XP Still Beats Windows 7 in Netbook Battery Life

Windows 7 is here and it brought with it a huge list of improvements that should have many users wanting to upgrade if they haven't already – unless if you have a netbook.

Recent tests from Laptop Mag, Liliputing and jkOnTheRun all show that netbook users will get longer battery life while running Windows XP than Windows 7. This is slightly surprising given that Microsoft have boasted about all the work that's gone into power efficiency and how it's been improved over Vista. While Windows 7 may be better than Vista, it's not besting XP just yet.

Laptop's tests found that netbooks running Windows XP ran for 47 minutes longer than those with Windows 7. Numbers across tests show varying differences in battery life, but the consistent result is that XP is a better choice for those who need all the battery life one can get.

Of course, Windows 7 is a more demanding operating system with its more advanced (and graphically pretty) UI as well as all the added security layers in the background, which may explain the drop in battery life. Either way, it seems that Windows XP isn't quite all washed up just yet.

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
  • brockh
    Yawn
    Reply
  • theuerkorn
    ... and the "7" logo isn't pretty either. LOL
    Reply
  • touchdowntexas13
    Eventually we will just need to invent better batteries...

    The OS and PC components can't continue to get better if the batteries don't get their fair share of improvements
    Reply
  • marsax73
    Well duh! If the OS can run on 100 megs of memory and barely touch the swap file, yeah it will last longer. I had Vista on a laptop and all I saw was my hard drive light constantly blinking (and it had 3 gigs of memory).
    Reply
  • tubers
    so much for the supposedly xp replacement :(
    Reply
  • jerther
    Too bad most laptops can't come prebundled with XP anymore...
    Reply
  • gwellin
    Wait, Stop the press. Are you telling me that a more demanding OS that only been released for a couple of week isn't as battery efficient as a "How many years old highly polished" OS. Thank you captain obvious.
    Reply
  • pbrigido
    and I bet battery life is better with Windows 9x over XP. Speaking for myself, I am more than happy using an OS that is a month old over one that came out almost a decade ago.
    Reply
  • xaira
    whats new, the bloat is still there, i candy= less life, wats new?
    Reply
  • scook9
    And I will bet windows 95 gets even BETTER battery life....this is why technology advances...?
    Reply