Test Systems and Workloads

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Dell Latitude Series Battery Life Validation And Competitive Analysis

Battery life is often one of, if not the, most important consideration for general

consumers and IT departments when contemplating the purchase of a new notebook (or

fleet of notebooks). Having the ability to enjoy a full PC experience or be productive while mobile and untethered from an electrical outlet for hours on end has transformed how – and where -- we do business and entertain ourselves in recent years. For many road warriors, longer battery life directly translates into increased productivity, so maximum untethered uptime is paramount.

To ascertain the battery life offered by a wide array of notebooks and convertible devices, across an array of form factors and performance levels, we’ve assembled a number of comparisons using similarly configured systems from Dell, HP, and Lenovo.

Test Systems and Workloads

The specific systems we used to conduct the testing presented in this paper include a wide assortment of notebooks and 2-in-1 and convertible devices, which feature and array of CPU, memory, storage, and display options. Although it is virtually impossible to configure identical systems across mobile devices from multiple

manufacturers, efforts were made to keep the form factor, display size, processor and platform performance similar in each test case. The specific comparisons include:

• Dell Latitude 7400 vs. HP EliteBook 840 G6 vs. Lenovo ThinkPad T490s • Dell Latitude 13 7300 vs. HP EliteBook 830 G6 vs. Lenovo ThinkPad X390 • Dell Latitude 15 5500 vs. HP ProBook 650 G5 vs. Lenovo ThinkPad T590 • Dell Latitude 14 5400 vs HP ProBook 640 G5 vs. Lenovo ThinkPad T490 • Dell Latitude 5300 vs. HP EliteBook 830 G6 vs. Lenovo ThinkPad X390

• Dell Latitude 7200 2-in1 vs. HP Elite X2 1013 G3 vs. Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Tablet Gen3

• Dell Latitude 5300 2-in-1 vs. HP EliteBook X360 830 G6 vs. Lenovo ThinkPad X380 Yoga vs. Lenovo ThinkPad X390 • Dell Latitude 7400 2-in-1 vs. HP EliteBook X360 1040 G6 vs. Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga 4th Gen

• Dell Latitude 3301 vs. HP ProBook 430 G6 vs. Lenovo ThinkPad L390

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Figure 1: Dell Latitude 7400 vs. HP EliteBook 840 G6 vs. Lenovo ThinkPad T490s

*See Appendix A for detailed system specifications.

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Figure 2: Dell Latitude 13 7300 vs. HP EliteBook 830 G6 vs. Lenovo ThinkPad X390

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Figure 3: Dell Latitude 15 5500 vs. HP ProBook 650 G5 vs. Lenovo ThinkPad T590

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Figure 4: Dell Latitude 14 5400 vs HP ProBook 640 G5 vs. Lenovo ThinkPad T490

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Figure 5: Dell Latitude 5300 vs. HP EliteBook 830 G6 vs. Lenovo ThinkPad X390

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Figure 6: Dell Latitude 7200 2-in1 vs. HP Elite X2 1013 G3 vs. Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Tablet Gen3

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Figure 7: Dell Latitude 5300 2-in-1 vs. HP EliteBook X360 830 G6 vs. Lenovo ThinkPad X380 Yoga vs. Lenovo ThinkPad X390

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Figure 8: Dell Latitude 7400 2-in-1 vs. HP EliteBook X360 1040 G6 vs. Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga 4th Gen

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Figure 9: Dell Latitude 3301 vs. HP ProBook 430 G6 vs. Lenovo ThinkPad L390

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Performance Summary and Conclusions

Performance Summary

In the vast majority of tests, the Dell Latitude series of notebooks and convertible mobile devices offered better battery life than competing offerings from HP and Lenovo. In 100% (9 of 9) of the comparisons between similarly configured, similar form factor Dell Latitude and Lenovo ThinkPad systems, the Dell machines offered better battery life. In 78% (7 of 9) of the comparisons between similarly configured, similar form factor Dell Latitude and HP EliteBook or ProBook systems, the Dell machines offered better battery life. Note, however, that in the test cases were the Dell Latitude trailed the HP system, the HP system was outfitted with a lower-end Intel processor.

Conclusions

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Appendix A: System Configurations

All of the systems represented in this paper were unaltered and tested as they were shipped. Only Windows Updates and updates automatically offered by each system’s proprietary OEM utilities were installed prior to testing (as of November 7, 2019). The full hardware, software, and BIOS configurations were as follows:

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Appendix B: How We Tested

Prerequisites:

Before testing battery life, the screens on all of the systems were calibrated to similar brightness output levels when operating on battery power. Adaptive brightness was disabled (where applicable), the systems were fully charged, and then unplugged from AC power. Notepad was opened and maximized (though, any image or application with a pure white background can be used), a lux meter was placed at the center of each system’s display, and brightness was adjusted until all of the systems achieved as close to 115 lux as possible (due to variations in the brightness settings from system to system, typical variation was +/- 6 lux).

Battery life on all of the systems represented in this paper was tested with UL’s PCMark 10 “Modern Office” workload. PCMark 10’s “Modern Office” workload features web browsing, video chat, and writing / office application tests, with periods of idle time in between, to simulate a real-world use case scenario. Displays remain lit for the duration of the test and are only dimmed when battery life hits critically low levels and the systems automatically go into hibernation, per their individual power plans.

To run UL PCMark 10’s “Modern Office” Battery life test follow these steps: 1) Ensure system is plugged into AC power and fully charged

2) Enable Windows 10 Focus Assist to prevent any notifications from interfering with the benchmark 3) Download and install PCMark 10 from benchmarks.ul.com (unique serial key required to unlock all tests) 4) Launch PCMark 10 and click on the “More Tests” button on the home screen

5) On the resulting menu, click on the “Battery” tab at the top of the interface 6) Click on the “Modern Office” button

7) Click on the “Start” button and immediately unplug AC power from the system

8) Do not touch or use the system while the test is running (using the system will affect the results) and do not maximize the PCMark 10 window 9) Upon completion, plug the system back into AC power, wake it from sleep, and record the results

(Detailed results are saved in the \My Documents\PCMark 10\ folder)

Prior to launching PCMark 10, all test machines were restarted and allowed to hit an idle state. When Windows 10 had fully booted, idle tasks were also manually processed to minimize the chance of potential interference with the benchmarks by background tasks. A Command Prompt with Administrator privileges was opened, and the command ‘Rundll32.exe advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasks’ was executed from the prompt. When CPU activity ceased, the systems were allowed to cool down and reach a fully idle state before invoking a test.

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