Battery Life and Unibody Build

[maplestar]

So, I have a few questions about the new Unibody Macbook Pro (15") that I hope experienced users have some feedback on.

So, first up is the Battery. I've been scouring the net to find some reliable sources for the battery life expectancy of these Macbook Pro's. However, on reliable sites that do "real life" tests and stress tests, I learn that the MBPro's really only have about 2 - 2.5 hours of battery life. However, through forums such as this or through my friends that have Macbook Pros, they claim that obtaining a 4-hour battery life is quite often seen in their daily use.

Now, I understand that battery does eventually die down, but what is the REAL battery life for the Macbook Pros? I mean, on average = average usage, what do you all get for Battery life? I'd like to know what applications you consider average and therefore what your Battery life turns out to be.

Second, I've been wondering about the Unibody build for the Macbook series. I know how it works and whatnot, and I've seen discussions about aluminum being malleable instead of "crackable" and such. However, I've also seen amazing people who toss their notebooks far and wide to achieve only a ben in the aluminum.

So is the aluminum stronger (not in feel, but in actuality)? As in, it might be malleable now, but does the malleability kick in from small drops or for stronger hits? I've seen people complain that plastic only cracks from drops while the aluminum bends like crazy, but the argument is that plastic cracks more easily and it requires a much stronger drop to bend the aluminum.

Any personal experiences out there to verify the actually drop-ability of the Macbook Pro?

 

[Illicit]

Do a little digging. There's been two new threads this week about having dropped a uMBP. iirc, one was dropped 3 feet onto the bottom right corner and dented.
One of my buddies dropped theirs onto a carpet from a chair and nothing happened to it.

 

[iLog.Genius]

Battery life differs. I get avg. 3 hours and a bit. When I'm away from a power source, I'm doing light work, word processing, loading a website here and there so I'm getting the most out of my battery. I think that's pretty good for a computer such as the MacBook (Pro).I think people wished that it was more towards 4-4.5 hours which will rarely happen (if at all).

 

[maplestar]

Do a little digging. There's been two new threads this week about having dropped a uMBP. iirc, one was dropped 3 feet onto the bottom right corner and dented.
One of my buddies dropped theirs onto a carpet from a chair and nothing happened to it.

Yes, I read the dented one as well. However, in that case, that guy whipped his backpack around and it flew out... AND then it got a slight dent that looks scary, but was bent back into a pretty OK state afterwards.

That scenario, to me, is a good scenario for the Unibody. Some bad ones I've read about are dropping it from 2 feet high and having whole thing bent out of shape. (Or bent more than it should be).

 

[RKpro]

My battery gets me anywhere between 2.5 and 5.5 hours depending on what I'm doing and the settings I'm using. Like iLog.Genius, I tend to do only light work on the battery, so I'm averaging about 4 hours. One time I was writting a paper for school, just using Pages, light Safari browsing, and 1/3 screen brightness, keyboard lights off, sounds off, bt off, and I was able to get the advertised 5 hours.

The unibody case is very rigid and strong for normal use. But it's not good for dropping because it will bend as you expect. And because it's all once solid piece, you have to replace the entire case (apart from the bottom and the monitor) if you dent it.

 

[maplestar]

My battery gets me anywhere between 2.5 and 5.5 hours depending on what I'm doing and the settings I'm using. Like iLog.Genius, I tend to do only light work on the battery, so I'm averaging about 4 hours. One time I was writting a paper for school, just using Pages, light Safari browsing, and 1/3 screen brightness, keyboard lights off, sounds off, bt off, and I was able to get the advertised 5 hours.

The unibody case is very rigid and strong for normal use. But it's not good for dropping because it will bend as you expect. And because it's all once solid piece, you have to replace the entire case (apart from the bottom and the monitor) if you dent it.

For the case malleability part. Is it malleable very often? As in, aluminum IS a malleable material. However, is the unibody aluminum strong enough to withstand light drops and will bend for higher drops? My real question is this: Plastic Macbooks and the new ones are made from two different materials. If you drew a line from the drop height = crack to drop = break for the plastic Macbook, would the unibody's equivalent line (from drop height = bent to drop height = broken), would that line start further down the drop height or about the same? Because the Macbooks are obviously more malleable, but they be much stronger all the same.

I'm sure noone can completely answer this without a test, so I'm wondering if there are any more (other than the ones posted on the forum) people who have had experience in dropping their Macbook and the results.