MacBook Pro Retina Battery

Yes it's not right even if your battery health is perfect on a paper. It could be something like this. Double check your activity monitor to see if something doesn't look like normal. It seems to me that something is eating your battery with high process usage or some other software issues but if you can't find anything just go to Apple store and let them check your battery.

It's new and no matter how many times you let the battery drained and fully discharged (which you're supposed to do that once in month or two months for just calibrating battery) it must be at least 5 to 6 hrs (My experience: backlight off, brightness 60% to 70%, WiFi with simple surfing no YouTube activity. It was last long for 5:40)

Keep us posted,

Good luck

It depends. I run a certain suite of apps when I'm on battery power than those I run when I'm plugged up. Right now I'm plugged up and running all of my CS6 apps. I don't do this on battery power. On battery, I run Outlook, Word, Firefox, TextEdit, Acrobat Pro, and a few new small apps. I turn my keyboard brightness down to one bar and my screen brightness down to four bars. I do run wifi and Bluetooth (the last should be turned off if you're not using headphones or the like).

I don't use iTunes, any CS6 apps (save for occasionally booting up Photoshop for something quick), watch movies (save for a few YouTube short features), or anything else that would stress the CPU, GPU (I use my Intel GPU under battery), or that is RAM intensive. I could probably eke out about another hour or more if I shut down everything except Outlook and Firefox (if you look at Battery Health - the app - it will give your approximate times of how many hours you'll have remaining if you're just "Internet Browsing," for example).

Let your battery get back to a good state and you should be able to get 7+ hours, at the least, if you'll just be very mindful of what you're doing and what you're running whilst on battery power. Try running just your browser and your mail app and see how many hours you can get. Battery mode is simply not meant for full-blown 'work loads.'

Good luck,

Clinton

Maziyar wrote:

It's new and no matter how many times you let the battery drained and fully discharged (which you're supposed to do that once in month or two months for just calibrating battery) it must be at least 5 to 6 hrs.

Again and again - it is not necessary to calibrate the batteries in MacBook Pros without user-replaceable batteries. See the Apple tech note http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1446 - it does not mention anything about calibrating batteries. The old, user-replaceable batteries did require calibration. The newer built-in batteries do not.

Clinton

Sorry for the false knowledge. Did not know that :)

Thanks for the link Clinton.

Honestly dont know what to do, I bought the 256 SSD base model, and the battery is literally lasting for 2-3 hours max it seems, and I really don't wanna send it into repair etc. or wait for a new one to ship since I travel away for 3-4 weeks on Friday! I would love a fix like Suicidor, but cant see anything special draining battery in Activity Monitor or anything. What to do!

Battery Health App shows the Health at 103.9% as well, and the Condtion is "Normal" in About this Mac --- System Report etc. Really am not sure what to do now.

Do an SMC reset.

I FINALLY FIGURED OUT THE ISSUE! Its a simple terminal command. There is a corrupt file that Migration Assistant created and this will fix the issue. I am now getting 8+ hours of battery on my MBP Retina.

I also think my battery is draining super fast. I looked at your discussion above with Richard and noticed my specs are almost identical except for the Amperage. Richards is -3647 mine is -776. Can you tell me what this means?

Model Information:

Serial Number: D86226337YBDNMGA9

Manufacturer: SMP

Device Name: bq20z451

Pack Lot Code: 0

PCB Lot Code: 0

Firmware Version: 511

Hardware Revision: 3

Cell Revision: 1150

Charge Information:

Charge Remaining (mAh): 6690

Fully Charged: No

Charging: No

Full Charge Capacity (mAh): 8735

Health Information:

Cycle Count: 4

Condition: Normal

Battery Installed: Yes

Amperage (mA): -776

Voltage (mV): 11758

Thanks..

The negative number on amperage will change - it just means that your battery is discharging: I'm assuming that you're on battery power. I am and my amperage now shows -1281. It fluctuates. Don't worry about it.

Clinton

On the line two I keep getting an error. Darn!

@Richard - I'm sorry to hear of your troubles and the others in this thread. I'm reading because I'm considering buying a rMBP.

Other than these issues, which I hope will be sorted out for everyone, I had a more basic (and perhaps dumb) concern -- You mentioned the Apple store could 'swop out' a bad battery.

So...this can be done? Just because a battery may be bad OR the battery goes bad in 4-5 years you don't have to lose your rMBP....even though the battery can not be replaced by an individual, the Apple Store can do it?

Is that right?

I had the same issue with my new Retina MBP. It arrived on 18th July and on first use I got about 3.5 hours. On subsequent usage, retifying the terminal error, using gfx card to switch between graphic cards—upgrading to Mountain Lion, I never managed anything over 4 hours even with minimal usage. I just called apple and asked for an exchange and now a new one is on its way. Lets hope that fixes it 🙂 With the new ones, I wouldnt take a risk with the battery, its not user upgradeable or serviceable and a fresh upgrade after warranty is around 200$. If your machine is less than 16 days old, you are entitled to a no-questions asked refund or exchange.

$200 for battery replacement...I don't think this inability to upgrade and replace things suits me.

Another dumb question has come to mind (since I'm getting my first laptop - and this is a Battery Thread

Q: If you use your laptop indoors/plugged in, how does that effect battery life? If at all.??

A. Try to discharge at least once a week or every 30 days at minimum.

Either way, if you use any graphics intensive apps at all, your battery probably won't last a year if you leave it plugged in even 90% of the time.

*****.

Replace often while under warranty. Force them to leave you with a computer while they do so.

A battery a year (or less)...even when plugged in!? -- Oh my. That doesn't sound good but I just have never a laptop so had no idea.