3 hour battery life

[azscp]

Hey guys.

I just bought a macbook pro a couple weeks ago. When I bought it I was under the impression that the battery would last for 5 hours. Though I'm finding that it only lasts for 3. Is this normal? What are others getting out of their batteries?

And it doesn't really matter what I'm doing. I can be online, working, etc. and still get the same 3 hours out of the battery.

A little disappointing.

 

[Blubbert]

Is your backlight up on max during the time you run it off the battery? When i turn down my backlight to one or two dots, my battery life skyrockets into 4:30 area.

 

[2fives]

3hrs is pretty normal. Mine with no back light on and the screen brightness up about 2/3 way would play a DVD (lord of the rings) for 2.5 hrs before the batery pooped out on me.

 

[Osarkon]

Yeah. 3 hours is really bad. Considering most normal PC laptops don't come close to that..



My macbook lasts about that and I'm more than happy considering the power this laptop has a normal PC laptop's battery life would be about 1:30 .


However, have you calibrated the battery? That normally helps.

 

[mpw]

I sat watching streamed video over WiFi at full brightness on my MacBook yesterday for a little over 3hrs, with power management setting set for best performance.

 

[bartelby]

Remember Apple (and all other manufacturers) measure battery life with no apps running and all possible settings at minimum but set not to go to sleep.
And then they leave it.

 

[coledog]

3 to 3:30 is normal for me running with a pretty bright screen.

 

[devilot]

And it doesn't really matter what I'm doing. I can be online, working, etc. and still get the same 3 hours out of the battery.

Yeah, it does matter.

Is Bluetooth on and running? Big battery sucker. As is Airport. And as others have mentioned, turn down the brightness of the LCD.

I sat watching streamed video over WiFi at full brightness on my MacBook yesterday for a little over 3hrs, with power management setting set for best performance.

The MBs get better battery life than the MBPs.

 

[2ndPath]

About 3 hours is what I normally get. Less if I put heay load on the machine.

 

[mpw]

...The MBs get better battery life than the MBPs.

Smaller LCDs I'm guessing.

 

[Andrew D.]

I just turn down the brightness and turn off Bluetooth on my MacBook, it helps a lot.

 

[uaaerospace]

Smaller LCDs I'm guessing.

No dedicated graphics card, too. One time this is a plus.

 

[hidehide]

I usually gets more than 4 hours with notes taking in class and surfing internet.. but sometimes i was listening to the prof during class...
I dim the brightness to 1 dot and close bluetooth..

 

[janey]

I usually gets more than 4 hours with notes taking in class and surfing internet..

I never do.

This may be because i need to use visual studio in parallels (%*&($@^($(@*$(*&!@(%*^&!^@# microsoft)...