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

[lisster]

i seem to have less bugs with my 34 months old mbp than my sisters new mba ^^

cant complain considering its age

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what i did notice however is that my mbp takes a lot longer to turn off compared to lion (SSD)

What app is that you have there?

 

[tann]

I've made my fans run at 6005 RPM whenever it is on, and I usually use is when it is docked into my monitor, so I really don't care about the battery life. It would be nice to have my computer last more than 3 hours when running VERY CPU / GPU intensive things. Maybe it has to do with the fans though. Running ML since June, fresh install, though upgraded from beta to 10.8.0.

Also, anyone else notice the broke fan control? Without a manual over ride the fans seem to max at 4000 RPM, even with the CPU above 100 C

I use SMC fan control on a mid 2010 MBP and while on auto/default control the fans have gone up to 6000rpm I believe on their own.

 

[irnchriz]

I get 6.5 hours on my late 2011 13" MacBook pro. Has SSD and standard 500gb HDD.

Panicked when I first checked as it said 3hrs remaining but I didn't notice that it was charging my phone.

After fully charging I got just ove 6 hours of usage before the 5% warning. Had been doing email and web browsing only though so not really a heavy workout.

 

[G.N]

10.8 actually INCREASED my average battery life.

under lion, my 2012 macbook airs battery lasted 2.5 hours on max brightness and max performance. after doing a clean install to mountain lion, i get a whopping 4.5 hours on max performance.

 

[anonymouslurker]

I hope it's just a reporting error from the battery to the OS, not actual degradation, otherwise all the software updates in the world won't do ****.

That's entirely not true. There are SEVERAL things that can be done at an OS level (or, low-level code *in* the OS) that can affect actual current draw.

 

[danderton]

Mine has actually improved

I read about this the other day and thought was strange as i actually feel like my 18month old MacBookPro battery has actually improved

 

[undies1993]

Sounds like iPhones 4s and iOS 5. I still think my iPhone 4 had a better battery life.

 

[yakapo]

Crap. I wish I waited to upgrade. I'm in that small category that has no use for the upgrade but bought it b/c it was there and I had a $25 gift card sitting around.

 

[Cynicalone]

What app is that you have there?

That is Battery Health.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/battery-health/id490192174?mt=12

 

[motorazr]

Interesting. . . I've been on and off thinking this was a non-issue I made up in my head since updating, my argument against it being that my macbook air's processor seems to have an even lower load when idling... but I do hope that an update restores the battery life!

 

[djrod]

Steve Jobs would never have allowed this to happen.

Bertrand Serlet would have never allowed this to happen.

 

[doobybiggs]

Right, because it is possible to write bug-free software.

did I say that? nope sure didnt ... I said maybe now they will fix the problem! Unlike - I think it was Lion - where they just flat out said a problem does not exist ...

 

[scottyboyh]

At least the battery in the new MBP is easy to replace, oh wait, it's not!

 

[Benbikeman]

Steve Jobs would never have allowed posts saying what Steve Jobs would or wouldn't have done.

Oh, and battery-life, yes: was getting 5.5 hours real-life use before, now down to just over 3 hours for the same conditions (wifi in use, bluetooth in use, screen brightness about 75%, about a dozen apps running).

 

[elpmas]

Hm...after I calibrated my mbp 13 '10 the battery life is decreasing 1% at a time.

 

[undies1993]

Hm...after I calibrated my mbp 13 '10 the battery life is decreasing 1% at a time.

What is that time?

 

[macingman]

IB4 all the hipsters coming in starting to say yea no wonder!

Every second post you make is about "hipsters" do you have any thing useful to add? Like you know just because someone critisices Apple and complains doesn't mean they are a "hipster".

 

[oz81dog]

battery life improved with 10.8

My Late 2008 MacBook Pro is lasting longer after upgrading to 10.8. I was pretty surprised to see that but it's been that way since DP3 or so for me. I started off with DP1, got my system nuked by DP2, then installed 10.7 and upgraded to 10.8 DP3, so it's not even a clean install.

Must be a bug particular to specific hardware configurations.

 

[bogatyr]

I haven't noticed any performance difference - including battery - from Lion to ML on my 2011 MBAs (2 of them).

 

[iVoid]

This is news?

It seems that EVERY .0 release always messes up battery life (Mac and iOS).

The .1 release usually fixes it.

 

[undies1993]

This is news?

It seems that EVERY .0 release always messes up battery life (Mac and iOS).

The .1 release usually fixes it.

iOS 5.1 didn't fix it for me

 

[iMacFarlane]

Ironically, I've used my 2010 MBA in clamshell mode 100% of the time since the upgrade -- So I haven't noticed anything

Maybe clean install vs upgrade is the culprit? Some old system process conflicting with a new one?

I did a clean install from Lion to ML.

Before ML, I got about 7 to 8 hours on my 13" MBP. Now, right after unplugging with 100% charge, I get a reported 5.5 Hrs.

Not worried, as I never work of battery without power nearby, but still something Apple needs to address.

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Bertrand Serlet would have never allowed this to happen.

Blaise Pascal would have never allowed this to happen.

 

[psykick5]

Mine is okay right now but I want MOAR BATTERY LIFE

 

[thefourthpope]

Just as I now always suspected.

 

[SeaFox]

Enough with that crap. Mistakes happen. Apple is run by human beings. Humans make mistakes. Jobs wasn't perfect either.

Isn't that what testing is for? This isn't like when Microsoft releases a new OS and it has to work on literally hundreds of different makes and models of PCs. Over the months of testing of Mountain Lion are you saying that nobody reported lower than normal battery life on their notebooks?