15" MacBook Pro Battery Tests: "Eight, freakin, hours"

gfountain said:
Well, as someone that has frequented the Genius Bar - I can assure you that you cannot get anything done - not even a memory upgrade - in 1 to 2 hours - at least not at the Apple Stores in Dallas/Ft. Worth (3 of them). It took 4 DAYS to get my defective HDD replaced. Now something soldered into the unit - I wonder in a poll how many of them know what a soldering iron is ;)
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Well nothing in life is perfect. I've been too a few Apple stores now and had great experiences. My frequent one, the Apple store Eatons Centre, is pretty awesome. I brought by Gf's MacBook in for a ram upgrade to 4GB and it was done within an hour after some paperwork and double checking to make sure they had the right kind. I also had an issue where something got messed up in the system and they fixed it within a pretty short period of time (that day). I'm very impressed with Apple's level of customer service.
 
When my battery meter turns red I have exactly 1 hour of charge left. :) That's pretty darn good. Full brightness 75% of the time too.
 
Unprocessed1 said:
When my battery meter turns red I have exactly 1 hour of charge left. :) That's pretty darn good. Full brightness 75% of the time too.
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Well, the indicator turns red when the battery goes below 15%, right? If so a simple math revelas that you get 100/15=6,6 hours at total.
 
Jawsome said:
Maybe monetarily.

I think users like how simple it is to buy a new battery and pop it in themselves, as opposed to handing it over to a sales person for....and this is the other issue...does anyone know how long it takes to replace these? I had one rep tell me 'a few days' and another one at a different store say 'a few minutes'.

If you have to give up your computer for a few days to replace a battery that in the past has been a 2 minute ordeal on your desk, that isn't the same price, and it's ridiculous. However if it is true that they can be replaced in a matter of minutes at the store it seems reasonable, especially since they need to be replaced MUCH less often.
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You mean "some" user like how simple it is--most laptop users don't have a spare battery and don't miss it, or else the sales would be enormous. And are you worried about not having a few minutes free time 5 years from now?
 
J the Ninja said:
I can't imagine it taking more than 10 minutes for someone with a lot of a practice doing it. "A few days" would only be if the tech/Genius couldn't get to it right away, ie they had a que of machines to be worked on.
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Fine and dandy if you live near an Apple store. I don't.
 
Veri said:
Things I have learnt about batteries on any consumer equipment:

1. No-one's idea of "real world scenario" seems to match mine, because I never get as many hours as salesmen or reviewers do out of new machines.

2. All claimed reports on capacity loss are wrong, and need to be cut by about a quarter unless the battery is left outside of the machine in a cool, dry environment.

3. When batteries start going wrong - e.g. bulging, leaking, etc. - you want to take them out now. Possibly even yesterday, or last week. And it's imperative to have visual clues that this'll happen, otherwise you will (at best) ruin your hardware.

4. There's always room for a spare battery. There's not always a spare power outlet and adapter.

5. Batteries are cheaper and manufactured by third parties for longer when they are easily replaceable. I can still get batteries for 6-8 year old laptops that I or my colleagues/family/friends use.

6. I take better care of my hardware than anyone else, and I am also available to me wherever and whenever I am, so battery replacements are most conveniently done by me.

7. I also take better care of my private data than anyone else, and I'm not going to waste my time removing my hard drive just so someone else can replace my battery. Even if there were a convenient audited full-disk encryption solution for OS X, it doesn't mean I'm going to ignore the principle of multiple layers of defense - where one important layer is "don't give your machine to anyone else unless unavoidable".

What's going to happen in 2-3 years' time is what happens with every other new battery tech that's ever been divined: heavy or (as yet undefined, since it depends on the tech) atypical users will find their batteries mostly dead. Light users or those who buy a new machine every month will claim correctly that it doesn't affect them.

I can just about stomach getting a low end iPod with a hard-to-replace battery. A laptop, or even a phone? For all the reasons above, never.
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+1
 
recharging up to 1000 times until the capacity reaches about 80% is nice. however, my current macbook pro (january 2009) has now 197 cycles and still a battery health of 97%!!

I think that apple became very conservative about this figures.
 

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Batteries

I bought my 15: MBP in Feb. Everything about it is great except the battery life. It's not terrible by any means but it would be soooo nice to plug the thing in only once a day. Sigh. I still love my 'puter.

512ke
 
jay-t said:
recharging up to 1000 times until the capacity reaches about 80% is nice. however, my current macbook pro (january 2009) has now 197 cycles and still a battery health of 97%!!

I think that apple became very conservative about this figures.
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Lies, damn lies and :apple: claims! I sure hope this time the 1000 times 80% claim is at least a tad bit more consistent.
 

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Jawsome said:
I had one rep tell me 'a few days' and another one at a different store say 'a few minutes'.

If you have to give up your computer for a few days to replace a battery that in the past has been a 2 minute ordeal on your desk, that isn't the same price, and it's ridiculous.
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J the Ninja said:
I can't imagine it taking more than 10 minutes for someone with a lot of a practice doing it. "A few days" would only be if the tech/Genius couldn't get to it right away, ie they had a que of machines to be worked on.
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"A few days"…please. That person didn't no better or was covering Apple's ass. If you had a Genius appointment, they look at it longer than 10 minutes and that's to actually try to determine problems. If it's a battery replacement, there's no "looking it over" to do. They just do the battery swap. Most likely, they'll will train any number of their other minor employees to do simply battery swaps.

In 3-5 years when this is actually an issue, when you set up your appointment, they're will most likely be a box to check for battery replacements. If you CHECK the box, there will most likely be a set of instructions that dynamically pop into place, giving you options of the selecting the type of machine you have so that Apple will be more prepared for you when you come in.

I don't really know why the FUD/Worry there is over issue that, for the next few years, is about as moot as things get.
 
My 15 inch MacBook Pro 2.53Ghz unibody only last for 2 hours, while it says it can last for 5 hours
 
Well, i have a white Macbook and here is the istat pro's output.
 

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windywoo said:
Woot 100% health after 177 cycles.
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I wouldn't believe that. My last black Macbook had over four hundred cycles on it and iStat and Coconut both said it had 99% battery health. I even calibrated it. Although I won't complain about it's life, even after over four hundred cycles I was still getting two and a half hours out of the battery.
 
as TuffLuffJimmy already said, another good way to measure battery health is the app coconutbattery. I´d say that this one is even more accurate.
 

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Coconut battery and iStat are great applications, however Apple will not allow screenshots of those apps to be eligible for a new battery replacement for free. You need a screenshot of Apple System Profiler. (This will help people that have intermittent drops in battery health that seem to magically improve when you get to the Apple Store).
 
TuffLuffJimmy said:
I wouldn't believe that. My last black Macbook had over four hundred cycles on it and iStat and Coconut both said it had 99% battery health. I even calibrated it. Although I won't complain about it's life, even after over four hundred cycles I was still getting two and a half hours out of the battery.
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Well, mine has 191 charge cycles and it is healty 100% as a toddler. :cool:
 
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