The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    30% battery-life boost w/Win7? color me skeptical (yet hopeful)

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by mtalinm, Sep 2, 2009.

  1. mtalinm

    mtalinm Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    5
    Messages:
    114
    Likes Received:
    7
    Trophy Points:
    31
    So Lenovo is out making noise about how Win7 boosts battery life on the T400s. As a T400s owner, I would love to believe this, but it seems too good to be true. It would give me close to 10h of battery life with the six-cell + ultrabay battery, yum.

    http://gizmodo.com/5350637/microsoft-and-intel-promise-better-battery-life-in-windows-7

    At an event in San Francisco yesterday, Wintel claimed that upcoming processors, and Windows 7's improved power management will provide longer battery life, and better performance in certain programs.

    They demonstrated power drain by playing a DVD on two identically configured ThinkPad T400s: one with Windows 7 (15.6 watts), the other with Windows Vista (20.5 watts). That could translate to about 1.4 hours of increased battery life.

    The improvement comes through "timer coalescing", which lets one processor core sleep as long as possible if it's not needed.
     
    mtalinm, Sep 2, 2009
    #1
  2. Jayayess1190

    Jayayess1190 Waiting on Intel Cannonlake

    Reputations:
    4,009
    Messages:
    6,712
    Likes Received:
    54
    Trophy Points:
    216
    It says 30% improvement when playing a movie. Anything else might not be that much of an improvement.
     
    Jayayess1190, Sep 2, 2009
    #2
  3. jaredy

    jaredy Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    793
    Messages:
    2,876
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    56
    Ya, read what it says specifically. It is in a certain circumstance due to Intel's CPUs ability to turn off a core. Later with the new intel chips there is the hope that more battery life can be gained in regular use by multiple threads on a single core in everyday use to save power.
     
    jaredy, Sep 3, 2009
    #3
  4. zephir

    zephir Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    495
    Messages:
    1,144
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    56
    I actually get one more hour in battery life in Vista compared to in 7 with my X200 (9 hours vs. 8 hours). Not sure what happens there.
     
    zephir, Sep 3, 2009
    #4
  5. jonlumpkin

    jonlumpkin NBR Transmogrifier

    Reputations:
    826
    Messages:
    3,240
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    105
    You should be skeptical. Vista and 7 are not that different in terms of battery life (although 7 feels much faster and has a better UI).
     
    jonlumpkin, Sep 3, 2009
    #5
  6. StealthTH

    StealthTH Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    281
    Messages:
    680
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    more than likely due to premature drivers. Once official drivers come out battery life should improve.
     
    StealthTH, Sep 3, 2009
    #6
  7. jaredy

    jaredy Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    793
    Messages:
    2,876
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    56
    That is probably the case. I just installed win7 tonight, and am pretty satisfied.
     
    jaredy, Sep 3, 2009
    #7
  8. bernieyee

    bernieyee Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    57
    Messages:
    433
    Likes Received:
    50
    Trophy Points:
    41
    Well, for netbooks, some lost up to 30% of battery life in Windows 7 compared to XP. That isn't enough to warrant me getting off of Windows 7 though ^^
     
    bernieyee, Sep 3, 2009
    #8
  9. jaredy

    jaredy Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    793
    Messages:
    2,876
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    56
    Eh, who cares about netbooks :p.
     
    jaredy, Sep 3, 2009
    #9
  10. afty

    afty Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    125
    Messages:
    64
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    I read that the Windows Media Player in Win7 uses the GPU for decode acceleration, but WMP in Vista does not. If that is true, it would probably account for the difference in power usage while playing a DVD.
     
    afty, Sep 3, 2009
    #10