albook 15 batt life too low for comfort

[holy MAC!]

i want every use who has a albook 15 to tell me their "estimated" batter life,

with NO programs running, and the screen brightness turned on half way, BT and AE off, and batts turned to longest life.

because this is way too low to be true.

i'm at 82 percent, and i'm only estimated to have 1:24 left (with AE on though)....

but with AE off, on a full charge, with the setting as described above, i have never broken 2:20

please tell me how long you can get (state 1ghz or 1.25)..... if this true, this notebook's battery will die out in like a year, because i'll need to charge it like twice a day... which is rediculuous.............

hopefully, panther will fix this (as some users has said panther added like 1 hour to they batt life)

apple has serious made a mistake in this update: look:

takes up more battery:
-brighter screen
-faster g4 (it's faster, even though it says it takes less battery)
-louder speakers

wtf would apple decrease the battery life???????

it just DOESN"T make sense!!!!!!!

 

[holy MAC!]

as a continuation:

does anyone have any NUMBERS of battery life on like a TIbook before and after panther?????

i am REALLY curious as to how much more efficient panther is.

 

[holy MAC!]

no comments??????

 

[QCassidy352]

actually test the battery life. Never trust the estimated time in the upper right. The estimates my ibook gives are usually WAY low - we're talking by 2 hours or something.

 

[willmg]

Mine has better life than my pismo when it was new. On a 90% charge it said 2:20 left and after 1hr still said 1hr45 left when I plugged it back in, so I dont think the reaidngs are correct and that they definitely under measure. I had it a 2 brightness and was playing mp3s at full volume from itunes the whole time.

 

[KBFinFan]

Ok guys, I have been totally unproductive this morning. I just sat around and waited for my battery to drain.

Screen brightness @ Half
Energy Saver @ Long Life
Using iTunes, Safari, iChat.. simple things in my opinion.
Airport Ex off
Bluetooth off

The tool bar said 2:15.. but what I actually got was 3:00 exactly.. and then plugged it in with 5% left.. so maybe could have squeezed 5-10 more minutes.

This is a 15" PB 1.25Ghz w/ the 4200 HD and 512 MB RAM

 

[phantommaul]

what is the problem with powerbooks

man three hours is too low for that incredible machine. what is goin on here first titanium to a less expensive metal aluminum then 5 hour of battery to 4:30 which is in fact 4 at the begining and now 3 hours max, no L3. i dont undrestand. making three backsteps in a revision is soo funny. could anyone tell me what is goin on. i have second toughts about buying this machine and first impression is very important for me becasue i am a future swicher.

 

[Toeknee]

i love my AlBook no matter what the battery gauge says b/c most of the time its not very exact. QCassidy352 my dads iBook (500mhz dual usb) gets a horrendous (sp?) 20 min of batt life. Gonna send it back to apple soon. phantommaul there is no L3 cache b/c the chip is faster and the cache is running at a 1:1 ratio.

 

[agreenster]

Please tell me you all calibrated your batteries. If not, then this is a waste of time.

 

[KBFinFan]

Certainly calibrated mine...

 

[crazzyeddie]

Originally posted by KBFinFan
Using iTunes, Safari, iChat.. simple things in my opinion.

Actually, those things can take quite a bit of CPU time. iTunes takes at least 10 - 15% all the time, Safari takes upto 80% while loading a page and iChat spikes upto 20% when sending/receiving messages!

Even if you are on a 1.25, compared to my 1ghz, you are on low CPU performance, which would make it about the same.

 

[jt23]

according to macfixit or macintouch -- i don't remember, this may be a sys software issue.

that is, some folks saw major decreases after upgrading to 10.2.8

i got my 15 last week and as i was starting it up the first time, Software Update ran and i installed .8 without thinking (i normally wait at least a week before upgrading sys. software). so i can't compare the usage to .7

however, mine never shows more than 2hrs ... though i have gotten more out of it than that when using just the battery.

 

[QCassidy352]

Originally posted by Toeknee
QCassidy352 my dads iBook (500mhz dual usb) gets a horrendous (sp?) 20 min of batt life. Gonna send it back to apple soon.

if it is under warranty just call them and explain the situation to them. They will send you a new battery and you will send the defective one back to them. 2.5 hours is bad; 20 minutes is not so much bad as it is clearly defective.

itunes drains the battery fairly quickly, more than you might think. I know from experience.

Word has it that Panther helps battery life by 30-60 minutes, so that would be awesome. But we shall see.

and phantommaul, the Tibooks may have said "up to 5 hours" but they never got anywhere close to that. They didn't even do as well as the ibooks (12") which claim "up to 5 hours" also, and in reality get 3.5-4.

 

[G5isAlive]

15" 1.25 GHz Batterly Life

I owned a titanium before this and could easily squeeze 4 hours out of the battery life by cutting down the screen, turning off the network and volume...

Using the same techniques and turning off airport and bluetooth I never get more than 2.25 hours out of my new 15" 1.25 ghz. That is actual use. (Just MSWord, the same program I get 4 hours on my old titanium) The estimated never breaks 2 hours. Yes I calibrated the battery.

I am not happy about this at all. I can't figure out how it could be the OS. That seems too stupid for Apple (10.2.7).

 

[Toeknee]

yeah QCassidy352 when i was at the apple store in hawaii i explained it to them and they were like well bring it in and we'll replace what we have to... too bad it was 3000 miles away back home. My dad uses it for work and most of the time its plugged in, and they always get the apple care 3yr extended warranty so its all good.

 

[QCassidy352]

glad to hear it Toeknee. Sounds like you should be all set.

G5isAlive - wow, from what I've read, that's pretty exceptional battery life on the Ti. Although maybe not too exceptional, given that you were just running word. 2 hours 15 minutes on the new one is clearly unacceptable... but I still think Panther will bring some relief.

 

[holy MAC!]

Originally posted by Toeknee
yeah QCassidy352 when i was at the apple store in hawaii i explained it to them and they were like well bring it in and we'll replace what we have to... too bad it was 3000 miles away back home. My dad uses it for work and most of the time its plugged in, and they always get the apple care 3yr extended warranty so its all good.

hm..... i wonder what they would do... give you a new battery???

if that's the case... what's the point... when you're going to get the same amount of power out of it.....

what apple should do is one of those programs (like the loud fan ones) where you get a higher capacity battery.......

 

[PaisanoMan]

I'd just like to note: calibrating your battery does not improve your battery life, it just allows the battery to make more accurate estimates about remaining life.

Even with calibration, I agree with the suggestion to measure battery performance in actual time (if you have nothing better to do, that is).

 

[Powerbook G5]

I get between 3 1/2-4 hours on my new 1.25 GHz PowerBook with the 5400 rpm HD. I have APE and BT off with reduced setting and half screen brightness *and* I do homework on it and still get nearly 4 hours.