Charging the Retina Macbook Pro

[angelomango]

Hey guys,

So it's known that the battery of the new Retina MBP is roughly ~18% bigger than the non-retina MBP (95-watt-hour vs. 77.5-watt-hour) in order to drive the new display. How exactly does this translate to the charging time (let's say from fully drained or <10%)? I only ask because this is similar to the new iPad (with its bigger battery) and how charging took a good amount of time longer to fully charge than the iPad 2. I guess this will not pertain to people who have their Macbook Pros anchored to a wall, but I'm interested to know. It'd be nice to get feedback from the few early adopters! This is my thread/post here and I don't believe I saw a topic about this yet.

P.S. I've seen the Retina MBP in the Apple Store in King of Prussia Mall, PA and it looks breathtaking.
But I'm still SOOO torn between the Retina and non-retina at the moment!

Thanks in advance for your responses!

 

[angelomango]

^I didn't mean that the battery was physically 18% bigger (yes, I know it's bigger but not sure exactly how big physically), but that it has more capacity to store energy. Sorry if I worded that incorrectly.

 

[AtticusRyan]

The charging time is quite quick (~2 hrs to charge the battery from depleted to full). However, I am certainly not getting 7 hours from a charge.

 

[angelomango]

The charging time is quite quick (~2 hrs to charge the battery from depleted to full). However, I am certainly not getting 7 hours from a charge.

Thanks for the reponse! It's good to know that I was thinking/worrying about something that wasn't even an issue. Would you mind me asking roughly how many hours you're getting from a charge? I assume you're doing more than what Apple describes in their Wireless Web Test (browsing 25 websites at 50% brightness)?

 

[DeeEss]

Normally it takes modern batteries 4 or 5 cycles to get to optimum charge. You will certainly see an increase in life with after the first 5 or so charges.

 

[angelomango]

Normally it takes modern batteries 4 or 5 cycles to get to optimum charge. You will certainly see an increase in life with after the first 5 or so charges.

Thanks for the insight! I hope that is the case.

BTW, I had a big dummy moment while calculating the increase in capacity. *facepalm* The capacity increase is ~23% not ~18%.

 

[corvus32]

Yeah, it's definitely quick to charge and battery life seems better than my 17" 2011 MBP.

I just charged mine, after 5.5 hrs of wireless web surfing at min brightness and Bluetooth on, from 53% to full in about 45 minutes.

 

[angelomango]

Yeah, it's definitely quick to charge and battery life seems better than my 17" 2011 MBP.

I just charged mine, after 5.5 hrs of wireless web surfing at min brightness and Bluetooth on, from 53% to full in about 45 minutes.

Your input is appreciated! I hope your info will be helpful to others.

 

[SaleenS351]

How is the battery life? How is it comparison to other Apple laptops. My 2006 MBP battery life is abysmal. I hope to see an improvement over my current '06 MBP and my Sony Vaio Z.

 

[corvus32]

@ SaleenS351:

I squeezed ~10hrs of web surfing out of a single charge - still had some left actually. That's with just Safari open, maybe Terminal and a few other apps briefly, Bluetooth turned on, and the screen brightness set to minimum.

When I unplug mine fully charged, close all apps, and turn down the screen brightness the battery indicator in the menu bar says I have around 11hrs of battery life left.

So far, it's been as good or better than my 17" MBP in this department.

 

[SaleenS351]

@ SaleenS351:

I squeezed ~10hrs of web surfing out of a single charge - still had some left actually. That's with just Safari open, maybe Terminal and a few other apps briefly, Bluetooth turned on, and the screen brightness set to minimum.

When I unplug mine fully charged, close all apps, and turn down the screen brightness the battery indicator in the menu bar says I have around 11hrs of battery life left.

So far, it's been as good or better than my 17" MBP in this department.

That's wonderful news. Thanks for the info