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rMBP without Retina battery time?

A

Asia8

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 27, 2011
111
3
I'm curious what the battery time of a rMBP would be if it didn't have retina.

For my usage, the display is probably one of the least important factors. Glare resistance is a little important though.

Being retina free would improve performance, which is important to me.

How long do you think the battery would last on the same machine without retina display?
 
The standard MBP does 7 hours with a 77.5 watt-hour battery, the rMBP does about the same time with a 95 watt-hour pack. IF you were to strip off the retina display, then the rMBP would give you, I'd say, about an a hour and a half MAYBE two hours more.
 
mohsy90 said:
Does it really matter.....curious why you need to know this information???
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Because it would be be perfect for my needs almost, and slightly less pricey. At this early point in retina adoption it's not really an option for me. I think it's a little of a pity there was no non-retina option. I'm assuming Apple doesn't want to give option overload and is trying to push retina to be a standard technology of theirs that puts it ahead of other brands, however it just doesn't suit my particular needs, yet.

Curious of what difference it would have made with that extra option and without the performance hit. I'd say an extra 1.5 - 2 hours would be great.

ACiB said:
The standard MBP does 7 hours with a 77.5 watt-hour battery, the rMBP does about the same time with a 95 watt-hour pack. IF you were to strip off the retina display, then the rMBP would give you, I'd say, about an a hour and a half MAYBE two hours more.
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot ACiB, sounds rather enticing to me.

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Curious what the rest of you would think of such a device?
 
Asia8 said:
Because it would be be perfect for my needs almost, and slightly less pricey. At this early point in retina adoption it's not really an option for me. I think it's a little of a pity there was no non-retina option. I'm assuming Apple doesn't want to give option overload and is trying to push retina to be a standard technology of theirs that puts it ahead of other brands, however it just doesn't suit my particular needs, yet.

Curious of what difference it would have made with that extra option and without the performance hit. I'd say an extra 1.5 - 2 hours would be great.



Thanks a lot ACiB, sounds rather enticing to me.

---

Curious what the rest of you would think of such a device?
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Yeah, but I think you are already well aware the Apple is not going to offer the new MBP without the r - "retina". The battery is unique for that device. Asking how long it will last without the retina is nothing but useless information.
 
mohsy90 said:
Yeah, but I think you are already well aware the Apple is not going to offer the new MBP without the r - "retina". The battery is unique for that device. Asking how long it will last without the retina is nothing but useless information.
Click to expand...

Yes, I agree, I doubt they would, though the option would be nice. The idea has just been stuck in my head and I've been curious for a little while now. At least this bit of useless information will help me stop wondering about it so much.

With my curiosity, if I were a cat, I'd probably be dead long long ago.
 
One of the biggest sources of increased power usage on Retina devices right now is the increased backlight requirements.

Even if you run at non-HiDPI 1440x900 mode, there are still 2880x1800 physical pixels that need to be backlit. You might save a few percentage points of GPU and CPU usage but the backlight power usage will be the same, no matter what resolution options you choose.
 
Yea I kinda wish Apple got rid of the classic MBP chassis and just used the rMBP chassis for their 15" Notebook line.

I'd be fine with a cheaper 15" notebook that had a 1680 x 1050 hi-Res screen in a retina MBP chassis.
 
10 hours longer....case closed


since your asking a hypathetical question you will only recieve hypatheical answers, how would you expect anyone to know the exact hours and minutes you would gain?



if you want a less sarcastic guess than my 10 hours, id say may you would gain an extra 30-40 minutes
 
Asia8 said:
That's very scientific of you.... Thank you

Anyone who has a more accurate answer?
Click to expand...

It's like asking if you turned down the display brightness on a MBP will the battery last longer. Well, yes, but how much? Depends on what else you're doing.

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Vctr said:
Yea I kinda wish Apple got rid of the classic MBP chassis and just used the rMBP chassis for their 15" Notebook line.

I'd be fine with a cheaper 15" notebook that had a 1680 x 1050 hi-Res screen in a retina MBP chassis.
Click to expand...

So no benefit of Retina with the added convenience of not being able to upgrade RAM or SDD? Sounds...like my 201 MBP is looking better every day.
 
Even if you do have a moderate point. You could at least *try* and discuss the issue logically. What's the point of this board otherwise?

While it's a bit of an abstract question with no clear-cut answer since we are talking hypothetically, I saw we look at the iPad 2 vs iPad 3... where the biggest difference is the addition of a retina display. The power consumption is nearly double. They compensated by increasing the battery size and capacity total by about 70%.

So now that we can consider that a non-retina version would consume, in theory, almost half the power, you can assume some numbers from there. It's not that clear cut because there are also other components in question. I'd say realistically, TOTALLY ballparking it, I think a non-retina would consumer ~30-35% less power.
 
