Just bought the new base model 15" MBP for my wife last night. While she's pissed I spent the money on it, I know she's going to love it once she starts to use it. 
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15" MacBook Pro Battery Tests: "Eight, freakin, hours"
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i use my macbook (which is now called macbookpro. yes it's not unibody, but back in the days it was expensive enough!) regularly to work on something while going by train. what's so stupid about efficient timemanagement? instead of just sitting in my seat doing nothing or listening to music, i can actually work, which is going to save me a lot of time afterwards.Oh how I love those self-righteous "I know everything better" people.
Why don't you just read the referenced article, before you turn yourself into an object of ridicule?
Again: Read the article. You will find everything explained and actually even more scenarios there. Dumb is who does not do read.
I've tried and failed -you cannot get more than 3hrs. Apple lies when they say 5 hr - they have invented a good way to get away with it
Then Anand must also lie.
Or ... you could read the article and find out about that 8-hour figure and the usage pattern and other scenarios and and and
8 hours sounds pretty good to me. With the very first powerbooks I carried a second battery because the effective usage time was about two hours. Since then very few do. I would imagine just the use of use makes it a drag to carr extra stuff. Also seems easier to plug in somewhere now as coffee shops, airports, etc expect their patrons to plug in. So I guess I'm saying its no biggy for me and I welcome more use time.
You and lots of others are making the basic mistake here when it comes to the idea of replaceable batteries. Replaceable batteries are a means to an end, not the end of means. You are so gung-ho about having replaceable batteries that you forget the reason you want to replace the batteries in the first place!
Replaceable batteries are a means to an end, not the end of means. You want to replace batteries in your laptop because you want more battery-power from the laptop. But fact is that you can achieve that goal (more battery-power) through other means besides replacing batteries. One way is to have longer-lasting batteries (that's what Apple provides you with). The other way is to have external battery-pack.
So why are you constantly staring at whether it is possible to replace the batteries or not, when you should be staring that whether it's possible to increase the battery-life of the laptop? Carrying spare batteries is only one way of getting more battery-life from your laptop, but it's NOT the only way!
I'm seriously amazed that so many people fail to understand this basic thing... No, you can't replace the battery on the new Macbook, but you CAN use alternative methods to get more battery-life from the machine.
I honestly don't understand what the problem is.... Why are you only staring at replaceable batteries, instead of looking at alternative means of getting same results? The results (more battery-life) are the important thing, not the means (replaceable batteries, external battery-packs, longer-lasting batteries)....
Maybe this needs lots of effort and labour? Lots of people are shouting "we need to be able to replace batteries!" when they should be shouting "we need to get more battery-life out of the laptop!". They are confusing means with the ends.
No, carrying external batteries is not any more inconvenient than carrying spare batteries is.
I'd apply the "pathetic" comment to the lack of eSATA as well....
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On the question of the user-swappable battery, if Apple had an external battery pack designed by Ives, then I'd think that everyone should be happy. (Or at least Apple could sell something like the external pack mentioned above in the Apple stores.)
If the battery life is really as good as Apple claims (both for runtime, and number of charges before replacement), then very few people should have an issue with the internal battery. (I'll assume that Apple will sell the battery itself to DIY'ers who don't have a convenient genius bar nearby.)
However, no matter how long the battery runtime is - there will be people whose business or pleasure keeps them away from a power outlet for longer than that time. Currently these people swap batteries - they need to switch to carrying an external(s) instead. Stop complaining about the "need to swap batteries" when the real problem of extended runtime can be solved by external batteries.
(I have one of the APC externals, on long days I keep it in my bag, and run the cord to the laptop. I've had some strange looks when people see the power cord in my laptop, when I'm obviously nowhere close to an outlet.)
I don't know how accurate these are. The 17 inch got around 8 as ell. But as soon as you played a movie it didn't even finish it and it was only a bit more than 2 hours.
