In the real world, how is the battery life on the MBP 13?

Joined
Sep 30, 2004
Messages
3,378
Reaction score
61
Points
48
I am thinking about giving apple another shot since I have an iPhone and I am stuck with iTunes. Apple claims the 13in MBP gets 7 hours but their estimates for iPods is usually overstated based on my experience so I assume this figure might be a bit high too. What are you guys seeing?
 
Joined
Jul 18, 2009
Messages
473
Reaction score
8
Points
18
Your Mac's Specs
Macbook Pro 13"
Generally 5-7 hours.

Depends on the brightness and what programs are open.

If you have it at half brightness, expect around 6-7 hours of time web browsing.

If it is full brightness, I get around 4-5:30 roughly.

The battery is quite great, and my capacity went up from it's original capacity (according to coconut battery).

The battery holds 5450 mAH.
 
Joined
Apr 9, 2009
Messages
2,073
Reaction score
68
Points
48
Location
Ithaca NY
Your Mac's Specs
13 inch alMacBook 2GHz C2D 4G DDR3, 1.25GHz G4 eMac
Um... from the wisdom of common sense... yes. Using anything that consumes energy will indeed kill battery life for you.
 
Joined
Aug 25, 2009
Messages
232
Reaction score
6
Points
18
Location
Jacksonville FL
Your Mac's Specs
13'' Macbook Pro 2.26 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo 2 GB 1067 Mhz DDR3 500 GB 7200rpm HD
I use about 1 bar of brightness and I am fine because I get 7 hrs of battery life. That is just surfing the net. And I don't like it bright either when I am in the dark so it doesn't hurt my eyes. But yea you can actually get 7 hrs of battery time, but what they don't say is if you change the brightness. Now if they said 7 hrs of battery with FULL BRIGHTNESS! that would probably pull a lot more customers because that would mean it would last 7+ with brightness minimized.

But still it is a great battery. I am not complaining!
 
Joined
Jul 18, 2009
Messages
473
Reaction score
8
Points
18
Your Mac's Specs
Macbook Pro 13"
Good to know. Does the keyboard backlight kill battery life for you?

I am at 100% battery life right now.
I am at half brightness and on the forums.

With one brightness of backlight, I get 8:04

With full brightness of the backlight, I get 7:33

So, the keyboard being lit up fully will drain the battery around 20-30 minutes compared to it being off / very dim.

You really don't need full brightness on the keyboard, so this shouldn't be a problem.

When I put my brightness all the way down and disable bluetooth and airport, I get 10 hours of battery life. =D
 
Joined
Aug 23, 2009
Messages
22
Reaction score
0
Points
1
I am at 100% battery life right now.
I am at half brightness and on the forums.

With one brightness of backlight, I get 8:04

With full brightness of the backlight, I get 7:33

So, the keyboard being lit up fully will drain the battery around 20-30 minutes compared to it being off / very dim.

You really don't need full brightness on the keyboard, so this shouldn't be a problem.

When I put my brightness all the way down and disable bluetooth and airport, I get 10 hours of battery life. =D

Those time readings you get on the menu bar aren't really all that accurate, so I'm hoping you're saying you get 7:33 because you actually timed it.

When I take my 13" MBP to school, I use firefox, ichat and either MS Word or MS Excel or both. I usually run anywhere from 2 to 4 applications at a time. My average battery life with the screen brightness at about 65% and the keyboard lighting at 100% is usually between 4.5 to 5.5 hours.

I have never gotten a battery life better than this, as I don't really just use it to browse the internet in 1 window for hours on end. Its usually multiple tabs open in Firefox. I'm generally satisfied with the battery life.
 
Joined
Jul 18, 2009
Messages
473
Reaction score
8
Points
18
Your Mac's Specs
Macbook Pro 13"
The readings for me are pretty accurate.

Plus, I am running only Safari, have the brightness at 50%.

iChat, MS word, firefox, and MS Excel running at 65% brightness will decrease the battery life.

I personally do not have the patience to time my use with my laptop.
 
Joined
Aug 23, 2009
Messages
22
Reaction score
0
Points
1
The readings are based on what you are doing right at the moment. Therefore, a reading of 7:33 would only be completely accurate if you kept running the macbook at the same brightness using the same exact application (no more no less) and having that application run the same exact process for the next 7 hours and 33 minutes.

Any fluctuations in overall power usage, ram usage and cpu usage are going to cause fluctuations in your battery usage.

I don't really time my use either, but I know I have never gotten over 7 hours of straight usage with my mbp with normal use.

Either way, I think we can both agree that the battery life is great!
 
Joined
Jul 18, 2009
Messages
473
Reaction score
8
Points
18
Your Mac's Specs
Macbook Pro 13"
Either way, I think we can both agree that the battery life is great!

Yup, they are great.

Much better than the laptops at my school running XP.

At 25% battery in my MBP, I get the same time as 100% with the Lenovo Thinkpads at my school. :D
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top