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Retina MBP Battery Life??

T

Tucker1988

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 23, 2009
20
0
The initial Engadget review said they were still testing the 2.3ghz configuration of the new Macbook Pro with Retina. Their revision is now live and I found this a bit weird.

"The 2.3GHz model lasted an average of nine hours and 22 minutes -- a runtime so long we at first thought it was a fluke. After repeated runs, though, we kept turning up similar results."

Anyone have this configuration (with 8gb, as thats the one I bought) that can verify these battery stats?
 
Last edited:
Anyone able to confirm? Sorry for the bump, just excited to see if this holds true and my order isn't supposed to come til June 27th, so i have some time to wait.
 
Bumping this, that's a huge number and a serious reason to buy the lower model over the high end for some people. More info please :x
 
I have the base model mbpr

So far i have been running for about 7 hours. still have 29% left!
 
I can't say either way at the point, but my RMBP arrived nearly full and it seemed battery life was maybe 4.5 hrs. This was with brightness a tad above midpoint and with the discrete graphics always on for a couple hours vs. keeping it on the default "automatic" mode. I let it completely drain so I could recalibrate the battery. It's charging now. I'll report back next cycle.
 
Chupa Chupa said:
I can't say either way at the point, but my RMBP arrived nearly full and it seemed battery life was maybe 4.5 hrs. This was with brightness a tad above midpoint and with the discrete graphics always on for a couple hours vs. keeping it on the default "automatic" mode. I let it completely drain so I could recalibrate the battery. It's charging now. I'll report back next cycle.
Click to expand...

it sounds based on your experience there that with light surfing 9hrs COULD happen, if the discrete is never engaged and the brightness is kept reasonable.
 
I thought it was strange during all the WWDC PR guff that they gave both models the seven hour estimate, because surely the slower Intel chip would field slightly better usage, but had written it off for the sake of not making the cheaper option more attractive than the maxxibeast. But this nine hours is quite neat.
 
Aside from Engadget's figures, The Verge, CNet and Macworld also have their own Battery Drain tests results. All of them focused on video rundown except The Verge who did multitasking on browsing and photos. All of them have different results although it's clear that the 2.3GHz Retina has better battery life than the 2.6GHz one. I'm still waiting on AnandTech who usually test these machines using different methods. But at the end of the day, these reviews are no comparison to what the specific user is doing with his machine. A person who uses the browser a lot on an Air may have better rundown times to a person browsing on a Retina screen while a student who watches videos on a Pro may have better battery life than the Air due to the battery size. Lots of factors to consider therefore YMMV.
 
Since I rarely watch videos on battery (and those are ripped movies not the crappy youtube thing), and mainly surf the web (addblock and no flash) and read/write docs, the battery life on this thing is going to be amazing! I think around 10h:D
 
well, look at this review: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Intel-Ivy-Bridge-Quad-Core-Processors.73624.0.html

In the section of "Power Consumption", 3610QM have 5 watt less then 3720QM in heavy load situation. (we assume 3610QM is equivalent to 3615QM which is equipped in the base model.)

Engadget said 2.6GHz lasts 7:49, and 2.3GHz lasts 9:22.

Now let us do some maths:
7:49=7.8 hours; 9:22=9.4 hours
battery capacity is 95-watt-hour.
2.6GHz consumes 95/7.8=12.18 watt
2.3GHz consumes 95/9.4=10.10 watt

the difference is about 2.1 watt, which makes sense to the result obtained in notebookcheck's review. As 5 watt is the extreme case, the typical consumption would just be like half of that.

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BTW, I ordered BTO with 2.7 though.. kind of regret now.
 
getthesand0ut said:
I have the base model mbpr

So far i have been running for about 7 hours. still have 29% left!
Click to expand...


how r u getting this? i'm getting like 5 hrs max. what resolution are u running. i keep my brightness at around 50% and keyboard lighting was off. Maybe it's just my unit...might get it swapped
 
sshewa1 said:
how r u getting this? i'm getting like 5 hrs max. what resolution are u running. i keep my brightness at around 50% and keyboard lighting was off. Maybe it's just my unit...might get it swapped
Click to expand...

