MBP Battery Life Sucks???

While I was shopping for a new Macbook Pro online, I decided to add a spare battery. I was really shocked to find that 99% of the reviews on Apple's own site are overwhelmingly negative (not exaggerating), with the two main problems being 1. battery losing significant amount of charge in less than a year, or, even worse 2. sudden shutdowns with the battery indicator going from something like 60% to 0% in an instant. ( http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/wa/RSLID?mco=6C04E07A&nplm=MA348G/A)

One of the main selling points for me is the MBP's great performance on Cnet's DVD drain tests (for instance, the most recent revision got 3.5 hours). So...I'd really like to hear from longterm Macbook Pro owners: what have been your experiences with the MBP's battery? Does it give anywhere near Apple's rated 6 hours; does it hold a decent charge after 1 year; and have you experienced the sudden shutdown problems? Please either vote (and then post to explain your vote). Thanks.

I'm really hoping (perhaps irrationally) that this problem is overblown, or perhaps not a problem unique to Apple -- but I (and others considering the MBP) would like to know the facts before taking the plunge.

 

Again, one thing you have to remember when looking at reviews - especially for something like this - they are inherently going to be overwhelmingly negative.

Think about it; if you buy an MBP and the battery works fine, would you honestly login to the Apple Store website to write a review for the MBP battery?

The issues you described above sound like clearly defective issues, not standard operations for a typical MBP battery.

-Zadillo

 

I thought the battery issue was fixed a while ago? Didnt Apple introduce a new battery for the Macbook pro?

 

Intuitively that makes sense, but if you look at the other reviews in the Apple store, most are actually quite positive (some are downright gushing -- see, for example, the reviews for Tiger), so it's not necessarily the case that people will only post about their negative experiences. Actually, it's because the reviews for the MBP's battery look so out of place from the other reviews in the Apple store that made me worry and start this thread.

You're right that these problems are probably atypical...tho that's small comfort if the % of atypical batteries is high (especially considering that batteries are considered "user serviceable" -- i.e. your problem). That's the whole point of this thread -- to determine how widespread the problem really is.

It would be great to get actual users' experiences on this.

 

I thought so too, but if you look at the negative reviews, quite a few were posted recently (June/July). It would also be interesting to see the differences between the different generations of MBP, if any. I didn't include this in the poll to keep it manageable, but feel free to post which revision of the MBP you're talking about when posting. Thanks.

 

I am pretty sure I read something about it being fixed recently. Last few month. Atleast Apple said so. June July in this case doesnt mean anything. The are complaining they bought it 3-6 month ago so they still got the old stuff I think.

 

If that's the case then that's great. Has anyone noticed a marked improvement in battery life (or not) after this update?

 

The Santa rosa macbook pro came out less then a month ago. You wont see any problems with it yet. Cant know till a few month from now if there is a problem because no one has used it long enough.

 

If I'm not mistaken, I heard that Apple released a firmware update for MBP batteries a while back (not just for the recent SR's). I thought that's what you were referring to -- at least that's what I was. In any case, it would be nice to see if there are any early results.

 

Just a question, though. Does extra memory consume more battery?
A 1Gb RAM system would have longer battery life than a 2Gb RAM system?
Say a Macbook or a Macbook Pro for instance.

 

Yes and no. 2GB will consume more power then 1GB. Very slightly more hardly any effect but it does. However a system with 2GB will cache more files in the Ram so that the hard disk can stay off longer then in 1GB systems. The hard disk consumes more power then ram so 1GB will consume more power. This is not really noticable differance and depends on how you use your laptop.

@powz - yes I was talking about the firmware upgrade. Batterys might have been ruined before the upgrade. Dont think the firmware can fix bad batteries. Only new systems would have had the firmware from the start.

