7. Benchmark Results

To rate battery life and computer performance we use two test suites: BAPCo MobileMark 2005 and FutureMark PCMark05. We'll take a look at what each of these test batteries tells us in the sections that follow.

Battery Life Times: MobileMark 2005

The MobileMark 2005 benchmarks test the behavior of a mobile computer running solely on battery power. There are four separate battery life tests: Office Productivity, Read and Search, DVD Playback, and Wireless Web Browsing. Every test uses real applications and runs from the time at which the battery is fully charged and the power supply is disconnected from the test machine, to that point in time when the battery is fully discharged and the PC shuts itself off.

Test results are written to a log file every 10 seconds. In addition, MobileMark 2005 constantly keeps tabs on two performance values during execution of the Office Productivity test: it calculates an overall performance value and an average response time for the completion of all activities that occur during this test. The overall performance value builds upon the average response time measured, but is expressed in relation to a standard reference system outfitted with average components whose value is set at 100 points.

The following diagrams show the MobileMark 2005 test results for all five laptops in our test roundup. You will find these results discussed, along with our conclusions, immediately following those diagrams.

Though HP is our traditional leader in the Media Center notebook category, this time around the Qosmio trumps the dv9296xx all the way around, though seldom by a huge margin. Given the HP's 2 GB of RAM and a more powerful processor, it stands to reason that the Toshiba could outlast the HP for these tests. In three of the four cases, the Toshiba lasted seven-10 minutes longer, but on the DVD Playback benchmark, that gap increased to 17 minutes (nearly 13% longer, in other terms).

In the grand scheme of things, however, this doesn't matter much. Here's why: at nearly just over nine pounds for the HP and nearly 12 pounds for the Qosmio (including their power supplies), these notebooks are all classified as desktop replacements and not really designed for airplane use or other places where AC power isn't available. That said, please note that both the HP and the Qosmio deliver over two hours of battery life in the DVD Playback benchmark. Because this matches the average playing time for most motion pictures, those who want to use these units for un-tethered viewing in bed or elsewhere around the house can still do so if they must.