Notion Ink Rohan Shravan made headlines recently when he claimed that the company’s upcoming Adam tablet would be able to run for 15 hours on a charge, providing better battery life than the Apple iPad or pretty much any laptop on the market. Now he has released a clarification, suggesting that he was getting 15 hours the way he was using it… but that it’s physically possible to discharge the battery in just 6 hours, by working the heck out of the CPU.

For instance, if you crank the screen brightness and volume all the way up and continuously play 1080p video, you’ll probably get 6 hours of battery life. The same goes for playing YouTube videos, streaming 3D Maps over 3G with GPS on, recording and streaming HD video over WiFi, or playing augmented reality 3D games using the camera and a wireless connection.

That doesn’t mean you can’t get 15 hours of run time. But Notion Ink isn’t guaranteeing it. To get best results, Shravan says you’ll want to get a machine with a Pixel Qi display, use earphones when possible, keep the brightness and volume down, and so on.

Really, what it comes down to is that like a smartphone, your battery life will vary greatly depending on what you’re using it to do. This is true with x86-based laptop computers as well, of course, but to a much lesser degree. 6 to 15 hours is a pretty wide range… much larger than I’m used to seeing on laptops.

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26 replies on “Update: Notion Ink Adam Tablet to get 6 or more hours battery life”

  1. Remember back in mid-2009?

    https://venturebeat.com/2009/07/24/apple-tablet-rumor-is-now-credible-1q-2010-launch-expected/

    Not even a prototype to be seen. Why? Because they’re Apple. People just believed that they could do it. Notion Ink (a tiny startup company) brings us all along for the ride from an actually working initial prototype, to interface and application ecosystem development, to even helping to choosing their logo–all within a short window of 11 months–and you lambaste them for not getting the tablet into your grubby hands faster than this. There are much bigger companies (cough… cough… Asus, cough… Toshiba… cough… Acer… cough… Google Chrome OS… cough, cough) who also talked tablets around the same time in January 2010 and before who have not produced any viable review units either and they have vastly more resources to work with.

    These guys have received a lot of press because they’ve been willing to show us their progress from start to finish with an openness that’s been unmatched in this technology space during this production/product cycle.

    More power to them…

  3. This is coming from the same dishonest heads that claimed two 1080p streams and 40 hours of battery life not too long ago. Since when in recent times has a videogame company (that just so happens to blame its own shortcomings on an ‘innocent’ investor) been able to garner so much unwarranted attention?

  4. You have to love the ‘haters’ who come out every time Brad puts up even a tiny a story about the Notion Ink tablet. These are ‘just’ news items folks, not an endorsements or challenges to your withering manhood. When it comes out, he’ll review, and then might be the time to whine. Until then at least try to be less crabby, because the last time I looked the CEO of Notion Ink wasn’t punching babies.

  5. Take a look at the Pandora if you think a year is a long time to wait for a device! 😀

  6. The original coverage of many blogs/websites about the 15 hour were missing CRUCIAL parts of the original blog post.

    “….On a comparison, iPad (couldn’t find other device to write here) has 25Whr, and gives you around 11-12 hour. On similar calculations Adam has 24Whr battery and consumers around 1.2Whr (on similar tests as mentioned on their website) and ended up giving 24/1.2=20 hours….”

    So the post is totally clear it used a simular use case as apple (see foot note 4 on https://www.apple.com/ipad/specs/ )

    He also stated “I have seldom seen it crossing its 60-70mW line (idle) and touching 200-400mW for heavy usage. ”
    So in the first post it is clearly stated that the different between low and heavy usage can be a factor 6 difference.

    In all it’s absolutely not any different than other hardware, an ipad for example can get out of juice in under 6 hours as well ( https://gizmodo.com/5510095/ipad-test-notes-battery-life ) and the difference in browsing the web with the screen on auto brightness and a heavy game with the brightness maxed out is huge on my phone.

    1. Also the battery is suppose to be user replaceable and is one of the reasons they shifted the camera to the right, so they could use a single solid battery instead of splitting it.

