From: mike 


http://news.com.com/2100-1044_3-6181366.html?tag=nefd.lede

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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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  /m

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