MacBook Pro 15" battery life

Captain Kirk

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 22, 2002
Messages
288
Hello all,

I am contemplating finally purchasing a MBP 15". The last Apple laptop I owned was one of the last 17" PowerBook G4s. When I had my PowerBook, the specs suggested around four hours of battery life. With my usage, I usually got around two hours. I see that Apple is advertising 8-9 hours with the new MacBook Pros.

Are there any 15" owners out there that would care to comment on their laptops' battery life?

Thanks!
 
Just as a sidenote of sorts, there's some discussion about MacBook battery life vs Windows notebooks here:

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1531964

Not trying to start a cross-posting nightmare but, as it relates and there's some info in that thread, it's worth scanning over I suppose.

I know several people (clients) that own very current MacBooks and MacBook Pros, and they did buy them for a variety of reasons but the "10 hour battery life" Apple professes/professed at the introduction of them was a huge point they focused on.

Not one of them has ever said to me "Yeah, I get 10 hours regularly" or even close to it; most of the reports I get are in the 5-7 range, and that's casual usage, nothing serious. One guy does a lot of videography and does use Final Cut on the go but he rarely gets over 5 or 6 with more serious use and doing editing on location, etc.

They do get great battery life but, as usual, Apple always offers the best case scenario (meaning minimal usage, maybe the browser and some very light "editing" of content in a word processor as noted in the fine print) and then barks that out like it's the best ever.

But, do research, ask questions, etc... then make a decision.
 
I'm at 271 cycles on my 13" MBP and get only about 3 hours, when it was new it was great but has been starting to drop off rather quickly.
 
Just as a sidenote of sorts, there's some discussion about MacBook battery life vs Windows notebooks here:

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1531964

Not trying to start a cross-posting nightmare but, as it relates and there's some info in that thread, it's worth scanning over I suppose.

I know several people (clients) that own very current MacBooks and MacBook Pros, and they did buy them for a variety of reasons but the "10 hour battery life" Apple professes/professed at the introduction of them was a huge point they focused on.

Not one of them has ever said to me "Yeah, I get 10 hours regularly" or even close to it; most of the reports I get are in the 5-7 range, and that's casual usage, nothing serious. One guy does a lot of videography and does use Final Cut on the go but he rarely gets over 5 or 6 with more serious use and doing editing on location, etc.

They do get great battery life but, as usual, Apple always offers the best case scenario (meaning minimal usage, maybe the browser and some very light "editing" of content in a word processor as noted in the fine print) and then barks that out like it's the best ever.

But, do research, ask questions, etc... then make a decision.

Anand clears Apple's battery life claims easily, but it is with settings like 50% brightness, etc etc.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3762/...ly-2010-reviewed-shaking-the-cpugpu-balance/4

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3669/...o-more-battery-life-tests-display-evaluated/2

If it is with things like web browsing, email, wifi, you'll be ok. Anything intensive like Final Cut Pro or gaming is clearly going to tax the CPU more and shave hours off of its time. Still, battery life is amazing any way you cut it, especially when you see other desktop replacement notebooks not even managing 90 minutes of battery life with light web usage. You just have to be realistic about the circumstances in which you'll get them.
 
I'm not sure I'd classify any MacBook/MBP as a desktop replacement...

But considering that even iMacs are made from (primarily) the same exact laptop components, that statement takes on an entirely new meaning doesn't it? :)
 
Hello all,

I am contemplating finally purchasing a MBP 15". The last Apple laptop I owned was one of the last 17" PowerBook G4s. When I had my PowerBook, the specs suggested around four hours of battery life. With my usage, I usually got around two hours. I see that Apple is advertising 8-9 hours with the new MacBook Pros.

Are there any 15" owners out there that would care to comment on their laptops' battery life?

Thanks!

I have a macbook pro the mode just before they went to the I series, i bought the 2.53 @ 4 gigs ram and 15" screen i can say i get between 6-9 hours, when at night i dim the screen to 2 bars and i get about 8-9 hours, full brightness about 5 hours.

Should change if i put in a ssd :)
 
I'm not sure I'd classify any MacBook/MBP as a desktop replacement...

But considering that even iMacs are made from (primarily) the same exact laptop components, that statement takes on an entirely new meaning doesn't it? :)

Why not? An old MBP can run applications like Final Cut Pro or Photoshop just fine, runs games in Windows like a dream too (the last Starcraft 2 patch killed OS X performance for some reason). A new ones with the i5 or i7 are IMO more limited by hard drive space than by performance.

As for iMacs, what, i5 750s and i7 860s not enough for you? ;)
 
Why not? An old MBP can run applications like Final Cut Pro or Photoshop just fine, runs games in Windows like a dream too (the last Starcraft 2 patch killed OS X performance for some reason). A new ones with the i5 or i7 are IMO more limited by hard drive space than by performance.

