Samsung ATIV Smart PC: Revisiting Clover Trail Convertibles
by Vivek Gowri on March 18, 2013 12:00 AM ESTSamsung ATIV Smart PC: Battery Life
The battery life this platform offers is fantastic. The 31Wh battery gives over 10 hours of runtime in our internet browsing test, which is in the same ballpark as the Tegra 3 Windows RT tablets, but also better than the iPad from a power efficiency standpoint. It’s worth noting that the iPad has a much higher resolution display that results in a significantly higher power draw, but offers almost the same 10 hour battery life with a much larger 42.5 Wh battery.
I do wish that the notebook dock contained a second battery, though. The ASUS VivoTab with the dock has 55Wh of combined battery capacity (30Wh in the tablet, 25Wh in the dock) and is rated to have 19 hours of total battery life. If you get even 75% of that in real world use, you’re still looking at a Windows 8 system with nearly 15 hours of battery runtime, which is incredibly valuable. The lack of a secondary dock has a bigger impact in the Ivy Bridge-based ATIV Smart PC Pro than it does here, because the Pro has relatively mediocre battery life (I’ll get to that in the 700T review) and could really use another couple of dozen watt-hours. Even without the second battery, the 500T still has excellent battery life, but it’s a bit of a missed opportunity to be sure.
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Snotling - Tuesday, March 19, 2013 - link
I don't know... what's the battery life on a Samsung GS4?Snotling - Monday, March 18, 2013 - link
On a 11.6" display... Samsung! They have more pixels on their 5" smartphones.(GS4)MrSpadge - Monday, March 18, 2013 - link
Yeah, at that resolution and size you don't even have to fiddle with font sizing to read stuff. How dare they offer this!powerarmour - Monday, March 18, 2013 - link
That is definitely a competitive problem, I saw the screen on a Nexus 10 the other day... Wow!ab_aditya - Monday, March 18, 2013 - link
A small correction - the iPad storage now goes up to 128 GBVivekGowri - Monday, March 18, 2013 - link
Thanks for catching that - copied out of an old table and missed to update. Fixed.augustofretes - Monday, March 18, 2013 - link
Will you review the Chromebook Pixel? It looks beautiful. And for a Linux user as myself it seems like a perfect device.PC Perv - Monday, March 18, 2013 - link
Nexus 10 is $399+. I don't know why AT keeps getting it wrong while going extra miles to find the cheapest prices for Atom-based tablets.And while this may be somewhat of a moot point, Nexus 10 drives 2560x1600 while these Atom tablets are 1366x768, and they use similar sized batteries. Considering that screen time is probably responsible for 80~90% of battery life of these mobile devices, don't you think a bit more explanation is warranted in your battery tests?
evonitzer - Monday, March 18, 2013 - link
Indeed. I clicked on the link provided in the price comparison and it took me to Amazon where it is priced as indicated. Buy it directly from Google! Their price is always at $399 for the 16 GB version.I'm not sure Microsoft deserves the blame you assign them for their naming scheme. Windows Surface with RT and Windows Surface with Windows 8 Pro are names that exactly describe what they are. Once you get the distinction between RT and 8 Pro, it's very straightforward. It's better that they don't try to come up with a catchy name that rolls off the tongue but instead name their products exactly as they are. If Samsung followed the Microsoft example, they would call them Samsung Ativ 10.1 Windows RT and Samsung Ativ 11.6 Windows 8 Pro. Hideous names yes, but very clear.
VivekGowri - Monday, March 18, 2013 - link
That's odd, I didn't realize it said $462+, it should definitely be $399 on the Nexus 10. Fixed.