26. Benchmark Testing

To evaluate battery lifetime and computer performance, we use three different test suites: BAPCo MobileMark 2005 and SYSmark 2004 SE, plus FutureMark PCMark05.

Battery Lifetimes With The MobileMark 2005

The MobileMark 2005 benchmarks test the behavior of a mobile PC running on battery. There are four battery life tests involved in this suite: Office Productivity, Search and Read, DVD Playback and Wireless Web Browsing. Each test uses real applications and runs in a continuous loop from the time the fully-charged battery is disconnected from the power supply until the battery is fully discharged. Test results are captured in a log file. In addition, MobileMark calculates two performance metrics during the office productivity test: an overall performance measurement and an average response time during the benchmark tests. The overall performance measurement derives from the average response time but is also based on performance measured for a reference system outfitted with average components. The reference system has a standard rating of 100 points. Systems that score under 100 are slower than this reference system; those that score over 100 are faster.

The following diagrams show the MobileMark 2005 test results for the HP Pavilion dv4000, the HP nx6125, the Dell Latitude D610, the Toshiba Qosmio G25-AV513, and the HP Pavilion dv8000z, which is the focus for this review. Our analysis and conclusions based on these results appear immediately after these diagrams.