The title says it all. I'm wondering if anyone with a new MBP has had time to see what the new uMBP's battery performance is like. Is 7 hours really reasonable? Is it significantly better than the first gen unibody?
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Can Someone with the New MBP Comment on Battery Performance?
- Thread starter sclough
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Its the same battery as the last gen 17in mac book pro , alot people say you get 5 hours in real life not 7 as they say
7 hours is just dreaming
Hmm. That doesn't sound that great. My Penryn MBP can get 4 hours or so. I would hope for at least 6 hours out of the new battery. I would think a 17" would drain the battery quicker than a 15". Hopefully somebody has some real world numbers on the new 15."
My new 13" read 7:40 on a full charge at 1/2 brightness when idle. I haven't calibrated it yet. Apple is usually on the conservative side when specifying battery life. I hope to get the 7 hrs if not a little more.
On the other hand I have noticed that with the new battery tech the time in the menu bar does tend to fluctuate a little more.
On the other hand I have noticed that with the new battery tech the time in the menu bar does tend to fluctuate a little more.
The 15" macbook pro has a 73 wh battery now. The last gen had a 50 watt hour battery. The matte screen macbook pro had a 60 watt hour battery.
The battery life is definitely better with this latest gen. It's not a miracle, but I think that they made the right call with this li-polymer battery. It absolutely is user-replaceable. You just take out 3 screws and pop a new one in. It's not great for road warriors who must be unplugged all day, but honestly, who really lives away from a plug like that and carries such a large laptop? Even if you're on a flight, can you work for 7 hours in a row? It will be trivial to replace the battery yourself. I replaced my hard drive myself already without reading any instructions. The unibody actually has a very easy upgrade process, and I think that the internal layout is very beautiful and highly logical. The battery is huge in this thing and takes up a large chunk of the space.
The battery life is definitely better with this latest gen. It's not a miracle, but I think that they made the right call with this li-polymer battery. It absolutely is user-replaceable. You just take out 3 screws and pop a new one in. It's not great for road warriors who must be unplugged all day, but honestly, who really lives away from a plug like that and carries such a large laptop? Even if you're on a flight, can you work for 7 hours in a row? It will be trivial to replace the battery yourself. I replaced my hard drive myself already without reading any instructions. The unibody actually has a very easy upgrade process, and I think that the internal layout is very beautiful and highly logical. The battery is huge in this thing and takes up a large chunk of the space.
Should I understand this to mean that you are saying the first gen uMBP had a weaker battery than the matte Penryn's? I hadn't heard that unibody battery life was shorter than the last"classic" MBP's.
It wasn't, the processeors and chipsets became more efficient with lower TDP's meaning you could get longer or the same battery life with a smaller battery (capacity). I believe only the 13" uMB had a slightly worse battery overall.
Actually, I believe that Anandtech showed that the unibody 15" last gen with the 50 wH batteries got less than the matte macbook pros. And general sentiment that I saw was that people were whining about reduced battery life.
Suffice it to say, this newest gen has a fat battery and it does just fine. To me, if it will not degrade in performance over time for 3 years, that is a huge huge deal.
Battery life can vary tremendously depending upon the type of work you are doing. I have one of the first generation Aluminum MacBooks which Apple rates at 5 hours but I've never exceeded 4 hours even when doing fairly light work. I'd bet if you were playing a video game you'd be lucky to reach two to three hours of runtime.
Given that, I'd expect that the so-called 7 hours battery in the new 13" MacBook Pro will give maybe one more hour of runtime for the type of work that I typically perform. That's not too bad of an improvement but I suspect that in my hands the runtime on the new battery would be approaching 5 hours with anything significantly over 5 hours being a pure "gift" (but I guess still possible).
The new battery in the 13" MacBook Pro has a stated capacity of 60WHrs while the previous generation was 45WHrs. So, let's see:
60/45 * 5Hrs = 6.7 hours (I guess in market speak that would be 7 hours).
Or, in my hands (or experience):
60/45 * 4Hrs = 5.3 hours (still pretty good)
Given that, I'd expect that the so-called 7 hours battery in the new 13" MacBook Pro will give maybe one more hour of runtime for the type of work that I typically perform. That's not too bad of an improvement but I suspect that in my hands the runtime on the new battery would be approaching 5 hours with anything significantly over 5 hours being a pure "gift" (but I guess still possible).
The new battery in the 13" MacBook Pro has a stated capacity of 60WHrs while the previous generation was 45WHrs. So, let's see:
60/45 * 5Hrs = 6.7 hours (I guess in market speak that would be 7 hours).
Or, in my hands (or experience):
60/45 * 4Hrs = 5.3 hours (still pretty good)
Just a note that the "time remaining" is an estimate based on the current consumption at a particular moment in time. So for the people with the new batteries, try and report actual time elapsed.
I'm happy that the new batteries are 6000 mAh. My current MacBook ha a 5020 mAh battery and I get roughly 3 hours. So with the bigger battery and lower consumption of the new processors I expect to get around 5 hours.
I'm happy that the new batteries are 6000 mAh. My current MacBook ha a 5020 mAh battery and I get roughly 3 hours. So with the bigger battery and lower consumption of the new processors I expect to get around 5 hours.
I used mine today for a few hours, going from high 80s % to low 30s before I plugged it in. I don't really bother making it go all the way to 0 I've never run into problems.