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Fortimir said:
Even if you do have a moderate point. You could at least *try* and discuss the issue logically. What's the point of this board otherwise?
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It's a completely hypothetical question about a device that doesn't—and never will—exist. The answer would be total speculation. What you're doing on the computer changes how long the battery will last. We can't even give someone accurate times about how long their battery will last if they turn down the brightness of the screen, because there's so many other variables in play. Adding to that the removal of the retina screen...it's impossible for anyone to answer. And there's no way to verify anyone's answer anyways.

Saying that a device like the retina MBP without the retina screen is interesting and talking about possible options that might work for the OP is one thing. Asking what the theoretical battery life would be on a machine that doesn't exist...well, apparently that will get you some sarcastic answers.
 
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So no benefit of Retina with the added convenience of not being able to upgrade RAM or SDD? Sounds...like my 201 MBP is looking better every day.
Click to expand...

what does this even mean? No benefit of retina? is there any benefit of going from 480p to 1080p? How can any one in their right mind say theres no benefit of owning a retina screen. Eyes don't lie.

Not being able to upgrade ram? You can only go to 16g ram on any macbook pro, so if you buy one with 16 you cant upgrade anyway, whats your point? Tired of people going on and on about the user servicibility on these models. Its a non issue. Besides, the SSD on the rMBP is user servicable and drives will be available shortly.

Please stop with these posts, your 2011 MBP is looking better every day because you dont have enough money to buy a new one. period.

just be honest.

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btw, i think its obvious why apple doesnt offer the new chassis without the retina, the slim design is one of the other more obvious selling points to this years model so why would apple (marketing) choose to push outdated tech by making it more desirable in a thinner case? im surprised they offered the updated hardware at ALL in the old chassis..
 
flipnap said:
what does this even mean? No benefit of retina? is there any benefit of going from 480p to 1080p? How can any one in their right mind say theres no benefit of owning a retina screen. Eyes don't lie.

Not being able to upgrade ram? You can only go to 16g ram on any macbook pro, so if you buy one with 16 you cant upgrade anyway, whats your point? Tired of people going on and on about the user servicibility on these models. Its a non issue. Besides, the SSD on the rMBP is user servicable and drives will be available shortly.

Please stop with these posts, your 2011 MBP is looking better every day because you dont have enough money to buy a new one. period.

just be honest.

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btw, i think its obvious why apple doesnt offer the new chassis without the retina, the slim design is one of the other more obvious selling points to this years model so why would apple (marketing) choose to push outdated tech by making it more desirable in a thinner case? im surprised they offered the updated hardware at ALL in the old chassis..
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Sure, when people stop claiming that others don't buy the hottest new thing because they can't afford it. A MBP with no retina display in a rMBP case would made it so none of the aforementioned parts are upgradable. If that's not an issue to you, fine. If you just feel like being petty and saying that the rMBP is better because it costs more, that's just pathetic.
 
Sure, when people stop claiming that others don't buy the hottest new thing because they can't afford it. A MBP with no retina display in a rMBP case would made it so none of the aforementioned parts are upgradable. If that's not an issue to you, fine. If you just feel like being petty and saying that the rMBP is better because it costs more, that's just pathetic.
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the rMBP is better because the screen is superior than anything out there, thats not an opinion. And i never said it was better because it "costs more" when in fact its a little cheaper than the 2012 cMBP. Im sorry, but look through some of the posts on this board and youll see a LOT of people complaining about the rMBP, shortly followed by "i have buyers remorse".. So not being able to afford one IS a factor and many people are trying to justify reasons NOT to own one when the simple truth is they shouldnt have spent money they didnt have to own one..

And why keep going on about upgradability when its a non issue. Buy what you need and be done with it. Ill never need more than 16g of ram and ill more than likely swap out the SSD for a bigger one in a few months when they come out. I dont plan on keeping this for more than three years or so. How much more "upgrading" do you want to do on this thing?
 
flipnap said:
the rMBP is better because the screen is superior than anything out there, thats not an opinion. And i never said it was better because it "costs more" when in fact its a little cheaper than the 2012 cMBP. Im sorry, but look through some of the posts on this board and youll see a LOT of people complaining about the rMBP, shortly followed by "i have buyers remorse".. So not being able to afford one IS a factor and many people are trying to justify reasons NOT to own one when the simple truth is they shouldnt have spent money they didnt have to own one..

And why keep going on about upgradability when its a non issue. Buy what you need and be done with it. Ill never need more than 16g of ram and ill more than likely swap out the SSD for a bigger one in a few months when they come out. I dont plan on keeping this for more than three years or so. How much more "upgrading" do you want to do on this thing?
Click to expand...

