Originally posted by jxyama
nothing in the specs says you'll get the battery life up to x hours (implying it's the upper limit) under "regular" use. it's a MAXIMUM. if a laptop achieved the max. battery life under regular use, it's not really the maximum, is it?
This discussion is very much like debating automotive MPG.
Particularly since before the EPA published how the MPG test was to be run, various manufacturers were free to define their MPG test however they liked, and some "cheated" in order to claim high benchmarks.
One classic example from circa 1970 was a Volkswagon TV advertisement for their Beetle (the original one) where they showed how they were able to get it to achieve 80+ MPG. They then said that that while that test was technically true, it was highly unrealistic, closed the ad with the statement of "An HONEST 30mpg" (sic).
In Computers, there have been "oddities" found in various benchmarks, including some video card manufacturers who specifically optimized their chipsets for known benchmarks, even when this was found to hurt real-world performance.
We have the same problem today with Laptops. From my casual obserations, it appears that many "battery life" tests are nothing more than playing DVD movies, with 90% of the systems in hibernation.
since "regular use" would be different for everyone...
Sure. But the problem with power conservation measures (such as the clock cyling on the 12" Powerbook & others) is that ethically, this is a slippery slope: once you start making "cheats", at what point do you stop?
For example, I saw a news report ~6 months ago in which it was revealed that a laptop manufacturer found that in order to make the claim of "watch the Matrix twice on one charge", they had to turn off essentially ALL of the processes, including much the OS.
So with such insight, can we at least agree that any battery life claim has to at least have the entire OS up and running?
i think calling it a fraud would be a bit strong. i see your point and frustration, but i don't think it's worth fuming over...
Sure. My point is that if we don't complain, then they don't know that its something that's making us upset. The only good news here is that Apple is pretty much the "least bad" of the laptop manufacturers IMO in this regards.
-hh