Notion Ink claims Nvidia's Tegra drives impressive battery life

TABLET UPSTART Notion Ink has claimed that the Nvidia Tegra chip in its mythical Adam tablet offers up impressive battery life.

The firm's device, which has yet to go on sale, is powered by Nvidia's Tegra chip and in a surprising move the developers have decided to list what it claims are the components that use the most power. The usual suspect topped the list, with the 10.1-inch screen guzzling the most juice, however Nvidia's chip came in last, sipping less power than the WiFi and 3G radios and even the speakers.

If independently verified, that's quite an advertisement for Nvidia's chip, which Notion Ink is saying helps power the Adam for up to two days of use, with a minimum of 15 hours. Notion Ink's Rohan Shravan proclaimed, "Tegra consumes nothing for Open GL so it's definitely a paradise for gamers." Shravan then compared the Adam's power consumption to Apple's Ipad, which going by his calculations has significantly higher power consumption that leads to almost a 50 per cent drop in battery life compared to the Adam.

Of course it is not unusual for laptop and tablet manufacturers to promote baseless battery life figures and, unlike the Adam, the Ipad is actually available to buy. The Adam has garnered a huge following despite numerous delays, primarily due to its Pixel Qi display technology.

The firm has repeatedly denied reports that the Adam will appear sometime in November, although now it seems to be resigned that November is indeed the closest and most lucrative time to release the device. The firms's past record of failed promises ensures that Shravan's latest claims of incrediblely low power consumption will be met with some caution.

If Shravan's claims do hold up then it will be some rare good news for Nvidia and its Tegra chip. The Green Goblin has had relatively few design wins with its Tegra system on chip, though recently LG announced that its upcoming Optimus smartphone range will sport Nvidia's Tegra chip.

Nvidia will be hoping, like many frustrated punters we reckon, that Notion Ink finally manages to get its Adam tablet out the door before Christmas. µ