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Tests Find OS X Mountain Lion May Significantly Degrade Notebook Battery Life

Shrink said:
OK, let's add this to the list of played out, please-let's-not-use-these-anymore phrases:

Steve Jobs would never have allowed this to happen

Safari is snappier (its very true):D

That's what she said

Get off your high horse

Take my money! (ROFLMAO what money?):rolleyes:

(Well, maybe we can keep "that's what she said" :p:D)
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Well not all is bull.

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jlgolson said:
The battery menu in the image above is from the $16 iStat Menus.
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433 cycles you do get around don't you. :D
 
I haven't noticed any decrease in battery life on my rMBP. I also do most of my work connected to a power source, so it's possible that I just haven't been using the battery enough to notice.
 
yup, my 2010 MBP has been just dropping like a rock when unplugged, even with only web usage.
 
No difference on older MacBook Pro

I've noticed no difference in battery life resulting from any of the developer previews or public release of Mountain Lion. Of course, my MBP is a late-2008 15" model (the first "unibody" MBP, and the last with a removable battery.)

The relevant difference between older and newer MBPs (and MBAs too) just might be the SSD in the newer machines. Which enables the Power Nap system. Which means that work is being done (e.g. Time Machine) while the user isn't actively working with the machines. And, since Power Nap is a brand new technology, maybe it still needs optimization and/or debugging.

Just my $0.02.

[Update: and maybe, if your iPhoto library is 80GB like mine is, there is a whole lot of Photo Stream and other iCloud image data being pushed around during all phases of your MacBook Pro's sleep / Power Nap / wake cycles. And maybe battery life will return to normal when all of that data is "synced".]
 
kniemann said:
Steve Jobs would never have allowed this to happen.
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The man is dead, he does not count any more, so stop putting words into a dead mans mouth. This issue is not a big deal. Tell me your getting an hour of battery on a brand new mac then we can talk. :rolleyes:
 
SockRolid said:
I've noticed no difference in battery life resulting from any of the developer previews or public release of Mountain Lion. Of course, my MBP is a late-2008 15" model (the first "unibody" MBP, and the last with a removable battery.)

The relevant difference between older and newer MBPs (and MBAs too) just might be the SSD in the newer machines. Which enables the Power Nap system. Which means that work is being done (e.g. Time Machine) while the user isn't actively working with the machines. And, since Power Nap is a brand new technology, maybe it still needs optimization and/or debugging.

Just my $0.02.
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People have already reported that this degradation happens EVEN when PN is turned off - therefore, the reason lies with Apple and hopefully a 10.8.1 fix.
 
gumblecosby said:
Mountain Lion has better battery life than Lion for me on a macbook. Lion was brutal for battery life yet there was no real mention of it on news sites.
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I noticed some performance drops but after doing a clean install of ML i can say this, too. It's done nothing but good for my macbook pro :)

It's Lion perfected and more. :D
 
SockRolid said:
I've noticed no difference in battery life resulting from any of the developer previews or public release of Mountain Lion. Of course, my MBP is a late-2008 15" model (the first "unibody" MBP, and the last with a removable battery.)

The relevant difference between older and newer MBPs (and MBAs too) just might be the SSD in the newer machines. Which enables the Power Nap system. Which means that work is being done (e.g. Time Machine) while the user isn't actively working with the machines. And, since Power Nap is a brand new technology, maybe it still needs optimization and/or debugging.

Just my $0.02.
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Your 2 Cents worth more than most people 3 Dollar bill of the end is coming. :rolleyes:
 
kgeier82 said:
Didnt this happen with Lion too? Apple stated they "corrected" the battery timing mechanism to better report actual usage? And then continued to sell laptops with 8+hr battery life on the store?

I have never gotten anything close to any estimate they have used for sales, even with light browsing/usage.
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Me too, at max I get 4 hours, before if drops to 3 and continues to ultimately, 0!
 
This is why I wait before I update. I was actually surprised at how fast Lion was; it seems to strain the computer less than Leopard.

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kniemann said:
Steve Jobs would never have allowed this to happen.
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Oh man, not this again. Where is the downvote button when you need it?

You know what Steve Jobs allowed? He allowed my iMac to come with a faulty GPU that had no kind of recall, and the GPU died. Oh, and he also allowed a stain on the floor of my local Apple Store to remain there.
 
Pianoblack3 said:
Me too, at max I get 4 hours, before if drops to 3 and continues to ultimately, 0!
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Nope, it has NEVER happened to Lion - in fact, Lion is one of the most underrated versions of OS X - few to no REALLY BAD bugs (i.e., affecting almost all users) exist in Lion...

My iMac runs fine with it and I have zero issues to report (apart from a vanishing mouse cursor when watching videos - probably a conflict with third-party drivers).
 
Lazlow said:
On my 2010 13" MBP, my battery life used to be ridiculously good. I could get through an entire day of on-and-off use without having to charge. Post ML installation, not so much. This morning, I took my laptop to class to take notes, and after a one hour lecture (during which I only had MS Word and Safari open), I was already down from 100% to 60%. Meaning I couldn't get through all four hours of lecture without my charger. Pretty pathetic.
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I am in the same boat... 2010 13" MBP and my battery life used to be amazing (sometimes 8-10 hours with casual use) and now it is about 4-5 hours after installing ML. I think we'll see a fix soon.
 
No battery issues here, 2008 15 inch MBP, 2.4GHz C2D

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stiligFox said:
Maybe clean install vs upgrade is the culprit? Some old system process conflicting with a new one?
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I did an upgrade from 10.7 to 10.8, and I can honestly say my machine is faster and does not have the battery issues mentioned.

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east85 said:
10.8 actually INCREASED my average battery life.
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It's got to be related to certain hardware. Not saying anything folks don't already know, but I thought I'd say it anyway. I find it very interesting that my older hardware seems to be doing better than the new stuff. Hm.
 
BRLawyer said:
Nope, it has NEVER happened to Lion - in fact, Lion is one of the most underrated versions of OS X - few to no REALLY BAD bugs (i.e., affecting almost all users) exist in Lion...

My iMac runs fine with it and I have zero issues to report (apart from a vanishing mouse cursor when watching videos - probably a conflict with third-party drivers).
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What? We were talking about battery life… which doesn't really concern your iMac.
 
Nice to see a little independent confirmation of this. My 2010 11" MBA has been basically unusable on battery with ML, draining 2-3% per minute for no reason.
 
technopimp said:
Nice to see a little independent confirmation of this. My 2010 11" MBA has been basically unusable on battery with ML, draining 2-3% per minute for no reason.
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I can't believe that NO ONE has performed a comparison of active processes between Lion and ML...there has to be an identifiable reason, probably under root processes.
 
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