15-inch MacBook Pro Battery Life As Advertised
When Apple released their new MacBook Pro line of notebook computers the battery life was touted as up to 8-9 hours. We already posted that one reviewer didn’t get even close to that with the 17-inch system he looked at. But over at Laptop Magazine Blog, they are finding that the 15-inch MacBook Pro does have very good battery life along with being a very powerful system. So was size the only difference?
Here is what they are saying:
Best of all, even with the jump from Core 2 Duo to Core i7, Apple has managed to deliver all-day battery life. These are collectively welcome improvements, but are they enough to justify the premium? Yup.
So what does all day†mean? Nearly eight hours! That bests the 17-inch reviewed in the first article cited above by nearly three hours. The reviewer said they tested by using the Internet nonstop via Wi-Fi. The other review is a little more aggressive with some benchmarking and iMovie editing added to their Internet surfing. So it may be a proverbial apples to oranges comparison. It could be that if the other reviewer used the same strategy they would have come closer to Apple’s stated up to 8-9 hoursâ€.
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I bought a 13 inch, & the battery is AMAZING. 50% brightness, WiFi on, iMovie, garageband, internet browsing, youtube…gave me about a solid 8 hours & 30 minutes…not to mention, the YouTube videos were all displayed in HD!
currently at 23 minutes left on full charge, but only got 2.5 hours or so and that is watching videos online… and some emails. Wish I got 3 more hours of use!
same problem here, i got my macbook pro i5 , and the battery is fully charged and i have only 2 hours and 30 minutes left !!!, i thought it is just a message, but unfortunately after 2 hours 30 minutes the battery was gone!!! , please help, it is one major reason why i switched to apple, where did i go wrong ???
i'm having a similar problem, getting only four hours on my brand new 15″ macbook pro i5 (surfing the internet via wifi and answering emails). i'm complaining to apple, and suggest others do the same. that's really not acceptable.
I was having the same problems….adjust the screen brightness down some….and it really adds lots of life…..
GOGO- I have a 15″ MacBook Pro Core i7 and have had better luck than you, but there are some limitations to the battery life claim. First of all the 8-9 hour rating is for web browsing- if you're producing content you'll see far less than this.
Another problem with the battery claims is that it's based on using Safari. Browsers like Chrome and Firefox switch grapchics over to NVIDIA instead of the power-saving Intel HD graphics. This can happen even on sites like gmail.com that have no video elements.
Another thing you can do to improve your MacBook Pro's battery life is reduce screen brightness.
You can also try installing gfxcardstatus, which will let you know when you're using Intel/NVIDIA graphics. It will also tell you which apps are depending on NVIDIA.
My i7 15″ battery is also really sad. I read somewhere that it could take up to two weeks of usage before the battery reaches its top performace. So I will keep an eye on it for a while and if it does not get better, complain to apple. It must be illegal to advertise 8 hours when reality is 3..
Felix, I have the Core i7 15″ MacBook Pro as well and can understand why you're frustrated. My MacBook Pro gets excellent battery life when I'm using it for Web Browsing/email and comes close to the 8 hour mark. But, I have to use it under the conditions that Apple's basing those claims on- low screen brightness, Safari and with Intel graphics. Running apps that kick in the NVIDIA graphics and running the screen at full brightness will seriously reduce battery life. At the moment, Firefox and Chrome aren't as efficient as Safari as they're not fine tuned for the new MacBook Pro's switchable graphics.
btw- You don't need to break in your battery for two weeks.
I am having the same issue- crappy battery performance on my 15″ i5. Fully charged, it lasts maybe three hours. The chip that controls power usage was reset, and the battery calibrated.
As I right this, after 15 minutes of web usage on a fully charged battery, I am down to 76% left.
Unacceptable. Have had one trip to the genius bar, and if this problem persists, I am sending it back.
Sorry, mean i7 chip. brand spankin new.
JJ- So in your case you're only getting 1 hour and 10 minutes of battery life with your MacBook Pro? If that's the case, there's something really wrong. I have seen battery life remaining times like that with my new MacBook Pro Core i7, but only when using it to exporting video or photos. Normal web browsing (even with the MacBook Pro's screen set to maximum brightness) should be about 3 to 4.5 hours. Dim the screen, make sure the Intel graphics is switched on and you should be able to get 6-8 hours.
There may be something wrong with your particular MacBook Pro, or there may be some background processes running.
False Advertising by Apple. Three hours is a good number to expect. No way anyone is getting 8-9 hours. If they say they are they must have it in sleep mode. I have had mine a month now (i7 15″) and no improvement in power duration.
Hello All users having problems with battery life, follow the guide as mentioned by Xavier Lanier, make sure to use the gfxcardstatus, this will allow you to explicitly use the Intel HD graphics card for simple task such as Web Browsing and flash viewing, Nvidia cards is more powerful and thus equate to higher power consumption and power drain. There is no such thing as free lunch, more features requires more power, based on my 15 years of experience working with laptops (mostly with PCs), no other PC in the market today can come close to the performance and power consumption ratio compared to the Macbook Pros, you can get a powerful QuadCore notebook but you will get 1 hour of battery life, you can get powerful new core i3s but with crappy plastiky c
Also battery life as promised/claimed by Apple clearly states that screen brightness set to 50% and light web surfing and editing a text document. if you are comparing battery usage, make sure you on those bounds, anything more will drain your battery.
I’ve been doing Iphone Development before on a hackintosh (Lenovo y410) and now on my new Macbook pro 15, the difference has been night and day.
I’m getting about 7-8 hours of battery life, this includes browsing the apple developer website over iphone 4 tethering, compiling code and listening to mp3, and have the macbook pro to sleep mode along the way when I’m commuting, screen brightness at 20-30%. I’m not bringing any power adapter, coz it can last for the whole time based on my usage.
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