9 comments

I travel a lot, and battery life used to be a big deal. Now I find that almost every plane I’m on has DC power to the seat, and the compact Apple MagSafe adapter is easy to bring along. It doesn’t charge the laptop but it does keep it going through both heavy and light work loads. So my need for long battery life is diminished as long as I start a trip with a full charge.

Tarus, on January 6th, 2009 at 3:42 pm

The following is posted near the bottome of the 17″ Macbook Pro page on Apple’s website :

“Testing conducted by Apple in December 2008 using preproduction 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo–based MacBook Pro (17-inch) units with a Better Battery Life setting. Battery life depends on configuration and use. See http://www.apple.com/batteries for more information. The wireless productivity test measures battery life by wirelessly browsing various websites and editing text in a word processing document with display brightness set to 50%.”

Sounds a little sketchy given that all they are doing is browsing websites and word processing, and with the screen brightness at 50%. And remember the 8 hour figure is only using the integrated graphics chip, - it goes down to 7 with the discrete.

So I am expecting more like 5.5-6.5 with real computing work and a bright screen, or something around there. Which is still significantly better than most laptops, but significantly different that the expectation they are creating with their claims. Someone also made the pont elsewhere that the 17″ inch Macbook Pro is the notebook that least should have big battery life given the size of it, it is unlikely to be ported around too much, in areas away from outlets, as opposed to the smaller, lighter Macbook Air and Macbooks.

Brandon Chase Bell, on January 6th, 2009 at 3:51 pm

I’ve been using laptops for about 14 years. I’ve NEVER had a spare battery nor replaced a battery. Now, admittedly, I’m not much of a traveler; so, I don’t know what real road warriors do.

Because of my experience, I would gladly accept a built-in battery if it promised longer usable time. My 2 1/2 year old MBP barely gets 1 hour of use on battery. So, even if the 17″ get 5.5 to 6.5 as @Brandon suggests is likely, I’d be stoked. Hell, consider my current battery life, I’d settle for 3 hours.

AppBeacon, on January 6th, 2009 at 9:40 pm

With the battery being sealed, does this mean after the battery has used up it’s reported 1,000 charges, you have a $3,000 paperweight? Will you have to send the computer back to Apple for a new battery to be installed? Or, is it just assumed that you will want to upgrade to a new computer after this time and buy a new one?

I’m putting three kids through college right now, and the thought of shelling out for a new computer for them as well as for me and my wife every so often is not a nice feeling.

Jim, on January 7th, 2009 at 3:45 am

I get just over 4 hours on my 1.5-yr old MacBook, with WiFi & bluetooth & iTunes off. Which is pretty much what Apple promised, and one of the main reasons I like it. Commuter trains do not have power outlets here, and a few times per year stand still in the meadows for a while. And no, I have never changed the battery of a laptop except for a call-back program, so I don’t mind it being fixed.

Geert Jan van Oldenborgh, on January 7th, 2009 at 5:03 am

I have owned several Apple laptops, and have never had a spare battery or otherwise needed to remove the battery with the exception of accessing ram slots etc. I want more battery, I don’t care if its removable or not. Also, I am 100% confident that should the battery need to be replaced that it won’t be harder than putting a new battery in an iPod. When you take a practical look at this you will see that eliminating the removable battery “feature” is a good thing. Lets not hold on to old ideas just because we are used to them. –

&e, on January 7th, 2009 at 10:35 am

Until they can make these “great” new batteries removable they are taking one step forward two steps back.

In fact that should be Apples motto as of late “one step forward two steps back”.

Camperton, on January 7th, 2009 at 11:17 pm

In the 17″ specs on the Apple site it says “Up to 8 hours of
wireless productivity”…. so… I think that answers your question. Nobody will get 8 hours of real world use.

Camperton, on January 8th, 2009 at 12:23 am

apple has said ‘up to’ as well. no one is going to be able to give a firm figure because not everyone uses their computer the same.

still up to 8 rather than up to 5 is still huge. and 1000 recharges rather than just under half that is huge.

as for replacements. I would imagine that the store techs can do it. or they would overnight it to a central spot just like they do repairs of things like power ports and such. if you are under AppleCare for free, if not, at cost. same as other repairs

Lucas, on January 11th, 2009 at 10:28 am