Calibrated Battery, but..

[bLaZ3n]

I followed the instructions on this page: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1490

I charged my battery back to 100% and it now says it only has ~6 hours remaining?

As it goes down 1% it bounces between ~4 hours, ~5 hours, etc.. what is wrong?

 

[miles01110]

So? Battery time is based on usage.

 

[spinnerlys]

As miles hinted at the possibility of CPU usage affecting battery life/time, maybe have a look at Activity Monitor ( Applications / Utilities / ) and select All Processes and sort by CPU to see what the culprit may be.

image below uses sorting by CPU as an example

 

[bLaZ3n]

Isn't the battery supposed to last: "Built-in battery (8-9 hour)"

 

[hsenor]

If you turn your screen brightness down the battery lasts longer.

 

[spinnerlys]

Isn't the battery supposed to last: "Built-in battery (8-9 hour)"

Yes, it is supposed to last 8 to 9 hours, but that depends on CPU usage and screen brightness.

Look at the fine print of the MBP page Apple provides.

7. Testing conducted by Apple in March 2010 using preproduction 2.66GHz Intel Core i7-based MacBook Pro units. Battery life depends on configuration and use. See www.apple.com/batteries for more information. The wireless productivity test measures battery life by wirelessly browsing various websites and editing text in a word processor document with display brightness set to the middle setting.

read on: http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/specs.html


Btw, a game or HD movie or Flash use more CPU cycles, thus more power is drawn from the battery, thus the battery is used quicker.
Btw 2, using the display at level 1 (out of 16) brightness will give you longer battery life than running it at level 16.

PS: Did you take a look at this?

As miles hinted at the possibility of CPU usage affecting battery life/time, maybe have a look at Activity Monitor ( Applications / Utilities / ) and select All Processes and sort by CPU to see what the culprit may be.

image below uses sorting by CPU as an example

Will this become on of those running in circle threads?

 

[movieboy23]

Isn't the battery supposed to last: "Built-in battery (8-9 hour)"

Oh boy. Have you ever heard of false advertising? With Apple's newest generation of Macbook Pro, most independent reviewers have found that the battery should typically last around 5:45-6:00 under normal use with the screen brightness turned about 1/3 - 1/2 way down and without using the superdrive.

To get 8-9 hours on the MBP, you'd have to turn off all the radios, keep the screen brightness WAY down and only be working with applications that don't strain the processor much, like iWork of MS Office.

Disappointing, I know, but it's still better than the competition.

 

[bigjobby]

Isn't the battery supposed to last: "Built-in battery (8-9 hour)"

Your battery life depends on what apps you're running so the 'time remaining' would fluctuate accordingly.

Edit: ... amongst other things.

 

[DisneyRicky]

Screen Brightness, CPU Load, and Wifi all affect it.

When I'm not using the wifi (or it's not available) I turn off AirPort, and I always keep my bluetooth off.