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Hipnomac

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 14, 2007
148
0
Chicago
How long should the battery last on a full charge? I know it depends on what your doing, but estimated for light activity.
 
3ish hours with wireless on and brightness low, up to 5ish hours with wireless off and brightness low
 
5ish hour? No way. I would if you are not doing anything to intensive with 90-100% brightness and wireless on 3 hours. 10-20% brightness and wireless off would probably get you 4 and a half hours max.
 
I disagree- I am able to reach 5 hours when I am especially cognizant of power savings. For example, when running spreadsheets and some stats software, I can extend life by turning Wifi off and keeping screen brightness down. This includes running data visualization programming, which is a bit more CPU intensive.

BTW: I have been doing *very* unscientific test with my friends' MBP (new models). The results have the MB coming out ahead for battery life in every test. On average, I my results point to about a .5 hour benefit in battery life for the MB. To be fair, these guys are CS professors and, even though they report leaving wireless off, I am skeptical (they show symptoms of withdrawl when they are not reading Slashdot!).

5ish hour? No way. I would if you are not doing anything to intensive with 90-100% brightness and wireless on 3 hours. 10-20% brightness and wireless off would probably get you 4 and a half hours max.
 
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