08-07-2010, 02:37 PM

I am going into my second year as a Mac user, but only into my second month as a MacBook Pro user. Our small town finally got an Internet coffee shop with a decent connection. Great place to kibitz around with others.

But, I have noticed to my amusement that the Mac users are sitting at the tables in the center of the room, and the PC people are sitting around the walls. The reason, of course, is that the PCs all need to be plugged in to power if they are being used any length of time at all.

I can relate to this, since I have an otherwise very good laptop with Linux that I used before this MacBook. But, the Linux PC will run just about an hour and fifteen minutes before it shuts down with a dead battery. My MacBook won't run the ten hours that I see that is claimed in Apple's ads, but it will definitely run far longer than any session I have ever had - many hours, at least.

I haven't pointed this out at the cafe, since it is a very friendly place and I don't want to start any kind of OS war, and I am not an OS evangelist anyway. But it is a very apparent difference between the different hardware if someone ever notices.

08-07-2010, 06:00 PM

Originally Posted by cptkrf

I am going into my second year as a Mac user, but only into my second month as a MacBook Pro user. Our small town finally got an Internet coffee shop with a decent connection. Great place to kibitz around with others.

But, I have noticed to my amusement that the Mac users are sitting at the tables in the center of the room, and the PC people are sitting around the walls. The reason, of course, is that the PCs all need to be plugged in to power if they are being used any length of time at all.

I can relate to this, since I have an otherwise very good laptop with Linux that I used before this MacBook. But, the Linux PC will run just about an hour and fifteen minutes before it shuts down with a dead battery. My MacBook won't run the ten hours that I see that is claimed in Apple's ads, but it will definitely run far longer than any session I have ever had - many hours, at least.

I haven't pointed this out at the cafe, since it is a very friendly place and I don't want to start any kind of OS war, and I am not an OS evangelist anyway. But it is a very apparent difference between the different hardware if someone ever notices.

You know that's the funny thing,the linux os has bad power saving systems..and there are plenty of Windows machines that are more than capable of running beyond 9 hours...it is just up until a few years ago that their makers figure out that maybe people want battery life...
The other thing is that people with 5 hours battery life are more afraid of it dieing than those with 8.
Its not the os,it the maker....

08-07-2010, 06:11 PM

You have to keep in mind as well, at what they are doing on their computers...

If they're taking advantage of the WiFi, they could be playing WoW, or even multitasking..

I do see what you're trying to say though.. I never pay attention to the battery life, because with the way that I use a computer (mobile recording), it's going to drain fast anyways.

08-08-2010, 11:16 PM

Moving from some of my past Windows PC to my MacBook Pro, I can see a huge difference in battery life. But my Dell Latitude D630 had a sick battery life, even better than my MacBook Pro.

@Sonicjet - I would disagree the OS plays an important part in battery efficiency, if you run Windows on your Mac, your battery life will decrease. OS X is a lot smaller footprint than any Windows such as Vista, or 7 that I know off in terms of size of the OS to install on your HDD.

08-09-2010, 09:16 AM

It depends totally on the computer. Some one with a smaller netbook just surfing the web won't be draining a battery as some one running programs that require intense GPU usage.

Next time, ask the people what hard ware they're using, what they're running, and the age of the battery if you would like to get a real comparison and not just an anecdote based on speculation.

08-09-2010, 09:22 AM

Originally Posted by TF626

@Sonicjet - I would disagree the OS plays an important part in battery efficiency, if you run Windows on your Mac, your battery life will decrease. OS X is a lot smaller footprint than any Windows such as Vista, or 7 that I know off in terms of size of the OS to install on your HDD.

Installed size is largely irrelevant. What's more important is what the computer is doing and how it manages the services/daemons and applications on your machine.

08-09-2010, 12:15 PM

Also consider using ClickToFlash / H264 to aid battery life. Flash is a battery hog.

It's nice going to the coffee shop and having more choices for places to sit!

08-10-2010, 11:13 AM

Actually, in this coffee shop, there is very little or no gaming. I don't look over people's shoulders to see what they are running, but from the clientele I doubt that any of them besides me would connect the word WOW with anything but an exclamation. There is only an occasional nerd since most of them use college connections. It is all surfing.

Interestingly, I have yet to see a single notebook - at least that I recognize. By notebook, I mean those cheap low powered jobs, not small laptops.