MSI Wind U123 and ASUS 1000HE Show Netbook Evolution

Battery Life Comparison

To provide the best perspective on battery life we tested with representative ASUS models from the original ASUS PC 4G to the ASUS 1000HA. ASUS was extremely helpful in providing netbooks to more clearly demonstrate the improving battery life on netbooks. Battery tests were run for the ASUS 1000HE and the MSI Wind U123 and test results were added to the base charts.

The first ASUS netbook, the Eee PC 4G had a specified battery life of just 2.8 hours. This compares to the current ASUS 1000HE with a specified battery life of 9.5 hours - certainly a dramatic improvement. Our more demanding battery life testing showed the original ASUS Eee PC 4G with a battery life of 2 hours 10 minutes with improvement in the 1000HE results to 5 hours 54 minutes. However, the MSI Wind U123 is clearly the battery performance king among netbooks tested in this roundup. The Wind U123 turned in a benchmark-leading 8 hours 27 minutes of battery life while constantly connected by Wireless LAN to a website with flash content on every page.

With netbook architectures so very similar in recent designs the most revealing specification is the Wh (watt hours) battery rating. The voltage and mAh ratings were converted to Wh and the advantage for the 9-cell MSI Wind U123 is almost 40% compared to the Wh rating for the 6-cell ASUS 1000HE.

Our first thought was that the extra power trade-off in the Wind U123 must be increased weight, but that is not the case. The 9-cell Wind U123 weighs almost the same as the ASUS 1000HE. This makes the MSI an even more impressive performer in the battery life derby.