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smdewart

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 11, 2005
26
0
I noticed that the Apple website makes no mention of the new MacBook Pro's battery life. I also found no mention of it while skimming the Keynote video. Anyone have any information or ideas...? It'd be great if it's improved over previous PB models...
 

shambolic

macrumors regular
Oct 27, 2003
126
5
Staten Island, NY
In one of the other threads here, someone called up Apple and was quoted 5.5 hours. I believe MacTruck's figure comes from a report over at arstechnica.com - they took the power cable out of a MacBook Pro on display at MacWorld, waited a short while and watched the battery estimate in the menu bar.

Ultimately, it'll take some time for the real world numbers to come in, so if it's a dealbreaker for you, I'd hold off on buying just yet. It's definitely suspicious that Apple chose not to give out that information in the technical specs. With battery life, no news tends to be bad news.
 

Chaszmyr

macrumors 601
Aug 9, 2002
4,267
86
I have a theory on this:

Anyone who has ever used a portable computer probably knows that the brightness level you have the display to makes a HUGE difference in the battery life. Apple announced yesterday that the MacBook Pro is 67% brighter than the PowerBook G4. What does this mean? At full brightness, the battery life is probably a fair amount shorter than the 5.5 hours that the PowerBook G4 has, but if you turn down the brightness I'm sure that the battery life is comparable.
 

After G

macrumors 68000
Aug 27, 2003
1,583
1
California
Actually, I heard they didn't wait, so that 3h might be a bit off.

Plus:

* unoptimized software
* pre-production hardware
* etc.
 

mkrishnan

Moderator emeritus
Jan 9, 2004
29,776
15
Grand Rapids, MI, USA
Chaszmyr said:
Apple announced yesterday that the MacBook Pro is 67% brighter than the PowerBook G4. What does this mean? At full brightness, the battery life is probably a fair amount shorter than the 5.5 hours that the PowerBook G4 has, but if you turn down the brightness I'm sure that the battery life is comparable.

Your argument is really interesting. I know that, although my battery is aging, if I go to minimal screen brightness, and turn off wireless, my iBook can still do close to four hours (it originally got about 4-4.5 without taking those measures, but no longer does).

Mmmm, I'm not so sure that the extra brightness doesn't come from electrical or optical efficiency gains. I don't think the brighter laptops get there merely by pushing more juice into the bulbs. I could be wrong, though. But what you said definitely has a flip side that is good. If the real world profile of this thing is comparable to the battery life of the existing PB's, then you can turn the brightness down, keep the same screen brightness, and get more life.

Then again, I guess this thing would be quite fast even if one core were put to sleep. Now *THAT* could offer you some real power savings... I'd be curious to see how these things do when they're set to reduced processor performance. :)
 

Phat_Pat

macrumors 68000
May 8, 2004
1,955
0
I Live Where I Live
a friend asked an apple rep today at macworld and he was told that they are still running tests and at this moment are unsure.

i guess alot of people are asking
 

semaja2

macrumors 6502a
Dec 12, 2005
576
18
Adelaide
i would say it would be near what the powerbook 14" is atm, think about it the cpu's use a lot less power now meaning they could brighten the screen or add more powerful gear
 

tweakers_suck

macrumors regular
Feb 7, 2005
221
0
Los Angeles, CA
MacBook Pro battery not removable?

I was looking at the picture of the bottom the the MacBook Pro on 'What's Inside' page for the MBP. It looks like the battery is built in and not removable.

Does anyone see the same thing that I do? Am I wrong? I zoomed in on the pic and only see a smooth brushed metal bottom.
 

dotdotdot

macrumors 68020
Jan 23, 2005
2,391
44
A 17" Intel Centrino at 2.0 GHz in a Laptop with full brightness is a little over two hours...
 

xy14

macrumors 6502
Mar 9, 2004
294
0
Minneapolis
screw that! I'm not getting a macbook now if it doesn't let you replace the battery! Thats just stupid! What a way to get a windows laptop user to switch..

bob: Well, what if the battery gets old after 2 years or so?
joe: Well, you'll need to get a new computer or pay apple $350 for 3 years of Applecare.
bob: So I can't just have a backup battery?
joe: Nope.
bob: Ya right, I'll keep my spyware computer before i get a computer that i cant unplug for 15 minutes without the battery dying.
 

Daveway

macrumors 68040
Jul 10, 2004
3,370
1
New Orleans / Lafayette, La
Dell's new Core Duo laptop is 17" and gets 3 hrs from a 55?wh battery. The MBP has a 15" screen and has a 65?wh battery. So doing simple math gestimations would come out to around 5-5.5hrs.
 

tweakers_suck

macrumors regular
Feb 7, 2005
221
0
Los Angeles, CA
tweakers_suck said:
I was looking at the picture of the bottom the the MacBook Pro on 'What's Inside' page for the MBP. It looks like the battery is built in and not removable.

Does anyone see the same thing that I do? Am I wrong? I zoomed in on the pic and only see a smooth brushed metal bottom.

I'm soooooo lame. What I thought was the bottom of the computer is really just the battery.

Oooooopsy. My bad...

:confused:
 

Chundles

macrumors G5
Jul 4, 2005
12,037
493
tweakers_suck said:
I was looking at the picture of the bottom the the MacBook Pro on 'What's Inside' page for the MBP. It looks like the battery is built in and not removable.

Does anyone see the same thing that I do? Am I wrong? I zoomed in on the pic and only see a smooth brushed metal bottom.


You mean this picture?
picture15qi.png


That IS the battery.
 

Chundles

macrumors G5
Jul 4, 2005
12,037
493
xy14 said:
screw that! I'm not getting a macbook now if it doesn't let you replace the battery! Thats just stupid! What a way to get a windows laptop user to switch..

bob: Well, what if the battery gets old after 2 years or so?
joe: Well, you'll need to get a new computer or pay apple $350 for 3 years of Applecare.
bob: So I can't just have a backup battery?
joe: Nope.
bob: Ya right, I'll keep my spyware computer before i get a computer that i cant unplug for 15 minutes without the battery dying.

Wow, someone suffers from a bit of premature speculation....

The photo they are talking about is a picture of the removable battery.
 

semaja2

macrumors 6502a
Dec 12, 2005
576
18
Adelaide
i like the way apple does the batterys but its just got to many flaws, eg the 1 mm gap, why can they just go with the way every other companydoes and make a slot for it
 

solvs

macrumors 603
Jun 25, 2002
5,684
1
LaLaLand, CA
xy14 said:
screw that! I'm not getting a macbook now if it doesn't let you replace the battery! Thats just stupid! What a way to get a windows laptop user to switch..
Don't believe everything you read. ;)
 
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