14. Testing The Fujitsu Lifebook P1510D

Four test suites are used to benchmark mobile computer battery life and performance, BAPCo's MobileMark 2005 and SYSmark 2004 SE, FutureMark's PCMark05 and, when the computer has the appropriate graphics hardware, FutureMark's 3DMark05. When a computer achieves very low 3DMark05 scores this is noted in conclusions, but the scores are not reported in charts and tables.

I've noticed that a number of reviews of the original and Tablet PC versions of the P1510D did not include BAPCo MobileMark or SYSmark test results. The reviewers reported that neither of these benchmark suites worked with the tiny laptop, because of its display's unusual native resolution of 1024 x 600. All of the tests but one work fine when resolution is set to a virtual 1024 x 768. See the section "The Lifebook P1510D's Display: A Study In Virtuosity" above for more details on screen resolution.

For details on the tests see How We Test Laptop and Notebook Computers for Home and Office

MobileMark 2005 Battery Benchmarks

The MobileMark 2005 benchmarks test how a mobile computer does when running on battery. There are four battery life tests: office productivity, research and reading, DVD playback and wireless Web browsing. The DVD playback test is run only when the computer has a built-in DVD drive or includes a dedicated external DVD drive that is powered only by the computer's battery.

Each test uses real world applications and runs from the time the computer's battery reaches full charge and the power plug is pulled until the battery is totally discharged. Test results are reported in hours and minutes. In addition, MobileMark 2005 calculates two performance values while doing the office productivity test: an overall performance score and the average response time for completion of all the tasks in the office productivity test. The overall performance score is based on average response time and is scaled against the performance of a modestly powered reference system, which received a score of 100.

MobileMark 2005 tests are run with the CPU in battery saving mode. This means that the CPU speed might change according to computing demands and, in some cases, battery charge. Though it tends to increase battery life while reducing performance, this is the preferred way to run a laptop on battery and, because this is the default setting on almost all mobile computers, it is the way most people run their laptops on internal power.

All MobileMark 2005 tests are performed using the battery that comes with the computer when you buy it. If the manufacturer also provides a higher capacity battery, we run the Office Productivity test with that battery installed.