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Powerbook 12" actual battery time

MyAppleWorld

MyAppleWorld

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Hi

I never considered getting a mac product before, but since I want a laptop with good battery, I got excited at the powerbook's advertised 'up to' 5 hours.

However, I've come across a couple of reports suggesting this is very unrealistic.

For example:
http://girr.org/mac_stuff/pb15_battery_life.html

Although it's the 15" version, other websites i've read say the same.

Basically, I would have airport on *all* the time and mostly be using word / microsoft messenger.

Please can somebody give examples on how long their battery lasts for such activities (12" please)

Also, I did consider the ibook 12" but I believe it is bigger in size than the powerbook because of the extra little bit for the speakers. The increase in size has really put me off because I fell in love with the size of the powerbook that I saw in a store.

thanks

--
Darren
http://www.thatsmega.net \\ life in writing :: life in pictures
 
thatsmega.net said:
Please can somebody give examples on how long their battery lasts for such activities (12" please)
Click to expand...

If I was using my 12" PB mainly for web browsing over wireless with the sound off and screen brightness about half way I'd get about 4 to 4.5 hours out of it.

Steve
 
So this is your first Mac. Welcome. You'll love OSX. 🙂

4.5 hours seems the standard for new PowerBooks (12 inch). For what it's worth, my iBook still gets 4.5 hours after about two years' work. So long as you look after it well (calibrate it once a month) it should retain that 4.5 hour life for quite some time. 🙂
 
With a 12" PB, you're looking at around 4 hours.

And if you had a 12" iBook, you'd get even BETTER battery life (4.5 to 5 hours), and better wireless reception than the 12" PB. A 14" iBook would get you around 6 hours. I've read battery life values of around 6.5 hours, but that's under some pretty strange conditions (screen brightness....and everything else down).

And the iBook is only slightly bigger. Look at the numbers again.......you're talking about fractions of an inch.....around 0.2 inches difference, which isn't much.

You're also not doing much that's intensive. The iBook would be more computer than you'd need right now. With better battery life, better WiFi reception, and more than enough speed, get the iBook. And besides, the 12" PB isn't really worth the money right now, and you wouldn't notice the performance difference for what you do, and so it's especially not worth the several hundred dollar difference.

Spend the money you save on booze or something.
 
As others have said the iBook is great value for money with better battery life. Size should not be an issue, I can fit it in my regular school bag with no hassles.
 
For the programs your running, an iBook 12" would be much better for your needs. Has much better battery life + better wireless signal. I love my iBook 😀
 
My 12" PowerBook is 5 months old and the battery 'claims' it lasts for 4 hrs 10 mins. That's with Airport always on and Bluetooth usually off. I keep it plugged in most of the time but sometimes use it on battery power and will run it down completely from time to time. According to System Profiler my battery has been through 36 cycles.

NB: Apps I *always* have running are Safari, Mail, iTunes, PhotoShop (quite often), plus of course Finder & Dashboard.
 
dietcokevanilla said:
My 12" PowerBook is 5 months old and the battery 'claims' it lasts for 4 hrs 10 mins. That's with Airport always on and Bluetooth usually off. I keep it plugged in most of the time but sometimes use it on battery power and will run it down completely from time to time. According to System Profiler my battery has been through 36 cycles.

NB: Apps I *always* have running are Safari, Mail, iTunes, PhotoShop (quite often), plus of course Finder & Dashboard.
Click to expand...
Wow. I have had my 12" PB for 4 months and my battery is at 109 cycles! I still get around 4 hours battery though, so no worries.
 
tuartboy said:
Wow. I have had my 12" PB for 4 months and my battery is at 109 cycles! I still get around 4 hours battery though, so no worries.
Click to expand...

Mine was 18 months old when I sold it and I was still getting around 4.5 hours out of it with brightness turned down to halfway and airport on.

As for the iBook/Powerbook argument, the gap is definitely narrower between the two now but I just slightly prefer the aluminium look to the all white iBook. You'd have to decide if a bit of metal is worth the extra cash. 🙂
 
For my powerbook I get approximately about 3.5 hours.


It really depends on your settings though. If you have your brightness at almost the lowest settings, and the system goes to sleep as soon as its idle, you can probably rank up 4+ hours. But realistically speaking, with real world settings (atleast the ones I use) I get 3.5 hours or sometimes less because Im downloading stuff and the HDD is always spinning.


On an interesting note though, my PB can stay asleep for 255 hours 😀. I found that interesting.
 
I seem to remember getting a little above 2h.

Doing nothing fancy, just some compiling in Xcode and extracting some zip and rar archives.
 
nomad01 said:
You'd have to decide if a bit of metal is worth the extra cash. 🙂
Click to expand...
Maybe it's not. My powerbook just took a spill today and it bent up the corner near the power plug. Wasn't even really that much of a spill! Doubt an ibook would even blink at that...
 
dubbz said:
I seem to remember getting a little above 2h.

Doing nothing fancy, just some compiling in Xcode and extracting some zip and rar archives.
Click to expand...

nothing too fancy? heh, no, the processor contantly cycling during compiles won't kill battery life at all 😛
 
mad jew said:
Listen to the man. Check out the iBooks first. They're much better machines for the price. 🙂
Click to expand...

I second that. My 12" iBook battery lasts about 4.5 hours with the brightness at about 2/3 up, and wireless on all the time. Wireless is crackingly good too. You cannot go wrong. Much better value than the Powerbooks and much more rugged too.
 
My 12" 1.33 has a BTO faster hard drive and upgraded ram, and I can still definitely get 4 hours if I turn brightness down (actually, with airport off). Unfortunately, if you don't go to much effort (don't turn of bluetooth, turn down brightness, etc) it can be lower - 2.5 hours, or even less depending on programs in use.
 
When I'm at the library connecting to the school's wireless network, I get a good four hours of battery life on my 12" PowerBook. When I take my computer to class with me, I turn on the wireless and can get 4.5 hours. The battery time is much better than the windows laptops that my mom and brother have.
 
From the official Apple PB documentation

Here ya go.
 

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