As for iMacs, what, i5 750s and i7 860s not enough for you? ;)

When this comes to mind:

macvspctherealdeal.png


I'd say the answer is no, it's not enough. :D
 
Since when were we talking about Mac Pros with two $1000 Xeons, server mobos, and ECC RAM, which haven't been updated in over a year and are obviously not the value that they used to be? I haven't compared the MP to a comparable Dell Precision since January but back then a comparably specced Mac Pro cost less...

In any case, I dunno dude, an i7 860 is plenty of desktop for me... :)
 
When this comes to mind:

macvspctherealdeal.png


I'd say the answer is no, it's not enough. :D

no offence, but id take the mac hands down, not because i love mac, but that pc case you picked is GOD DAM UGLY.

Did you price out a motherboard with DUAL zeon processors ? and dual gigabit network cards ?

Or did you just pick any cheap motherboard and cheap cpu. We all know that the mac pro is a glorified pc, however the products in the mac pro, are a'lot better picked and tested, than some random pc that you just build with a pile of random parts.

Think about it, mac researches all the hardware in that machine to make sure its stable. WIth a pc, there are so many combo for motherboards video card manufactures etc etc the list goes on.

Not saying pc's are crap, but for 2 grand, that is one cheap pos computer you just built.

Decent asus board that supports dual zeon proc's is at least 300& up. Ram 12 gigs, decent stuff is NOT cheap. Cheap video cards = cheap crappy performance :)

Flame me if you want, but if you want to compare a mac to a 2k$ machine you better be able to back up the parts, if they are crap your comparison is not good!

AND, the last the last time i compared a workstation from dell . hp to a mac pro, the mac pro was cheaper by far. :)
 
no offence, but id take the mac hands down, not because i love mac, but that pc case you picked is GOD DAM UGLY.

Did you price out a motherboard with DUAL zeon processors ? and dual gigabit network cards ?

Or did you just pick any cheap motherboard and cheap cpu. We all know that the mac pro is a glorified pc, however the products in the mac pro, are a'lot better picked and tested, than some random pc that you just build with a pile of random parts.

Think about it, mac researches all the hardware in that machine to make sure its stable. WIth a pc, there are so many combo for motherboards video card manufactures etc etc the list goes on.

Not saying pc's are crap, but for 2 grand, that is one cheap pos computer you just built.

Decent asus board that supports dual zeon proc's is at least 300& up. Ram 12 gigs, decent stuff is NOT cheap. Cheap video cards = cheap crappy performance :)

Flame me if you want, but if you want to compare a mac to a 2k$ machine you better be able to back up the parts, if they are crap your comparison is not good!

AND, the last the last time i compared a workstation from dell . hp to a mac pro, the mac pro was cheaper by far. :)

I am not sure about the components the poster chose, but I am hard pressed to believe that setup would run you more than 5k. For it to be 7k, you would have to pay $730 for each part.

Are there GeForce cards for $730?
 
I didn't make the pic, folks, it's been floating around for quite some time now on the Intarwebs, I was merely using it as a simple reference to show that yes, you can build a machine of significant power for far less than buying a prepackaged OEM system from Apple itself, with effectively the same specs.

I just went to Apple.com for shits and giggles and put this together:

* Two 2.66GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
* 12GB (6x2GB)
* 2TB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
* 2x NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 512MB
* One 18x SuperDrive
* Apple LED Cinema Display (24" flat panel)
* Apple LED Cinema Display (24" flat panel)
* Apple Mouse
* Apple Wireless Keyboard (English) and User's Guide

macpro.png


and it's $7317 (before tax if applicable, but free shipping). I suppose the extra $17 is for the difference between a 1.5TB and the 2TB drive they offer. :D

I can damned sure build a machine that'll be as powerful as that based on specs alone for half the ~$7300 cost. With 24GB of RAM in it, and 4TB or more of storage as well...

And I can get a better looking case too... :) There's nothing special about a MacPro - it uses the same components, same motherboards, etc that you can get yourself and build a machine with. People make it sound like Apple has this magical supplier of parts only they have access to - it's the same damned hardware from Intel, Nvidia, etc - get over yourselves.

Apple Tax, indeed.

Now, since my sarcasm was completely missed on this, we can get back to the actual thread at hand.
 
And I can get a better looking case too... :) There's nothing special about a MacPro - it uses the same components, same motherboards, etc that you can get yourself and build a machine with. People make it sound like Apple has this magical supplier of parts only they have access to - it's the same damned hardware from Intel, Nvidia, etc - get over yourselves.

just so your straight :) pun intended, it actually doesn't use the same motherboard as you can buy on the market, because its specially designed for the apple case & os :)

AND im sure if you had the money $$ ( unlimited amount ) you would buy a mac pro STUFFED and not worry about it :) because GOD DAMIT i sure would LOL however i woulden't have 24" id have 3-4 30" apple cin displays.
 
It amuses me how a discussion on battery life has turned into a Mac vs. PC war.

