10 hours battery life? I don't think so!

Question

Level 1

0 points

10 hours battery life? I don't think so!

I just got a new Mac Book Pro (13 inch model), which boasts a 10 hour battery life. I thought it was great, since my current laptop only gives me about 3-4 hours. After playing around with the MBP for a little while, I realized how much the batter life varies. If I don't have any applications open, it says I have 10 hours on a full charge (once it even said 13!). However, whenever I open an application (even if it's something simple), the battery life quickly cuts down to 3-5 hours. Not so useful, since that's the amount of time I can get on my current laptop!

I feel like I wasted money on something that really doesn't live up to the expectation. I'd like to return it, but there's then 10% restocking fee because it's open box. So much for the "satisfaction guarantee"- how am I supposed to know if I'm satisfied with it without opening the box?

My question is, do you think this issue is enough to get a full refund? I'd consider buying another Apple laptop after my current computer dies, but since the MBP does not live up to my expectations, there's just no point to keep it lying around. I really wanted something that had greater battery life while actually being USED (not just with an open screen, but no applications running!).

Thanks for any advice!

p.s. I keep trying to change the title of the question, it was supposed to be "10 hours battery life", not "10 hours battery battery"!

title is supposed to read "10 hours battery life" not "10 hours battery battery". ooops!

MacBook Pro

Posted on Jan 2, 2011 10:49 PM

Reply

Answer 1

sig

Level 8

35,862 points

Jan 3, 2011 1:55 AM in response to Dea89

Did you ever buy a new car or see new car adds? Did you ever see the mileage label on the side of a new car? Your mileage varies according to how you drive, the weather, what you have in tow, how many people are in the car, which way the wind in blowing, etc., etc., etc. Where did you see a boast of a 10 hour battery life? Maybe if you turned it on and did nothing at all for 10 hours. If you feel there is a serious problem then bring it back.

Reply

Answer 2

Yer_Man

Level 10

165,870 points

Jan 3, 2011 2:29 AM in response to Dea89

No this is not a reason for a full refund, or partial. Never mind that the computer predicts as a likely outcome, how long does the battery actually last while you use it?

Regards

TD

Reply

Answer 3

Dea89 Author

Level 1

0 points

Jan 3, 2011 3:35 AM in response to sig

I understand what you mean, and let's continue with your metaphor. When you see a car advertisement, you get the miles on the highway per gallon and miles in the city per gallon. In the case of the MBP, its like knowing you can idle your car on the driveway for 30 hours, but only drive it for 3 of those. I dont buy a car to keep it idling on my driveway, and i dont see why its useful to know the 'do nothing' time it takes for a battery to run out.

I've been reading up about the battery life on many websites that test laptops independently (so the tests arent run by the companies themselves), and there have been lots of instances where they've beenable to loop movies for almost 8 hours! I tried watching a couple of movies on mine (using headphones, starting at full charge, and both movies were under 2 hours), and near the end of each movie, i was already being prompted to plug in my laptop.

As for where I saw the claim of '10 hours battery life', it was advertised by apple in their newsletter for black friday deals, and when I saw it, I thought it was a good deal especially because of how long it could last.

Still, I'd love to know how Apple expects customers to figure out if they are satisfied with the product without opening the box and actually using it. I really think this restocking fee is bull. It has been cancelled in many European countries, so why are we still being subjected to it? And why have a 'satisfaction guarantee' if the customer is pretty much getting charged to test if their satisfied?

My last laptop was bought from costco. I could bring it back within 6 months, even if used, no questions asked. Seems like Apple is too busy money-grabbing to actually care and honour customer satisfaction. If I don't get waived the fee, I honestly doubt I'll buy any more products from them.

Reply

Answer 4

Dea89 Author

Level 1

0 points

Jan 3, 2011 3:47 AM in response to Yer_Man

The battery lasts around 100 minutes when trying to watch a movie (using headphones, so the speakers aren't even in use).

When I use the webcam and photobooth application, it dies in just under 3 hours. The time is pretty much the same for just typing documents, while not even being connected to the internet.

