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5 hour battery normal on new i5 MBP?

A

andrewmunn

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 20, 2010
5
0
My new MBP has 5 hours of battery when doing light web browsing at medium brightness. Only 2-3 hours when playing low res youtube clips, and 6:45 hours with all apps and wifi turned off and screen brightness at minimum.

When I first turned on the MBP I charged it to 100% and then discharged it down to 0. Is this battery life normal? What happened to 8-9 hours with wifi and web browsing? I can't even get 7 hours with everything off!
 
2

256bit

macrumors member
Feb 22, 2010
59
0
andrewmunn said:
My new MBP has 5 hours of battery when doing light web browsing at medium brightness. Only 2-3 hours when playing low res youtube clips, and 6:45 hours with all apps and wifi turned off and screen brightness at minimum.

When I first turned on the MBP I charged it to 100% and then discharged it down to 0. Is this battery life normal? What happened to 8-9 hours with wifi and web browsing? I can't even get 7 hours with everything off!
Click to expand...

Definitely not good. Normal? I can't say. Hopefully you just got a lemon.
What's your screen size? It may be part of the issue.
 
spinnerlys

spinnerlys

Guest
Sep 7, 2008
14,328
7
forlod bygningen
Take a look at Activity Monitor and select to SHOW ALL PROCESSES or use iStat Menus to monitor CPU usage or use MRoogle to find hundreds of threads about CPU use and the battery time indicator and whatnot.
 
B

BaronStein

macrumors regular
Feb 11, 2010
135
0
NY
Are those the numbers on battery life indicator? Or actual experience? What I can truly say is that my battery lasts almost 7-8 hours while browsing and taking notes on class. Even now, while typing these, it shows 4.23 hours with a percentage of %65 while the brightness is between 1/3 and 1/2. And I had almost 3 hours of class today and it only took 35% of its life.

You might wanna check whether the automatic graphics switching is on or off.
 
L

lilo777

macrumors 603
Nov 25, 2009
5,144
0
BaronStein said:
Are those the numbers on battery life indicator? Or actual experience? What I can truly say is that my battery lasts almost 7-8 hours while browsing and taking notes on class. Even now, while typing these, it shows 4.23 hours with a percentage of %65 while the brightness is between 1/3 and 1/2. And I had almost 3 hours of class today and it only took 35% of its life.

You might wanna check whether the automatic graphics switching is on or off.
Click to expand...

Note taking must be an application that consumes the less power. For computer, it's probably as close to idle state as it gets :)
 
mgacam2

mgacam2

macrumors regular
Jul 27, 2007
210
1
What exactly is everyone expecting? 9 hours on light usage is very easy. My roomate is getting constant 10-11 hours doing note taking with wifi on blue tooth off and brightness at about 3 notchs. Remember people flash isn't just youtube, its websites too. Go to a non flash website and surf and you should get 9 hours no problem. I'v always found it so odd how people expect to be able to use their laptop exactly the same they normally do to attain maximum battery life. Be smart close apps you arent using and stay away from flash!
 
alphaod

alphaod

macrumors Core
Feb 9, 2008
22,183
1,245
NYC
Yeah I get about 5 hours of battery life.

I'm not too concerned; it's kind of expected.
 
A

andrewmunn

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 20, 2010
5
0
mgacam2 said:
What exactly is everyone expecting? 9 hours on light usage is very easy. My roomate is getting constant 10-11 hours doing note taking with wifi on blue tooth off and brightness at about 3 notchs. Remember people flash isn't just youtube, its websites too. Go to a non flash website and surf and you should get 9 hours no problem. I'v always found it so odd how people expect to be able to use their laptop exactly the same they normally do to attain maximum battery life. Be smart close apps you arent using and stay away from flash!
Click to expand...

To be clear, I'm getting about 7 hours on the battery indicator with NO apps open at all and no internet with screen brightness all the way down. Five hours with light web browsing.
 
G

gcortega

macrumors member
Aug 3, 2007
77
0
I'm getting the same...about 4-5 hours doing web browsing with the screen three notches below full brightness :(
 
H

hockey9999

macrumors member
Mar 11, 2010
76
0
I honestly think that some of my battery issues are the result of GPU issues. I have noticed that after a bit of use, battery or plugged in, my 17" i5 is getting stuck on the 330M, even after I quit every open application. The only way I can get back to the Intel HD GPU is by rebooting or logging out.

