Lawsuits planned over laptop battery life claims

How much juice has your laptop got?
How much juice has your laptop got?

Laptop manufacturers across the world better start checking if their computers' claimed battery life is correct, as a class action lawsuit is about to begin in the US.

Law firm Girard Gibbs, LLP, has announced it is to give 'free consultations' to anyone burned by quoted battery times. That pretty much includes every one of us then.

Not accurate

Digital Beat is reporting that the reason lawsuits may start rolling in is because a few weeks ago AMD claimed that battery life on laptops was done in unrealistic conditions to perk up the hours manufacturers can quote in their marketing spiels.

In its own guide to getting battery life, AMD admits that: "There is currently no single benchmark test available for notebook battery life that accurately reflects real-life usage patterns."

The report also says: "The goal of this white paper is to encourage a more transparent discussion around battery life benchmarking for notebook PCs."

Short life span

Law firm Girard Gibbs, LLP, has cottoned on to this and has posted the following message on its website: "If you believe that your laptop battery has a shorter life span than what was advertised or represented to you, or if you would like to learn more about our investigation, please fill out the form on the right for a free consultation."

It will be very interesting to see what comes from the battery life saga, considering it does seem to be one of the biggest bones of contention in the PC industry at the moment.

Via DigitalBeat and Semi Accurate

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Marc Chacksfield

Marc Chacksfield is the Editor In Chief, Shortlist.com at DC Thomson. He started out life as a movie writer for numerous (now defunct) magazines and soon found himself online - editing a gaggle of gadget sites, including TechRadar, Digital Camera World and Tom's Guide UK. At Shortlist you'll find him mostly writing about movies and tech, so no change there then.