tomshardware.com did a test -- Conventional HDD vs SSD. They got maybe a few minutes extra with the SSDs. A good laptop HDD is pretty efficient when it comes to power. SSDs just aren't worth it yet IMO.
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Aluminum MAcbook Battery SUCKS!!!!
- Thread starter Garemz
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tomshardware.com did a test -- Conventional HDD vs SSD. They got maybe a few minutes extra with the SSDs. A good laptop HDD is pretty efficient when it comes to power. SSDs just aren't worth it yet IMO.
k I'm confused, that's just his current battery charge at 63%, his battery total health is 99%. I'm reading that correctly right?
My bad, I thought he was complaining about how his battery health was low.
Yep, read it for yourself: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-hdd-battery,1955.html
I forgot about it, because it's a little old, but they report that SSDs are worse for your battery life. However, I'd be willing to bet that they didn't take into account for the fact that the SSD was loading more data to begin with.
I'm inclined to say that's old data. I'd like to hear results with the current X25M's etc if anyone has that info.
I have that too... tomshardware. Intel's offerings aren't any better.
The best offering in the older article bests Intel's SSD in terms of power consumption.
I just ended up buying the WD Scorpio 500GB... it has 2.6W Load / 0.8W Idle. Granted, Intel's offerings are better in terms of power consumption. In sequential reads and writes with big blocks, I darn near come close to the SSD. I just can't justify buying a flash drive that's hundreds of dollars, when you can get a harddrive over 6x it's size for a 1/6 of the cost.
Wow, the more I read, the more I want a MacBook. I can only get 30 minutes on my two and a half year old HP dv6000.
Thanks for that link. Even if we assume that the 190Gb version of the X25-M I was looking at is about the same as the 80Gb, it's not a huge boost. Oh well, it was worth a consideration - back to battery lugging for me for the times I want worthwhile runtime.
A Sony Z with an extended battery will make the Macbook seem like a very bad joke in those terms. Although I do have to admit that the aluMB is less of a mishmash in terms of styling.
Wow, the more I read, the more I want a MacBook. I can only get 30 minutes on my two and a half year old HP dv6000.
A Sony Z with an extended battery will make the Macbook seem like a very bad joke in those terms. Although I do have to admit that the aluMB is less of a mishmash in terms of styling.
My battery life continues to suck. Just over two hours, typically 2:12 minutes is all I get (browsing, Pages, Mail, Quark, and about five other programs). Bought a new one in London. Same story, abominable. My old MacBook still gets over three hours easy. And it fully charges in two hours, one hour less than this POS.
Lol
Funniest post i've read all day LOL
My battery life continues to suck. Just over two hours, typically 2:12 minutes is all I get (browsing, Pages, Mail, Quark, and about five other programs). Bought a new one in London. Same story, abominable. My old MacBook still gets over three hours easy. And it fully charges in two hours, one hour less than this POS.
Funniest post i've read all day LOL
Browsing/Downloading with Safari (or I guess any network using client) really tears away at the battery life. I lose a good hour+ from battery life. If I don't use the internet or excessive programs, I get about 4-4.5hrs
The new Alu MB's are considerably lighter - 300grams, which is the weight of a battery. The plastic Macbook chassis wasn't stunningly lightweight, which has far more successfully masked the necessarily relative weight gain on moving to the unibody chassis - but they still had to drop the cell size in order to fit everything in and make sure the machine doesn't bend like paper.
RE: the charging, it's the new chemistry and unavoidable. Runtime: I'd suggest playing with the power settings and reducing the screen brightness - I get about 3.5 real hours at the most typically doing stuff that actually needs to be done while configuring the machine to eke as much as reasonably possible, not fitting what I do around claiming the best battery life
However on the Windows side the 1.5Kg Z I mentioned earlier aside, the latest of my 1.8Kg 2.5Ghz Penryn Sony SZ's gets almost 6 hours out of a charge on power saving modes with wireless on. Heck, I get almost 4 hours even with the built-in 3G modem on. With an extended (2Kg all-up weight - same as the MB) battery I get 1.5 times that. And this is from a machine getting towards a year old.
I'm not getting why these guys their discrete-GPU notebooks with no power saving facilities think the MB is some miracle worker. It's removable battery life is pretty crap, like all Apples of late that I've been able to directly compare with - But the aluMB happens to be my least worst compromise at the moment.
