Great Article! It's difficult to find objective analysis of mobile hardware, but you pulled it off admirably.
I am disappointed in the power consumption readings. I hope it is fixed in retail versions.
This is an off-the-wall theory, but the 1200 MHz idle might indicate that Ivy Bridge doesn't operate at lower voltages than Sandy Bridge, possibly helping cross-platform compatibility. Operating at the same voltages, and the significant increase in transistors would likely kill any power savings from the smaller transistor sizes and FinFET design. I hope I'm wrong though, and systems change the voltage schemes based on Chip ID. I also hope that Ivy Bridge can support lower voltages. The saturation voltage of a 22nm transistor can't be very high.
