New PB 12"

battery life depends on what you are doing at the time. there have been times i've had 5+ hours off an ibook (airport off, screen turned down, only using word) i've been getting about the same as you off my new 12" powerbook. it is still much better then my dell laptop so i'm happy.

I agree with the last post - if I am typing in word or some other non-processor-intensive task the battery seems to last for a really long time. Maybe this is the processor scaling at work. Regardles of the battery meter reading (which tends to hover around 3hrs-3hrs 45min after startup with a full charge) I find I get closer to 4hrs 30min of work out of a full charge.
As mentioned by 123abc, turning off Bluetooth and Airport helps as does lower screen brightness.

Jon

I agree with the other posts. A big way to extend your battery life is to turn the screen contrast down. You should get over 4 hrs of life on it even though it says you might not, as long as you're not doing anything too intense. I got about 4 hrs when I was trying to do some processor intesive stuff in order to wear out my battery to calibrate it. (See sig for specs). By the way, a great battery drainer is to turn up your screen contrast all the way, Repair Permissions, run MacJanitor and let your computer play itself in Chess .

Congratulations on your beautiful new machine ,
JOD8FY

5 Hours is just what Apple claims it has. It doesn't say how it got that conclusion that it will last 5 hours. I also agree with the other posts by turning down the backlighting on the screen and even in the Energy Saver System Pref, make it so when running off battery power to use reduced processing power. The backlighting of the screen, Airport Extreme turned on, lost of processing intensive tasks, etc will all eat away at your battery life. So toning them down or eliminating them will increase your battery life.

JOD8FY said:

You should get over 4 hrs of life on it even though it says you might not, as long as you're not doing anything too intense. I got about 4 hrs when I was trying to do some processor intesive stuff in order to wear out my battery to calibrate it. (See sig for specs).

Click to expand...

How are you getting 4+ hours on your laptop when I can only get 3:20 minutes consistently when I'm only using MS Word? I set my screen brightness at 4 notches below full brightness. I know I can turn that setting down a little, but it won't give me an additional 40+ minutes.

got a 12"

I got one of the new 12" powerbooks.

it is pretty damn nice. fast, and really nice looking.

however, I retract any statements I made previously.

it gets hot as hell on the bottom. on the surface, not a prob.

incapable of keeping it in my lap though.

moo

Why is everyone so worried about the brightness affecting the battery life? If they use what I think they use (basically a sheet of EL tape), the brightness of the screen uses such little power it really doesn't matter if it's on or not. I'm certain the LCD part uses much more power just constantly changing the pixels and doing it's thing, and there is no way you can adjust that. The brightness is just a matter of personal preference. Don't compromise your viewing experience to save a few minutes that I'm sure is never much of an issue for most mac users anyway. Even the 17" powerbook ruins any other manufacturer's high end laptops for battery life.

More power is needed to get a brighter screen.

However, you're right. This is why I only set my laptop 4 notches down from full screen brightness --- that's the lowest setting that doesn't bother me. Also, I normally keep my screen on that brightness.

The extra 10 minutes of life that my laptop would get if I were to use my PB at half screen brightness just ain't worth it.

brightness does play a part in it. if my ibook was running low or i was just too lazy to get out the charger or not around a power supply then i'd turn the screen down low. i could notice the difference by just glancing at the timer and watching it work in reverse for a little while.

i have not seen this on my powerbook yet but then i've only had it a few days and it has been connected to the charger for most of that time.

I was typing in MS-Word with the screen set to one notch and got 5 hours once. Oh yeah, the screen brightness really hurts my eyes and plugged in I still don't make it more than half the notches.