Feature driving tablet adoption: Battery life
Summary: Tablets are replacing laptops in more gear bags than ever before. The capabilities of tablets have evolved to make them viable alternatives for mobile professionals. Even as capable as they are, the long battery life is what's driving adoption.
The tablet space has never been so diverse as it is today. The iPad drove the evolution of tablets, followed closely by Android slates, and now with Windows 8 tablets joining the fun. Tablets are being adopted by mobile professionals in increasing numbers who are choosing to leave the laptop behind and take the slate to work.
A number of arguments can be given for this rapid adoption. The enhanced mobility of the form is certainly helping drive the switch. The quality of apps for tablets is another good reason behind adoption. But of all the features that put tablets in gear bags, none is more important than battery life.
Given the technology of the time the only way I could get safely through the day was to take a spare battery with me in the gear bag.
In my previous career as a geophysicist I was the very definition of a mobile professional. My work day was spent going from one office to another all over town, attending as many as 5 or 6 meetings a day. When I headed out the door in the morning I could count on hours before finishing work for the day. My work days were not unique, many field reps and sales professionals have the same routine.
I used tablets for that work because the pen was a crucial tool for my work. I took handwritten notes at all the meetings, usually dozens of pages of notes daily. The convertible notebook used as a tablet was the driving force behind that work. I couldn't have done the job without a tablet in one hand and a digital pen in the other.
As important as the pen was to doing my job it was extended battery life that made it work. I could not plan on having a power outlet available at any point during the day. Given the technology of the time the only way I could get safely through the day was to take a spare battery with me in the gear bag. The magic number for battery life was 10 - 12 hours. Any less and it wouldn't work for me.
I was one of those buyers who always ordered a second battery when I bought a laptop or convertible notebook. Having the spare was the only way to get through a long day of mobile computing but that was OK. Laptops of that time had removable batteries and spares were readily available. It was a bit of a dance getting both batteries charged each night but I persevered as that's what it took to get the job done each day.
The option of a spare battery for laptops/convertible notebooks mostly disappeared as OEMs moved to a sealed battery construction. This helped make laptops thinner and lighter but it eliminated the owner's ability to pop another battery in when the meter ran dry. External battery packs would work but were unwieldy for practical usage, especially on a daily basis.
Next page: Tablets fill the void; Battery life and Windows 8 tablets
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Talkback
Windows8 tablets makers have already addressed the battery issue
Just to name a few.
Asus VivotabRT
Microsoft SurfaceRT
Lenovo Lynx (RT)
Asus Vivotab Smart (x86, full windows)
Acer inconi W510 (x86, full windows)
Samsung Ativ 500t (x86, full windows)
Fujitsu Sytlistic (x86, full windows)
Dell Envy x2 (x86, full windows)
Dell Latitude 10 (x86, full windows)
Lenovo Thinkpad 2 (x86, full windows)
James, I think you know these windows8 offerings exist, so I have no idea why you make those comments.
I trust battery life claims....
Read the article
I did read the article, but I disagree with your focus and conclusions.
I don't necessarily agree with your conclusion that 10 hours is the magic number for battery life for work or that target market of core i5 devices. It would be nice, but I would guess that the majority of the mobile work force would be just fine with 6 hour battery life core i5's or if someone really does need 10 hours they would be just fine on an atom based tablet.
It seems that every article talking about windows tablets gets hung up comparing it to one aspect of a device in a different catagory. Such as comparing the battery life of SurfacePro to the battery life of an Ipad or comparing the ability to run desktop apps of SurfaceRT to that of an ultrabook. Almost as if they are articles in search of a problem to reveal while ignoring the strengths. Countless are those articles around ZDnet. On the flip side I don't think I have seen one article of a blogger running an atom based tablet, because I don't think they could conjure the same problems to reveal to readers.
Beyond that, how exactly do you expect Windows tablet makers to address this issue other than with bigger batteries? The technology just doens't yet seem to be available to deliver 10 hours of battery life in a 2lb device that can effectively replace a desktop and a tablet.
Likewise I think the device makers are awaiting improvements from Intel/Amd and not somehow holding back the breakthrough that you are suggesting they might be able to deliver?
Nice Analysis, but....
Battery Life is the most important factor in the switch from laptops to tablets.
I do not see your arguments as negating those of the original article, because you fail to address his assumption. Unless you can provide good evidence that his assumption is false, then you cannot truly refute his conclusion.
Now, you did point out one of the failures in JK's argument. The fault is using the phrase "Windows 8" when in fact what he means is "Windows 8 on Core processors"
Of course, his argument fails because he wears his intention quite openly.
Clearly, the conclusion he wants us to believe is:
Windows 8 tablets are useless.
What we really see in his arguments is the conclusion:
Windows 8 tablets with Core processors are not really a good solution for mobile warriors who want 10 hours of battery life.
Or, to be more to the point:
The Surface Pro is not really a good replacement for iPads and Android tablets.
Given JK's quite clear anti-Microsoft leanings, this is the quite obvious take away from this article.
Revelation
When people ask me for advice, I always ask them what is important to them. For some, that answer might be mobility and long battery life. For others, higher performance might be the overriding concern. Recommendations differ as some features are diametrically opposed. I think most understand that their stock Pinto is never going to be a hotrod.
the options are there
Apple's solution? use an underpowered underfeatured tablet and "there's an app for that!"
IPAD4
Indeed...
What do you define as work software?
Browsing? Already have it
Email? Already have it
Messaging? Already have it
Most of the work world uses the above, unless you're talking about specialized positions.
work
browser that works with ANY website with desktop user agent? no
email that works with all sorts of attachments? no
and then there is stuff like marking up PDFs and other documents with a pen, sending files from device to device without restrictions, using USB drives and SD cards without adapters that you can't be bothered to bring everywhere, and the list of practicalities goes on and on.
It's 2013
thanks to ipads
Solution is on the way
- A mobile professional will definitly have a bag ( say a laptop bag) with him. With Surface Pro's compact size, there will be plenty of space to carry another battery. No big deal here. Surface Pro's space and battery issue is only an issue for the bloggers, not for professionals.
Another battery? How is that portable
To be fair
The only game in town capable of 10+ hour battery life below 1.5 lbs:
Ipads
Androids
WindowsRT
Windows8 on Atom cpus.
Three run limited mobile operating system and one runs full a full powered desktop operating system.
The next generation of Haswell chips might offer better battery life, but who knows.
Thinkpad Helix
Is that too heavy? Consider the smaller MacBook Air ways about 2.5 lbs but only gets 5 hours of battery life, then perhaps 1.8 lbs to get 6 hours of battery life isn't bad.
To get 7 hours of battery life on the MacBook Air, you have to go to the 13 inch model and that weighs in at around 3 lbs.
The iPad (4?) weighs in at around 1.5 lbs. If you add a cover + keyboard to that, you are at about 2.5-3 lbs depending on the cover/keyboard you add (like the Zagg Pro series). However, this does give you a good 9-10 hours of battery life, plus whatever the battery-life of the keyboard battery is.
In addition to all that, the Thinkpad Helix is running at 1920 x 1080 resolution, while the MacBook Air is only 1366 x 768.
http://www.lenovo.com/products/us/tablet/thinkpad/thinkpad-helix/?menu-id=learn&ref-id=learn
But it isn't available NOW.
Not vapor.
The batteries get tired over time
everyone knows this
If you run about a full day on one charge, 500 cycles makes about two years of "normal" use. After two years, your 10 hour runtime will become 8 hour runtime. Something like this.