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Anyone got 8 hours on their 17"?

Z

zenithtop

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 25, 2009
11
0
From the posts on this forum, quite a few 13" and 15" owners got their advertised 7 hours battery life or maybe even exceeded depending on their usage.

However on my 17" I can never get anywhere near the claimed 8 hours. Even on half brightness with wifi and bits of itunes and light surfing, i am getting just under 5 hours. I know the 17" has a bigger screen but why do apple claimed a higher battery life for it?
 
zenithtop said:
From the posts on this forum, quite a few 13" and 15" owners got their advertised 7 hours battery life or maybe even exceeded depending on their usage.

However on my 17" I can never get anywhere near the claimed 8 hours. Even on half brightness with wifi and bits of itunes and light surfing, i am getting just under 5 hours. I know the 17" has a bigger screen but why do apple claimed a higher battery life for it?
Click to expand...

I stayed with a friend for a week and his one night new 17" lasted from 12:12 AM to 9:30AM. He booted it up in Windows 7 and then back to OS X for a little so it was off for about five minutes in total. It wasn't a continuous run so I guess it might be different.

The 17" lasts longer because it's a bigger body meaning a bigger battery can fit.
 
brand said:
It depends on how you use the laptop. Turn off wireless, Bluetooth, the backlight on the keyboard, dimn the screen to the lowest setting and your battry will last much longer.
Click to expand...

i understand that this will give me a longer battery life

however 13 and 15" owners who did the same(half brightness, wifi on, light surfing) got their advertised battery life, so i am wondering why it isnt the case for my 17". i should be getting one more hour than them:D
 
Judging battery life is too difficult because there's so many reasons. If you're not getting at least 5 hours with your 17" then either

A) you're running applications, that require more juice
B) your battery is defective

(most likely A)

To get near perfect life, you'd have to be doing almost nothing with nothing turned on.
 
6:24 on early 2009 17" UB, 2.66GHz

WiFi on; Bluetooth off; brightness about 63%; 9400 GPU; Display sleep off.

Mostly Safari, Mail checking every 5 min, 4 iPhone syncs, and about an hour of "idle" time.

I don't recall if I had done its first calibration or not. But, I thought that a respectable run time, given a brighter display setting and more wifi usage (also the syncs).
 
Pulled 8h40 on my first cycle. Light surfing/video playing/etc. with a couple of breaks of about 30-40 min of idle time.

Today I pulled 6h10 surfing pretty much nonstop.
 
roxnadz said:
Pulled 8h40 on my first cycle. Light surfing/video playing/etc. with a couple of breaks of about 30-40 min of idle time.

Today I pulled 6h10 surfing pretty much nonstop.
Click to expand...

What could you possibly search on the internet for 6 HOURS?:confused::confused::confused::confused::confused:
 
I have a new 17". Got about 7 hours out of the box(battery wasn't fully charged), brightness on low(i think 3 notches), BT off, wifi on just surfing and getting the feel for things while installing a few apps.

I don't trust the apple indicator, as it's given me times ranging from 5 hours(with 9600 on) to 10:00 hours(9600 OFF, light web browsing). In any case, it's lasted me all day without charging so I'm happy with it. Today it lasted me somewhere between 8 and 9 hours, so I'm very satisfied.
 
According to Apple, with the 9600M GT, it's only 7 hours, rather than 8 hours with the 9400M. Perhaps that could make a slight difference?

(I don't know much about this, so sorry if my post is stupid. :eek: )
 
miles01110 said:
That's not the entire story at all. It's physically bigger, yes- but it also has more screen to power among other things.
Click to expand...

i have never used the 9600, always on 9400.

i just ran another test, it barely reached 5 hours again, i am starting to wonder if i got a lemon
 
Keep in mind the 17" battery has approximately a 100 watt-hour battery, while the 15" has a 75-watt hour one.
 
ok latest test

4 hours on my mbp17 playing fb games, wifi, itunes and organizing some photos and my battery is down to 6%.

should i call apple about this?:(

oh ya i have the 7200 hdd option, wonder if it makes any difference?
 
zenithtop said:
ok latest test

4 hours on my mbp17 playing fb games, wifi, itunes and organizing some photos and my battery is down to 6%.

should i call apple about this?:(

oh ya i have the 7200 hdd option, wonder if it makes any difference?
Click to expand...

no, you get 4 hours that because you use it for FLASH game.
that kill your battery very fast.
 
DAMNiatx said:
no, you get 4 hours that because you use it for FLASH game.
that kill your battery very fast.
Click to expand...

What he said...using flash games will drain your battery like nobody's business.

Try testing it again without using any flash games, see if you get closer to 7 hours.
 
AdamLikesMusic said:
According to Apple, with the 9600M GT, it's only 7 hours, rather than 8 hours with the 9400M. Perhaps that could make a slight difference?

(I don't know much about this, so sorry if my post is stupid. :eek: )
Click to expand...

Yes, that'll make difference.

However, with either 9400 or 9600 CPU utilization plays a big role in battery life.
I'd recommend OP to run Activity Monitor / CPU load history (or whatever it's called) and post a screenshot after using your Mac for several minutes in normal conditions.
 
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