13 inch rMBP 7 hours battery life???

[Ellenccc]

Hi guys, I just purchased my 13" rMBP (the mid-range 256GB one) yesterday. After a first full charge, at 100% battery remaining, the estimated time remaining shows to be 7:10??? There is no app open, nothing is running. Why is the battery life under 8 hours? I thought the 13" is supposed to have 9 hours? I got a low-end 13" before I exchanged it for this one, the previous one had more than 10 hours after a full charge.

Is this an issue?? Should I bring it back to Apple?

 

[Woodcrest64]

Hi guys, I just purchased my 13" rMBP (the mid-range 256GB one) yesterday. After a first full charge, at 100% battery remaining, the estimated time remaining shows to be 7:10??? There is no app open, nothing is running. Why is the battery life under 8 hours? I thought the 13" is supposed to have 9 hours? I got a low-end 13" before I exchanged it for this one, the previous one had more than 10 hours after a full charge.

Is this an issue?? Should I bring it back to Apple?

Lower your brightness to 66 to 70%ish... Don't touch the computer for 1 minute, then check and tell us what it says.

 

[Ellenccc]

Lower your brightness to 66 to 70%ish... Don't touch the computer for 1 minute, then check and tell us what it says.

It says 7:59 at 97% now. Normal?
Does low/mid end models differ in battery life because of the difference in SSD? It shouldn't right?...
I got something like 10:22 once with the 13" that I returned...

 

[mlemonds]

I wonder if like phones, a mac benefits from a couple battery cycles to get properly calibrated. I just got a new 15" and the first time it said i only had a little over 5 hours on a full charge. Now I am getting closer and sometimes exceeding the advertised 8 hours. Give it a couple cycles and see what happens?

 

[Ellenccc]

I wonder if like phones, a mac benefits from a couple battery cycles to get properly calibrated. I just got a new 15" and the first time it said i only had a little over 5 hours on a full charge. Now I am getting closer and sometimes exceeding the advertised 8 hours. Give it a couple cycles and see what happens?

That makes sense! I guess I'll be patient and if it a couple of cycles and see. Thanks!

 

[Meister]

7 to 8 hours sounds about right.

 

[nobodyjustwalks]

It says 7:59 at 97% now. Normal?

Does low/mid end models differ in battery life because of the difference in SSD? It shouldn't right?...

I got something like 10:22 once with the 13" that I returned...

The reason you're seeing varying times in the "time left" display is because it's not a static measurement.

Depending on your screen and keyboard brightness, depending on if you're touching your trackpad or keyboard while waiting for the measurement, depending on what programs you're running and what those programs are doing, your "charge left" times will vary. I can boot my computer, turn my brightness down to about 50-65% and touch nothing, and my battery estimate easily jumps into the 10-12 hr range. Then, the instant I being using my computer the "time left" indicator drops because it's revising its estimate according to what I'm doing. Generally down to the 4-7 hr range.

Does this mean your computer will last only as long as is displayed? That's hard to tell because during normal use we work on our computers, then let them sleep, then continue working; not to mention the specific programs we're running. Are we watching videos or surfing the web? Are we using Chrome (a resource hog) or Safari, optimized for Yosemite?

Lastly, Apple's estimates are gotten from testing within specific parameters. Personally, I don't think Apple's test represents the type of usage most MBPs see and to tell you the truth what test would? They could do it differently, sure. But there are so many ways we use our Macs it'd be hard to quantify for a broad swath of the MBP buying public.

 

[Natzoo]

yeah i got 4 hrs on my 15" retina but i have full brightness on and one tab open on safari.

 

[Z3man]

yeah i got 4 hrs on my 15" retina but i have full brightness on and one tab open on safari.

Full brightness, are you wearing sunglasses.

I have just got the base 15" rMBP and i am getting between 8 and 9 hours when surfing and/or playing music, i have the brightness set at 50%. If i have it set at 100% i can't look at the screen it is that bright.

 

[Natzoo]

wow i must be blind. My mac is always at full brightness during the day.

 

[Z3man]

You must have a lot more sun over there and need a brighter screen, its winter over here and not a lot of sun in the UK. To use full brightness here in the UK i would have to be sat outside,

 

[Natzoo]

You must have a lot more sun over there and need a brighter screen, its winter over here and not a lot of sun in the UK. To use full brightness here in the UK i would have to be sat outside,

i took your advice and turned down my display brightness to 3 less from the max and i have over 6 hrs of battery life.

 

[JHUFrank]

Guys, I will just say it flat out here and now, I have never gotten more than 4.5-6 hours of battery life on this rMBP. I still love it. Much better display than my Air, great design, lots of storage and 16gigs of ram. Great VM machine.
But it just doesn't have great battery life. I would get 9 hours of my MBA. IMO, its a good tradeoff.