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User profile for user: hypo luxa
hypo luxa Author
User level: Level 1
10 points

15" MacBook Pro i7 battery life mediocre

I figured I'd post on the forums to let everyone know how I'm faring with the new MacBook pro i7. I love the machine, first off. It's fast!!!! However, the battery life is the most important aspect of a laptop to me and this particular battery leaves much to be desired as far as charge longevity is concerned. Just to give you some numbers....after about 3 hours of web browsing, I'm at fifty percent of battery charge capacity. That extrapolates to around 6 hours of total available charge. Brightness is set at 50 percent with wifi and Bluetooth on. Flash sites visited made up approximately 40 percent of the total quantity of sites visited. There was much browsing and skimming occurring and very little in depth reading. More of an aggressive approach to surfing the Internet. I just feel that the battery acts very uneven in it's discharge of energy with respect to the indicator that is given to the user in the form of the battery percentage / time remaining calculation. It seems to discharge very quickly during the first 10 - 15 percent (in a matter of 15 -25 minutes) and then evens off a bit. It seems to give a more instantaneous reading rather than a rolling average usage reading. It's definitely not 8-9 hours, that's for sure. Kind of disappointing given the advertisement.

Message was edited by: hypo luxa

MacBook pro 15" core i7, Mac OS X (10.6.3)

Posted on Apr 19, 2010 10:17 PM

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157 replies
User profile for user: msagara
msagara
User level: Level 1
4 points

Jun 25, 2010 2:46 AM in response to RockyRoad

I downloaded gfxCardStatus because on my first full (calibrated) charge, I got about 2.5 hours before the battery indicator dipped into the red.

From a restart, with no apps running, the card kicks into the nvidia and stays there. I don't know why. I've set it to the Intel card via gfxCardStatus, and that's helped a lot in terms of estimated time remaining, but I'd have to say that the switching isn't really working all that well.
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User profile for user: MidAtlantian
MidAtlantian
User level: Level 1
0 points

Jul 1, 2010 1:08 PM in response to hypo luxa

There is something of a scam in the way Apple markets its battery life. I just did a check in my 15" MacBook Pro. The 'standard' test is to only have Itunes and Safari running - with no music playing. If you get 7 hours from a full battery, that is enough. But I noticed that when the screen saver went active - the screen saver!!?? - the remaining 'time' on the battery cut in HALF. And any other program also made a dramatic difference in the projected life of the battery. What is even more unexpected is that if you have programs running in the background - I mean running but you are not using them - they still take a lot of power!

If you actually USE the computer, you can hope for 5 hours. Or do I mean dream?
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User profile for user: Mark Nandor
Mark Nandor
User level: Level 1
121 points

Jul 2, 2010 5:49 AM in response to MidAtlantian

Yeah, I'm not sure I understand how they can claim "up to 8 or 9 hours." When mine just sits there with the screen backlight on the lowest still-visible setting, wireless on, bluetooth off, three programs running but not doing anything (Word, Firefox, iTunes open but not playing anything) I get 5.5 hours on a full charge. That's just plain crap and not anywhere close to 8 hours.




<Edited by Host>
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User profile for user: MacRS4
MacRS4
User level: Level 2
330 points

Jul 2, 2010 5:49 AM in response to Mark Nandor

They can claim that figure simply because a lot of machines perform in that manner. Mine does now - although I did run in to problems as you can see here:

http://www.markc.me.uk/MarkC/Blog/Entries/2010/4/21Early_2010_Macbook_Pro_-_Battery_LifePoor.html

I get around the 5 hour mark when running Windows in Bootcamp - that's because it relies on the faster graphics card only.

Could it be you're getting poor performance because something you're running is switching to the NVIDIA rather than the integrated Intel? If it is, then you'll find your battery life massively affected.
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User profile for user: MacRS4
MacRS4
User level: Level 2
330 points

Jul 2, 2010 5:51 AM in response to MacRS4

Incidentally: 2.66 GHz i7 15" MacBook Pro Mac OS X (10.6.4) 8GB RAM

That's exactly the machine I have, except that I have a 128Gb SSD and a 640Gb SATA drive fitted. I regularly get around 8 hours usage.

I use Cody Kreiger's great app to force graphics mode: http://codykrieger.com/gfxCardStatus/

Without it, a lot of my apps switch automatically to the NVIDIA, and that kills the battery life.
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User profile for user: Mark Nandor
Mark Nandor
User level: Level 1
121 points

Jul 2, 2010 6:02 AM in response to MacRS4

No - as stated I am only running three apps, none of which force use of the nvidia chip. I also do not allow the screen saver to come on. Before turning even IT off, I also had gfxcardstatus running to make sure it was in "intel mode."

And unless the system has an automatic text-checker, you'll notice that someone from Apple DID look at my previous post, for those who don't think they pay attention. All because I mentioned a possible suit. They MAY automatically check text with a program, but they DO troll these areas.
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User profile for user: MacRS4
MacRS4
User level: Level 2
330 points

Jul 2, 2010 6:10 AM in response to Mark Nandor

Are you sure you're not running the NVIDIA chipset?

I found with mine that there were a number of items that were pushing me over onto that chip rather than the intel.

As to the lawsuit - there's a significant difference between a hardware problem with yours (Take it back?) and there being software that doesn't play well with the switching process isn't there?

The fact is people are getting around the claims out of their machines. It's not going to apply to everyone's usage is it? I mean if I fire up my VMWare demo set of 5 servers I expect only to get a couple of hours usage.

Check out the Nvidia thing, if it's definitely not that it could 'just' be an issue with your battery - take it back?
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User profile for user: addup
addup
User level: Level 1
0 points

Jul 10, 2010 6:53 AM in response to hypo luxa

Interesting thread - My research was prompted by a recent acquisition which arrived yesterday "as new" MBP 15 i7 with HRes matt screen (love it), ebay seller had it less than a month. A system profile check confirmed specs but power looked odd with a 108 cycle count on the battery so looked up and landed here. Grabbed coconutB and Xbattery (both excellent apps) and did a calibrate with next to nothing running. Activity monitor showed CPU at 98-99% idle and 90% idle with screen saver running.
Lasted about 3.1/4 hrs before forced sleep from 90% charge (when I had installed XBattery)
CoconutBat lists capacity now at 92%, 6387 mAh of original - 6900mAh and age 4 months.
If it runs out of puff that fast in full holiday mode how much HD video editing am I going to get in the field? I have a car power inverter but thats hardly the point.
I had thought that 108 cycles was theoretically impossible given it had been in use for less than a month, but at this sort of discharge rate, maybe not.
Feels like I've bought the ferrari but need a tanker escort with onroad refueling to get past the local shops
Hopefully, I can get some reassurance when I phone Apple on monday.

Chs all
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15" MacBook Pro i7 battery life mediocre

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