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They sold me an old one. Battery life for MC026LL/A?

JustinG87

JustinG87

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 18, 2007
71
0
Seattle, WA
My 2006 MBP just broke down about 4 hours after the keynote last week (it's like the thing just waited for it) so I decided to take advantage and go out and buy from the new line announced. I went to an Apple Store (when they said they'd be in stock for the new line) and specifically asked for the new MBP line. They said they were in stock and sold me one. After looking it over at home I've now realized that they actually sold me an old model. Normally I'd be pissed, because I made it explicitly clear that I wanted to buy from the newly announced line, and even told them with specific model I wanted. But looking at the specs between the early 2009 line and the mid 2009 line, I see that they knocked some of the hardware down and instead just added in the new battery and SD slot. Tricky. The only real question I have now is how does the early 2009 battery compare to the mid 2009 battery in the 15" MBP? I can't seem to find the info on mine, MC026LL/A on how many recharge cycles it's expected to have. Does anyone know?
 
morrisman1 said:
well it apparently gets 8 hours according to the front page article. Apple say 1000 cycles until replacement.

If you have no reason to swap batteries then id get the new one.
Click to expand...

I know what the new line has in regard to battery life, they have it posted all over the place. What I want to know is what the early 2009 MBP line, the line that was replaced by the keynote announcement last week, has as far as battery life goes. MC026LL/A specifically.
 
JustinG87 said:
I know what the new line has in regard to battery life, they have it posted all over the place. What I want to know is what the early 2009 MBP line, the line that was replaced by the keynote announcement last week, has as far as battery life goes. MC026LL/A specifically.
Click to expand...



I have the same model. Apple says 5 hours but that is based on light use. Streaming Netflix and web surfing with Bluetooth and keyboard illumination enabled I got 4 easy.
But using Vista under the same circumstances turned my mac into a glowing fireball that got like, an hour or so on a full charge.
 
I ordered one of these on purpose.

It's also lithium-polymer, but even if it was released after the 17", I don't expect it to have the adaptive charging technology (chip in the battery), if they were replacing everything a couple months later.

I hope you payed the discounted price.
 
Well, if you went to the Apple store AFTER the keynote and specifically asked for the new MacBook Pro model and they sold you the old one, you should take it back.
 
im not sure if early 2009 and late 2008 have the same battery, but i have late 2008 and is said that 300-500 cycles is how far they go at 90% + health...
that said, i had mine for 7 months and im at 102% battery capacity.. :)
but i only have 27 cycles.

how could they sold you an old model? do you have expresscard? whats bad about that.?
 
If they sold you an old model, it would have an ExpressCard slot, not an SD Slot, and would have a removable battery cover.
 
TXBDan said:
I'd take it back in a second.

If you do prefer the old one, at least try to get a discount.
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I'm going to call them today and get some info. The only reason I'm not 100% tempted to exchange it is because they knocked down some of the stats in the new one. Only 3MB Cache instead of 6MB, and 256MB shared memory instead of 512MB. In exchange though they added an SD Card slot, and the new, better battery. You give up something to get something. In the end I think it'll depend on firstly the battery life; if I have to pay their 10% restocking fee for exchanging an item; and if there's any difference in the display. They claim their new line can show 60% greater color gamut. I don't know if that applies to the previous line or not.
 
So you bought the 2.66? I would ask for it to be replaced the top of the line 2.8GHz model, and refund you $200 (price difference between what you paid and what the 2.8 costs)
 
angemon89 said:
So you bought the 2.66? I would ask for it to be replaced the top of the line 2.8GHz model, and refund you $200 (price difference between what you paid and what the 2.8 costs)
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The price for the old 2.66 was knocked down when the new line was announced. I paid $1,999 for it, same as the new 2.66. I only got $100 under the education discount though, and Apple's website specifically says that the 2.66 gets a $150 discount.
 
