I think the reason for the small increase in battery life is that the hard drive doesn’t suck up a propotionally large amount of power to begin with. The screen and processor, use up more power than any other component. So it’s not like comparing an Ipod nano to the 30GB version, where storage makes a huge difference compared to the rest of its components. For mobile computers the virtues of flash memory lie in performance and durability rather than solely energy efficiency. With OLED screens and even lower voltage processors can we truly see a real difference in battery life.

A 15% improvement in battery life for a huge increase in price.

Not that the price is important at this stage (it’ll get cheaper), but I find the increase in battery life from going totally solid state to be extremely disappointing.

good work guys. i can’t wait for the solid state disks to drop in price. hopefully in a year they will become semi affordable.