Digital Storm Equinox Gaming Laptop Review: Lightweight and Powerful
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Battery Life And Thermal Testing
Battery Test
To test battery life while gaming, we set each laptop’s battery profile to Balanced while running Tomb Raider’s built-in benchmark at the lowest detail preset. The frame rate is locked at 30 FPS through GeForce Experience’s Battery Boost to limit the strain on the battery. Meanwhile, a script running in the background monitors and time stamps the system’s battery percentage. The laptops are set to hibernate once battery levels reach 5%. We test the battery life at 200 nits.
On our web surfing battery test, which involves continuous surfing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits, the Equinox lasted a slightly-better 2 hours and 49 minutes which is 54 minutes less than the average premium gaming laptop.
The Equinox contains a 55Wh battery, which is larger than both the Helios 300 and GE63VR Raider. However, the 6-core Intel Core i7-8750H consumes more power during our battery rundown, which pulls the Equinox’s maximum battery life down to around 75 minutes of run time while gaming.
Of course, laptop vendors should strive for longer battery life. For example, the Aero 15X contains a massive 94.24 Wh battery and therefore outlasts the competition.
Thermal Testing
We use our Optris PI 640 infrared camera to measure the laptop’s thermals. To complement our thermal images, we take the average and maximum temperature from GPU-Z’s thermal log. For more information about how we test, check out our Measurement Science article.
Although battery performance was somewhat disappointing, we’re pleased to find that the Equinox exhibits outstanding cooling. At idle, the GPU heat sink expels a cool 36°C (97°F). After a 15 minute Furmark stress test, our Optris detects around 66°C (151°F). Referencing our GPU-Z thermal log, we find the GPU diode averaging 57.11°C (135°F) and maxing out at 60°C (140°F). This makes the Equinox the coolest laptop in our roundup and one of the coolest laptops we’ve tested thus far.
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