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MacBook Pro (Late 2011) 7-hour battery life?

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florante

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 2, 2012
5
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My mom recently bought me a 13-inch MacBook Pro (Lion) from Best Buy for college and it was a thrill after suffering from pc crashes. Now I have read that Apple claims that these MBPs can last up to 7 hours of wifi use. However, my mac has only calculated after full charging, 4 hours (4:17) of usage. Is there any problem? So I was thinking this: 13-inch will get 4 hours, 15-inche will get 6 hours, and 17-inch will get 7 hours of battery life. HELP me. :confused:
 
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florante said:
My mom recently bought me a 13-inch MacBook Pro (Lion) from Best Buy for college and it was a thrill after suffering from pc crashes. Now I have read that Apple claims that these MBPs can last up to 7 hours of wifi use. However, my mac has only calculated after full charging, 4 hours (4:17) of usage. Is there any problem? So I was thinking this: 13-inch will get 4 hours, 15-inche will get 6 hours, and 17-inch will get 7 hours of battery life. HELP me. :confused:
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up to "5,6,7" hours is under optimal power settings.

4-5 hours is what I get on my 2011 15 inch but if I do anything beyond web browsing or office apps, I would get somewhere 2-3 hours.

Depends what you are doing. playing diablo 3 on battery may go for 1-2 hours.

What i'm trying to say is, it's varies depending on your usage.
 
toothache said:
up to "5,6,7" hours is under optimal power settings.

4-5 hours is what I get on my 2011 15 inch but if I do anything beyond web browsing or office apps, I would get somewhere 2-3 hours.

Depends what you are doing. playing diablo 3 on battery may go for 1-2 hours.

What i'm trying to say is, it's varies depending on your usage.
Click to expand...


Yes I've tried those settings (50% brightness, safari browsing only, etc) and still get approx. 4 hours. So 7 hours of battery life is a mere joke from Apple? :(
 
ah don't worry about it just use your macbook.

you'll forget it within 3 days.
haha go to bed
 
florante said:
Yes I've tried those settings (50% brightness, safari browsing only, etc) and still get approx. 4 hours. So 7 hours of battery life is a mere joke from Apple? :(
Click to expand...

On snow leopard the battery life was much better I got rid of lion:) and put SL back on,Also I find that normal for a laptop running lion.
 
if I strain my eyes (with min brightness) and stick to really light stuff I've hit about 10 hours on my early 2011 on SL but realistically I'll get 4-6 hours, I find that Apple is usually relatively honest when it comes to battery life claims, they are still a bit exaggerated but far more honest than most companies that claim 4 hours but that's only if you leave it on a blank desktop :p
 
Depends very much on what you're doing.

I've had estimates for wifi browsing life on my MBP 15" of 9hr 40 minutes before - on 1/3 screen brightness, keyboard backlight off, no bluetooth, no flash, etc.

But typically i get nearer 5 hrs or so in reality - if i'm running handbrake to transcode video that will drop to 1 to 1.5 hrs (which i don't generally do on battery of course).

(mine was pre-installed with Lion, i bought it like 2 weeks before the late 2011 refresh :D)

Playing mp3s off a network share via wifi does impact battery life quite a bit.
 
This is how Apple tests to get their battery life figures (it's a footnote on the product page):

Wireless web testing conducted by Apple in October 2011 using preproduction 2.8GHz dual-core Intel Core i7–based 13-inch MacBook Pro units, preproduction 2.4GHz quad-core Intel Core i7–based 15-inch MacBook Pro units, and preproduction 2.4GHz quad-core Intel Core i7–based 17-inch MacBook Pro units. The wireless web test measures battery life by wirelessly browsing 25 popular websites with display brightness set to 50%. Battery life varies by use and configuration. See www.apple.com/batteries for more information.

What they don't say is which "25 popular websites" :rolleyes:

Also, your battery life can increase during use. My 2008 MBP - which only realistically gets about 1:30 per charge - often shows only ~1 hour (& 95% battery) left once it's finished booting but that then increases to sometimes as much as 2 hours depending on what I'm doing. The remaining time is only an estimate based on recent usage.
 
I have an early 2011 13" MBP and I can get around 4-5 hours usually - browsing the web, youtube-ing every now and again, word processing. But if I'm careful I can get the stated 7 hours (still using Snow Leopard). I rarely use battery power these days anyway as I leaved it plugged into the mains. I only use the battery when I'm at the library really.
 
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Is 4 hours what OS X is calculating or is this what you're actually getting? Have you "calibrated" your battery? With out calibrating it you won't get an accurate reading, it won't affect actual battery life though.

I've personally seen 7 hours usage on my 2009 13" with just iTunes and text edit running, so Apple is in no way lying about that. Like other said, it's all about what you're doing.
 
mushtama said:
I rarely use battery power these days anyway as I leaved it plugged into the mains. I only use the battery when I'm at the library really.
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It's not good for the battery to run on AC power all the time. The battery needs regular use to stay healthy.
derickdub said:
Is 4 hours what OS X is calculating or is this what you're actually getting? Have you "calibrated" your battery?
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The built-in batteries in the newer Mac unibody notebooks come pre-calibrated and do not require regular calibration like the removable batteries.
florante said:
However, my mac has only calculated after full charging, 4 hours (4:17) of usage.
Click to expand...
There are many factors that impact your battery life. See the BATTERY LIFE FROM A CHARGE section of the following link for details, including tips on how to maximize your battery life.

This should answer most, if not all, of your battery questions:
 
florante said:
Yes I've tried those settings (50% brightness, safari browsing only, etc) and still get approx. 4 hours. So 7 hours of battery life is a mere joke from Apple? :(
Click to expand...

No, actually. I have the exact same computer as you do, I bought it in October. With a battery health of 99%, i can get 9 hours. HOWEVER. 9 hours is using the computer at 3 notches brightness, no wifi, keyboard backlight high, no bluetooth.. but normally i get about 5-6 hours with almost full screen and no backlight. with wifi browsing no youtube. its really not that bad :)
 
GGJstudios said:
It's not good for the battery to run on AC power all the time. The battery needs regular use to stay healthy.
Click to expand...

I used to go through 2-3 cycles a day until I started to leave it plugged in. I still do use the battery from time to time as I go to the library 2-3 times a week. I just find it convenient to just leave it plugged in when I'm at home.
 
mushtama said:
I used to go through 2-3 cycles a day until I started to leave it plugged in. I still do use the battery from time to time as I go to the library 2-3 times a week. I just find it convenient to just leave it plugged in when I'm at home.
Click to expand...

I am the same way, but when ever I'm at home (where I used my MBP 95% of the time) I have it in clamshell mode so it has to stay plugged in. I have 17 cycles on my current battery which was replaced 6 months ago, and the one before that had 27 cycles and was a little over 2 years old. It started expanding inside my MBP though. The genius said he doubted that leaving it plugged in caused that. I don't think leaving it plugged in is really that bad TBH.
 
mushtama said:
I used to go through 2-3 cycles a day until I started to leave it plugged in. I still do use the battery from time to time as I go to the library 2-3 times a week. I just find it convenient to just leave it plugged in when I'm at home.
Click to expand...
That's fine. 2-3 times a week on battery for a while is plenty of use to keep it healthy.
 
OP, consider resetting your SMC if your battery isn't performing as optimally as you want.

Apple: reset SMC

I always reset my SMC after major updates, and it tends to help battery life.
 
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