Windows 7 Hurts Netbook Battery Life? Maybe Not Entirely — or At All
Since I have a Toshiba NB205 netbook, I’ve been getting hammered with emails since last night. Why? Because folks are reading a LAPTOP Magazine article that discusses the impacts of battery life that Windows 7 brings. In particular, they see that LAPTOP’s Toshiba NB205 runs for 9 hours and 24 minutes under Windows XP, but only for 6 hours and 15 minutes with Windows 7. LAPTOP updated the drivers on the NB205 running Windows 7 and managed to get a little more battery life — 6 hours and 53 minutes in that test scenario.
Let me first say that LAPTOP is asking a valid question and they’re raising an appropriate concern. Whether Windows 7 hurt or help battery life on notebooks and netbooks is something that most folks would want to know. But drawing a conclusion at this point is premature in my opinion, because there’s another key factor needed for an “apples to apples” test, and as far as I know, it’s not yet available. I’m talking about the Toshiba Power Saver utility, which is a huge contributor to the Toshiba’s excellent runtime in Windows XP and can vary the device performance as well.
The hardware under the hood of the NB205 isn’t radically different from most other netbooks on the market, so there’s no magical qualities that make it run for 8-9 hours with the high-capacity, 6-cell battery. Near as I can tell, Toshiba has optimized its power-saving utility — and possibly other software — to match up well with the hardware. I’m sure there are various optimizations and other factors as well, but my point is that the Power Saver utility isn’t officially available for Windows Vista or Windows 7. A quick search of the Toshiba download page for the NB205 shows an XP-only version. And trust me, I’ve been watching for the software ever since I put Windows 7 on the netbook.
I tried to install the XP version on Windows 7 right away, but didn’t have any luck. Even if I did have success — who’s to say that a utility for XP would run just as well on an operating system it’s not designed for? And if Toshiba provided a beta utility to the LAPTOP folks — again, there’s no mention of any such utility in use during the test — it’s likely just a beta. The other two mainstream notebooks tested — a Gateway NV5807u and a Dell Studio XPS 16 — may or many not have specific power management utilities from their manufacturer. I simply don’t know. But neither system was reported to take a huge battery hit with Windows 7, so my educated guess is that neither has a very aggressive power management utility to begin with, i.e., runtime on those mobile devices didn’t vary much between XP and Windows 7.
I still believe that LAPTOP is asking the right question. And most of the “Windows 7 is bad for netbook battery life” conclusions I’m hearing are actually being drawn more by readers of the article than the article itself. In fact, LAPTOP correctly points out that by October, drivers might be better optimized and battery life might be unaffected as a result. Unfortunately, many people are missing that point, so let me reiterate it.
Until all of the Toshiba NB205 drivers and utilities are finalized for use under Windows 7, the right answer to battery life question on this particular netbook can’t be had just yet.
At the moment, I am seeing less battery life on my netbook with Windows 7 than with XP. I can’t get into exact numbers as I haven’t run a controlled test under each operating system. Instead, I’ve been using the netbook as my primary computer since Aug. 6th of this month. If I had to guess, I’d say that instead of the eight hours I see under XP, I’m seeing between 5.5 and 6 under Windows 7.
For those who wrote me or sent me a Twitter DM, I hope this answers your question from my point of view. Again, I’m not bashing LAPTOP for their article — it’s a good article and is meant as an observation from which you can draw a partial conclusion if you want to. I don’t need to draw the conclusion because I’m personally witnessing the lower battery life on the netbook. But I also understand that there are certain outstanding test conditions waiting to be met, so I’m waiting until October to draw my final conclusion.
I have a dell mini 9 running Windows 7 and it seems to be running flawlessly so far with a good battery life!!!
I definitely noticed an improvement in batter life once I installed ASUS power management program on my 900 and 1005 running windows 7, I had to install the acpi drivers in compatibility mode and then the utility itself in compatibility mode, but it works like a charm.
I have always HATED the power management utilities that run on laptops and usually uninstall them… even if they offer substantial boosts in life, it comes at a huge hit to performance and being able to read my display without squinting.
That said, with that software out of the road, I am definitely getting the same battery life from my Dell Latitude E6400 and my HP EliteBook 2730p systems as I was under XP… between 4-6 hours depending on how I use the system.
Those utilities… they only serve as a pretty front-end to configure your power profiles for you. It’s nothing you can’t technically adjust on your own in 7’s power management screens… just more cumbersome.
The reason for this reduced battery life is the gma 950. It uses a lot of power especially when you compare it to just the atom processor. So when you’re calling on it to render the more complex UI of W7, thats where the battery life loss comes in. Turn on the Vista Basic theme and you should see most of your battery return. At least, I did.
Just a point of data for you: we usually uninstall the power management software that comes with laptops (but not necessarily drivers) before we run our test. The LAPTOP Battery Test uses the same settings (explained here, if you’re interested) for each computer, which can differ from the power optimization settings notebook manufacturer’s bundle. So even without that particular program, the NB205 still got great battery life in our test under XP. I’m sure that when Toshiba finalizes Win 7 drivers, the battery life will bounce back.
I’m seeing the same as Kevin on my NB205. In XP I was getting close to 8 hrs with Wi-Fi and BT on. Using Win 7 I get around 5 hrs 50 mins with Wi-Fi and BT on. I’m hoping to get close to what I was getting when using XP, if Toshiba releases the power utility for Win 7. I still like that I’m getting close to 6 hrs and if I was to turn off the radios, I’m sure I would get the 6 hrs or so.
PCmetix,
Thank you for evaluating Windows 7 and it’s great to hear that you are enjoying your experience so much! If you are planning on purchasing Windows 7 when it is released it may be helpful to know you don’t have to wait until October to reserve your copy of Win 7! You can pre-order your copy of Windows 7 Home Premium or Windows 7 Professional today. For more information, see the Windows 7 Pre-Order offer page here: http://tinyurl.com/nldc8p
Jessica
Microsoft Windows Client Team
Well, technology of laptop or notebook is upgrading their best to satisfy the needs of a customer. Maybe next year they will come u with a newer version of each laptop & notebook. But if you need any laptop or notebook battery, just come to batterieswholesale.net. We could help you find a compatible replacement laptop battery at a very reasonable prices.
LOL at last for 3 months on NB200. I was guessing that I am the only one to face a low battery life. Its obvious now that my windows 7 is the problem :S
I will try to install the power utility again but lets hope it works