Roughly what should my son expect for just some iTunes and Web Browsing, will he really see near 10 hours of use on a single charge? Very light user but we just bought this one Saturday so maybe battery needs some breakin, not sure.
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New MBP 2010 Battery life
- Thread starter Wicked1
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I have a macbook pro 15' 2.4 i5, And i am getting about 4.5 hours on mine. Brightness set to max and internet browsing.
With brightness set to a moderately low level by default (but with dynamic lighting enabled) and the keyboard backlight set at 1-2 notches from the bottom I typically get right at 5.5-6 hours.
I've got the 2010 13" MBP, and I get 10 hours on a charge...only if the screen is set to half brightness or less and I'm doing light Web browsing while a word processing file is open. You should be able to work that way for about 10 hours, too. Doing more will result in a shorter, but still very generous, battery lifesomething closer to 7ish hours with a brighter screen, frequent email checking, iTunes use, etc. It all depends.
Also you could try calibrating the battery again.
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1490
Try that, i do it once a month or so and it might be me imagining it but the battery is definitely more efficient.
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1490
Try that, i do it once a month or so and it might be me imagining it but the battery is definitely more efficient.
Once I calibrated the battery twice and in said something around 7-8 hours at a load that usually only gives me about 5 hours. It is really weird. Display brightness makes not such a big difference.
The weird thing is I got only a few times 9W at idle or less with lower birghtness or 10W with more than half brightness. 97% of the time doing the very same thing opening the same or even less or no Application at all it consumes 12-13W with the same brightness settings.
It is some Kernel task that is using the energy ant it is rarely not doing so. I thought I understood how it works but I really don't understand anything anymore. My guess is that if you install a little bit too many apps or one driver that logs too much or whatever you mess up your batterylife and are where all the usual Windows Notebooks end up too at around 4-6h depending on display brightness.
A TimelineX with the similar config and Windows 7 last about as long per Wh. They do last longer but they have a stronger battery too than a 15" MBP.
I don't know how Anandtech gets his great batterylife but as soon as you use your Notebook a little and install some useful stuff that is not some official Apple software you end up getting the same battery life as a Windows 7 Notebook with decent drivers. It is still good but I really wish there was some way to find the bad boys and kill them. But it has to be some Kernel level driver because everything else is idle.
My harddrive is set to shut down after 3 min and it never actually does. I would like to kill every and all logs on battery, which would make the harddrive shutdown and save about 1 W.
The weird thing is I got only a few times 9W at idle or less with lower birghtness or 10W with more than half brightness. 97% of the time doing the very same thing opening the same or even less or no Application at all it consumes 12-13W with the same brightness settings.
It is some Kernel task that is using the energy ant it is rarely not doing so. I thought I understood how it works but I really don't understand anything anymore. My guess is that if you install a little bit too many apps or one driver that logs too much or whatever you mess up your batterylife and are where all the usual Windows Notebooks end up too at around 4-6h depending on display brightness.
A TimelineX with the similar config and Windows 7 last about as long per Wh. They do last longer but they have a stronger battery too than a 15" MBP.
I don't know how Anandtech gets his great batterylife but as soon as you use your Notebook a little and install some useful stuff that is not some official Apple software you end up getting the same battery life as a Windows 7 Notebook with decent drivers. It is still good but I really wish there was some way to find the bad boys and kill them. But it has to be some Kernel level driver because everything else is idle.
My harddrive is set to shut down after 3 min and it never actually does. I would like to kill every and all logs on battery, which would make the harddrive shutdown and save about 1 W.
I don't think 10 hours is attainable without some severe cutbacks on how you would normally use the computer. 6 to 7 is very realistic. Note that Apple now claims to be using a more conservative rating system with their very newest models. This implies that the 10 hours is not necessarily a real world figure.
I had an '10 MBP 15" and usually I'd get 2-3 hours out of it. Maybe its the Fusion VM sucking it up. Or all the apps.
I just ordered a new one today with the 2.8 i7, we'll see if I get even less.
I've never got more than 3-4 hours on my 2.66 i7. How they came up with 8 hour battery life I'll never know.
How do you only get 3-4 hours on yours? Mine lasts a solid 6-8 when web browsing/ word processing.
With usual browsing (even flash enable) I get 8 on my 13 MBP. One day I had to write a paper and I did not get on the internet at all, I got about 10 1/2.
most sensible comment i have ever read on this topic of battery life.
when you look at your battery monitor you might even see crazy numbers like 13hours left. i sometimes get this after fully charging my 2010 13inch mbp
BUT in real life usage i have never managed more than 7 hours even with the screen brightness on low and just doing very simple tasks.
I get much more than that on my machine, you might wanna check that out some more.
Calibrate http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1490
Coconut is also a useful utility http://www.coconut-flavour.com/coconutbattery/
In discussing battery life, it's important to distinguish between estimated life as indicated by iStat Pro, iStat Menus or coconutBattery, and actual time until the MBP shuts down. The estimate will change from minute to minute, based on changes to the power demands of your system. Calibrating will make the estimated time more accurate, but will not extend or shorten the time you get from a charge.
This should answer most, if not all, of your battery questions: Apple Notebook Battery FAQ
God, I wish. Mine is more like 7.5 (same computer, brightness to half, using Safari and word mainly. Only difference is using the backlit keyboard usually with brightness to very low but you wouldn't think the backlight on very low would eat that much power). Then again, my battery has never been more than 98% full capacity and is already at 93% according to coconut battery and istat.
I've definitely reset/calibrated the battery before.
I dunno. Maybe I got a bad battery? If I watch a movie it's almost gone by the end of the movie. But it checks up fine in 'power' under system profiler. Really I'm lucky to get 3-4 hours at all just surfing the web or anything. granted I always have the brightness set to full, but I prefer it that way.
I am quite unsure how they came up with 8 hours. My old 2.4ghz santa rosa MBP got the exact same real life battery usage.
I think theres your problem. Try setting the brightness to 50% and the keyboard backlight to 1 or 2 notches. You will see an improvement.
If I set the brighness to 1 bar and the backlight keyboard off, I can get close to 9 hours on the 15" i5 when doing surfing on the internet and iTunes ( no flash ofcourse ).
With the Anti-Glare screen, 1 bar of brightness is still good, on the normal screen it's not possible however
edit: I don't know how Apple managed to get 9 hours of battery with 50% brightness, mine won't do it. Probably same story for the 13" MBP, that you'll only get 10 hours if you set brightness at 1 bar and keyboards light off.
With the Anti-Glare screen, 1 bar of brightness is still good, on the normal screen it's not possible however
edit: I don't know how Apple managed to get 9 hours of battery with 50% brightness, mine won't do it. Probably same story for the 13" MBP, that you'll only get 10 hours if you set brightness at 1 bar and keyboards light off.
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