Battery Life

[hethoofd]

Hi everyone!

I couldn't find a discussion on battery life in Windows 7, so I decided to create a thread.

I recently installed Windows 7 Build 6956 on my laptop to try it for some time. I'm liking it so far. Using the Balanced power option in 7 I'm getting maybe 20 minutes longer battery life compared to using the Power Saver option in Vista. I'm guessing this is a good improvement since Balanced still allows full performance when needed and Vista cuts performance. I haven't tried Power Saver in 7 yet, but I guess it might give me a little extra time.

Has anyone else timed their battery life?


PS: I also noticed a difference in wake up time from sleep when I open the laptop lid. Windows 7 takes just a second to wake up and Vista takes about 4-5 seconds. Has anyone else noticed this difference?

 

[pooch]

Hi everyone!

I couldn't find a discussion on battery life in Windows 7, so I decided to create a thread.

I recently installed Windows 7 Build 6956 on my laptop to try it for some time. I'm liking it so far. Using the Balanced power option in 7 I'm getting maybe 20 minutes longer battery life compared to using the Power Saver option in Vista. I'm guessing this is a good improvement since Balanced still allows full performance when needed and Vista cuts performance. I haven't tried Power Saver in 7 yet, but I guess it might give me a little extra time.

Has anyone else timed their battery life?



PS: I also noticed a difference in wake up time from sleep when I open the laptop lid. Windows 7 takes just a second to wake up and Vista takes about 4-5 seconds. Has anyone else noticed this difference?

Hey hethoofd,

I havent got around to running 7 on battery yet, but yes I am suitably impressed by Startup, wakeup, from both sleep and hibernate and reboot times.

The power saving that I have seen so far seems also pretty impressive. I am mainly surfing the forums not the best of tests but it does allow me to see how 7 switches down during periods of inactivity.

When I get around to using bat I'll let you know

Pooch

 

[hethoofd]

Hey pooch,

The wake up time is great improvement for me. I hated how Vista could take 5 seconds to wake up!

I'm going to try Power Saver mode to see how long the battery lasts. I'll post my experience here.

hethoofd

 

[johngalt]

At the MSDN Developer Conference, the Keynote speaker was Ron Jacobs - and he covered W7 for 10-15 minutes - and that was one of the key points made - W7 runs faster *and more efficiently* than Vista. It uses less resources, less battery (or, rather, it manages the battery life more efficiently) and provides more in hte way of a UI for the user to enjoy.

 

[linuzo]

I already have Windows 7 running fulltime on my Dell XPS M1330. I find the battery time is a lot longer. As well I would have to say the wake up time is way faster. I am so impressed with Windows 7 that I gave up my Genuine Vista for this. Most my friend still say it's a glorified vista but they haven't even tested it themselves yet!!

Windows 7 is probably going to be the first microsoft os that I would consider paying full price for and by that I mean not buying OEM.

 

[lappydog]

Running W7 I had a 25 min gain over vista

 

[pooch]

I am so impressed with Windows 7 that I gave up my Genuine Vista for this. Most my friend still say it's a glorified vista but they haven't even tested it themselves yet!!

Hey Linuzo,

I have to agree with you. I find it just feels right, from the smooth install through to the responsive handling, good looks and the fast up/down/wakeup times.
I am not as brave as you, but I have come very close to throwing Vista off and trying a raid install.
Maybe soon

I wanted to post back as well about my experiences on battery and then forgot
I was getting about 15 mins longer with my HP 6720s lappy, between 1hr45 and 2 hours on a full battery.

Not to be sniffed at

Pooch

 

[Iknewitwin7]

I'm seeing about a 15 minute increase, with power in balance.


Build 7000 32 bit Vs. Vista 64 bit
HP G60 laptop dual booting

 

[echrada]

Haven't tested my battey life yet, but will now. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[darkassain]

yep will do too....

like you guys i also see a difference (i need since this is a tablet [read "on the go"]

i estimate about 15 mins on balanced.....

 

[napilopez]

Battery life is definitely greater. My battery performance on average equals or surpasses what I got on vista with powersaver, and I always use 7 on balanced. Lol, I always run 7 on balanced while I always used vista at maximum, and 7 is still faster.

This is from an old engadget post:

"Now that Windows 7 has launched into pre-Beta, Microsoft has joined the world in Vista-bashing as they look to differentiate their newest OS from the incumbent. Speaking to its hardware partners at WinHEC, Microsoft is promising faster shutdown and startup times and less power consumption than its beleaguered predecessor despite the two sharing the same code base. In addition to an overall reduction in the number of services launched at startup, faster booting is achieved by loading device drivers in parallel instead of sequentially. Windows 7 also manages wireless radios better allowing them to drop below 100% power draw while managing the connection. And by tweaking the OS kernel, the CPU can sometimes run at a lower frequency and stay idle longer. This results are a minimum of 11% better battery life for Windows 7 compared to Vista -- and we're still only talking about pre-Beta Windows 7 software, mind you. Nice. Windows 7 also promises better memory management. So instead of managing all the background windows, Win7 offloads this to the GPU, for example -- system memory is then free for your applications and data. Check the trio of videos demonstrating these improvements after the break."

Link: Video: Windows 7 promises faster boots and up to 15% better battery life - Engadget

Amazingly, that 11% sounds perfectly accurate, if not actually an understatement.

I had also read or heard somewhere that simply by tweaking something with the clock(perhaps it was clock speed, but I'm prettysure it was the plain old clock), Windows 7 gained increased battery life.

 

[darkassain]

i would see getting an extra amount of juice if you undervolt your cpu....

that would mean less power to your cpu but also means less heat to thrown out of the vent....