It took a really long time (it felt) to go down power wise and I was doing a lot of network stuff on N transferring tons of stuff basically the whole time. I was also watching mlb.tv
One thing I noticed is that the charge was a lot faster to 100% than my uMB that I exchanged for this. Looking forward to tomorrow's first run on the battery. I'll let you know how that goes.
It took a really long time (it felt) to go down power wise and I was doing a lot of network stuff on N transferring tons of stuff basically the whole time. I was also watching mlb.tv
One thing I noticed is that the charge was a lot faster to 100% than my uMB that I exchanged for this. Looking forward to tomorrow's first run on the battery. I'll let you know how that goes.
Keep on dreaming.....
I know...I've harped on and on about Apple's decision to jettison interchangeable batteries for this new technology, and for a lot of users I suppose a built-in battery will be just peachy, but for guys like me who regularly use our laptops to power firewire devices...like a digital capture back...a built-in battery is the worst 'option' imaginable! I regularly use my laptop on location and it is the sole source of power for the digital back when I am tethered, which is 99% of the time. Now I'm fully aware that Apple long ago stopped designing computers for professionals like me when they came up withy new bells & whistles to get the 'average' buyer interested, but battery technology hasn't improved that much that a simple, interchangeable battery is a thing of the past. A friend, also a photographer, recently told me new 17" gets less than three hour use when he shoots tethered...that's a deal-breaker if I'm not near power, which happens all of the time...
BT
I know...I've harped on and on about Apple's decision to jettison interchangeable batteries for this new technology, and for a lot of users I suppose a built-in battery will be just peachy, but for guys like me who regularly use our laptops to power firewire devices...like a digital capture back...a built-in battery is the worst 'option' imaginable! I regularly use my laptop on location and it is the sole source of power for the digital back when I am tethered, which is 99% of the time. Now I'm fully aware that Apple long ago stopped designing computers for professionals like me when they came up withy new bells & whistles to get the 'average' buyer interested, but battery technology hasn't improved that much that a simple, interchangeable battery is a thing of the past. A friend, also a photographer, recently told me new 17" gets less than three hour use when he shoots tethered...that's a deal-breaker if I'm not near power, which happens all of the time...
BT
Buyers Remorse fades to pleasant acceptance
I am glad to have found this thread because it seems other creative professionals are also concluding that having a replaceable battery is more beneficial than a slightly longer lasting non-replaceable one.
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I bought my 15" 2.93 GHz MBP three weeks ago because I absolutely needed it. My 5 year old PowerBook G4 had long since earned its retirement and was misbehaving to the point of losing me dollars.
I love the new machine. I am a creative professional running graphics programs and this beast lets me work more fluidly than I could have hoped for.
Now, Apple's recent cursed incremental upgrage wouldn't have phased me if not for the inclusion of the upgrade non-replaceable battery in the 15" MBP's.
After some soul-searching I've conclude that despite some extra hours of usage, the claim that the new non-replaceable battery would provide 7 hours sounds like wishful thinking. I would guess 5 hours tops is more realistic when running actual productive programs.
So, when I need to run cordless for extended periods of time, it is for longer than 5 hours. For this reason having a replacement battery to throw in there is my cup of tea.
That's my story and I sticking to it.
I am glad to have found this thread because it seems other creative professionals are also concluding that having a replaceable battery is more beneficial than a slightly longer lasting non-replaceable one.
--
I bought my 15" 2.93 GHz MBP three weeks ago because I absolutely needed it. My 5 year old PowerBook G4 had long since earned its retirement and was misbehaving to the point of losing me dollars.
I love the new machine. I am a creative professional running graphics programs and this beast lets me work more fluidly than I could have hoped for.
Now, Apple's recent cursed incremental upgrage wouldn't have phased me if not for the inclusion of the upgrade non-replaceable battery in the 15" MBP's.
After some soul-searching I've conclude that despite some extra hours of usage, the claim that the new non-replaceable battery would provide 7 hours sounds like wishful thinking. I would guess 5 hours tops is more realistic when running actual productive programs.
So, when I need to run cordless for extended periods of time, it is for longer than 5 hours. For this reason having a replacement battery to throw in there is my cup of tea.
That's my story and I sticking to it.
I think that for the average college student, coffee shop studier who uses these laptops, the longer-lasting lithium polymer battery is better.
I opened up my unibody and replacing the lithum battery is absolutely easy as pie. It's just 3 screws. So if you don't need to change batteries while on-the-go, when it comes time to replace the battery, it will be trivial for everyone. Replacing an ipod battery yourself is much harder.
I opened up my unibody and replacing the lithum battery is absolutely easy as pie. It's just 3 screws. So if you don't need to change batteries while on-the-go, when it comes time to replace the battery, it will be trivial for everyone. Replacing an ipod battery yourself is much harder.
The battery is removable, but it is NOT user-replaceable! You cannot walk into an Apple Store or order online or go through some other retailer and purchase a spare battery to replace yourself. The 17" MBP has been on the market for several months, and yet the battery does not even appear on ebay.
Thus, it is not user-replaceable because you can't find a replacement.
Thus, it is not user-replaceable because you can't find a replacement.
its only a mater of time.
You can pick up replaceable batteries for the MBA now.
Now the that whole range has gone internal, we will see after markert batteries very soon.