I just bought it brand new less than 2 weeks ago and the battery life says normal and I am only on the 10th cycle count. When charged to 100% the life remaining is always less than 4 hours, all i do is web browse on safari, with the screen brightness at 50% is something wrong?
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MBP Battery Life isn't any where near 7 hours
- Thread starter brett93
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I had a power failure a couple of months back, so my MBP was running on batteries. I quickly unplugged all USB/firewire devices, shut down Time Machine, and switched to the 9400M. Having an SSD helped a lot too. The only thing left on was the wireless since my router is on a UPS. The battery lasted over 8 hours.
Your mileage will definitely vary. But it's these kinds of "ideal" conditions that Apple uses for their numbers. You can't really fault them too much for this since everyone does it. In day-to-day use, I get ~4 hours.
Your mileage will definitely vary. But it's these kinds of "ideal" conditions that Apple uses for their numbers. You can't really fault them too much for this since everyone does it. In day-to-day use, I get ~4 hours.
Brett I wouldn't worry too much. All OEMs over exaggerate the battery life. Looking at any flash websites (hello youtube) would have a detrimental effect on batteries.
Simple rule with OEM battery life, half it. Any more is a bonus.
Simple rule with OEM battery life, half it. Any more is a bonus.
I spoke to an apple technician about this and he said that they verify this estimate by setting up like this:
Bluetooth OFF
Airport OFF
Brightness at 50%
Then use office apps and normal stuff like that so your cpu isn't taxed too much.
Then you should get 7 hours.
Bluetooth OFF
Airport OFF
Brightness at 50%
Then use office apps and normal stuff like that so your cpu isn't taxed too much.
Then you should get 7 hours.
when i 1st got my mid-09 mbp i easily got 7 hours while surfing the web. I remember i used to get about 8-9 hours with the brightness set to super low and typing in Pages or something.
130 charges later, about once a day, I get about 6 hours, maybe 5 while surfing the web, watching videos on YouTube. I'm not deterred by it cause its much better than the 45 minute charge my old whitebook held.
130 charges later, about once a day, I get about 6 hours, maybe 5 while surfing the web, watching videos on YouTube. I'm not deterred by it cause its much better than the 45 minute charge my old whitebook held.
...carry an extra battery
That's great... unless you have the new 13" MBP in which case changing the battery is a bit of a hassle. ;-)
But like everyone's said every manufacturer overinflates their estimated battery life. Apple's is better than some other companies, whose battery testing conditions turn out to be with everything including the screen turned off and the CPU idling for 10 hours.
Flash videos are very CPU intensive, so a lot of simple web browsing can easily turn into really heavy computing and thus short battery life.
First of all have you fully emptied and then recharged the battery yet? Basically have you done a battery calibration? Also to get close to 7 hours you have to make sure everything else on your computer is turned off such as your wireless airport card, blue tooth, keyboard back lighting, and disconnect any USB devices, etc. When I first got my MBP I noticed that Apple had those things turned on and I was also using a USB mouse so my batteries drained very fast.
As others have mentioned manufacturer's always publish the highest, longest, or best times that are possible but they don't usually represent real world usage. How many people actually get the fuel mileage that their car's are suppose to get?
Try turning off everything I mentioned above that you don't need on and calibrate your battery if you have not done so. After that try retesting your time. You need to use an actual clock and not base your time on the estimate your MBP gives you because it can be inaccurate at times especially if you have not calibrated your battery.
If I'm only surfing the web and doing basic things like reading websites and participating on forums, etc then I can get about 6 hours of battery life. This is with everything such as Blue Tooth, wireless card, keyboard lights turned off, and my screen brightness is about half because it's too bright indoors otherwise. The only thing I have plugged in is my USB mouse so I probably would get better battery life if I didn't use it. I get about 4 hours or less if I watch a lot of Flash videos on the internet and about 2 hours if I play games.
Lastly check Activity Monitor to see what is making your computer work so hard and stop that if it's possible. Flash alone can use about 50% or more of my CPU process which is why there is a such a huge drain on the battery.
...carry an extra battery
...which is why for myself, I decided to get the model whitebook I have in my signature... my whitebook goes "unplugged" with me for 8 - 12 hours a day...
I noticed the same thing. Two biggest things affecting my battery life that I've noticed are flash on websites (I like Chrome so much better than Firefox, so no adblocker yet ). Second, I've noticed to really get the famous 7 hours and use Chrome I can dim my screen to about a quarter of the full brightness. This doesn't bother me to much because it's pretty close to my White Macbook's screen at about half.
). Second, I've noticed to really get the famous 7 hours and use Chrome I can dim my screen to about a quarter of the full brightness. This doesn't bother me to much because it's pretty close to my White Macbook's screen at about half.Thanks alot for everyone's suggestions. I tried them out and it extended my battery life somewhat!
Thanks again!
What perfect timing on this thread! I've been wondering the same thing since I got my 13" MB Pro two weeks ago. I've never seen the battery read more than four hours, and that was after calibrating twice. But I also have the bluetooth Magic Mouse, a USB hub and two FireWire devices hooked up. So what did I expect? I'm feeling a lot more confident now that when I take this thing on the road without all the peripherals, I'll be fine.
Maybe previously they did it like that, but the big advertisement push for the mid 09 MBP's was "7 hours of wireless productivity".
Now, I'm pretty sure by wireless productivity they mean Airport ON.
I just did an experiment. I kept my wireless active on my 13" MP Pro. I had my MB fully charged, then turned off bluetooth and unplugged all my peripherals. The time remaining on my battery meter was an amazing 8:43. I then turned on my bluetooth and looked again at the meter; there was just 7:03 of life remaining. I plugged in my FireWire devices; I was down to 6:24. Lastly I plugged in my powered USB hub (with a scanner and a floppy drive attached); I was down to 3:48. Wow. I never realized that USB devices drain power even when they're not being used.