JustinG87 said:
The price for the old 2.66 was knocked down when the new line was announced. I paid $1,999 for it, same as the new 2.66. I only got $100 under the education discount though, and Apple's website specifically says that the 2.66 gets a $150 discount.
Click to expand...
It kinda sounds to me that you knew exactly what you just bought when you walked out of that Apple store...
 
angemon89 said:
It kinda sounds to me that you knew exactly what you just bought when you walked out of that Apple store...
Click to expand...

I thought I'd bought from the new line. I didn't realize that it was the old line until I actually tried to load an SD card in, then did some research as to the differences between the two lines.
 
JustinG87 said:
The only reason I'm not 100% tempted to exchange it is because they knocked down some of the stats in the new one. Only 3MB Cache instead of 6MB, and 256MB shared memory instead of 512MB.
Click to expand...

No they didn't knock the specs down. The old 2.66 with 6mb L2 was the previous top model and was upgraded to the 2.8 that still has 6mb L2. The current 2.66 with 3mb L2 is an upgrade to the lower model that had 3mb L2 as well. Video memory is the same as they previously were.
 
The same thing happened to me, I called ahead of time and they put one on hold for me. I did not get a chance to check it out because after I purchased it, I went straight to a graduation.

At first I was like you, debating between the old and new. When the battery results came out for the new model, I was very tempted. I did some further research and the difference between 3mb and 6mb L2 cache is debatable. One thing that went in my favor was that I was not going to game or anything so the difference between 256 vram and 512 vram was not a big issue.

I went to the Apple store and spoke to a manager, he switched it out and gave me the new model without questions. He realized that it was their fault. When I first got it home and opened it up and used it for a few hours, the battery life between the two were very noticeable to me.

In the end I'm glad I went back to get the new one (same price, $1,849, student discount). Also, it appears that all the new model are using the LG panel, which from what I have been reading is the better panel.

The choice is really up to you, will you use the ExpressCard port? I think after you can answer that, it should be easy which one you want.
 
JustinG87 said:
I thought I'd bought from the new line. I didn't realize that it was the old line until I actually tried to load an SD card in, then did some research as to the differences between the two lines.
Click to expand...

I'd go back in and try to guilt them into giving you a little discount. That's pretty unacceptable on their part. They shouldn't charge you a restock fee if you want the new one.
 
nws0291 said:
No they didn't knock the specs down.
Click to expand...

Yes they did. They removed the ExpressCard slot to replace it with a stupid SD.
And they eliminated the flexibility of a removable battery.

And it seems the SATA300 was downgraded to SATA150, too.
 
apthai86 said:
The same thing happened to me, I called ahead of time and they put one on hold for me. I did not get a chance to check it out because after I purchased it, I went straight to a graduation.

At first I was like you, debating between the old and new. When the battery results came out for the new model, I was very tempted. I did some further research and the difference between 3mb and 6mb L2 cache is debatable. One thing that went in my favor was that I was not going to game or anything so the difference between 256 vram and 512 vram was not a big issue.

I went to the Apple store and spoke to a manager, he switched it out and gave me the new model without questions. He realized that it was their fault. When I first got it home and opened it up and used it for a few hours, the battery life between the two were very noticeable to me.

In the end I'm glad I went back to get the new one (same price, $1,849, student discount). Also, it appears that all the new model are using the LG panel, which from what I have been reading is the better panel.

The choice is really up to you, will you use the ExpressCard port? I think after you can answer that, it should be easy which one you want.
Click to expand...

I'll never use the ExpressCard, ever. I'm a Graphic Designer though, so the difference in the graphic cards does make a difference to me, but I also could really use the SD card slot, as well as the better battery. I think it's the display that decides it for me though. A 60% larger color gamut is like bringing a kid to a candy store, very happy! In the end, despite the knocked down specs, I think I'll go and exchange for the new one. Thanks for all your help everyone! (They only gave me a $100 student discount, instead of $150, so I need to get them to straighten them out too.)
 
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