Battery life is the least of my worries to be honest. When I present, maybe every two weeks, I just need something powerful enough to display my presentation (the Pentium III computer that I'm supplied with won't). Anytime else, I'm just constantly moving between the floors of my house, but I always bring the power cord anyhow. But, this battery is crap now and I have a vendetta against Windows ever since I bought this laptop, and a desktop from Dell (which didn't work). If it was a fault with Windows or the manufacturers, it doesn't matter to me, I just won't go back. But it is nice to know that when I do require a long battery life that I have plenty of options. Thanks!
I see that a lot. When many are actually given a choice they're too cheap/uninformed/etc to buy anything but crap. When they buy a Mac they have to buy a half-decent machine due to the stepping of the models offered - ergo, many are happier. I get it. I don't however see how that in itself is 'better'. Maybe it's just me.
Just for comparison, here's my MacBook, Santa Rosa Chipset, bought somewhere around September 2007.
One day I forgot to charge it, and had to go through my classes taking notes on a suicidally low charge. By turning off wifi, turning off the backlit screen when not using it, etc. I managed to get the equivalent of eight hours of battery life - I was very, very impressed by this. I'm kind of worried - my macbook has developed chips on the outside edges - and I hope that when I eventually replace this laptop, I'll get something with just as good battery life.
Still, the most graphically challenging things I do to my laptop are HD video, Battlefield 1942, and Rome: Total War - all of which the X3100 is more than capable of, even though the 9400M will certainly do a better job.
Even my gaming desktop (2 years old) uses an 8600GTS - and that's perfectly able to handle most games.
One day I forgot to charge it, and had to go through my classes taking notes on a suicidally low charge. By turning off wifi, turning off the backlit screen when not using it, etc. I managed to get the equivalent of eight hours of battery life - I was very, very impressed by this. I'm kind of worried - my macbook has developed chips on the outside edges - and I hope that when I eventually replace this laptop, I'll get something with just as good battery life.
Still, the most graphically challenging things I do to my laptop are HD video, Battlefield 1942, and Rome: Total War - all of which the X3100 is more than capable of, even though the 9400M will certainly do a better job.
Even my gaming desktop (2 years old) uses an 8600GTS - and that's perfectly able to handle most games.
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I'm a little disappointed with the battery life on my new 2.4 ghz MacBook as well. I got it about a month and a half ago and it's fast and gorgeous and powerful and perfect in just about every way, but the battery does not last as long as my old iBook G4, even when I turn off bluetooth (which my old laptop did not have). Granted, it has a faster hard drive, a slightly bigger screen, and a more powerful processor, so I guess I should have expected that, but the guy in the store said the battery would last longer than the old laptop because the technology has improved. Plus, the MacBook's battery is brand new, compared to the old iBook with a 2 or 3 year old battery. So I'm a little disappointed about the battery life on the new MacBook, even though I love everything else about it. It makes me glad I didn't go with the MacBook Pro, because the battery life on those are probably even worse (the Apple site says 4.5 hours for the 15" Pro, compared to 5 hours for the regular MacBook. Of course, neither computer gets that much battery in reality).
If I turned down the brightness any more the backlight would turn off. And I get ~3.5 hours. I'm used to it - the Air is pathetic too, but at least I can swap the batteries on this thing (one of the reasons my UBMB's replaced the Airs).
i'm sure countless people have already eviscerated this post, but i must concur as well!
i have the 2.0 alu macbook and my battery life is FANTASTIC! i can get up to 6.5 hours of typing, around 3-4 hours of web surfing. of course the battery is only an hour or two when gaming / some intensive application, but that is EXPECTED.
I get ~9 hours of web surfing - no, scratch that, constant VPN and all manner of Internet-related stuff - on a 2.5 Sony SZ with the extended battery. Total weight = same as Macbook. Better screen. Arguably better keyboard. Unarguably better connectivity. And obsolete as far as Sony's concerned. Just a FYI.
My 2.4GHz one is about to run out after 4.5 hours running Safari, iTunes, Mail, NetNewsWire and I've played a couple of 720p TV Shows and watched a fair bit of YouTube. Display at full brightness, volume at max.
I'm calibrating it right now - seems to be the same as my BlackBook but watching the HD shows put much less of a strain on the system on this machine than the old one.
Just waiting for it to turn off so I can plug it in and get the battery back to full.
So far I've been seeing near-enough results to the 5hr claimed life.
I'm calibrating it right now - seems to be the same as my BlackBook but watching the HD shows put much less of a strain on the system on this machine than the old one.
Just waiting for it to turn off so I can plug it in and get the battery back to full.
So far I've been seeing near-enough results to the 5hr claimed life.