Does anyone take manufacturers claims about battery life seriously anymore? Apparently someone does. A law firm out of North Carolina and they want to know if you feel cheated, ripped-off or otherwise victimized by manufacturer claims regarding your laptop’s advertised battery life.
That’s right, the law offices of Girard Gibbs, LLP is interested in hearing from you
“if you believe that your laptop battery has a shorter life span than what was advertised or represented to you”
Damn lies
The law office cites reports that AMD (Advanced Micro Design) says battery test information is based on a misleading test that exaggerates the batteries life. What is AMD’s beef? They believe the battery life test ought to be more like cell phone battery info: talk time vs standby time. Currently, the test is more like just standby time.
“AMD is basically saying that MobileMark 2007 tests the equivalent of the standby time in cell phones. That’s a little unfair. Granted, the laptop is using roughly 10 percent of the system resources and there are idle times during the test that brings CPU utilization down to nil.” – PC Mag
AMD suggests that a test looping HD video should be used as well. Most people use laptops for surfing the web, document and spreadsheet editing and the like; stuff that nowhere near approaches HD video playback demands on resources. PC Mag goes on record behind the old test, citing:
Perhaps most importantly, MobileMark allows us to test consistently. It offers a fair comparison of battery life across the swath of laptops on the market, at least for the scenario BapCo has created. Of course it could use improvement, but right now MobileMark is the fairest battery test on the market.
Really? AMD wants to be accurate like cell phone battery info? Puh-leeez
Cell phone battery life is the next biggest joke to laptop battery life. Standby time is a pretty useless stat as it assumes you have no friends to call and interrupt standby time. Talk time assumes you won’t be multitasking and playing Black Jack while your parents ramble on about the squirrel in the bird feeder.
The problem with battery life is baselines are pretty useless. It is like measuring potential. Sure you have to measure something, but knowing my phone’s battery is supposed to last 19 hours doing absolutely nothing isn’t very helpful. If I wanted to get a phone to last the longest doing nothing, I’d just get a cell phone sized rock and be pleased at my cash savings.
Pig Pile on the manufacturers
Girard Gibbs wants to get the word out. Google “laptop battery life” and you’ll find their sponsored link in the #1 position in results:
Short Laptop Lifespan?
www.GirardGibbs.com/batterylife Law firm investigating misleading ads re lifespan of laptop batteries
The lawyers are now looking for laptop users unhappy with their battery life. That should be just about everyone. You can submit your info at their website and be part of the coming class action.
Internal conflict
I am having trouble putting my finger on why I think this lawsuit is a bit of a sham. Maybe it is how jaded we’ve become at manufacturers claims. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten the miles per gallon on my Ford that the EPA suggests I should if I knew what I was doing. I’ve come to take these numbers at less than face value. To me, it seems silly to argue over something I don’t believe in.
I see the legal suits point and I am sure there are many customers that are genuinely surprised when their battery runs out well before they expect. Is it class action worthy? What is your take? Let us know in the comments.
Class action page: [Girard Gibbs] via [Semi Accurate]
THIS IS THE BEST IDEA WHICH CAN MAKE THIS PRODUCT MORE AND MORE POPULAR BUT SOME ONE NEVER LIKE TO USE AMD IN PLACE O F INTEL SO THERE SHOULD ALSO BE INTEL PROCESSOR FOR MORE POPULAR.
ANY WAY IT WILL PERFORM BETTER THAN OTHER SINCE DUE TO BATTERY BACKUP.
SINE ALL WE ARE FACING LOTS OF PR0BLEM DUE TO LIGHT. THERE INTERRUPTED LIGHT SOMEWHERE.