Does any one actualy have a i7 13" rMBP?

[EthanBZ]

Hi,
The reason that I'm asking is that I can't find any posts about how long the battery lasts on the i7 13" spec MacBook pro.

This will be my first mac from a HP with dual Pentium cores and I would like to know the battery life so that I can decide if I want the i5 or i7.


Since price is not an issue my reasoning is that I will get the i7 if it does not affect battery life too extremely in everyday use - word, net, picture editing and HD movie watching, as my preference is longer battery life instead of processing power.

I know that I don't need the i7 for the above tasks but I'm hoping that the i7 is as good in battery life as the i5 in smaller tasks but then when it is plugged in I have the faster processor to fall back on for work that is more taxing.

If anyone has personal experience with the above please chip in.


Many thanks for any advice

Ethan

 

[lg251]

Lots of topic already cover this subject.

I have not seen any lack in battery uptime with my i7. In normal load, I have pretty much the same time as others with the i5. Even on high load, the difference so far is not really noticeable, if any. Don't forget having a faster CPU makes you complete tasks faster. In the end it's pretty much the same as the i5 in terms of battery life.

 

[EthanBZ]

Lots of topic already cover this subject.

I have not seen any lack in battery uptime with my i7. In normal load, I have pretty much the same time as others with the i5. Even on high load, the difference so far is not really noticeable, if any. Don't forget having a faster CPU makes you complete tasks faster. In the end it's pretty much the same as the i5 in terms of battery life.

Hi, do you have any links to such topics? I cant seem to find them or what search word do you use if it is on here most battery threads are on later models.

 

[Roman2K~]

As good as it gets comparing the difference in battery life from i5 to i7:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7113/2013-macbook-air-core-i5-4250u-vs-core-i7-4650u/4

Anand compares MBA CPUs but they're in the same *U line (ultra low voltage) as the rMBP so the results are relevant to your case.

The key prerequisite being:

What's important to note about all of these tests is that the amount of work done per cycle of the test doesn't vary based on performance. There's enough idle time baked in to make sure that the Core i7 based 13-inch MBA isn't artifically penalized by having to do more work than the i5 model simply because it's faster.

As you can see, the i5 lasts longer despite taking longer to complete the same tasks (in other words: losing the race to idle). So the choice comes down to snappiness vs battery runtime.

 

[lg251]

As good as it gets comparing the difference in battery life from i5 to i7:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7113/2013-macbook-air-core-i5-4250u-vs-core-i7-4650u/4

Anand compares MBA CPUs but they're in the same *U line (ultra low voltage) as the rMBP so the results are relevant to your case.

The key prerequisite being:


As you can see, the i5 lasts longer despite taking longer to complete the same tasks (in other words: losing the race to idle). So the choice comes down to snappiness vs battery runtime.

The tests were done with MBA. Don't get me wrong, it's probably the same with rMBPs, but let's use real life facts instead.

When you read what people in everyday use, it's nearly identical. It varies within a couple minutes, but no more than that. Let's not forget the OP mentioned light load (word, etc.) My friend has an entry level i5 and compared with mine sitting side by side doing the same task, we have almost the exact same uptime with the battery. No difference noticeable at all in everyday use.

Under heavy and intense use, pretty sure he ratio is a little better and the i5 will in fact use less power. Light load, don't even bother. Especially coming from an HP dual Core. You'll be in heaven with the battery efficiency on these new machines.

 

[ayeying]

I do. But I don't have the latest one, I have the previous (Early 2013) model. As it stands, I owned both the i5 and the i7 before settling on the i7 due to the storage space (512GB vs 256GB) and I noticed a LARGE decrease in battery life, especially during gaming.

The i5 was able to manage about 3 hours of playing SimCity when I was waiting for my car to be fixed while the i7 got around 2 hours. However, the performance felt better on the i7. I also noticed the fans rev up more often on the i7 vs i5.

 

[EthanBZ]

Thank you for the answers so far.

Looking around I realise that even though the i7 is faster and uses more battery you could say as an average that both would still have the same amount of idle time after doing a task.


Can anyone comment on how long the i7 battery lasts or the toll while watching a movie or using YouTube for a certain amount of time.


My main worry is that the battery life wont be as balanced from light to heavy use and the processor starts to be more battery greedy towards the light use end of the scale.