I have been posting my observations over here https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/901521/ and just started a thread on the official Apple support forum.
 
M

macinside

macrumors member
Apr 17, 2010
42
0
I've been reading as many threads as I can on multiple forums about battery life so I can make my choice of a machine... and so far I've seen better life reports for the new 13" and 17" MBPs than I have for the new 15" ones.

Apple has been great about batteries the past couple years, so maybe there's something a bit wrong with some of the early 15" batches? They do use a completely different battery size than the 13s and 17s, so a production error in 15" batteries might not necessarily effect the other lines.
 
Kingcodez

Kingcodez

macrumors 6502
May 13, 2009
300
0
China
Well when apple does battery tests, they turn the brightness to 1, everything off, close every app, run a stripped down of 10.6, and go to a webpage with a 2kb big text file and read it. No images, nothing. That's how the SJobs browses the web, so that's how you should too.
 
A

andrewmunn

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 20, 2010
5
0
Dozerrox said:
Can you post a screenshot of coconut battery please?
Click to expand...

I'm at work right now so no screenshot, but I recall coconut reporting my battery had a capacity of 6911 mAh out of 6900 mAh, so it appears my battery is fine.
 
T

TheRekz

macrumors regular
Sep 3, 2008
130
0
Here's my coconut battery screenshot.. I am getting around 5 hours as well after a full charge:

coconutm.jpg


Sucks!

Can't we all sue apple for giving false advertisement of 10 hours of battery life? I mean if I can get 8 hours then that would be good enough for me... but 5 hours? half of what they claim... come on steve
 
cluthz

cluthz

macrumors 68040
Jun 15, 2004
3,118
4
Norway
Laptopmag got 7:54 in their web browsing test:
http://www.laptopmag.com/review/laptops/apple-macbook-pro-15-inch-core-i7.aspx?mode=benchmarks

Engadget got 5:18 while watching movies:
http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/14/macbook-pro-core-i7-review/

Anandtech got 8:11 with browisng
http://anandtech.com/show/3659/apples-15inch-core-i5-macbook-pro-the-one-to-get/7

Those browser tests are pretty weak tho, since they surf pages without flash.

I would imagine you should reach 6-6.5 hrs with "normal" web browsing, which includes flash and other stuff.

Btw, have you tried to use Safari in 32 bit mode? I did boost the battery life on my old Macbook Pro by 25%.

I'll have my i5 in a few days I hope, so i'll post back with results when it arrives.
 
D

DUDEMANGUY5

macrumors regular
Apr 8, 2010
124
0
What I have heard...

Is that the battery life is bad on the new 15-17 inch Macbook Pros is because of the new auto-switching Graphics cards
 
T

TheRekz

macrumors regular
Sep 3, 2008
130
0
lol... I just turned quit my tweetie apps and I got 6 hours of battery life from a 4 hour, stupid graphic switching technology I suppose... steve should fix this
 
K

kurl

macrumors newbie
Apr 16, 2010
10
0
GPU Switching

Hi-

I have a new 15" i5 and through one charge cycle saw about 4-5 hours - hoping this will improve over the next few days.

I've noticed, however, that as soon as gmail/gchat opens, it flips to discrete graphics, dramatically lowering the battery life. This is the case in all browsers. (Though I haven't yet tried multiple gmail accounts.)

Are you guys seeing the same thing? My gut is that future updates will help fine-tune the switching behavior.
 
M

Maximus434

macrumors regular
Jan 11, 2006
109
0
I was getting 5 hours too when I got my i5. But I figured out why - Apple's new automatic graphics switching is causing the 330m discreet graphics chip to be activated at the silliest things - safari opening gmail, or certain mundane applications - basically it's switching from the integrated to the 330m and staying there until you quit the application altogether!

By restarting and ensuring that only the integrated GPU is active (via system profiler) - I am actually sitting here now with 7 and a half hours left on battery with Safari open, brightness at half at 94% battery.

It's the active 330m GPU giving people poor battery life.
 
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