The prediction on battery life is dead-on, since it really does die in the amount of time the MBP recalculates according to the application I'm running. I have yet to try multi-tasking on it (for example, using webcam to chat over the internet, while having a couple browsers open), but I'd guess the battery life is not too great with that either. I've read reviews which claim movies were looped for almost 8 hours before the battery dies, and mine doesn't come close to that. I'm starting to wonder if I got a defective model, or if most MBP's run the same average. I haven't owned a MBP before, so I don't have much to compare it to, but even so, it still seems like it should be performing better. Or perhaps I was too optimistic amd enthusiastic about the product.

Reply

Answer 5

Jan 5, 2011 6:01 PM in response to Dea89

Hey man i picked up a new mac book pro for Christmass and was having they same issues as you.

What you have to do is make sure as much stuff is off as possible. ex. wifi, bluetooth (uses more then you think), screen dimmed as much as possible, keyboard back lights off (you type faster when you cant see it anyway).

Other things you should do is learn how your RAM works as far as active and inactive, what this means is that when you close an app your RAM will save that info, if you have the space, incase you reopen that app it it will come right up. What im saying is the more RAM you have on the more power is needed to keep it running even if that application isn't open any more.

One setting i changed that helped, is making it so your computer doesn't try to sense how much light is in the room. It does this to change your key board back lights and and screen back lights.

Srry that was written real well but i was in a bit of a hurry
If you have any more questions shoot me an email.

Reply

Answer 6

bdmarsha

Level 4

2,580 points

Jan 5, 2011 8:18 PM in response to Dea89

Battery life depends on configuration and use. See www.apple.com/batteries.

bd

Reply

Answer 7

Jan 30, 2011 9:29 AM in response to bdmarsha

I have the same issue, bought the Pro 2 weeks ago, and I was quite surprised that our Macbook Air 13" last longer than the Pro.

I have also checked the max battery capacity of both laptops and I'm surprised that Air has 6k+mAh while Pro only has 5k+mAh.

So I'm now confused with their "up to 10hrs" battery life when all I get is max 4hrs++ only.

Reply

Answer 8

Jan 30, 2011 10:57 AM in response to wackoyacky

Why are you surprised the pro drains faster? It conducts more heat, has more power hungry parts, usually no SSD which is a power saver. The rest here need to read up a bit on battery technologies and how they work. Apple does not make batteries. They source them. They do their testing the same as any electronics company. In the best light possible. Meaning the 10 hour quoted means 25% brightness and idle, nothing turned on. With all the energy saver settings working, sleep the HD etc...
http://www.apple.com/batteries/notebooks.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium-ionpolymerbattery

Reply

Answer 9

dwb

Level 7

33,220 points

Jan 30, 2011 12:27 PM in response to Dea89

Battery life depends on a number of factors including how much the hard drive and optical drives are being used, how bright your screen is, how hard you are running the CPU, and whether WiFi and BlueTooth are being used. The optical drive and display backlight are both big battery hogs. Back when I was testing my new 13" MBP I found that turning off BlueTooth and Wifi added about 40 minutes use. Take some time to learn about your computer - asking for a refund now just isn't on.

Reply

Answer 10

Network 23

Level 6

12,351 points

Jan 30, 2011 8:29 PM in response to Dea89

Dea89 wrote:
I just got a new Mac Book Pro (13 inch model), which boasts a 10 hour battery life.

No, it boasts no such thing. It literally says "*+up to+* 10 hours". It also says this is based on Apple's "wireless productivity test."

The wireless productivity test measures battery life by wirelessly browsing various websites and editing text in a word processor document with display brightness set to the middle setting.

If you can prove to Apple that you can't get 10 hours on a similar test, you might have a case for getting a new battery. Apple's test is designed to not be too misleading, that's why they leave wireless networking on, leave screen brightness in the middle, and use a disk-based app as opposed to a cloud app. But they also aren't burdening the machine very much.

But don't forget that it only says "up to 10 hours," not "you will definitely get 10 hours no matter what you're doing." When a PC laptop says "up to 3 hours" it often means you're only going to get two if you are running moderately demanding apps...same situation.

Reply