Battery Life of 15" Early 2010 vs Late 2008 Macbook Pro

[drchiu]

I have a late 2008 15" Macbook Pro. Battery life is not spectacular (albeit better than any Dell or Lenovo I've used). When idling it lasts for a full 8-10 hours, easy. When I actually use it it lasts for about 3 hours only.

Usage includes surfing the web, using Textmate for programming -- nothing really strenuous at all.

I do mostly programming and text editing on the computer, and was wondering if those of you who are using the early 2010 model with i7's can comment on the battery life (eg. how long you get).

Thanks!

 

[Hazel]

I'm running a 15 inch i5, and this sounds similar to what I'm getting. 8 hours is easy with wireless off and mostly idling, but once I turn on wireless and actually do some browsing (little to no flash), I start getting around 6 hours.

 

[drchiu]

I'm running a 15 inch i5, and this sounds similar to what I'm getting. 8 hours is easy with wireless off and mostly idling, but once I turn on wireless and actually do some browsing (little to no flash), I start getting around 6 hours.

So perhaps the advertised time of 8-10 hours is not really that accurate. And even some of the early reviews were also a bit inaccurate.

That's too bad. I've been hoping an upgrade would help in my battery life woes. Here I am 2.5 hours into work, and the battery is already down to 30%. Screen brightness is down to 2 bars only (Yes, VERY dim as I type this).

 

[Ronnoco]

I've got the base 15" i5 and I am getting around 7.5 hours when just surfing, emailing and a little bit of iTunes with Bluetooth off and Display brightness to about half or just a touch less...keyboard backlight off...
Turning the display up past half or using the keyboard backlight drops the time down to under 7 hours...

 

[drchiu]

Yeah, between my last post in this thread and now, my battery is now down to 21%.