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Battery life on new rMBP - is mine normal?

H

Holly26

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 2, 2014
4
0
I'm concerned about the battery life on my new retina Macbook Pro. Before purchasing, I'd read many reviews raving about the battery life and how battery anxiety was a thing of the past with this model, and how people were going 7-8 hours with a fairly heavy workload with no problems.

My rMBP is a brand new late 2013 model, 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3, 512GB ssd, 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7, Intel Iris Pro 1024 MB graphics, and running OS X 10.9.1. It has only 3 battery cycles on it.

I use this laptop for surfing the web, watching videos, as well as editing large batches of raw images in Lightroom and Photoshop (however never really do the latter without being on the charger).

Removing the charger from 100% with only Safari running (with maybe 2-3 tabs open, no video or anything) usually tells me I have about 5.5 hours remaining. That, however, seems to deplete faster than should be accurate, especially if I go on to open another tab or two or, god forbid, a whole nother program.

Last night I was watching a movie on Netflix with the screen dimmed, and with a fully charged battery I was only showing 3.5 hours available.

Is this normal? I was not expecting the rMBP battery to be so touchy, and not quite up to par with the 8 hours of heavy work everyone was claiming. Is something wrong with my battery, or do I just need to do something different to extend my battery life?

Thanks!
 
Last edited:
P

princealyy

macrumors regular
Mar 27, 2011
128
3
Thats about how much battery I get too, I think when we use Netflix and other streaming sites it really diminishes the battery...

I wish there was a laptop that could go for 10 hours, but then the weight of the unit would be a concern.
 
S

snaky69

macrumors 603
Mar 14, 2008
5,908
488
Holly26 said:
I'm concerned about the battery life on my new retina Macbook Pro. Before purchasing, I'd read many reviews raving about the battery life and how battery anxiety was a thing of the past with this model, and how people were going 7-8 hours with a fairly heavy workload with no problems.

My rMBP is a brand new late 2013 model, 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3, 512GB ssd, 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7, Intel Iris Pro 1024 MB graphics, and running OS X 10.9.1. It has only 3 battery cycles on it.

I use this laptop for surfing the web, watching videos, as well as editing large batches of raw images in Lightroom and Photoshop (however never really do the latter without being on the charger).

Removing the charger from 100% with only Safari running (with maybe 2-3 tabs open, no video or anything) usually tells me I have about 5.5 hours remaining. That, however, seems to deplete faster than should be accurate, especially if I go on to open another tab or two or, god forbid, a whole nother program.

Last night I was watching a movie on Netflix with the screen dimmed, and with a fully charged battery I was only showing 3.5 hours available.

Is this normal? I was not expecting the rMBP battery to be so touchy, and not quite up to par with the 8 hours of heavy work everyone was claiming. Is something wrong with my battery, or do I just need to do something different to extend my battery life?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

That would be why.
 
H

Holly26

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 2, 2014
4
0
lol I know Netflix is why... but still, that's not very good.
 
S

snaky69

macrumors 603
Mar 14, 2008
5,908
488
Holly26 said:
lol I know Netflix is why... but still, that's not very good.
Click to expand...

Lifted from the Apple website:

"Testing conducted by Apple in October 2013 using preproduction 2.3GHz quad-core Intel Core i7–based 15‑inch MacBook Pro units, preproduction 2.0GHz quad-core Intel Core i7–based 15‑inch MacBook Pro units and preproduction 2.6GHz dual-core Intel Core i5–based 13‑inch MacBook Pro units. The wireless web test measures battery life by wirelessly browsing 25 popular websites with display brightness set to 12 clicks from bottom or 75%. The HD movie playback test measures battery life by playing back HD 720p content with display brightness set to 12 clicks from bottom or 75%. The standby test measures battery life by allowing a system, connected to a wireless network, to enter standby mode with Safari and Mail applications launched and all system settings left at default. Battery life varies by use and configuration. See http://www.apple.com/batteries for more information."

The websites contain no flash whatsoever, and they switch page every 30 seconds until the battery dies. Bluetooth is turned off, and time machine as well.

If you do exactly that, you'll get the advertised battery life no problem.

No matter the manufacturer, I usually cut the claimed battery life in half for any serious work, and usually am right. Your battery is not faulty.
 
H

Holly26

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 2, 2014
4
0
snaky69 said:
Lifted from the Apple website:

"Testing conducted by Apple in October 2013 using preproduction 2.3GHz quad-core Intel Core i7–based 15‑inch MacBook Pro units, preproduction 2.0GHz quad-core Intel Core i7–based 15‑inch MacBook Pro units and preproduction 2.6GHz dual-core Intel Core i5–based 13‑inch MacBook Pro units. The wireless web test measures battery life by wirelessly browsing 25 popular websites with display brightness set to 12 clicks from bottom or 75%. The HD movie playback test measures battery life by playing back HD 720p content with display brightness set to 12 clicks from bottom or 75%. The standby test measures battery life by allowing a system, connected to a wireless network, to enter standby mode with Safari and Mail applications launched and all system settings left at default. Battery life varies by use and configuration. See http://www.apple.com/batteries for more information."

The websites contain no flash whatsoever, and they switch page every 30 seconds until the battery dies. Bluetooth is turned off, and time machine as well.

If you do exactly that, you'll get the advertised battery life no problem.

No matter the manufacturer, I usually cut the claimed battery life in half for any serious work, and usually am right. Your battery is not faulty.
Click to expand...

Hmmm. Helpful, thanks!
 
E

esskay

macrumors 6502
Jan 3, 2008
308
7
Apple states battery life of 8 hrs for the rmbp15 and 9 hrs for the rmbp13.

Given real world feedback from guys above of the 15 maybe getting 4-5hrs with heavy use, what are folks with the 13 seeing with heavy use? A little more than that?
 
F

Fimeg

macrumors regular
Jun 12, 2013
150
5
Holly26 said:
I'm concerned about the battery life on my new retina Macbook Pro. Before purchasing, I'd read many reviews raving about the battery life and how battery anxiety was a thing of the past with this model, and how people were going 7-8 hours with a fairly heavy workload with no problems.

My rMBP is a brand new late 2013 model, 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3, 512GB ssd, 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7, Intel Iris Pro 1024 MB graphics, and running OS X 10.9.1. It has only 3 battery cycles on it.

I use this laptop for surfing the web, watching videos, as well as editing large batches of raw images in Lightroom and Photoshop (however never really do the latter without being on the charger).

Removing the charger from 100% with only Safari running (with maybe 2-3 tabs open, no video or anything) usually tells me I have about 5.5 hours remaining. That, however, seems to deplete faster than should be accurate, especially if I go on to open another tab or two or, god forbid, a whole nother program.

Last night I was watching a movie on Netflix with the screen dimmed, and with a fully charged battery I was only showing 3.5 hours available.

Is this normal? I was not expecting the rMBP battery to be so touchy, and not quite up to par with the 8 hours of heavy work everyone was claiming. Is something wrong with my battery, or do I just need to do something different to extend my battery life?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Note: You can increase the battery when on Netflix by making sure to use the integrated graphics instead of the discrete card. I use GFX Card Status to do this.
 
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