Toshiba Tecra A11-S3540 Review
Battery Performance
To complete our testing, we ran Battery Eater Pro to get a feel for the Tecra A11's battery performance. According to Toshiba, the Tecra A11 should get approximately 3 hours and 7 minutes of runtime from the included 6 cell lithium ion battery based on the MobileMark Productivity 2007 benchmark. Here at HotHardware, we've been using BatteryEater Pro's Real World Scenario to test battery life in various machines, which is much more strenuous than MobileMark Productivity 2007. During the test, the screen brightness was set to 60%, Wi-Fi was enabled, and all other applications were closed.
Needless to say, with just 1 hour and 23 minutes of runtime, we were disappointed in the Tecra A11's battery life. Business users certainly need to be able to work without power, and this is one area where the A11 fell short. The machine performs well thanks to its Core i7 processor, but it also sucks power fairly quickly. Other comparison systems such as the Lenovo's ThinkPad T410 had much better battery life with just under 3 hours of runtime, but this machine also had a 9-cell extended battery. Of course, it's quite possible you could extend the runtime of the A11 by either upgrading the battery or by using the machine lightly.
We wouldn't call the A11's battery performance a deal-breaker. After all, performance is important and you can always buy a spare battery if you find that you regularly need some extra juice to get through the day.
