Windows 7 Worse Than XP On Netbook Battery Life?

Netbook users could have a nasty surprise when they try to run any edition of Windows 7 on their beloved machines; reports have emerged that Microsoft's latest operating system will literally suck battery life out of netbooks.

Since one of the netbooks main attributes is their better-than-laptops battery life, this could seriously damage the reputation of Windows 7 as a netbook-ready OS. 

Tests performed by Laptop Magazine on three separate machines - one netbook and two laptops - showed that Windows 7 shaved a whopping 33 percent worth of battery life from the netbook. Laptops performed better with almost identical figures.

The poor battery performance was blamed on the lack of Windows 7 ready drivers and although performance might be better, it is still disappointing that netbook manufacturers - in this case Toshiba - have not yet release native Windows 7 drivers.

Back in February, tech website tomshardware also found that Windows 7 RC1 was a power drain with battery life reduced by 33 percent moving from XP SP3 to Windows 7 RC1 on an Aspire One D150 netbook.

Microsoft will target netbooks with the Windows 7 Starter version which will not include Aero Glass, the lack of which will likely help save some precious power.

We will try to see whether we can get our hands on a copy of Windows 7 Starter to test on a Netbook (and our suffering laptop).