  7. The huge difference between the worst battery runtime and the best is because the Adam is equipped with unique power saving features.For example: Its ambient light sensor is capable of auto-dimming your screen backlight when you are indoor and don’t need so strong backligh. This can save you a lot because the backlight is one of the most power-hungry component.When you are outdoor, you can switch the screen to reflective mode (again, unique to PixelQi), where the backlight is shut-off completely.The Adam’s Tegra2 SOC is already very power efficient, only the screen, 3G and wifi was needed to be power optimized.

  8. The irony is that Notion Ink isn’t ‘bringing it to the attention of the press’, the press is simply choosing to report on the info given through an all too personal blog of the CEO. The roadmap for development/production has been out a while, and most people seem to have known that November was going to be the release date, so what’s with all the harping and griping anyway? I don’t think anyone who knows anything about the tech involved thought that 15 hours battery life was while running the thing flat out!!!!!!!!! Come one people, keep your happy heads on!

  9. Hey, I’ve got a tablet that I’ve made that gets 300 hours of battery life, runs Android, iOS, Windows 7 and Dos — all at the same time — supports all wireless technologies (wifi, 4G, wimax, GSM, CDMA, etc.), 1080p out, 1080-HD/3D and 4D display, 4″ screen that stretches to 7″/10″/14″/22″/50″ (very cool), 100TB of internal storage, access to all app markets and it uses gorilla glass.

    I should have it out before Christmas for sub $300 without requiring a contract. Where is my coverage??

    1. That depends. Where’s your working prototype? The Adam tablet may have undergone a number of changes and delays in the last 10 months, but the company really did show off a working prototype at CES this year and I checked it out for myself.

      Don’t forget, it often takes companies years to develop a product before bringing it to market. If Notion Ink is making any mistake here, it’s not in taking too long to actually deliver the product. It’s in bringing it to the attention of the press too early

      1. I’m obviously just giving you shit as this tablet looks like it will be a solid offering. But seriously, just because they showed off a working prototype @ CES does’t mean they warrant a mention every time they send out an email noting every design change. Typically, you need to actually ship a product once in a while to warrant continued coverage.

    1. Keep on trolling.

      It was delayed in part of delays of the Tegra 2 chip set (not their fault but Nvidia’s) and a funding issue at Notion Ink which they resolved. Currently it seems back on track; it will hit the FCC in early november and 200 units will go out to developers around the 10th.

    2. It will be released this November, with prices starting from 399 dollars. It will be upgradeable to android Gingerbread as well.

      Straight from Notionink support.

    1. Thanks for the Hat Tip. Will keep you posted on further correspondence 🙂

      1. Thanks guys. No disrespect, but seriously.. I’ll believe it when I see it alive and running for public purchase. I’m not holding my breath. This totally feels like long-distance relationship.. 🙂

  13. Wild fluctuating comments from the CEO of a fabled product which is still on the way after close to a year is simply scary. Maybe you guys should just ignore this Adam thing until there is a definite date of it coming to town, or at least you are given a test unit !

    1. There is no fluctuation at all.When the 15 hours was presented originally, it was clearly stated that it was his usage mode and it can be worse for others.I don’t know why this site tries to present it otherwise.

    2. Samsung got more coverage on their tablet before they ever showed anything to anyone, search on it, it got more mention just on the speculation of what it might be, then the adam tablet has gotten in total.

      1. And just how much pre-release coverage did the iPad get? Over a year…

  14. 6-15 hours may be a pretty wide range but laptops do have drastic battery time differences but the companies that make them only publish the “best case scenario”. I think this honesty is enlightening.

    I would like to see an adam actually sent out as well, enough with the talk lets get these things fondled by some experts!

  15. I’ve been cutting this device too much slack because, unlike companies with a clear reputation, I’m giving Notion Ink the benefit of the doubt. However, it’s over. We are all officially part of their marketing department now, and I’m ignoring all further information about the Adam until reviewers have reviewed it.

    Seriously, despite all of the CEO’s yapping, we have far more advanced theories of the esoteric nuances of quantum physics, which despite being totally unaccessible to the average person, are still substantiated by more experimental observation than we have on the Adam.

    Send out review units already! If there are important details like battery life that you think we need to know and will like to hear, then please let it come from people that we trust, people like Brad, who aren’t the CEO of the company producing the device.

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