Battery life is one of the most important criteria for choosing a laptop, but consumers and businesses alike find it hard to compare systems fairly because the battery life depends on how the device is used.
PCMark 10 introduces a new approach to battery life benchmarking—the Battery Life Profile.
Instead of producing a single number, the PCMark 10 Battery Life Profile provides a broad view of battery life across five common scenarios.
- Modern Office battery life for everyday work activities
- Applications battery life for work tasks using Microsoft applications.
- Video battery life for watching full-screen video
- Gaming battery life for playing games
- Idle battery life for the inactive time between tasks
Together, these tests produce a comprehensive view of battery life for different use cases that helps you compare systems and make more informed purchasing decisions.
Battery life profile, scenarios, and workloads
The PCMark 10 Battery Life Profile is based on five common scenarios.
Each scenario consists of workloads based on real-world activities.
How to create a PCMark 10 Battery Life Profile
You build up a PCMark 10 Battery Life Profile for a device by running each scenario individually. Choose the scenario that is most relevant for your use case, or run all five to create a complete profile. Click on a scenario to open the Benchmark details screen and learn more about the test, then click on the Run button to start the benchmark.
PCMark 10 battery life tests run until the PC goes into hibernation or shuts down. The reported battery life is the battery life measured during the test.
The battery must be at least 80% charged before you can start a battery life test. We recommend starting a test with a fully charged battery.
You can also create a new Battery Life Profile by importing or combining results. Please note that all results in a Battery Life Profile must come from the same system.
Add results to a new profile
- Go to the Results screen
- Click on Options
- Click on Create new profile
- In the window that appears, add a name and description for the profile
- Click on the plus icon to add a result for each scenario
- Click Apply when you have finished adding results
Import battery life results from another system for comparison
- Go to the Results screen
- Click on Options
- Click on Import result