I have the latest retina 15" MBP (2.3GHz, 16GB) and get about 3 hours (fairly light use, browsing, email etc.). Is this faulty ? What are other people getting ? I used to have last year's model and seem to remember getting about 5 hours. I thought this one was meant to be better.
MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Mountain Lion
Has no one else got one of these ?
i have the entry-level retina. i've had 3 in 7 days...all w/ problems. 1st and 2nd had excellent battery life - ~7+ hrs of safari, itunes, ical (that's what the battery level said). returned both b/c of problems.
the 3rd one the battery says ~5 hrs and that's just one safari alone. it also says safari is using significant energy. sadly will return this one too...
Battery life should be around 8 hours for light use. When you first setup Spotlight and other apps might be setting up which can impair battery life. Also, I think it needs to have a few full charge and full use cycles to establish its range.
I have had it just over a month, and because of the poor battery life I have flattened it on half a dozen occasions, so I have certainly cycled it. When I first switch on it shows about 7:00 hrs. It then drops to about 6:30 in 5 minutes with wifi on but doing nothing. If I then switch off wifi, it rises to about 8:00 hrs, but as soon as I do anything real, but only what I would call light usage e.g. occasional email and browsing but not constantly, I get about 3 hrs.
You have 90 days of FREE telephone support from Apple. What other users are getting with other MacBooks is not important.
CALL the people Apple Trained to answer this exact question for your computer and your Mac OS X. They may have additional non-Public information.
You could try an SMC reset but I'd call .
Grant Bennet-Alder wrote:
What other users are getting with other MacBooks is not important.
Well I tend to think what other users are getting is kinda relevant. We don't all believe computer manufacturer's marketing claims. So before I start going to a lot of trouble involving Apple (it takes a week to get a Genius appointment here in the UK and I don't lways know my schedule a week ahead) I would like to know from other users what their real world experience is. I still have to get one response from someone on this forum saying something like " yes, I've got that same model and I think 3 hours is rather poor, I usually get 5 or 6". I want to know whether what I am seeing is par for the course
Apple has trained telephone support people at the other end of the phone, waiting for your call.
I would wager they have been asked this question before, and can be really helpful at finding out whether your computer meets expectations, and if not, finding out exactly why not.
Many support organizations keep what is known as a "data dictionary" of complaints and solutions, and their frequency of occurrence in which computers. If Apple is doing this, the representative may be able to rattle off the top five offenders in under a minute and have your problem fixed in short order.
Apple included this service for FREE. Call them.
Light use 5 hours or so. Moderate to heavy use 2-3 hours. It's terrible compared to the Air which actually is getting close to the quoted usage figures for me.
You have 90 days of FREE telephone support from Apple. What other users are getting with other MacBooks is not important.
CALL the people Apple Trained to answer this exact question for your computer and your Mac OS X. They may have additional non-Public information.
I wouldn't trust a thing Apple says. In my experience they are there to deny problems, claim problems are "normal" and ensure that you get endless repairs and not replacement.
Example, the terrible ghosting on LG displays Apple calls "normal" on IPS displays. I have Apple and non-Apple IPS displays with no ghosting sitting in my office right now. Their ridiculous explanation? Run the screen saver for the same amount of time as you used the computer to get rid of it. 😁
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5455
If you see a persistent image on your screen, you can use the screen saver to eliminate it:
- From the Apple () menu, choose System Preferences, and then click "Desktop & Screen Saver."
- Click the Screen Saver tab.
- Choose a screen saver.
- Set the "Start screen saver" time to be shorter than the "Display sleep" and "Computer sleep" settings in the Energy Saver pane of System Preferences.
- To clear the persistent image, allow the screen saver to run for approximately as long as the image was being displayed.
brsm1990 wrote:
Light use 5 hours or so. Moderate to heavy use 2-3 hours. It's terrible compared to the Air which actually is getting close to the quoted usage figures for me.
That's helpful and seems to correlate with my experience. I also have the latest MacBook Air and the difference is dramatic.
However, I might still contact Apple just to see what their official take on the matter is - seeing as their store website says 8 hrs, which in my opinion is completely unattainable, even by doing nothing with it but just keeping the screen on.
With light usage the macbook air unbelievable seems to actually attain it's rated 10-12 hours. I definite get a full 8. Can watch a suepr long movie and drain way less than half the battery.
It's too bad you can't get a macbook air with discrete graphics and a retina display. I'd switch over immediately.
Good luck getting apple to stand behind this product though, see my story: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5635522?answerId=24143214022#24143214022
My two month old 15 inch retina has now died completely, it was failing to charge at all. It is in for repair at an Apple authorised service centre. I am hoping that this is indicative that I had a bad battery to start with. As I said previously I was getting less than 3 hours doing nothing but web and email (no video). I notice from the tests in the link below that Macworld were getting 9hrs plus of real world use -
Mine seems to be getting worse too. I have 100 cycles on the battery, 15-20 of which Apple's repair center put on it.
How long battery life are people getting with latest 15" Retina
