New MacBook Pro 8-hour Battery JOKE!

[tkingart]

Unplug a PC laptop that states up to 4 hours battery life, and let me know if you manage to get more than 1.5 hours out of it.

I guess it depends on what you're doing unplugged. The obvious things: dim the display, turn off the keyboard back lighting. Set it up for longer battery life. Try single tasking to reduce memory and CPU usage. (don't forget to cmd+q out of apps.)

If all else fails, pick up one of those nifty solar panel laptop bags.

 

[mark28]

Unplug a PC laptop that states up to 4 hours battery life, and let me know if you manage to get more than 1.5 hours out of it.

I guess it depends on what you're doing unplugged. The obvious things: dim the display, turn off the keyboard back lighting. Set it up for longer battery life. Try single tasking to reduce memory and CPU usage. (don't forget to cmd+q out of apps.)

If all else fails, pick up one of those nifty solar panel laptop bags.

Well, mine does when doing regular work without switching off stuff like Wifi (since I need it)

 

[Hadron]

In order to somewhat get closer to Apple's advertised time, you need to have the standard hardware configuration: i5 proc, 5400 rpm hard drive, 4 gig ram, 50% brightness on the monitor, they prob didn't use the usb port, and all they did was type documents and use the internet. just a thought

Actually Apple's footnote on the battery life says "Testing conducted by Apple in March 2010 using preproduction 2.66GHz Intel Core i7–based MacBook Pro units."

 

[senc01a]

Dude, just Safari?

What were you using in Safari?
Keep in mind that Flash is a battery killer.....
Browsing regular HTML5+Js pages I get about 8 - 9 hours with the new MBP 13inch (same one as you have)
Browsing pages with Flash, it drops down to 4 - 5 hours.

That could be it!

 

[bugout]

Ok, it's good to know I can replace the battery, but with my old MBP I can have 2 batteries and swap them out.

Yeah.. but have you ever actually done it?


I thought so..

 

[trieuth]

On my new 13" mbp, i've used it for 3 days with just light browsing for probably about 10 hours and its still showing 25% battery life left, with screen brightness at about 60%.

 

[mark28]

On my new 13" mbp, i've used it for 3 days with just light browsing for probably about 10 hours and its still showing 25% battery life left, with screen brightness at about 60%.

Cool, and this is with bluetooth and Wireless on?

 

[Maximus434]

I echo the OP.

My Core i5 2.4Ghz Macbook pro just arrived and right out of the box, with about 87% battery left, it was showing 3 and a half hours left.

I charged it up and installed a SSD. From 100% at max brightness with safari open it is showing just under 6 hours remaining. At 50% brightness it was showing 7 hours. I remember the previous C2D model I had (with 9400m chipset) was getting a bit longer.

I also notice that the time remaining display beside the battery icon updates more regularly now.

I also think the screen is a bit darker than the last revision, or is that just me?

 

[clindner]

I didn't see it mentioned here yet, but it is common that batteries will take a couple of charging cycles to get to their full capacity.

Not sure if that applies in this case, but I would let it run down to about 20% and recharge a few times before you take action. If it is still short, take it back for replacement.

 

[Ollebro]

I get less than 3 hours out of the '7 hours' battery of my 13" MBP. BT off, brightness down to around 70% and no heavy duty tasking. If I don't touch it, it would last 5 hours. But 7?! Never.

I would expect 4-5 hours from that '10 hours' battery.

wow, i used mine for 8 yesterday before the battery died. i have the same laptop.

 

[hockey9999]

I started a thread a day or 2 ago regarding my battery life/full charge capacity. - https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=9682691#post9682691

My capacity will not go up to 100% - Out of the box, brand new on launch day I was showing 97-98% capacity, which bothers me for a brand new, $2,000 computer.

From what I understand, full capacity should be 6900 mAH.

I am going to take a trip to the genius bar today to see if I am being to anal about it, or is this is normal...

Model Information:
Serial Number: W0008PTVGBX0A
Manufacturer: SMP
Device name: bq20z451
Pack Lot Code: 0000
PCB Lot Code: 0000
Firmware Version: 0201
Hardware Revision: 000a
Cell Revision: 0157
Charge Information:
Charge remaining (mAh): 5737
Fully charged: No
Charging: No
Full charge capacity (mAh): 6808
Health Information:
Cycle count: 2
Condition: Normal
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): -1497
Voltage (mV): 11869

 

[ubercool]

Welcome to the wonderful world of battery performance. I have a MacBook 2008 Unibody and I have *never* been able to get more than 4 hours of battery life. Of course, there are always those who claim they can get 5+ hours regularly.

