Lion - Horrible MacBook Pro Battery Life

Thank you macmec. I think in this situation being sensible and realistic in making OS choice is the best we can do for our selves.

If I'm on the move like yourself SL would be me my choice. My improved results are based on very modest use therefore anyone who intends to do any serious heavy app work and relies on battery power mostly, think twice before you move to Lion.

Well, after a week running 10.7.3 I can report only a slight increase in battery life using my late 2011 MBP 13". Nothing on it but Pages and Numbers. Typical use, check emails, bit on internet (no flash), scanned 5 photographs then unplugged scanner, typed a letter and updated a few spreadsheets all done at 1/3 brightness and no keyboard lights on and 3.5hrs of real use, max.

Just read about Windows 8 and its super battery life and being able to run on standby with zero battery loss....hmmm, down grade to SL or go back to a PC Laptop. Not good Apple, not impressed, you have had six months to sort this, very poor.

I spoke to someone from Apple yesterday about my battery issues since upgrading to Lion. Why does Apple make its employees deny there's an issue. He told me only a few people had an issue. My response: do 1000s of online comments mean that millions need to complain before something done.

I got suggestions like turning brightness to 50%, steps I'd already taken from reading discussion.

Result: told nothing to do with Lion, must be hardware issue & make appointment at store to check computer. Is it just sheer coincidence my problems started the moment I installed Lion on my 2011 MBPro?

I find this response most unprofessional of Apple, clearly there is an issue with Lion running on current MBPs.

Having a problem is fine, it is how Apple deals with its customers that is the issue. This is a real shame as to date Apple have been excellent. I refer to an issue with my Apple TV last week not displaying subtitles on a rented film, they were excellent, three credits and a refund for the hassle. Why are they unable to sort this issue?

The OS is excellent on many many counts, I wish they would just sort the battery problem.

Are you running 10.7.3?

Yes, 10.7.3. The guy was very pleasant etc so no criticism of him in that way - employees have to tow a company line with their phone conversations. I'm getting a bit more battery now as I'm not running programs in background anymore when working away on whenever. But I would prefer to have skype, safari, etc running in background as I used to before upgrading (or was that downgrading) to Lion. And keeping the screen brightness down, taking off revolving desktop photos, anything that might use extra power, has kept the battery cooler than it was. But all these steps take away the fun. I also miss taking my MBP to work for the day without the power cord.

I had initial problems with my MBP when I first bought it and was not happy with about 2 hours battery life. Strangely enough, I updated an older MBP and had no change in battery life at all. Apple changed my MBP as it was still under warrenty and the replacement now gets about 5 hours, which is what I would realistically espect with the drain of playing vids, using Adobe Apps or burning Discs. Seems to be a problem with some, yet most are fine. Also the change from 10.7.2 up to 10.7.3 made absolutely no difference to the running of either MBP from how they were running under 10.7.3 so the update caused no problem here. Only fault I could pin anything down to? I got a Lemon from Apple and they replaced it with a Peach.

Pete

I have to agree with macmeck, at least for those of us who prefer battery life over Lion's iCloud.

The 2010 MacBook Pro 13" models also benefit from a Core 2 Duo processor, which can be undervolted to provide us a realistic 8 hours of endurance under normal usage on the road. With the latest release of Lion I easily lost 2 hours or more compared to Snow Leopard, with battery estimates fluctuating wildly while surfing the web.

After more than 150 pages of comments and 3 Lion releases we're just going to have to accept the fact that Snow Leopard cannot be beat when it comes to battery life. Those who wish to move on to the newer operating system (or who don't have a choice) will need to keep this in mind. Perhaps with the upcoming release of the 2012 MacBook pro series we'll see a resolution to this issue.

I have actually found some improvement since updating the software. i can get around 6-6.5 hours working with half brightness connected to wireless, surfing facebook, downloading torrents in the background and working on microsoft excel.

at this stage i am pretty happy, but still looking for the 8-9 hours i achieved initially.

I think I have some bad news. Got off a call last night with senior execs from Apple tracking my case.

First, they confirmed what I was told prior and have mentioned before. Any applications written for MAC before LION, using Graphics calls will be less efficient under LION than previous releases. This will effect battery life. This actually only confirms what most of as have concluded which I suppose is a good thing, now coming from Apples mouths! However, the bad news is, Apple went as far last night as telling me that this is now a software vendor issue.

I countered on a number of fronts;

1. that running GFXcardstatus impacts these applicatons for the better on battery life, Why couldn't Apple be smart and use the techniques employed by GFXcardstatus to detect old applications and revert these calls to the older code? Apple will get back to me after review (this annoyed me further as I've given them this information 4+ months ago, as has others.

2. I have read nothing in the public domain (but maybe it's out there for developers) that they have told their developers to rewrite their graphcis calls for LION - and I know any old legacy printer drivers / utilities etc., will unlikely get fixed. At least now I will look at GFXcardstatus from now on for which "old" apps are trying to switch. However, if Apple are saying SW Vendors need to update their code ASAP to help people like us with battery life then Apple need to step up and go public.

