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so i got my Late 2008 Unibody MBP in october and now i'll be lucky if i get 2:20 just doing wireless web browsing with low brightness (they claim 3:20 for the same). I'll check in 9 months and see what kind of battery life they're getting.
...and still less time than if I carry a second battery around. And, if I'm doing the LA-Paris trip more than occasionally, I probably have three batteries.
You've always been able to gain additional battery life by adding weight and cost. The remarkable thing here is that it has been done by adding neither. For the overwhelming majority of users, there is no downside to this. For the rest, it is an inconvenience at most.
...and still less time than if I carry a second battery around. And, if I'm doing the LA-Paris trip more than occasionally, I probably have three batteries.
What airline are you flying LA-Paris that doesn't have outlets, even in economy?
Have you considered a universal external laptop battery?
I haven't used them personally so I don't know the possible drawbacks but I'm browsing a few different models and it looks like a better solution than carrying around a spare, model specific, battery. Some have USB 5V ports so you can charge other devices off them. Some are pretty beefy but I'm also seeing a lot of models that are barely any bigger than a spare laptop battery. What's the drawback?
Be very careful with these new batteries. The chemistry is very heat-sensitive and if your laptop gets very hot for extended periods it will lost most of its ability to hold charge after only 12-24 months.
"It looks like, once again, other notebook makers will have to play catch up to Apple in this department." Apparently this reviewer is unfamiliar with the modern lineups of non-Apple manufacturers. For example, the Thinkpad T400 with nine-cell battery, which also weighs 5.5 lbs, gets 10 hours of battery life at 60% screen brightness. (The biggest difference being that the T400 has a battery that can be swapped on the…
Back to your core point though of this reviewer ignoring the competition I think part of that may simply be that Lenovo does a really poor job advertising their computers whereas Apple does a really good job at it. I kind of doubt it's any pent up Apple bias simply because this site primarily covers PC hardware. Most likely the reviewer just had no clue the T400 could be configured to, more or less, match the MBP 15"
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You've always been able to gain additional battery life by adding weight and cost. The remarkable thing here is that it has been done by adding neither. For the overwhelming majority of users, there is no downside to this. For the rest, it is an inconvenience at most.
Well, the battery isn't replaceable, so there is a downside. You can not get more runtime by carting around batteries (unless you jerry rig a 15V battery and the airline adapter...)
You can not get more runtime by carting around batteries
If you insist on the batteries being internal, then yes, but if like the parent post you are already willing to spend the money and cart around the weight, you can just buy one (or more) of the many external battery packs on the market. The portion of users for which even this is unacceptable compared to carting around 2-3 spare internal batteries must be staggeringly small.
"It looks like, once again, other notebook makers will have to play catch up to Apple in this department." Apparently this reviewer is unfamiliar with the modern lineups of non-Apple manufacturers. For example, the Thinkpad T400 with nine-cell battery, which also weighs 5.5 lbs, gets 10 hours of battery life at 60% screen brightness. (The biggest difference being that the T400 has a battery that can be swapped on the…
I was kind of curious about the T400 so I tried to spec one out close to the MBP 15" and I have to say Apple's machine holds up surprisingly well. I was expecting a much larger price delta but if you match the two machines it's about $100-$150 difference. T400 obviously wins on customization and, IMO, the MBP wins on design and software. (Vista Business + Norton AV // OSX + iLife) Back to your core point though of th…
Be very careful with these new batteries. The chemistry is very heat-sensitive and if your laptop gets very hot for extended periods it will lost most of its ability to hold charge after only 12-24 months.
source?