Toshiba 'Haswell' laptop boasts smartphone-like battery life

Toshiba dynabook Kira: the V634 model touts 22 hours of battery thanks in part to Intel's Haswell processor and a Toshiba BIOS.

(Credit: Toshiba)

Toshiba is claiming smartphone-esque battery life for a laptop that will be released in Japan on Friday.
The dynabook Kira V634 will run for 22 hours on a charge, according to a write-up at Nikkei Business.
The V634 model 27KS comes with a 1.6GHz Intel Core i5-4200U Haswell processor, 8GB of RAM, a 128GB solid-state drive, and a 13.3-inch display with an unimpressive 1,366x768 resolution.

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That lower-resolution display (higher-resolution screens draw more power), however, helps Toshiba to achieve the long battery life, in combination with a power-efficient U series Haswell chip and the company's own BIOS.
The V634 weighs in at only 2.4 pounds -- placing it in the 11.6-inch MacBook Air weight class.
Another model, the V834, is similar but comes with an ultra-high-resolution 2,560x1,440 touch display. That has a rated 14 hours of battery life.
Manufacturers sometimes overstate battery life but even if Toshiba comes close to the claims of 22 hours and 14 hours, respectively, that's no mean feat.
Currently, those models are only available in Japan.