Concerned about my macbook pro's battery

[Definition]

I bought a MBP 13" (Mid 2009) and I'm a little concerned about its battery life.

It has been two weeks, 17 cycles and 98% health.

Additionally, I can never seem to get more than 3 hours of battery life while watching megavideo/youtube, IRC and firefox w/ wifi.

Is there something wrong with my battery or is this normal?

5361/5450 mAh

Thanks in advance for the help

 

[Andrew Henry]

I bought a MBP 13" (Mid 2009) and I'm a little concerned about its battery life.

It has been two weeks, 17 cycles and 98% health.

Additionally, I can never seem to get more than 3 hours of battery life while watching megavideo/youtube, IRC and firefox w/ wifi.

Is there something wrong with my battery or is this normal?

5361/5450 mAh

Thanks in advance for the help

Did you calibrate your battery?

 

[SnowLeopard2008]

I bought a MBP 13" (Mid 2009) and I'm a little concerned about its battery life.

It has been two weeks, 17 cycles and 98% health.

Additionally, I can never seem to get more than 3 hours of battery life while watching megavideo/youtube, IRC and firefox w/ wifi.

Is there something wrong with my battery or is this normal?

5361/5450 mAh

Thanks in advance for the help

Advertised 7 hours battery life is for light web surfing, not watching videos. Forget calibration, it's useless.

 

[NewMacbookPlz]

SnowLeopard, calibrating the battery is not useless.

I definitely saw an increase in battery life after calibrating as opposed to prior with my Unibody.

 

[RandomKamikaze]

Agree with NewMacbookPlz, calibrating definately helps. It also helps the readings of the battery such as its state and provides a more accurate reading on time/percentage left

 

[emilyland1326]

Your battery health should increase after calibration (mine did) and watching videos, like others have said, decreases battery time, so its normal.

 

[Definition]

May I have instructions on how to calibrate it?

Thanks again

 

[kai920]

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1490

I plan on doing the battery calibration tonight, unplugging it at 6 pm and using it until the battery dies.

 

[madmaxmedia]

You might try disabling flash ads in Firefox, there are plug-ins to do that. That should also help maximize your battery life.

I am finding that so far, my 13" MBP has great battery life. But even so, the 'time remaining' will swing wildy depending on what I'm doing. A web page with a lot of flash crap will send the number way down.

Right now I only have this page open, and time remaining says 5:39. That is at 71%, and I have been using the computer for awhile. So that's pretty great.

 

[kai920]

# Disconnect the power adapter while the computer still on and start running the computer off battery power. You may use your computer during this time. When your battery gets low, the low battery warning dialog appears on the screen.
# At this point, save your work. Continue to use your computer; when the battery gets very low, the computer will automatically go to sleep.
# Turn off the computer or allow it to sleep for five hours or more.
# Connect the power adapter and leave it connected until the battery is fully charged again.

When I connect the power adapter at the last step, can I use it while it's charging?