Windows 7 Improves Battery Life Performance on Laptops

October 21, 2009 | Posted by revy

Windows 7

When Windows Vista was about to be released a few years back, everyone was clamoring to be the first in line to get their hands on it. After all, its initial release had already been delayed for year, and the released pictures of Vista’s desktop were strikingly different from the monotonous shades in Windows XP. So it was to the disappointment of many when Vista didn’t live up to its expectations. Now that Windows 7 is nearly here, the same kind of buzz is hanging in the air. But will Windows 7 really live up to its name?

Well, it seems that this time, Microsoft has finally started taking the rants of its customers seriously. Their recently released beta has garnered much support from its one-time critics, and as initial tests have shown, Windows 7 seems to be better than its predecessor in almost every way. From cleaner interfaces to faster load times, the newer operating system is gaining a reputation as being what Windows Vista was intended to be.

After so many false starts with Vista, Microsoft was more than happy to blow its own trumpet over its recent success. As part of its marketing campaign, Microsoft claimed that Windows 7 utilized new technology to optimize power consumption in PCs shipped with it. To prove its point, it ran a performance test on two identical laptops running Windows Vista and Windows 7 respectively. The test involved playing DVDs on each laptop’s optical drive repeatedly until the battery gave out.

During the demonstration, the laptop which ran Windows Vista was measured to consume about 20.5W of power, while the one with Windows 7 ran at 15.6W. The movies were looped until the batteries reached 0%, and at the end of the test, it was obvious which operating system had won. The laptop with Windows Vista only lasted a meager 4 hours and 6 minutes, whereas the unit running Windows 7 managed to last 5 hours and 25 minutes. That’s an extra 1 hour and a half of playtime!

It’s not sure whether the test was performed under completely fair conditions, but official figures from multiple reliable sources put battery-life gain on laptops running Windows 7 at a minimum of 11%, as compared to laptops with Windows Vista. Among the reasons given were that Windows 7 launches fewer applications at start-up, reducing the drag on power consumption, and that device drivers were loaded in parallel on 7 as opposed to in sequence on Vista. Whatever the reasons, it’s pretty exciting for casual users and tree-huggers alike – and good news for suppliers – as battery life performance on laptops remains one of the highest factors influencing purchasing decisions.

Aaron Pek – A freelance writer whose niche lies in the fields of accounting and computer science. Has a passion for all things “E-.”

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