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"Old" MBP 13" vs NEW MBP 13" : big difference?

L

lapino

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 6, 2009
238
11
Is there a big difference between the 'old' 13" and the new one? Mainly battery life and responsiveness. I'm looking for first hand experience, sure specs are different and battery life is claimed to be 10hrs, but I'm really interested in people who have used both.

(btw, I have the "old" 13" MBP)
 
I've just bought the new 13" and after having done a full recharge/full discharge and recharge again. With a couple of browser tabs, twitter app, skype, iCal and screen to 50% brightness and wireless OFF I'm getting quoted 7 hours on battery life...

then if I open another tab it'll recalculate to 4 hours.

I'm confused by the battery meter and Apple's estimates.
 
If I charge the battery on my 13" fully, turn the brightness to about 33%, turn off the keyboard light, and only a text editor open, the remaining power goes over 11 hours.
 
bentley said:
I've just bought the new 13" and after having done a full recharge/full discharge and recharge again. With a couple of browser tabs, twitter app, skype, iCal and screen to 50% brightness and wireless OFF I'm getting quoted 7 hours on battery life...

then if I open another tab it'll recalculate to 4 hours.

I'm confused by the battery meter and Apple's estimates.
Click to expand...

Apple's claims are under certain working conditions, for example low brightness, WiFi and Bluetooth are off, etc. 7 hours with all that open isn't too shabby.
 
i'll chime in with my experiences. i had the 2009 13" mbp that i had bought within the return period of the new model being released. returned the old moldy one and picked up the brand new model just last week.

Indeed the performance difference in every tasks is not tangible. However gaming is significantly more enjoyable on the new model than the old one. The older 65nm 9400m only allowed Left 4 Dead 2 to really be playable at some of the lowest settings. With the newer 40nm 320m i can crank up the resolution a couple notches and run the quality settings on high. All this while still maintaining a higher frame rate than the 9400m mbp despite the more demanding quality settings.

Battery life is noticeably better as well. The battery is of slightly higher capacity than the 2009 mbp. However the biggest contributor to longevity seems to be the 40nm process of the chipset allowing for lower power consumption. This also has the added affect of allowing the 320m to run cooler than the 9400m; quite noticeably in my case.
 
I bought the 'old' model a few days before the new models were announced. I really could use longer battery life. I don't game on my Mac and don't usually do heavy processing. Shame I can't return it to get the new one, shops don't allow returns where I live.
 
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