My two cents:

I consider Macs to be equivalent to boutique PCs. You're paying a premium and in return, you get certain things with that premium (e.g., warranties, service, prestige, etcetera). Is the premium unreasonable? I guess that depends on what you're looking for and how much you've got to spend. I personally enjoy OS X quite a bit. When I need something to just work, it's the tool I reach for. Windows is great for games. Linux and the other UNIX variants out there are great for servers and related development. OS X is good for "getting things done."

Full disclosure: I've used all three. I have Macs and PCs. My colo server runs Gentoo Linux, my few home Linux machines run Gentoo, my gaming rigs all run Windows, and up until recently, I still had a Mac laptop. I've got a Dell laptop now dual booting Windows and Linux. It's touted 9-cell battery got me slightly over three hours at its prime and now gets around two (often less depending on usage). I run my laptop at a brightness that won't make me go blind and often am working remotely over SSH via WiFi.

If the Mac can deliver >=4 hours at a decent brightness and with WiFi on. That's pretty damn good in my book. I can't really believe Apple's 8-9 hour advertisement, so I'm here to get 15" owners' impressions of their battery life.
 
just so your straight :) pun intended, it actually doesn't use the same motherboard as you can buy on the market, because its specially designed for the apple case & os :)

AND im sure if you had the money $$ ( unlimited amount ) you would buy a mac pro STUFFED and not worry about it :) because GOD DAMIT i sure would LOL however i woulden't have 24" id have 3-4 30" apple cin displays.

I wouldn't own another Mac if Steve Jobs himself delivered it and got on his knees for me... take that however you like. ;)

And I put together a machine last night (because I figured someone would dare me to do it) and aside from the 24" monitors (was gunning for S-IPS) I can build a machine of comparable power (with 24GB and 4TB of space) for about half the price as I said, about $3750 or so give or take a few bucks.

If I drop it to 2TB (2x1TB drives for some RAID action) and drop it to 12GB to match that MacPro configuration above, I can actually do it for slightly less than half the cost - the only difference is the Xeons would be 2.4 GHz and not 2.66 and comes in at about $3100... and that's with 2 24" S-IPS monitors as well.

Either way, it's entirely possible to make it happen... ;)

They just ain't all that. Great? Somewhat. Magical? Far from it.

ps
And the Intel mobo Apple uses is a custom configuration (meaning the shape/etc) but it's easily duplicated - the board I found (Intel board) offers the same chipset and other aspects as the one in the MacPro (and yes it has dual Gigabit NICs too) for $299.99. :D

</off_topic>
 
I get about 7 hours if i just browse and type. (Core i5 2.4/1440x900)
 
I have an 09 mbp with the new 10hr battery. I get consistently 6~7 hours use out of it with integrated gpu, 40% lcd brightness, and no key lighting. I haven't been able to top that yet. :(
Also a quick way to kill your battery's charge, stay away from flash.
28tfeh.png
 
I can get close to 10 hours with the screen brightness all the way down, bluetooth off and back lighting for the keyboard at one mark.
 
I get about 5-7 hours with my i7 2.66GHz high-res MBP with my typical use.

When I dim the screen and turn off the WiFi for some late-night focused coding sessions, the 'estimated time left' indicator regularly exceeds 10 hours.

Battery life, build quality, and ergonomics were my top priorities when looking for a laptop, and I'm not disappointed in the least. This is my first Apple computer, and I would say the Apple tax was definitely worth it in my case.

If battery life is your top concern, I would lean toward the 2.4GHz i5 model. The speed difference is likely so minimal that you wouldn't ever notice, but battery life goes up another 10 to 40 minutes or so according to Anandtech.
 
I'm going to run bare minimum, then try with wifi. The difference can't be too bad just browsing.
 
I'm going to run bare minimum, then try with wifi. The difference can't be too bad just browsing.

depends on the site and stuff, if your going to websites with lots of images etc etc, of course it will lower battery life.
 
Images (JPG/PNG/etc) won't really have much effect, animated GIF files are negligible, but the big CPU drainer is Flash ads/banners/etc. Websites use Flash for so much shit nowadays in place of pictures and it's so irritating sometimes. But, that's why some plugins exist for browsers like Firefox to... well... prevent such things from loading in the browser, I'll say and draining the battery life on a laptop - and you can still enable the loading with a single click or two if needed, or set it so a given site is always whitelisted, etc.
 
Images (JPG/PNG/etc) won't really have much effect, animated GIF files are negligible, but the big CPU drainer is Flash ads/banners/etc. Websites use Flash for so much shit nowadays in place of pictures and it's so irritating sometimes. But, that's why some plugins exist for browsers like Firefox to... well... prevent such things from loading in the browser, I'll say and draining the battery life on a laptop - and you can still enable the loading with a single click or two if needed, or set it so a given site is always whitelisted, etc.

ACTUALLY! large pictures and suff will, because it will use more bandwidth, to download them etc etc, this will make the network card work hard and use more power SOOO!! Yes jpgs and larger image files will use up more battery.
 
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