Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

WHM

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 5, 2008
194
1
South
I have the newest MacBook Pro released a few weeks ago, 2.6 GHZ 7200 RPM HD. After charging it shows 5 hours charge but getting maybe 2 1/2- 3 hours tops. What do you get with yours? :mad:
 
Totally varies based on use. Just taking notes in class, I probably get 4-5 hours. That's wifi on, brightness medium-high. If I'm surfing the web, using iChat and iTunes, it's more like 3-3.5 hours. Anything more strenuous than that and yes, it's going to be under 3 hours. Oh.. I have the 2.5/5400.
 
It really does vary with usage, but with wifi on, bluetooth off, full brightness and just surfing/word processing/email I get between 4 and 4 1/2hours. As soon as I do anything more intensive it drops to around 3-3 1/2 hours, which I think is really good given the power of the machine and the incredibly bright display. I keep my display bright, but I'm sure that dimming it half-way would greatly increase battery life.

So, something like this:

Light work and battery saving measures: between 4-5 hours
medium load: 3.5-4 hours
intensive: 2.5-3 hours
 
I have the newest MacBook Pro released a few weeks ago, 2.6 GHZ 7200 RPM HD. After charging it shows 5 hours charge but getting maybe 2 1/2- 3 hours tops. What do you get with yours? :mad:

I get between 1.5 hours and 5 hours.

Intense work with all ports active, powering external duet card & HD, 7200rpm, hi res, external dispay about 1.5hrs.

Doing hardly anything, about 5 hrs.

Although I keep mine plugged in 99% of the time, thanks god.
 
I don't have the latest Penryn MBP (heck, mine predates the Santa Rosa release as well), but I still get a good 3 hours of productivity out of my battery, the few times I use it on battery power. This is with Wi-Fi on, brightness at minimum, and energy saver set to maximize battery life.
 
I get 2:05 mins with LittleBig Drive mounted, ExpressCard inserted and Illustrator running but it's ok.. seems normal. 3:00 to 3:30 when it's running nothing but FireFox - I don't use WIFI.
 
I get about 3.5 hours on a previous model MBP for web surfing and text editing, screen brightness all the down.

I get about 3 hours playing DVDs.

I get an hour or less if I'm using MPEG StreamClip to encode video.
 
how technology changes... I can't believe MBPs get 5 hours on the same battery that I get 3 hours with my core duo

8 cycles, 98% health, just over 3 hours with wifi on, bluetooth off, screen brightness at 75%, with web browsing and word processing...
 
online surfing 4:30 ~ 5

anything else (gaming, movies, heavy downloading) 3:30

new battery macbook 2.0 c2d

MBA
2 ~ 2:30 doing anything processor intensive

3:30 surfing only

MBA 1.6
 
As someone else mentioned, it depends on what you're doing with it. Just basic surfing, probably 3.5 hours. Bu with iTunes/DVD player/etc., definitely less.
 
As someone else mentioned, it depends on what you're doing with it. Just basic surfing, probably 3.5 hours. Bu with iTunes/DVD player/etc., definitely less.

And it will also depend on whether you are on the latest penryn machines, which seem to have noticeably better battery life, or the previous versions of MBPs.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.