MBP...Battery Life Sux

[JonnyMac]

So I've had my 2.0 MBP for a week now. I mainly use iLife programs and play World of Warcraft so I absolutely love the speed of the computer. The screen is awesome, still love the design and I haven't experienced any of the whining or other "bugs" that many have talked about.

The only two qualms I have about it are:

1. The heat generated on the bottom left side of the computer. It gets pretty hot there, though it's somewhat bearable.

2. Battery life sux. With a full charge it says about 3:15 remaining. I usually just surf the web, with iTunes playing in the background and I get in reality closer to 2 hours. Yes, I do have the screen near the brightest setting and yes, the setting is on "better battery performance." What's the point of such a beautiful screen if it's set on low when you're on the road?

 

[notjustjay]

I usually just surf the web, with iTunes playing in the background and I get in reality closer to 2 hours. Yes, I do have the screen near the brightest setting and yes, the setting is on "better battery performance." What's the point of such a beautiful screen if it's set on low when you're on the road?

* iTunes playing in the background = near-constant CPU activity. plus constant power to amp circuitry and speakers
* Surfing the web on battery = near-constant WiFi activity and hard drive use
* Screen near brightest = huge power draw

Did you turn Bluetooth off at least?

You surely can't have your cake and eat it, too. Turn down your screen and I bet you'll find a significant increase in battery life. Learn to live with a dimmer screen on the road, it's really not that bad.

I would challenge you to find any laptop in a similar form factor and specification that can get significantly better battery life under the same conditions.

 

[celebrian23]

I know of NO laptop that has good battery life. I agree that just by turning down the screen brightness, you'll see a significant increase in battery power. If you want something, sometimes you have to sacrifice.

 

[JonnyMac]

I know of NO laptop that has good battery life. I agree that just by turning down the screen brightness, you'll see a significant increase in battery power. If you want something, sometimes you have to sacrifice.

In this case, the sacrifice will be to spring for an additional battery. Maybe I'm expecting too much out of batteries. The other laptop noted in my sig gets close to 3.5 hours. Sure, smaller screen, Pentium M, etc...but also surfing, iTunes and screen on the brightest setting.

 

[jsw123]

theres lots of stuff you can do to improve battery life. if all your doing is surfing and playing itunes, you can turn off a core so your processor is running lighter. you can get headphones so your not using your speakers all the time. I would also recalibrate the battery, in case you've been overcharging.

 

[Krevnik]

theres lots of stuff you can do to improve battery life. if all your doing is surfing and playing itunes, you can turn off a core so your processor is running lighter. you can get headphones so your not using your speakers all the time. I would also recalibrate the battery, in case you've been overcharging.

Couple things:

1) Lithium-Ion/Polymer batteries have protection circuits to prevent overcharging. The calibration is to ensure that the information about the battery (as the computer sees it, converting from voltage levels to capacity) is accurate. Recalibration is simply letting the OS know what the voltage is fully charged, and depleted, so it knows where 1.0 and 0.0 are.

2) Turning off a core doesn't seem to actually have a noticable impact on battery life. Simply because you are still using the same amount of CPU time, and the same amount of power. Turning off a core would only really help when your CPU load is over 100%, by clamping it down to 100%.

 

[nylon]

I know of NO laptop that has good battery life.

IBM X series notebooks give you 5-7 hours on one charge and include dual core processors. However, they are sub-notebooks and don't have an optical drive built in. Still a counterpoint to your statement.

 

[Scarlet Fever]

i seem to get pretty good battery life out of my MBP. All wireless on, screen dimmed slightly, iSight working, but no terrible stress on CPU or HDD. I got a few hours out of it before it was telling me it needed juice

 

[superbovine]

So I've had my 2.0 MBP for a week now. I mainly use iLife programs and play World of Warcraft so I absolutely love the speed of the computer. The screen is awesome, still love the design and I haven't experienced any of the whining or other "bugs" that many have talked about.

The only two qualms I have about it are:

1. The heat generated on the bottom left side of the computer. It gets pretty hot there, though it's somewhat bearable.

2. Battery life sux. With a full charge it says about 3:15 remaining. I usually just surf the web, with iTunes playing in the background and I get in reality closer to 2 hours. Yes, I do have the screen near the brightest setting and yes, the setting is on "better battery performance." What's the point of such a beautiful screen if it's set on low when you're on the road?

do you realize that 2 hours for a notebook is pretty decent in the scheme of things?

 

[Josias]

IBM X series notebooks give you 5-7 hours on one charge and include dual core processors. However, they are sub-notebooks and don't have an optical drive built in. Still a counterpoint to your statement.

iBook will give you 6 hours, i seen it myself. they don't have dual core, but have a drive, and look so damn nicce! BTW, if you use headphones, dimm the screen, and make sure the cooler is not in front of your lap or somethin', or it has to work harder. Try some of these things, and i'm sure you could get up to 4 hours on a good day.

 

[raremage]

I know of NO laptop that has good battery life. I agree that just by turning down the screen brightness, you'll see a significant increase in battery power. If you want something, sometimes you have to sacrifice.

Actually, the Electrovaya Scribblers get anywhere from 6-9 hours of battery life. These are tablet PCs that really are very impressive, though a bit glitchy until you get used to them.

Electrovaya made their name in battery packs (little flat power pads you would plug into a laptop to add 8 hours of life - great for cross country flights) that they then started putting into their own systems. Really nifty for tablet technology.

As for the MBP battery life, I typically get 3+ hours while running wireless and general work (docs, surfing, spreadsheets). This with screen at about 50% brightness.

 

[Josias]

Where can you buy these? Must have three! 24 hours of stoning! lol