Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Actual battery life of Macbook Pro 13"?

S

stab244

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 2, 2009
31
0
I was planning on getting a 13" MacBook Pro and was wondering if they actually live up to the 7 hour battery life that Apple said it has. My friend says it does, but I highly doubt that he actually tried it out.
 
stab244 said:
I was planning on getting a 13" MacBook Pro and was wondering if they actually live up to the 7 hour battery life that Apple said it has. My friend says it does, but I highly doubt that he actually tried it out.
Click to expand...

It only lives up to it if you turn off wifi, lower the brightness, turn off bluetooth, ect. I get about 4-5 hours with internet use and about 1 1/2 hours with gta 4. it has a very good battery. I love my macbook.:apple:
 
W00DI said:
It only lives up to it if you turn off wifi, lower the brightness, turn off bluetooth, ect. I get about 4-5 hours with internet use and about 1 1/2 hours with gta 4. it has a very good battery. I love my macbook.:apple:
Click to expand...

So basically only document editting if I want the whole 7 hours... Meh. I can live with that. Better than the Gateway that I have right now.
 
the 7 hr they claim is with wifi on, 50% brightness and just websurfing or editing a document

u'll get near it if u surf non intensive sites, youtube's out of the question, just basic sites no flash and u should get that 7 hr.
 
I get 4 hours of surfing the web and using youtube and other flash games. While on word, I get a lot more. It gets pretty nice battery life IMO.
 
I have a tough time getting even 5 hours, but when I'm on battery I almost always have transmission going, getting around 3 hours with that and surfing the web at half brightness.

Anyone else getting crappy battery life while torrenting?
 
I get pretty bad battery life when doing anything except brief internet browsing.. Then again, I keep mine plugged in and only have 25 cycles.
 
I would say you can expect to get at least five hours of productive work from a charge. More if you turn off Airport and drop the screen brightness even lower (I keep mind around 50% anyway - 100% is way to bright!).

Corrode said:
I have a tough time getting even 5 hours, but when I'm on battery I almost always have transmission going, getting around 3 hours with that and surfing the web at half brightness.

Anyone else getting crappy battery life while torrenting?
Click to expand...

Torrenting is keeping a constant airport connection open and active. Of course it's going to reduce battery life. :rolleyes:
 
I'm very very happy with my battery life. Yes you have to practice conservation methods but you can eek out 7hrs! That's pretty amazin.
 
Take a look at Anandtech's macbook pro review.
They have tested the battery thoroughly.

http://www.anandtech.com/mac/showdoc.aspx?i=3580

19441.png
 
I get over 7 hours of wireless surfing + spotify music with like 30-40% brightness on screen and using Leopard. Since I upgraded to Snow Leopard I am happy to get 5 hours...
 
I have no idea how AnandTech got over 8 hours.

Snow Leopard decreases battery life on many 13" laptops as Apple left out 9CC2 screen settings, and as such you can't lower the screen brighness as much as on other models/Leopard.
On Leopard I got 7 hours by careful usage, normal usage around 6.
On Snow Leopard I just get over 5:30.
It's still a GREAT battery
 
This is for a UMBP 17, but I think it is a good indicator of how Apple products (MB/MBP) can have good battery life. I get 4.5 hours plaing Civ 3 Conquests inside of Parallels 4.0 at full brightness.

Tom

(wireless on and bluetooth on for mouse).
 
As always your milage will vary, even the temp of your room will make a difference. Cooler rooms decrease battery life.
 
Another thing I noticed is that once I start MS Word my battery life goes down considerably. Dunno why that happens but it does happen... So if you're just editing stuff you maybe wanna use another word processor if you really need the 7 hours.
Otherwise I haven't managed to run out of battery life yet (if I didn't want to drain it on purpose that is...)

Best regards,
Basti.
 
really good for me. i had a mbp 17" 2007 which i could watch one movie on, on my 13" 2009 i can watch two.

dont know about times, but i am very happy with the battery life.
 
The battery life on the 2009 unibodies is amazing. Thats the only thing that I wish my unibody had...
 
I use mine at school and it normally lasts 5 hours or so... and that's with a little gaming going on during class haha
 
I get at least 5.5 hours.

Screen at halfway
Wifi on + browsing
bluetooth off

Not 7, but still damn amazing to me coming from the 1/5 (if lucky) battery life of my 2007 toshiba I had.
 
I have a Dell Inspiron 1525 that is lucky to get 40 minutes without it plugged in. It's truly pathetic.
 
No matter which unibody you buy, you can expect good battery life. I'm not complaining.
 
If I were to get a bigger MBP, would battery life increase as well? I only think that it does since bigger screen means bigger chassis which means more space for a bigger battery.
 
I have a 13" mbp and having about 4-4.5 hours watching movie, everything else turned off and at one bar dim of light.

When i use nothing blueettoth/wireless but a text editor I still can't get 7 hours. Using Snow Leopard at the moment. Should go to an apple store and complaint about it or these times are normal?

since people saying they reach 7 hours and I can not, I am getting jelaous:mad:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back