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2011 MBP 13" Battery is NOT "worse"

S

suckatcomputers

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 23, 2011
105
0
I just got back from the Apple store to grab my 2011 MBP 13".

Here's what the guy explained to me in a nutshell about the battery:

-It's the SAME BATTERY as the 2010.

-When the 2010 battery was tested, they had all the settings and running programs low. The brightness was set at under 50%, for example. The 2011s, they had all the settings higher, and had the brightness at 50%.

-And the obvious: Faster, more powerful processor + same battery as 2010 = battery won't last as long as the 2010s.

So the battery did NOT get "worse."

Hope this helps.
 
suckatcomputers said:
I just got back from the Apple store to grab my 2011 MBP 13".

Here's what the guy explained to me in a nutshell about the battery:

-It's the SAME BATTERY as the 2010.

-When the 2010 battery was tested, they had all the settings and running programs low. The brightness was set at under 50%, for example. The 2011s, they had all the settings higher, and had the brightness at 50%.

-And the obvious: Faster, more powerful processor + same battery as 2010 = battery won't last as long as the 2010s.

So the battery did NOT get "worse."

Hope this helps.
Click to expand...


Sandy bridge uses less power, so he doesnt know what he is talking about. Period.

They changed the way they do the tests. The new test that are done on the MBA's are now done on the MBPs.

Simple as that.
 
kgeier82 said:
Sandy bridge uses less power, so he doesnt know what he is talking about. Period.

They changed the way they do the tests. The new test that are done on the MBA's are now done on the MBPs.

Simple as that.
Click to expand...

lol. thank you. +1
 
Not saying that the guy was wrong, but I'm pretty sure the guys at the apple store have no idea about the way apple does the test. It's probably why his manager told him to tell customers that ask about the shorter battery life.
 
kgeier82 said:
Sandy bridge uses less power, so he doesnt know what he is talking about. Period.

They changed the way they do the tests. The new test that are done on the MBA's are now done on the MBPs.

Simple as that.
Click to expand...

That might be the case, but the processor has still gained a lot of power so I think the power usage will be about the same (because the technology reduces the power usage).

Btw, have exactly the same setup on my MBP :p
 
kgeier82 said:
Sandy bridge uses less power, so he doesnt know what he is talking about. Period.

They changed the way they do the tests. The new test that are done on the MBA's are now done on the MBPs.

Simple as that.
Click to expand...

Interesting. I don't know too much about processors. It's much, much faster but uses less power?
 
Apple actually switched to using higher wattage processors across the line. The SB processors in the 13" are now 35W vs. the previous 25W C2Ds.

However, the reason the battery life decreased was not only this. Apple also switched to a new testing suite. They now had the computers going to the most popular sites online and doing what the sites were designed to do. Some of this included flash video, etc. This was also over Wi-fi. It makes complete sense that the estimated battery time should decrease. If you have your screen dimmed and are just doing some document editing with the Wifi off, for example, you could probably get more than 10 hours easy.
 
axu539 said:
Apple actually switched to using higher wattage processors across the line. The SB processors in the 13" are now 35W vs. the previous 25W C2Ds.

However, the reason the battery life decreased was not only this. Apple also switched to a new testing suite. They now had the computers going to the most popular sites online and doing what the sites were designed to do. Some of this included flash video, etc. This was also over Wi-fi. It makes complete sense that the estimated battery time should decrease. If you have your screen dimmed and are just doing some document editing with the Wifi off, for example, you could probably get more than 10 hours easy.
Click to expand...

just a note on the 13" MBP, CPU has the GPU die as well so 35watts includes CPU + GPU power consumption.

Earlier Core 2 Duo CPU (25 watts) + GPU (x number of watts i guess somewhere between 10 to 20 watts for the nVidia GPU)

so definitely the CPU's power efficiency improved in new 2011 13.3" MBPs

If I am not wrong, this sandy bridge CPUs are the power efficient mobile CPUs every created by Intel.

cannot wait till the Intel goes to Ivy Bridge (22nm or something)

next year is the year to buy Macbook Air...

MacBook Air - Laptop/Notebook
Macbook Pro - Desktop replacement Notebooks

and soon iMac will be discontinued ...
 
Well the "new" tests seem to be a bad thing for Apple - Because people see that the battery life is 3 hours shorter on the Apple website, which puts them off that computer.
 
I still think the new tests are simply an excuse to cover up the fact that there is a heavier power draw from the newer systems.

But the old battery tests were a joke.

The wording used to be something like: viewed various webpages with wifi turned on, screen at 50%...

I've heard rumours though, that they were viewing the webpages offline, thus the wifi was sitting idle. It's all marketing BS anyhow. If you use your MBP like a normal computer, you will get 4-5 hours battery life. If you conserve and crank everything down, sure you'll stretch it out a bit, but it will be a sub-optimal experience.
 
mikeo007 said:
I still think the new tests are simply an excuse to cover up the fact that there is a heavier power draw from the newer systems.

But the old battery tests were a joke.

The wording used to be something like: viewed various webpages with wifi turned on, screen at 50%...

I've heard rumours though, that they were viewing the webpages offline, thus the wifi was sitting idle. It's all marketing BS anyhow. If you use your MBP like a normal computer, you will get 4-5 hours battery life. If you conserve and crank everything down, sure you'll stretch it out a bit, but it will be a sub-optimal experience.
Click to expand...

Yeah most normal people have their screen brightness above 50% with everything turned on and doing more than just viewing static webpages -_-
 
Update: All I did was use Safari for my 2010 and same for my 2011 the past couple days. So from ONLY browsing the internet and transferring a few files over from a usb stick, I noticed the battery life did get slightly shorter. I'd say by 10-20 minutes.

10-20 minutes? I probably wouldn't have noticed if I didn't hear all this stuff about "worse battery."

The new processor is WICKED! I'll sacrifice 30 minutes of battery for this! Browsing is quicker, although there are some minor kinks I will post about next.
 
suckatcomputers said:
Update: All I did was use Safari for my 2010 and same for my 2011 the past couple days. So from ONLY browsing the internet and transferring a few files over from a usb stick, I noticed the battery life did get slightly shorter. I'd say by 10-20 minutes.

10-20 minutes? I probably wouldn't have noticed if I didn't hear all this stuff about "worse battery."

The new processor is WICKED! I'll sacrifice 30 minutes of battery for this! Browsing is quicker, although there are some minor kinks I will post about next.
Click to expand...

I notice my 21.5" iMac with i3 is much faster than my Core2Duo MBP too ;) Man, imagine what an i7 would be like in a MBP :D
 
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