Why did they downgrade the battery?

[akm3]

The new MBP's have a lot of tech in them that should dramatically reduce power consumption, yet their battery life is rated the same (using the 9400) or an hour worse (with the 9600)

According to an article I read (I think anandtech) they pointed out they use a lower wHr battery...

Why would they do this? They could have extended the battery life!

Is there anywhere where we would be likely able to buy better batteries? Perhaps an 80wHr battery like came with my Dell e1705...that should allow 6+Hours on the new MBP.

I'm just confused why they would downgrade the battery.

 

[chaos86]

I've never gotten the rated battery life out of any product, Apple or otherwise, so maybe they're just getting closer to the reality.

 

[therapistfinder]

I think it was done mostly to keep the weight down. Keep in mind that the new construction, while it uses less aluminum, does have a heavy glass screen that weighs down the entire unit. Apple probably wants to continue its "thin & light" approach to everything so it would have been unheard of for them to increase the MBP's weight by any appreciable amount.

On another note, can you believe the whining that would ensue if they had made it more than 0.1 lbs heavier?

 

[akm3]

If they made it .3 lbs heavier, but the batterly lasted 1 or 2 hours longer in the real world, I think people would be happy with that tradeoff.

Apple is more obsessed with 'thin and light' than their customers are. They risk putting themselves into a trap where they've pushed 'thin and light' so long, that they'll engineer themselves into a corner and if they try to go back all the PC people will *blast* them for it.

 

[drlunanerd]

Keep in mind that the new construction, while it uses less aluminum, does have a heavy glass screen that weighs down the entire unit.

This isn't true for the MacBook. The display assembly is actually lighter than the old plastic model (see ifixit.com).

 

[kobefan234]

so the battery is worse than the old MBP? Do you have to cycle the bettery to get the 5 hours or 4 hours?

 

[digitalfrog]

How *STUPID* is it to add heavy glass instead of a bigger battery ??

 

[akm3]

How *STUPID* is it to add heavy glass instead of a bigger battery ??

That would be dumb, but like it was said above, the supposedly 'heavy glass' still has the display portion of the assembly weighing less than the previous displays.

I'm not sure where the extra weight came from?

Do any third parties make battery replacements in super powerful 80 wHr models?