Apple only have one thing left to do. Go public on the issue and then we can all stop wasting our time on this board because it'll come down to us chasing our vendors.

Looks like Apple have another solution:

Screw Lion and shove a Mountain in there: http://www.theverge.com/2012/2/16/2801047/mac-os-x-10-8-mountain-lion-preview-ph otos-video

I wonder if this would solve our problems? Or exacerbate them further? Ha ha.

Seriously though, I think this may go some way to explaining why non-one at Apple is bothered about our issue. Regardless of forum size!

Hmph.

Wow, they are fitzing around with Mountain Lion when they should be tackling this dire issue of less battery life in Lion?

A lot of the "features" in Mountain Lion should be in 10.7.5 not 10.8! Syncing between your Mac and iPhone/iPad properly should not require the purchase (and time) of updating to yet another new OS.

I'm still using 10.6.8 for day-to-day work on my laptop mainly because of this battery-life issue.

Apple? You're losing us here. Please LEARN from your mistakes with the Final Cut Pro X fiasco and FIRE some people who are frustrating and driving away your customers. They need a hard-a** like Steve Jobs to make some tough decisions and let people go at Apple who are @$#!$!ing up.

Don't become another Microsoft, Apple.

Thank you Franc_Iphone.

Finally an answer.

I guess they won't be solving it any more because they are moving on to 10.8.

They will release a new major version every year from now on. That's what Phil told the press. "Things will be done differently" he said. Seems like they are over Steve already. So so so sad.

http://daringfireball.net/2012/02/mountain_lion

Maybe it's time for a new Apple Computer, Inc. that cares about Pros and semi-Pros. Which would be everybody between my daughter and my grandma.

Yup, we're dealing with just another big corporation now, bloated with bureaucrats, order takers, and a largely Chinese workforce, unable or unwilling to respond to its users still-enthusiastic willingness to remain a a part of it all. They know what we need so much better than we do ourselves. Right.

Here's more news about Mountain Lion 10.8 (also noted in papalapapp's well-written post, above). Yet more dumbing down to come. From Apple Insider blog:

A developer preview of the forthcoming operating system update was released to developers on Thursday, and Apple has boasted that Mountain Lion packs over 100 new features, including many brought from the iPad and iOS mobile operating system.

"The Mac is on a roll, growing faster than the PC for 23 straight quarters, and with Mountain Lion things get even better," said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. "The developer preview of Mountain Lion comes just seven months after the incredibly successful release of Lion and sets a rapid pace of development for the world’s most advanced personal computer operating system."

"Incredibly successful release of Lion"? Sure, if you misrepresent a weak product, people are going to buy it based on their expectations from the past. To so blatantly ignore what's gone down is outrageous.

And oh, how we so love those great iPad and iOS operating systems. Buy me an app for my birthday! And who can live without "Siri"? Systems designed for dolts. I guess it is time to start looking elsewhere -- or for Apple to cut loose the Mac division and let it sink or swim without the baggage of the digital toys. Keep the compatability but lose the lame interface designs and performance. I bet it -- and we -- would do just fine.

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/12/02/16/apple_unveils_mac_os_x_108_mountai n_lion_coming_this_summer.html

Bob Jacobson wrote:

Yup, we're dealing with just another big corporation now, bloated with bureaucrats, order takers, and a largely Chinese workforce, unable or unwilling to respond to its users still-enthusiastic willingness to remain a a part of it all. They know what we need so much better than we do ourselves. Right.

Here's more news about Mountain Lion 10.8 (also noted in papalapapp's well-written post, above). Yet more dumbing down to come. From Apple Insider blog:

A developer preview of the forthcoming operating system update was released to developers on Thursday, and Apple has boasted that Mountain Lion packs over 100 new features, including many brought from the iPad and iOS mobile operating system.

"The Mac is on a roll, growing faster than the PC for 23 straight quarters, and with Mountain Lion things get even better," said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. "The developer preview of Mountain Lion comes just seven months after the incredibly successful release of Lion and sets a rapid pace of development for the world’s most advanced personal computer operating system."

"Incredibly successful release of Lion"? Sure, if you misrepresent a weak product, people are going to buy it based on their expectations from the past. To so blatantly ignore what's gone down is outrageous.

And oh, how we so love those great iPad and iOS operating systems. Buy me an app for my birthday! And who can live without "Siri"? Systems designed for dolts. I guess it is time to start looking elsewhere -- or for Apple to cut loose the Mac division and let it sink or swim without the baggage of the digital toys. Keep the compatability but lose the lame interface designs and performance. I bet it -- and we -- would do just fine.

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/12/02/16/apple_unveils_mac_os_x_108_mountai n_lion_coming_this_summer.html

Sorry but what does this have to do with battery life? The battery life issue may well be fixed under a new OS. What you are saying here are basically gripes that belong in other forums. OSX 10.8 has not even been released yet and you are panning a brief overview of it. This thread is for the battery issue that some of us are having or have had. People like Franc_Iphone have worked hard on this issue and now you come here completely off subject and break the continuity of the thread. It is unhelpful unless you have something that points towards battery improvement or not in a not yet released OS. If not, please keep to the topic here.

Pete