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AnandTech tested both a MacBook Air and the new MacBook Pro, running OS X and Vista, via Boot Camp, under identical operating conditions. The results are unambiguous.

The MacBook Air provided 4.98 hours of wireless internet browsing in OS X but just 2.55 hours in Vista. DVD playback on OS X lasted 3.93 hours; under Vista the Mac managed 2.05 hours. The disparity was not much different under general heavy usage: 2.7 hours for OS X; 1.75 for Vista.

DVD playback was the sole test run on the MacBook Pro, where the difference was even more marked: 3.07 hours in OS X against just

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1.5 in Vista.

Just to check that the Macs aren’t somehow crippling battery life in Vista, Anandtech also tested a Lenovo X300 PC running Vista. In all three test it was outperformed by the MacBook Air running OS X, while it lasted roughly the same time when both machines were running Vista.

AndanTech admits that the figures are not conclusive, not least because it cannot find any explanation for the disparity, but it says that the results are “staggering” nonetheless. Even more staggering when you consider that far from crippling Vista, Macs have proved in the past to be the fastest Vista machines.

“All I can do for now is report the numbers as is,” says report author Anand Lal Shimpi. “An unexpected benefit of OS X appears to be better battery life. Go figure.”