Benchmarks: Vitals and Battery Life
Intel has dragged its heels when it comes to bringing quad-core CPUs to mainstream laptops, but the chip giant has made strides in power optimisations over the years. It is now quite common to see battery life in excess of 10 hours, with the best machines extending that run time to 15 hours.
A big question mark surrounding Ryzen laptops was whether or not AMD and its partners would be able to optimise and deliver Intel-like longevity. These are early days but the initial signs aren't good. During our standard battery test, which entails looping a high-definition video until the laptop enters sleep, Swift 3 managed to keep going for less than six-and-a-half hours. That's well below our expectations of a modern 15.6in Windows machine.