Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

goodtimes5

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 4, 2004
778
0
Bay Area
When I set my energy saver mode to highest performance, I only get a 2 min advantage over a setting such as DVD playback. You would think there would be a much larger gap. Also, at full charge, my iBook only says I will get along the lines of 3.5 hours of life. This is a new iBook. Shouldn't the battery life be longer for such a little thing that does nothing intensive and only acts to type notes?
 

sandman42

macrumors 6502a
Oct 23, 2003
959
59
Seattle
you may be typical - lucky, even...

For the life of me, I don't know how Apple gets away with the "up to 5 hours" or whatever it is claim. When my iBook was new 2.5 years ago, the best I ever saw was 2hrs 30mins. Even at that, I couldn't get through a 90min movie in DVD player. From what I read, this isn't out of the ordinary.

Now my iBook's a little long in the tooth, and I'm lucky if I get an hour out of a full charge. I'd buy another battery right away if I actually thought I could get 5hrs out of it, but at $129 I kinda feel like it's not a great investment..
 

Savage Henry

macrumors 65816
At the moment I have set my to 'Longest Battery Life' as I have recently replaced the battery (2yr old iBook you see) ... and I'm racking up about 3:45 from the moment it's first turned on. It may not be anywhere near the 5 hrs thing, but the 3:45(ish) is never accurate and I reckon I actually get about 4:15 from on to off after using little more than web,mail,office apps and iTunes.

Running DVDs would wipe it all out. So I can't think the iBook can do too much to elongate the battery charge if that is your setting.
 

BeoVir

macrumors member
Jun 3, 2004
47
0
Detroit, MI
I have seen that the power settings don't have a huge effect on my system, 12"pbook. But I can get over 4:30 out of it if I turn of the wireless and set the screen brightness down to the lowest setting (before it turns off). I use these settings @ school and it never varies enough from the estimated time for me to notice. I will post a screen shot in a bit.
 

BeoVir

macrumors member
Jun 3, 2004
47
0
Detroit, MI
Here are some pics attached.
 

Attachments

  • Huge Battery! thumb.png
    Huge Battery! thumb.png
    14.4 KB · Views: 163
  • Huge Battery! crop.png
    Huge Battery! crop.png
    4.2 KB · Views: 118

goodtimes5

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 4, 2004
778
0
Bay Area
how in the world do you work with only one bar of brightness? Your classroom must be very well lit. I go to a public school so no help there.
 

bankshot

macrumors 65816
Jan 23, 2003
1,367
416
Southern California
sandman42 said:
For the life of me, I don't know how Apple gets away with the "up to 5 hours" or whatever it is claim. When my iBook was new 2.5 years ago, the best I ever saw was 2hrs 30mins. Even at that, I couldn't get through a 90min movie in DVD player. From what I read, this isn't out of the ordinary.

Interesting. My iBook's just about 2 years old, and it still pretty easily gets over 3 hours of battery life with normal usage. Turning down the brightness does have a noticeable effect too. I haven't tried to see how much I could squeeze out of it lately, though. I'd be a little surprised if I could go above 4 hours at this point, but I don't know since there's usually power readily available when needed. I know I've gotten about 4.5 hours before when it was fairly new.

In comparison to my 15" PowerBook at work, the iBook is excellent. I'm not sure if I've ever gotten more than 2.5 hours with the PowerBook. A little disappointing, really.

As for the estimated time, remember that it's merely an estimate. The computer has no real way of predicting the load you'll inflict upon it in the immediate future, so don't trust that number. ;)
 

Mechcozmo

macrumors 603
Jul 17, 2004
5,215
2
I get a routine 5:30 out of my 12" PowerBook. No wireless whatsoever, 1 bar of brightness (not really that bad indoors, actually) and I only do Word, etc. Plus I black out the screen if I am listening, but don't want the computer to sleep...
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.