PowerMark

Version and / or Patch Used: 1.1.1

Developer Homepage: http://www.futuremark.com

Product Homepage: http://www.futuremark.com/benchmarks/powermark/

Download here: http://www.futuremark.com/benchmarks/powermark/

PowerMark is a benchmark produced by Futuremark that simulates different usage scenarios in order to determine battery life. It loops these different scenarios infinitely until the battery hits 15% and then gives us an estimated battery life time. For our testing, we use all four different scenarios. These are video playback, gaming, web browsing and word processing.

Tests are ran twice, once with the computer's Power Options set to Balanced and another with the computer's Power options set to High Performance.

With the PowerMark benchmark, the ASUS S56C didn't fair quite as well as it did in the MobileMark battery test. It was still beaten by the HP Folio, and the iBUYPOWER Valkyrie also took a win over the system.

Keep in mind that the Valkyrie is a full-size 17-inch gaming machine, though it does come with a larger battery than the ASUS S56C. The S56C does meet and exceed my arbitrary bar of two hours of battery life, though not by as much as I would like.

Considering the price, though, I'm going to be a bit forgiving on the battery life aspect. I have to keep in mind that this system will only set you back $699 or less.