Vista draining laptop batteries,
patience By Tom Krazit, CNET News.com
Published on ZDNet News: May
4, 2007
Some of Microsoft's most important customers
aren't happy with the battery life offered by notebooks running Windows
Vista.
"It's a little scary," said John Wozniak, a
distinguished technologist in Hewlett-Packard's notebook engineering department,
referring to the work HP needed to do on making Windows Vista more suitable
for notebooks.
Vista, while touted as having improved power
management capabilities that would make it easier for users to extend battery
life, isn't to some living up to that promise. The main culprit appears
to be the Aero Glass interface, a spiffy new user interface that makes
Vista more pleasing to the eye with transparent windows and animated transitions
when moving from one application to another.
When Aero is turned off, battery life is equal
to or better than Windows XP systems. But with it turned on, battery life
suffers compared with Windows XP.
Microsoft made some important changes in Vista
that do improve some aspects of battery life, such as smarter hibernation
modes that override applications that want to keep running, and simpler
options for choosing a power management setting. But laptop users who spent
extra money on powerful laptops to handle the graphics requirements of
Vista and the Aero interface are forced to run the aesthetic equivalent
of Vista Basic, the low-cost version of Vista, if they care about battery
life.
HP decided it wasn't going to use the power
management settings that shipped with Vista, Wozniak said. The company
came up with its own set of power management settings for Vista laptops,
allowing users to select different power settings, such as "power saver"
or "high performance," that strike a balance between processing power and
battery life. Lenovo is likewise using its own power management technologies
honed over several years, said Howard Locker, director of new technology
at Lenovo.
"They've really made it complex from a power
management standpoint," Wozniak said. "The potential is there to do some
good things, the bad thing is that it comes with the canned settings...and
we didn't like any of them."
Reports that Vista was an energy hog started
to surface during beta testing last year. At the time, Microsoft said many
of the problems would be cleared up by the time the operating system launched.
Of course, this isn't a new issue when it comes to operating system changeovers,
said Richard Shim, an analyst with IDC. "When you look at a new operating
system, battery life tends to be worse. When Windows XP came out, that
was true, and when Windows 98 came out, that was true."
The difference this time around is that notebooks
are "the growth engine for industry," Shim said. Notebook PCs now account
for more than half of all retail PC sales and are projected to become the
majority for the whole market by the end of the decade.
But battery life problems continue to rankle
notebook users. As blogger Rob Bushway of Tablet PC site Gottabemobile.com
put it, "when a consumer has to buy an extended battery to get what they
use(d) to get out of a standard battery, something is really wrong."
More than one company other than HP has acknowledged
the demand that Vista and the Aero interface put on a notebook PC running
off its battery.
"Vista is consuming more power than Windows
XP, but we have been very focused on introducing more power-efficient technologies,"
said Bahr Mahony, director of product marketing for Advanced Micro Devices'
mobile product division.
Most attribute that power use to Aero. "In
(Aero) mode, you will drain the battery faster, but you get something in
return because it's cool and nice looking," Lenovo's Locker said.
The Aero interface is automatically disabled
when users put their Vista notebooks into the "power-saving" profile, one
of three new simplified power-management states. While that makes for an
arguably duller experience, Microsoft said it commissioned a study (click
here for PDF) that found no difference in "responsiveness," or application
load time, between a notebook with Aero disabled versus one running the
fancy graphics: implying that Aero doesn't put too much of a load on the
system.
But the notebook and Tablet PC used in Principled
Technologies' test had the power management setting on "high-performance"
when testing Aero's performance. At that setting, the notebook won't ever
compromise performance to preserve battery life, so responsiveness isn't
an issue.
Microsoft isn't deterred by HP's decisions
and other criticism. "We actively encourage (PC companies) to customize
the default power profiles so that users get the most out of their hardware,"
Microsoft said in a statement.
A more definitive statement on Windows Vista
and battery life should surface soon, with Intel scheduled to release new
chips for notebooks next week at the launch event for the next generation
of its Centrino technology. Also, Bapco, an industry benchmarking organization,
is expected to soon release the MobileMark 2007 benchmark.
Microsoft, for its part, will likely have to
improve Vista's battery life performance over time through the release
of service packs and other tweaks, Shim said. "The (PC companies) are getting
pressure from consumers--who are the notebook adopters--who are saying
their number one priority on a notebook is battery life."
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