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macrumors Penryn
Original poster
Dec 27, 2002
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Hey folks,

I wanted to know what type of battery life you get from your PB, particularly the new 12" PBooks and iBooks.

I know that iBooks generally give you 4 to 5 hours of battery life, even if you keep the screen, HD, and sleep settings at fairly generous levels. My rev B 12" 1GHz Powerbook gives me 3h 20min battery life if I only use Word, and around 2h 45min if I use iTunes. That's normal battery capacity for a rev A and B 12" Powerbook. I want more.

The 12" PB's have a new battery, and people are reporting 5 hours of battery life, but on what settings? I don't remember the exact values, but the new 12" PB is rated at 50 Watt·hours. I think they were at 46 Watt·hours last month, which really doesn't seem to be much of a difference.

I want to buy a new 12" PB battery if it makes THAT much of a difference, but don't want to buy it if I'll only get 4.5 hours with all settings maximized for battery life. Actually, I would expect to get 4.5 hours with the way I'm using it now (screen down 4 notches from full brightness, sleep after 8 min, screen turns off after 5 min, etc), since people claim to get over 5+ hours with all settings set lower to conserve battery life.

And how are the other PB's and iBooks doing in terms of battery life right now?
 
5 hours is REALLY high for a PowerBook. My friend has an AlBook with the new battery and it gets similar battery life to yours.

My iBook G4 gets 4-5 hours.
 
Is it the 12" PB?

If it is, I was actually expecting to get around 3h 45min or so, since the new battery is only about 10% better, and yet people are telling me that it's over 5 hours. If the battery is improved THAT much, I want it.

I hear that the new 15" is slightly better than before, but not by much.
 
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