The AMD Ryzen mobile processors are a staple in many productivity laptops, making up about a third of all units sold today. However, how does the company's latest mobile processor, the Ryzen AI 400, fare in real-world battery tests? The results are concerning.
In a shift away from traditional battery testing, where a recorded video is looped until the battery runs out, the new rundown test focuses on streaming video, keeping the screen, processor, and Wi-Fi radio on. This test is more representative of real-world usage, such as streaming anime like One Piece, which the author's kids introduced him to.
The test chip used is a midrange Ryzen AI 7 445, which is about midway down AMD's hierarchy of Ryzen AI 400 mobile processors. The processor has 6 cores and 12 threads, but performance is not the focus here; battery life is.
The laptops tested include the Acer Swift Go 14 AI, Asus Zenbook S16, Asus Zenbook Duo, Asus Zenbook S 14, Microsoft Surface Laptop 7, and Asus Zenbook A16. The Ryzen AI 7 445 processor sits at the bottom of the chart in terms of battery life.
The battery size of the laptops also plays a significant role, with the Intel Core Ultra 300 processor benefiting from its massive 99Wh battery. However, when the battery life is divided by the size of the battery in watt-hours, the Snapdragon X Elite takes the top spot.
The results are not favorable to AMD, with neither the raw battery life nor the efficiency score favoring the company's processor. In fact, the opposite is true, with the Ryzen AI 7 445 processor struggling to compete with its competitors.
Even a review of the Lenovo IdeaPad 5a 2-in-1 by one of the authors, Matthew Smith, concluded that the Ryzen AI 400 CPU is slow, further undermining optimism about the processor.
