The article argues that wattage, rather than milliamp-hours (mAh) or megahertz, should be the standard measure for evaluating the power of portable devices. It emphasizes that wattage provides a clearer understanding of a device's capabilities, including how much energy is available from batteries and how effectively processors can operate without overheating. Despite its practical benefits, many manufacturers still favor less informative metrics, leaving consumers without essential knowledge about their gadgets' true performance potential. The Steam Deck is highlighted as an example where wattage calculation can clearly demonstrate battery life during gaming.
Forget mAh, and stop sweating megahertz. The watt reigns supreme, if only companies would share it with us.
You can tell how much literal power is under the hood - how much energy is provided by your battery and how much is coursing through your chip.
But many gadget manufacturers insist on measuring their batteries in milliamp-hours and their chip speed in megahertz or gigahertz, neither of which are a good measure of a device's true power.
With the least strenuous games, I'll sometimes see my Steam Deck draining the battery at a speed of just 6 watts - which means I can get eight hours of gameplay because 6 watts times.
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