GPU benchmarks, and battery life
| Terminator Salvation 1080p (mov) playback via VLC | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| HP Pavilion dv2 | ASUS U20A | ASUS Seashell 1005HA | MSI Wind |
| 80.2 | 88.41 | 88.6 | 91.5 |
All four ultraportable laptops' CPUs are hit hard by 1080p decoding, to the extent that no machines' performance can be considered good. The resolution may not be supported by the panel but we can see users outputting material to larger screens such as TVs.
| Terminator Salvation 1080p (mov) playback via MPC-HC | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| HP Pavilion dv2 | ASUS U20A | ASUS Seashell 1005HA | MSI Wind |
| 14.5 | 92.6 | 93.8 | 92.3 |
Here's the same test but with MPC-HC doing the decoding, and it has hooks for GPU-based acceleration, if supported. The Seashell continues to flounder, as does the Wind (Atom) and U20A (Pentium SU2700), but the only laptop with a discrete card, HP's Pavilion dv2, puts its discrete Radeon HD 3410 to good use.
| Laptop - Quake 4 - 1,024x600 low-detail | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| HP Pavilion dv2 | ASUS U20A | ASUS Seashell 1005HA | MSI Wind |
| 82.5 | 25.8 | 13.07 | 11.45 |
The same story is true in a very basic test of gaming. We use Quake 4 - yes, remember that? - set to 1,024x600 resolution and low-quality in-game graphics. Any modern mobile graphics card makes a mockery of the test, evinced by the dv2's score, but the integrated GMA950 on the Seashell and Wind barely maintain an average frame-rate above 10fps. Incidentally, the Seashell uses a very slightly faster core clock for greater performance.
A newer generation of Intel integrated graphics are found on the ASUS U20A, but even they struggle to get close to 30fps.
| Battery-life with 480p QT (Terminator Salvation) clip looping | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| HP Pavilion dv2 | ASUS U20A | ASUS Seashell 1005HA | MSI Wind |
| 95 | 192 | 358 | 111 |
The CPU's not particularly powerful and the gaming performance is pants, but with the Seashell set to maximum battery mode and the laptops set to run the QuickTime 480p clip via VLC (or MPC-HC, if supported, as with the HP dv2) the ASUS netbook returns a near-six-hour battery life.
You may wonder how that's possible when the MSI Wind has similar underlying technology but a half-capacity battery, and the explanation is two-fold. Firstly, the Seashell's Atom N270 clocks down to 640MHz in max. battery mode whilst the MSI's Atom runs at 800MHz. Secondly, some behind-the-scenes power-saving technology means that the entire netbook draws only 11W when playing video, evaluated by plugging directly into the watt meter with the battery removed. The Wind on the other hand uses 17W for the same task.
The one downside not shown by the graphs is that both Atom-powered notebooks have flawed playback in battery mode, stuttering at points - and that's not found on either the ASUS U20A CULV or HP Pavilion dv2.
