If you own a laptop you will probably know that the battery only lasts a fraction of the time that the laptop manufacturers say it will. So how do they get away with telling outright lies about battery life?

It has been reported that the issue is with the way in which laptop battery life is measured. The test suite used, called MobileMark 2007, basically turns just about everything off. The screen is set to only 20% brightness, WiFi is turned off, audio is turned off and there are no games running or web pages being displayed. A completely unrealistic test scenario. This has been described as a bit like turning a laptop into little more than a dimly lit digital clock and then measuring how long it will continue to run. Totally unrealistic!

It’s a bit like auto manufacturers assessing a vehicles mileage capability by rolling it down hill with the engine switched off. So how do laptop manufacturers get away with it?

There is even talk of dubious practices as one of the main microprocessor manufacturers, AMD, have said that these battery life tests favour Intel, the other major chip manufacturer, because they have purposely optimized their CPUs to make batteries last for a long time under these unrealistic test circumstances. Did they do this on purpose so that the battery life figures for laptops fitted with their chips look so much more appealing than those for laptops using AMD chips? It certainly looks that way.

Consumers are now demanding more accurate battery life figures based on more realistic test setups. Some have proposed that manufacturers provide two battery life ratings: one showing the absolute best figures based on very low use (i.e. the current battery life expectancy) and another that tells a more useful indication of battery life for the laptop under heavy use.

But for now, if you are shopping for a laptop, don’t believe the manufacturers battery life figures. You are only likely to get around 10% to 20% of their quoted operating time when running from the battery. Look around for some independent test figures or feedback from owners before spending your cash on a laptop with a battery that will only give you a few short minutes of genuinely usable time.

If you own a laptop you will definitely want to get some affordable laptop insurance. Obviously you still need to backup your valuable data but if the worst should happen you are guaranteed to have a replacement laptop within 48 hours.