I read the article - you missed out reading my previous posts
The poster was asking how to get 5 hours on 2007 MBP - I know for sure you can't. With the better battery on the 2009 models, when Anand gets 8hrs you can hope for 5hrs - that was my point. (Earlier models Anand got 5hrs so you hoped for 3).Did you actually read the article on Anandtech, or just glance at the summary here at Macrumors?
If you had taken a minute or two, you would have seen that he also tested other scenarios as well, including heavy usage.
Maybe I just need to get with the times...
...but is Arrandale going to be that big a deal that it's advisable to wait til Q4 2010? I need a new laptop for college in August, but they said "it didn’t make any sense" to buy a new laptop now.
...but is Arrandale going to be that big a deal that it's advisable to wait til Q4 2010? I need a new laptop for college in August, but they said "it didn’t make any sense" to buy a new laptop now.
If you had taken a minute or two to actually read it, you'd see that he said, and I quote:
I found that CPU utilization varied from 5 - 35% during this test, which is about what I saw when I was actually surfing the web myself. The addition of Flash should make it more stressful, but it's still a fairly light usage test. My original web browsing test got us 8 hours, so what about this new one? Six and a half hours.
The only issue is that it's more of an inconvenience to get the battery replaced. Rather than doing a quick swap-out with a removable battery, the bottom casing must be removed.
While the replacement isn't too involved, it still requires more effort than a removable battery to switch.
I've been reading about the debate over what defines light usage.
However, like I've been constantly saying,
My battery indicator on my 2 month old rarely used new MBP 15" says 3hrs or occasionally a little more the instant I turn on the computer.
I assume, if I just leave it on without any web surfing, no applications running, with sleep-mode off, I'll only get 3hrs of battery life.
(screen is on at medium to low brightness. same for the keyboard backlight. the only battery concern perhaps is wifi being on)
To me, the "light usage" from the test is nearly impossible to replicate.
However, like I've been constantly saying,
My battery indicator on my 2 month old rarely used new MBP 15" says 3hrs or occasionally a little more the instant I turn on the computer.
I assume, if I just leave it on without any web surfing, no applications running, with sleep-mode off, I'll only get 3hrs of battery life.
(screen is on at medium to low brightness. same for the keyboard backlight. the only battery concern perhaps is wifi being on)
To me, the "light usage" from the test is nearly impossible to replicate.
Arrandale gives 10% more performance than Core 2 on the SuperPi benchmark. Note that the CPU won't be the only component upgraded in the next revision.
Apple Does Research On User Behavior and Then Applies Common Sense
Apple knows how people use their laptops. They solved the problem of folks who need to work most of the day on battery by making the battery last long enough to get through a day. Most people aren't glued to their laptop working for more than 6 hours in a day without some access to AC.
Those with no access to AC who have to work all day on their laptop for multiple days (or those who work more than 6 hours a day on their laptop) need to carry additional batteries - in the case of the new MBPs, the type of battery is an external battery pack. People in this situation are already carrying 1 or 2 additional batteries. The number of people in this situation is mighty small.
Ray
Apple knows how people use their laptops. They solved the problem of folks who need to work most of the day on battery by making the battery last long enough to get through a day. Most people aren't glued to their laptop working for more than 6 hours in a day without some access to AC.
Those with no access to AC who have to work all day on their laptop for multiple days (or those who work more than 6 hours a day on their laptop) need to carry additional batteries - in the case of the new MBPs, the type of battery is an external battery pack. People in this situation are already carrying 1 or 2 additional batteries. The number of people in this situation is mighty small.
Ray
um, that extra huge screen that doesn't have enough of an extra huge battery to compensate relative to the 15.
Is everyone who's stating their early "old" unibody MBP battery experiences remembering to switch to the 9400m first? .. I seem to get 4 hrs use, which is more than enough for me personally. I don't tend to be away from sockets for very long..
Having 6hrs or more would sometimes be nice though, just in case..!
Having 6hrs or more would sometimes be nice though, just in case..!
if you never use your laptop where you cannot plug it in, why do you even have one? i know it's convenient to sit on your couch and surf the web, or, of course, have it plugged in at work/university, but working apart from electrical supply or on the go was the original idea behind laptops, or am i wrong?