Current Battery Life Tests Suck

Ever wonder why that advertised "8 hour battery life" never equals more than 4 hours in real life? This ought to give you an idea where those inflated claims come from:

According to Advanced Micro Devices, the problem with most battery life claims stems from the wide use of a test called MobileMark 2007. Patrick Moorhead, a vice president for marketing at AMD, said the parameters for this test include having the screen at just 20 percent brightness, Wi-Fi turned off and no music, video, games or Web pages running. More or less, the test turns a computer into a dimly lit clock, then sees how long it can run.

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