Back at CES, Intel showed off a concept hybrid laptop that promised 13 hours of battery life using the company’s new 4th-gen processors (codenamed Haswell). Though it was only a concept, the thought of having 13 hours of battery life got everyone buzzing about the possibilities of the new chip.
Now, with the fourth-generation due to launch in just over a week, we’re starting to hear a few more specifics about what Haswell can really do. Today, according to Computerworld, Intel announced its upcoming refresh to its Core processors will offer a whopping 50 percent more battery life in laptops than Ivy Bridge did – without any cost to performance.
To be considered an Ultrabook, the laptop has to clock in at five hours of battery life, which means Haswell will give Ultrabooks at least 7.5 hours. Although it’s not as impressive as the 13 hours we saw at CES, a minimum of 7.5 hours is still a great improvement. Current Ivy Bridge laptops usually last between five and seven hours in our tests, which means these may reach 9-10 hours. Plus, according to Intel’s Rani Borkar, corporate VP and general manager of the Intel Architecture Group, in idle or standby mode, the chips will extend battery life by up to 20 times. According to Borkar, a power management chip will be part of the new architecture, which will help in minimizing energy drain.
It’s no secret that PC sales have been on the decline, so this kind of boost in battery life could be a big win for laptops. We’ll have to see if this claim is true ourselves once we start testing laptops with Haswell inside, so stay tuned.