The fact of the matter is that the so-called battery life tests, on which these claims are based, are arrived at by turning the screen, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth COMPLETELY off.

To say YMMV is an understatement. And I once again see dubious claims in this thread that simply stretch the limits of fudging. There is NO WAY in hell anyone will EVER get the stated battery life running apps like Safari or Firefox and using Wi-Fi.

A 50% performance of the battery life claim is very typical. I would not spend $2,300 on a computer and then have to turn the screen down to 50% in normal use to just stretch my battery life. That's like buying a Ferrari so you can cruise at 50mph, NOT!

 

[mgacam2]

I understand what your saying, I'm not expecting 100% 8hrs, but 4hrs vs. 8hrs for typical usage is 1/2 the advertised performance. I know certain apps can be CPU/Memory drains etc and will reduce the load quicker.

Went to the Apple store and I set the screen brightness to half with wifi on and bluetooth off and surfed thee net and did word processing and it said 10 hours ( this is on the 15) When I turned wifi off and did it like i would be in class just typing my notes I got almost 12 hours. either something is wrong with your computer or you dont know how to be mobile. remember flash uses a huge amount of cpu power. Aswell with Apple I notice now that they underestimate their products, the ipad also got 11 or 12 hours of battery not 10.

I started a thread a day or 2 ago regarding my battery life/full charge capacity. - https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=9682691#post9682691

My capacity will not go up to 100% - Out of the box, brand new on launch day I was showing 97-98% capacity, which bothers me for a brand new, $2,000 computer.

From what I understand, full capacity should be 6900 mAH.

I am going to take a trip to the genius bar today to see if I am being to anal about it, or is this is normal...

Model Information:
Serial Number: W0008PTVGBX0A
Manufacturer: SMP
Device name: bq20z451
Pack Lot Code: 0000
PCB Lot Code: 0000
Firmware Version: 0201
Hardware Revision: 000a
Cell Revision: 0157
Charge Information:
Charge remaining (mAh): 5737
Fully charged: No
Charging: No
Full charge capacity (mAh): 6808
Health Information:
Cycle count: 2
Condition: Normal
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): -1497
Voltage (mV): 11869

Your machine is fine, remember that apple uses the battery as a watt source so to speak. It cant run at full speed using just the power adaptor. It uses the battery as a power adaptor as well which means its sipping a tiny bit of power from the battery at all times and thus never being at 100%. Leave it in sleep to charge or doing nothing for a while and you should get your 100%.

 

[ubercool]

Went to the Apple store and I set the screen brightness to half with wifi on and bluetooth off and surfed thee net and did word processing and it said 10 hours ( this is on the 15) When I turned wifi off and did it like i would be in class just typing my notes I got almost 12 hours. either something is wrong with your computer or you dont know how to be mobile. remember flash uses a huge amount of cpu power. Aswell with Apple I notice now that they underestimate their products, the ipad also got 11 or 12 hours of battery not 10.

The minute you start doing something, it will drop to five hours. No way in hell is this possible in real-life use.

Stop raising people's expectations about battery life. In the store you don't start and stop apps, you don't use Firefox with 10 tabs open, you don't fire up iTunes to sync your iPhone, etc.

These kinds of posts simply lead too many people down an unrealistic cherry path.

 

[trerep]

I started a thread a day or 2 ago regarding my battery life/full charge capacity. - https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=9682691#post9682691

My capacity will not go up to 100% - Out of the box, brand new on launch day I was showing 97-98% capacity, which bothers me for a brand new, $2,000 computer.

From what I understand, full capacity should be 6900 mAH.

I am going to take a trip to the genius bar today to see if I am being to anal about it, or is this is normal...

