Doubt about netbook energy modes

Question

In my control panel there's an energy preferences option. There, I find a "Balanced" energy mode and a "Performance" energy mode. The only differences I detect are the brightness levels and the hibernation/sleep and shut down times for the netbook in case I am using the battery or the power cable.

Is there any other differences between using Economizer (all brightness down) and High Performance (all brightness up) besides the power usage? Are there any clock speed downgrade or something else that those options don't tell me?

My laptop is an Acer Aspire One D255 (single core) with Windows 7 starter.

Answer 1

There are a few other subtle changes you can see if you click on Change advanced power settings.

This can vary greatly between computers/hardware, however it usually comprises of things such as hard drive sleep time, lower performance graphics, underclocking CPU etc.

Advanced power options:

Answer 2

Power saving mode (economizer) does more than just adjust brightness, if you read the article below it also talks about downclocking the CPU, turning off wireless, putting video cards into low power mode and more.

Detailed article http://www.ithinkdiff.com/different-new-power-saving-options-in-windows-7/