It's been shown to be false: http://www.tomshardware.com/…/page11.html

It's been shown to be false: http://www.tomshardware.com/…/page11.html"

Your conclusion is flawed.

The test you linked to uses a relatively powerful discrete graphics processor [Radeon X1900XTX] which takes the burden off the cpu to do the aero glass effects. This gpu is much more efficient than the extremely common integrated graphics chipsets that most laptops use since integrated solutions rely mainly on the cpu for directx calculations.

This less efficient approach explains why tomshardware didn't find much difference in power draw with their desktop system and why so many people find their notebook batteries draining much faster under vista.

I never said, that Aero consumes more power, then any other system component. However it does. Thus I wrote Vista Battery Saver. It treats a lot of Vista features (including, but not only Aero)