted by: Kevin C. Tofel | August 23, 2006 at 01:15 PM
Ok ok....I'll download BatteryEater and do it. I have an extended battery. Comes in mighty handy at times. Even fits in the executive case with keyboard. I'm with you on the keyboard though. I wish it was Bluetooooooooooooooooooth. Whoops, my fingers slipped. Off to wash my hands first.
Posted by: Stu Gisburne | August 23, 2006 at 01:29 PM
Amtek t700 results, wifi off:
Total time 1:39:56
Posted by: JKK | August 24, 2006 at 07:19 AM
Last night, I ran this same test using my eo v7110 (Amtek t700) and got a result of 1:35:02 with wi-fi and Bluetooth on. That is only 7 minutes more than what JKK got, but it does suggest that there are probably some variations in these devices.
It would be interesting to see more people reporting the results of this test to see what the averages are for the various models.
Posted by: JeffGr | August 24, 2006 at 02:18 PM