Are you seriously going to get it swapped? You do understand battery life varies greatly by user and that you should condition your battery. Go ahead and take it back, but it will 99.9% chance you will be wasting your time and apple's... And mine for thinking you are an idiot and typing this.
 
Forgive me if this is a stupid question, but could 16GB of RAM cause less battery life than 8GB?
 
It stands to reason that the 2.3 will get somewhat better battery life than the 2.6. The extra cycles aren't powered by fairy dust and the batteries are identical.

Everybody's usage will be different, and I wouldn't expect 9+ hours to be the norm, but the 2.3 should absolutely get better battery life than the 2.6.
 
I could see battery life range from ~5 hours to ~10 hours. I have 41% left and it says 4:18 minutes remaining. Don't know how accurate that is, but I have my display brightness at the first notch (its dark outside).

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Chupa Chupa said:
I can't say either way at the point, but my RMBP arrived nearly full and it seemed battery life was maybe 4.5 hrs. This was with brightness a tad above midpoint and with the discrete graphics always on for a couple hours vs. keeping it on the default "automatic" mode. I let it completely drain so I could recalibrate the battery. It's charging now. I'll report back next cycle.
Click to expand...

Apple's website says calibrating is not necessary for built in batteries. Though, I did the something. Not sure if it changed anything.
 
Hackintosh Sr. said:
Are you seriously going to get it swapped? You do understand battery life varies greatly by user and that you should condition your battery. Go ahead and take it back, but it will 99.9% chance you will be wasting your time and apple's... And mine for thinking you are an idiot and typing this.
Click to expand...


well get ready to waste more time by reading this, SIR. the day before laptop gave 3 hrs of life. Not doing anything but browsing web, had word and ppt open. I'll test it out more for a week and then waste MY time taking it back if i feel like the 2200$ laptop drains to much battery for having 50% brightness and using word, ppt, and browsing 3-4 windows in safari.
 
sshewa1 said:
well get ready to waste more time by reading this, SIR. the day before laptop gave 3 hrs of life. Not doing anything but browsing web, had word and ppt open. I'll test it out more for a week and then waste MY time taking it back if i feel like the 2200$ laptop drains to much battery for having 50% brightness and using word, ppt, and browsing 3-4 windows in safari.
Click to expand...

Try giving it a full charge. Draining it until it sleeps. Leaving it over night, then giving it another full charge.
 
sshewa1 said:
well get ready to waste more time by reading this, SIR. the day before laptop gave 3 hrs of life. Not doing anything but browsing web, had word and ppt open. I'll test it out more for a week and then waste MY time taking it back if i feel like the 2200$ laptop drains to much battery for having 50% brightness and using word, ppt, and browsing 3-4 windows in safari.
Click to expand...

It depends on what you're browsing. If it's Flash sites, it will drain your battery really fast. When my MBP was new, I would get 6-7 hrs with light browsing, or 2 hrs when viewing Flash sites.
 
Hackintosh Sr. said:
you should condition your battery.
Click to expand...
Chupa Chupa said:
I let it completely drain so I could recalibrate the battery.
Click to expand...
undies1993 said:
Try giving it a full charge. Draining it until it sleeps. Leaving it over night, then giving it another full charge.
Click to expand...
You do not need to "condition" or calibrate the battery. The built-in batteries in the newer Mac unibody notebooks come pre-calibrated and do not require regular calibration like the removable batteries.

There are many factors that impact your battery life. See the BATTERY LIFE FROM A CHARGE section of the following link for details, including tips on how to maximize your battery life.

This should answer most, if not all, of your battery questions:
 
undies1993 said:
I could see battery life range from ~5 hours to ~10 hours. I have 41% left and it says 4:18 remaining. Don't know how accurate that is, but I have my display brightness at the first notch (its dark outside).

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Apple's website says calibrating is not necessary for built in batteries. Though, I did the something. Not sure if it changed anything.
Click to expand...

17% and 1:20 left.
 
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