Sustained vs Peak TDP

Peak TDP is the headline a device can touch briefly before heat forces it down; sustained TDP is what it actually holds across a real session, and it is the number that decides the experience. Marketing quotes the peak; reviews that measure over time report the sustained figure, and the gap between them is where a lot of handheld hype lives. When we grade performance and battery, we use the sustained number — a chip that spikes to 30W but settles at 15W is a 15W device in your hands.