New Macbook battery life?

[Chim]

Anybody know what the battery life is like on the new MacBook?

[snade831]

my iBook is amost 4 years old and the battery still lasts about 2-2.5 hours, depending on what im using. the macbook is similar and with normal use it could lasts around 3-3.75 hours.

[mix123]

Originally posted by Chim
Anybody know what the battery life is like on the new MacBook?

Try google or maybe the apple site??????????????????????

[AJL]

Posted on www.everymac.com


What is the MacBook battery life in "real-world" tests? How does it compare to the MacBook Pro?

Jeff
Mobile, AL USA

Dear Jeff:

Many no doubt remember the controversy that ensued when Apple announced the MacBook Pro and cryptically stated that the battery life "depended on configuration and use."

A subsequent review of the MacBook Pro 15" in MacWorld Magazine noted:

In regular use over several days with normal power settings, we found that we could get more than three-and-a-half hours' worth of work done.

A review of the MacBook Pro 15" from ArsTechnica says that the author got an average time of 3 hours and 17 minutes and was able to "eke out 4 hours and 53 minutes" by selecting the "Better Battery Life" setting and performing "extremely light usage".

With the introduction of the MacBook Pro 2.16 17" on April 26, 2006, Apple began to report that the battery life of the 17" model is 5.5 hours, and that the 15" models provide 4.5 hours of battery life. As speculated upon their introduction, this confirmed that the MacBook Pro 15" models officially provided an hour less battery life than the PowerBook G4/1.67 15" (HR) that it replaced.

Apple's official estimate of the MacBook battery life, using a 55-watt hour battery is an impressive six hours. However, the company estimates 3.5 hours while using wi-fi and 2.5 hours of DVD playback. Using Apple's numbers, this still is an hour and a half longer than the estimated runtime of the MacBook Pro 15" models, which use a 60-watt-hour battery.

In "real-world" tests in a fantastic ArsTechnica review that should be read in its entirety, the author reported that while using the "best performance" setting, he managed three hours and thirteen minutes while playing a DVD with brightness set to half. He got four hours and five minutes while playing an iTunes stream, wi-fi and bluetooth enabled, and brightness set to half. Finally, with no applications running, wi-fi and bluetooth disabled and the screen set to very dim, he was able to squeeze out five hours and forty minutes.

Regarding these results, he concluded that:

I'm quite pleased with these battery testing results. While it's painfully obvious where Apple gets its six hours of battery life claim, a running time of approximately 3 hours while watching a DVD is a good one, especially for jetsetting Mac users. Four hours of usage under what I consider to be "normal" conditions is also acceptable to me.

Site-sponsor PowerMax has all configurations of the MacBook and MacBook Pro models for sale. Other resellers also are available.

[CappyMcSlappy]

My GF just got the new 13inch Macbook, and I was just wondering the same thing. Thanks for posting that.

I have a second generation Powerbook G4 (15inch) w/ bluetooth that I got last year, and I didn't realize they FINALLY got rid the latch on that holds the screen down when its closed.

The magnets for the power cable and latch replacement are freaking genius. I wish I could upgrade my powercord...