AnandTech on the New 15-Inch MacBook Pro's Battery Life • Hacker News Board

Re: AnandTech on the New 15-Inch MacBook Pro's Battery Life

#31

Post by tdm911 » Tue, Jun 16, 2009, 6:30 AM UTC

Niten wrote: post #12

"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…

Does the T400 actually match IBM's claims though? My understanding is that the new sealed battery MB & MBP models achieve the number quoted by Apple, which is generally a rarity in notebook battery claims.

Re: AnandTech on the New 15-Inch MacBook Pro's Battery Life

#32

Post by Tichy » Tue, Jun 16, 2009, 7:22 AM UTC

PStamatiou wrote: post #7

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.

Exactly - I almost don't care about battery life because they all break down quickly anyway. If Apple managed to solve THAT problem, they are on to something, though. While atm I count on there being power sockets mostly everywhere, being freed from that might open up new use cases.

Re: AnandTech on the New 15-Inch MacBook Pro's Battery Life

#33

Post by AlisdairO » Tue, Jun 16, 2009, 8:55 AM UTC

elai wrote: post #29

jsz0 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I also tried pricing out dell studio 15" comparing it to my current macbook 15" pro (8 months old, not unibody, 2.4Ghz w/ 2GB of ram) and it costs $900 vs $1400 when I bought the macbook pro. It also has 4GB of ram, I couldn't get a 2GB option, the HD is bigger and getting a 1080p screen on it just costs $50 more.

...although it is on offer at the moment. Generally I'd be wary of comparing a dell to a macbook pro, given the formers' tendency towards plasticy tat. A high quality laptop like a T400 seems a more reasonable comparison.

Re: AnandTech on the New 15-Inch MacBook Pro's Battery Life

#34

Post by cubicle67 » Tue, Jun 16, 2009, 12:07 PM UTC

PStamatiou wrote: post #7

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.

I've got an entry level unibody macbook, just the 13" one, and I consistently get between 4 and 5 hours battery life. This is browsing and development using netbeans (not the most lightweight ide ever designed). For lighter use I'll occasionally see 6+ hours, but that's often when I'm doing something else at the same time.

Re: AnandTech on the New 15-Inch MacBook Pro's Battery Life

#35

Post by stewiecat » Tue, Jun 16, 2009, 1:52 PM UTC

lutorm wrote: post #21

PStamatiou wrote: post #7

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.

I have a gen 1 early 2006 "thigh burner" model and I'd be lucky to get 1.5h doing anything that requires the screen to be on... Now I got really, really tempted to upgrade.

Same here. My Rev. A core duo MBP gets about the same, 1.5 hours. Problem is that once the battery hits 20% capacity it will shutdown the machine at any moment.