Why is it so wrong for people to buy a computer, use it for a few days and decide it's not for them? It's not necessarily a cost issue, even though that seems to be the only reason you want to look at. The retina MBP is an amazing machine. It also has very little software to take advantage of the screen (more will come in time). Websites aren't optimized for it. You love it, and that's great. But at least for the moment, it's ahead of its time. Other technology needs to catch up, and until that happens, it won't live up to its full potential. Upgradability is a non-issue for you, but it's a big deal for some people. Why is that such a problem for you? Not everyone uses their computer in the same way you do.

There are also ramifications for people in visual arts like photography and graphic design. So for some of us, getting the retina right now is absolutely not practical. It may be the way computers are headed in the future, but that doesn't mean it's right for everyone right now (and it probably never will be right for everyone). Assuming that everyone that says they don't want one must be lying and it must be because they can't afford it is making a huge generalization. Not all of us feel the need to immediately upgrade to the newest thing. I'm not jealous of anyone that owns one, nor do I want to run out and buy one right now—and yes, I could afford to. But until other things catch up, it's not practical for me and the way I use my computer. I'll get one—when it's the right technology for me.
 
sweet. youre taking things out of context. my conversation stemmed from this

So no benefit of Retina with the added convenience of not being able to upgrade RAM or SDD? Sounds...like my 201 MBP is looking better every day.
Click to expand...

I could care less what people buy or think, as long as its not shrouded in ignorance, such as "theres no benefit of retina". I never said anything about someone trying it and not liking it. Im only referring to people who get buyers remorse then suddenly start finding all kinds of problems with the machine, when it was the greatest thing since sliced bread, until the bill came.

thats it.

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and by the way, i bought a bluray player when there was only a handful of movies. I recognized it as the future and knew it was where the industry was headed. I guess its the same for me on the macbook pro. Not sure what would change for someone just because they purchase a rMBP. If someone didnt know about the soldered RAM or anything else then they only have themselves to blame. paying over 2 grand for something without doing a lick of research is foolish, especially since they are on display everywhere for you to play with.
 
flipnap said:
I could care less what people buy or think, as long as its not shrouded in ignorance, such as "theres no benefit of retina". I never said anything about someone trying it and not liking it. Im only referring to people who get buyers remorse then suddenly start finding all kinds of problems with the machine, when it was the greatest thing since sliced bread, until the bill came.
Click to expand...

The person you were responding to didn't say there's no point to retina. They were responding to the OP, who wanted the form factor of the retina MBP without the retina screen. Thus their comment, "So no benefit of Retina with the added convenience of not being able to upgrade RAM or SDD? Sounds...like my 201 MBP is looking better every day." Because in that case, all you would be getting is the thinner form factor without the retina screen. No retina screen, plus no ability to do upgrades. I think you misunderstood what was being said.

And there's always some buyers' remorse when a new high-tech device is announced. People get swept up in the excitement without stopping to think about whether or not it's an appropriate purchase for them. People often make impulse purchases, or think something is right for them and then decide it's not. There's no need to trash them for it. And many of the people that purchased the retina MBP are returning it for legitimate reasons, not just because they realized it was too hard on their wallets. It's not a perfect machine, even though you seem to think it is.
 
battery life ok?

Hi all, I just really checked my battery expectations on my RMBP and was a bit surprised.

The website says 7 hours.

Mine shows at 100% (just right after taking it away from the power) 4:40 hours.

I am connected to a wifi, brightness is at 40% and some browsers with some tabs open, Skype running, Alfred on and Finder.


So, is that normal???
 
freelancer27 said:
Hi all, I just really checked my battery expectations on my RMBP and was a bit surprised.

The website says 7 hours.

Mine shows at 100% (just right after taking it away from the power) 4:40 hours.

I am connected to a wifi, brightness is at 40% and some browsers with some tabs open, Skype running, Alfred on and Finder.


So, is that normal???
Click to expand...

For an accurate amount of usage time, you have to actually keep track of how long you're able to use it when it's not plugged in. The time remaining it shows you is dynamic; it's just an estimate based on your last 20 or 30 seconds of usage, and it changes constantly based on what you're doing. 7 hours is a best case scenario situation, based on very light usage. Most people won't get that, especially running things like Skype.
 
sweetbrat said:
For an accurate amount of usage time, you have to actually keep track of how long you're able to use it when it's not plugged in. The time remaining it shows you is dynamic; it's just an estimate based on your last 20 or 30 seconds of usage, and it changes constantly based on what you're doing. 7 hours is a best case scenario situation, based on very light usage. Most people won't get that, especially running things like Skype.
Click to expand...

Cool. Thanks for your reply. Will have a deeper look into it.
 
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