Intel’s 4th generation Core processors are designed to use less electricity while providing better performance than their predecessors. In fact, Computer World reports Intel is now saying that laptops with the upcoming “Haswell” chips could offer up to 50 percent more battery life than models with 3rd-gen “Ivy Bridge” processors.

Haswell Power

That’s a bold claim, since the processor is only one of the power-hungry components in a laptops. The display, memory, storage, and other components all use electricity as well.

But by improving the efficiency of its chips, both while working at full load and while idle or in standby, Intel says laptops with Haswell processors will be able to run for much longer without recharging the battery.

Of course, the improvements won’t necessarily apply to every laptop with a Haswell chip. While the lowest-power Haswell processors will have have TDPs of 10 watts (or what Intel calls a 7W SDP, or “scenario power design”), most will actually use more energy than that.

But the point is that if you took an ultrabook today that gets around 6 hours of battery life and swapped out the Ivy Bridge CPU for a Haswell part, you should be able to squeeze a few hours of extra battery life — especially when you’re performing light-duty tasks where the computer has time to idle. Ultrabooks with the new chips could use as little as 100mW of power while idle.

We’ll also likely see some of these Haswell chips in upcoming tablets and notebook/tablet hybrids.

Device makers are expected to introduce a number of Haswell-based products at the Computex trade show in June.

via Engadget

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8 replies on “Intel promises laptops with 50 percent more battery life (Haswell)”

  2. 50% better battery life for the processor. The display is still going to burn the same amount of energy. So is the hard drive/SSD.

    1. Lower power displays are starting to come into use now that should reduce screen power consumption by just over a watt, while SSDs are still more energy efficient than HDDs…

      While the lower power consumption they’re claiming is more than just the CPU, remember that they already showed that Haswell can provide the same graphical performance as a Ivy Bridge 17W part but at below 8W with Haswell…

      So they’re including graphical power efficiency as well, and mind that while Haswell isn’t a SoC it is moving to a similar MCM design with similar advantages of reducing cost and allowing for improved power efficiency.

      Haswell will also be the first Core i-Series product line that will use many of the power management techniques already developed for the ATOM SoCs that allow them to compete with ARM… So we should see pretty low idling states, better management of what is using power and when, and can even take advantage of features like always connected standby…

    1. In the Core i-Series range of products… It’s the first to employ mobile (mobile like phones and tablets) device like power management features. It’ll even support Always Connected Standby, which allows it to stay updated while otherwise staying in a suspend state… Meaning you can wake the system days to weeks later and still have all the latest notifications, emails, etc. already there.

      AMD has yet to go that route… They’ve improved power efficiency too but not to that level… Kabini and Temash will basically get you about 1-2 more hours than equivalent ULV Ivy Bridge but would provide less than Haswell and won’t support mobile features like Always Connected Standby…

      On the lowest end, Haswell will even have a little overlap with the upcoming Bay Trail ATOM update… Mind that they’ve already demonstrated Haswell performing at the same performance as a 17W Ivy Bridge part but operating at below 8W while doing so…

      Though, keep in mind most of this power efficiency improvement is to go towards the lower end… as the high end still trades some of it for improved performance and is how they can offer up to 3x the graphical performance of the Ivy Bridge HD4000 with the Haswell Iris Pro GMA.

      Also, you’d see less of this improvement if you don’t let the system idle much and have it constantly working under load… But overall it’ll be one of the biggest power efficiency improvements ever given to Intel’s high end offerings.

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