Futuremark determined to know how long a battery will last

Following the announcement from Futuremark on 13th December, it seems that PowerMark is destined to become one of the most widely used benchmarks for determining battery life on Windows 7 devices.

Not satisfied with re-running the release, KitGuru managed to send a spy to intercept President Oliver Baltuch.  Will we managed to complete the write-up before our batteries die?

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Jukka Mäkinen, CEO of Futuremark was recently quoted as saying, “Battery life is critical to delivering a positive user experience”.

Given that the user experience dies off pretty quickly when the battery stops delivering juice, KitGuru is inclined to agree.

With most of the work that Futuremark does, it is a very open forum. Companies that want to join in the development of Futuremark's graphics tests, can engage with the company at every level. There are  no secrets about how the tests will work, just a system of checks and balances that the Finnish development team use to make sure your 3DMark scores are as fair as possible.

From our most recent discussions with the Futuremark hierarchy, it seems that the approach for PowerMark was radically different. They wanted to develop a mobile device power test from ‘first principals' – and not to get involved with the hardware manufacturers until after the test had been released.

It seems that the existing tests include a lot of antiquated methodologies, which don't really make sense in the modern world.

From what we've been told, PowerMark is a professional grade benchmark designed for industrial testing of battery powered Windows 7 devices by OEMs, corporations and governments. So, basically, anyone with a vested interest in knowing how long thousands and thousands of laptops will last. Good to know.

It also includes a convenient set of standard tests based on productivity and entertainment use-case scenarios, as well as allowing custom settings for bespoke testing requirements. Which means that you can choose to test as a gamer, normal user, film watcher etc. Smart stuff. It will however cost you, around $200 per 10 activations. No freebie download here.

You can find out more about this new Windows 7 mobile benchmark for battery life over here.

KitGuru says: We love the fact that Oliver knows exactly how his organisation is viewed by the world, “It's like a referee in a major sports event. The team that loses is always sure that they have been hurt by bad refereeing decisions, while the winning team think that they should have won by more and the referee held them back”. Well said Oliver. Well said.

Comment below or in the KitGuru forums.

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