Model Information:
Serial Number: W0008PTVGBX0A
Manufacturer: SMP
Device name: bq20z451
Pack Lot Code: 0000
PCB Lot Code: 0000
Firmware Version: 0201
Hardware Revision: 000a
Cell Revision: 0157
Charge Information:
Charge remaining (mAh): 5737
Fully charged: No
Charging: No
Full charge capacity (mAh): 6808
Health Information:
Cycle count: 2
Condition: Normal
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): -1497
Voltage (mV): 11869

which model is yours? it is a week 08 so made in february.. this ia the proof that they were in production 2 months ago while we were waiting ... it seems almost a pre production unit if really made in february

 

[trieuth]

Cool, and this is with bluetooth and Wireless on?

just wifi

 

[hockey9999]

Your machine is fine, remember that apple uses the battery as a watt source so to speak. It cant run at full speed using just the power adaptor. It uses the battery as a power adaptor as well which means its sipping a tiny bit of power from the battery at all times and thus never being at 100%. Leave it in sleep to charge or doing nothing for a while and you should get your 100%.

I am not referring to the battery charging to 100%, when fully charged it does say 100%. I am talking about the stated maximum capacity in system profiler, coconut battery etc. Original Capacity is stated as being 6900mAh, my current Max capacity is only 6800 on a 3 day old machine with 3 cycles.

which model is yours? it is a week 08 so made in february.. this ia the proof that they were in production 2 months ago while we were waiting ... it seems almost a pre production unit if really made in february

That serial # was actually the serial for the battery, not the machine itself.

I have a 15" 2.53.

From http://www.appleserialnumberinfo.com

Serial Number: W801xxxxxx
Model: - MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2010)
Codename: - ?

Build Country: - Your Mac was built in Changhai, China.

Build Year: - Your Mac was built in 2010.

Build Week - Your Mac was built in week 14 of that year (March).

Production Nr.: - Your Mac was number 1599 to be built that week.

 

[rkdiddy]

As many above have mentioned - battery life is dependent on numerous factors.

You should read the below article:

http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2010/04/14/apples-automagic-gpu-switching/

 

[tdream]

turn your backlit keyboard off and your screen brightness down. I am getting over 11 hours of my new 13"

Turning on the MacBook with the lowest brightness setting and looking at the time left doesn't count...

 

[tdream]

Normal usage guidelines for apple = web surfing with no flash whatsoever, iTunes through the headphones only. No downloading of large files, no iMovie, no GarageBand, no programs that use more than 2% of CPU power. Then you can get the advertised times. To actually use i5 to full capacity non stop will drain the battery in 2 hours.

 

[FMD:.]

I will say that whenever i go wireless I tend to turn my display down to a comfortable setting. Sometimes all the way down to 1, turn the backlit keyboard off or dim it just enough, and turn off bluetooth if not being used. If you do this I am sure you will be able to see higher hours of battery life. I could with my 2.4 mbp c2d 4gb of ram 250gb 7200 hdd, 5 hours of battery doing this so long as I am not working in PS or AE. This is including having ichat open, firefox, and itunes as well as AI.

 

[ayeying]

I'm still getting over 1.5 hours of use with 100% brightness, 100% backlit keyboard and 100% load on both CPU cores on my Core Duo with a 60% capacity, 4 year old original battery.

I think you guys who keep constantly looking at the battery is going to be disappointed because it'll almost always read lower then it is. For example, my gauge read 30 minutes left, 30 minutes ago at 50% and right now its only at 34% and reading 40 minutes left. Just use the system, be happy, not a constant stare at the battery gauge.

 

[rickeames]

I just bought a new MacBookPro 15'' and i'm extremely disappointed how Apple mislead how the notebook can run 8hrs without a charge. The most I was able to get was around 4hrs or so. Is anyone else noticing this also?

Also, I noticed the battery is not removable. My old MBP had a removable battery. This really sucks!

Everything else is great with the notbook, now have to decide what to do, if I should keep or return.

Do people not read about computers before they buy them? The battery has not been removable for two generations now.

 

[applesupergeek]

User replaceable batteries has got to be the biggest garbage claim after flash for the ipad and the impending doom of apple for not using blu ray...

 

[mgacam2]

The minute you start doing something, it will drop to five hours. No way in hell is this possible in real-life use.

Stop raising people's expectations about battery life. In the store you don't start and stop apps, you don't use Firefox with 10 tabs open, you don't fire up iTunes to sync your iPhone, etc.

These kinds of posts simply lead too many people down an unrealistic cherry path.

I'm not raising expectations at all, and i played around with what i was doing for about 20 mins not just a second here or there. The battery life was consistant and like I said I tested it exactly like how I would use it. Also my roomate is reporting to me his i7 is getting 10 hours battery life. I'm still waiting for mine to ship. I know how to test a computer and work it for battery so don't patronize me.