2010 MBP Battery Life Question

[windowdrummer]

Hey, new here. I just bought a base-model 13" MBP and have an inquiry about the battery. The Apple site states it has 10 hours of batt. life. However, after a full charge my notebook mentions that just about 7 hours of life is remaining. Shouldn't it be showing 10?

Here's my battery info if it helps:

Battery Information:

Model Information:
Serial Number: 9G0230QZPD3MA
Manufacturer: DP
Device name: bq20z451
Pack Lot Code: 0000
PCB Lot Code: 0000
Firmware Version: 0201
Hardware Revision: 0002
Cell Revision: 0158
Charge Information:
Charge remaining (mAh): 5475
Fully charged: No
Charging: No
Full charge capacity (mAh): 5825
Health Information:
Cycle count: 3
Condition: Normal
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): -1002
Voltage (mV): 12202

I'm quite a newbie so thanks for any help.

 

[spinnerlys]

Apple on notebook batteries
Apple Portable: Calibrating your computer's battery for best performance
Laptop Battery Guide

Apple Notebook Battery FAQ

Have a look at Activity Monitor (Applications > Utilities) and select Show All Processes and sort by CPU to see what the culprit may be (the more CPU is used, the more power is needed, thus the battery is drained faster).

image below uses sorting by CPU as an example

Also use MRoogle to find thousands of battery threads, that revolve ariund the same issue.

 

[chris2k5]

10 hours is when you lower the screen all the way down to the last bar.

Currently I have the brightness at 2/3 with Wi-Fi on and I am just browsing forums and it says 8 hours. And yes I do get the full 8 hours. Once i go on Youtube, it goes down to 3-4 hours.

 

[celticpride678]

Depends on what you are doing on the computer. For example, watching videos will decrease battery life significantly.

I recommend doing a battery calibration, repair disk permissions and reset the SMC.

 

[windowdrummer]

thanks for the links and information. really helped me out in understanding. and yeah in my haste i failed to notice that the reported time varies greatly with change in usage. the life i've been actually getting, while i haven't timed it, isn't grossly less or anything. i've always used desktops so it's probably an elementary thing.

thanks all.

 

[chris2k5]

thanks for the links and information. really helped me out in understanding. and yeah in my haste i failed to notice that the reported time varies greatly with change in usage. the life i've been actually getting, while i haven't timed it, isn't grossly less or anything. i've always used desktops so it's probably an elementary thing.

thanks all.

And notice that even when viewing or watching videos, you'll get 3-4 hours of battery life which is MORE than most PC's during IDLE!