 

think about the situation on the apple forum.

people who are buying tiger are upgrading from 10.3, most likely just to stay current. 10.3 was good, 10.4 is better - they enjoy the features tiger has to offer; they feel like it was money well spent; they are happy; they write good reviews.

people who are buying a new battery most likely had an old battery that failed. they aren't happy about it. they feel like they are wasting money on something that should have worked properly in the first place. these people are not happy and they are going to write bad reviews.

that said- i will mention that my battery health is 91% after only a few weeks. i might do a full charge discharge cycle or two and see if it hops back up to the high 90's. its very possible that its just a cycling thing.

 

Well, most of the other products there aren't really ones that people might have such negative things to say about, frankly.

Again, no-one who buys an MBP is going to go out of their way to login to the online Apple Store and find the spare batteries listings and write a review saying how great the battery is.

A product like Tiger, maybe, someone might be compelled to write a review of it because they like it so much, but the battery is a different kind of component - typically it isn't something someone would go out of their way to write a review about unless they had a problem.

-Zadillo

 

I really don't want this thread to turn into a theoretical debate. You may be right, or you may be wrong. There's no way to know without sending surveys out to a random sample of MBP owners (even then you could argue that there could be response bias). Unfortunately we don't live in a perfect world and the next best thing is to let actual users have a chance to give their experiences -- good or bad -- here rather than us trying to prejudge it.

 

Ah. You've registered over here too. I don't feel like retyping the last post over at mac-forums, so here's a copy/paste.


A few observations:


1) Most other products in the Apple store are accessories, upgrades, or add-ons. They get purchased to add to their Macs. In the case of your example, Tiger is almost exclusively purchased as an upgrade. It will of course get positive feedback because people are coming from Panther (or another previous OS). People aren't primarily buying Tiger to replace a bad copy of Tiger like they do with a battery.

2) Rechargeable batteries are, by their very nature, a degrading product. They will absolutely go bad. They also go bad at different times based on the different workloads given to them by their user. A battery that gets drained on a daily basis, or isn't properly charged/maintained, is going to go bad sooner than other batteries.

2.5) People, by their very nature, don't understand point #2 very well. They see that their grandmother's battery lasts longer than the one they abuse, and get angry (or, they have some irrational belief that their battery should work like a charm for the same length of time their car battery works).

2.75) Since a very large portion of Apple's market is not (and don't want to be) tech savy, they understand the depreciating operation of batteries (and proper care of batteries) less than the rest of the computer using world.

3) I think if you go to HP, Dell, Gateway, Sony, and all the other laptop makers, you'll find similar reviews that pan the battery. Lord knows my Dell, and my father's Toshiba have oodles of bad battery reviews.

4) Defective batteries happen. All laptop manufacturers have had bad batches of batteries. It's the nature of business to make things as cheaply as possible until forced to make them a little better.


It's your world. I don't put much stock in battery reviews. However, I'm not the one paying for your next computer.

Good luck. Enjoy your next computer!

 

Thanks for posting your experience. Please let us know how the cycling works.

 

mongoloido,

Thanks for your thoughtful reply. As with Zadillo's post, it adds some perspective to this thread. However, I'm still really looking for actual user experiences -- good or bad -- here. I know it's not ideal (what is?), but it should definitely give a better idea of how limited (or widespread) the problems are rather than having a theoretical debate about response bias, etc. I should note that, yes, I'm keenly aware that such biases can skew the results, being a psych major and also having taken stats -- but that's the nature of the beast. I'm also aware that the title of the thread may be provocative -- it was meant to draw attention to the thread, which a more neutral title may not have done as well. Let's keep the theoretical debate to a minimum and get more data from user experiences.

 

You're going to have a tough time getting hard data. The battery firmware update was only in April. The only people who can really give accurate battery input are those who purchased a Macbook after that firmware update. As such, they will only be able to tell you about their batteries after 2ish months of use. From the bad reviews I read at the Apple store, that's about 8 months of use shy of really being useful. (...and there's no guarantee the data will mean much because of the upgrades to the computers themselves. You may not have accurate information until next May or June).

I've only had my Mac for a few weeks, and the battery is still up at 98% (according to iStat). I'm of no use to your data search.

 

It's a start Just out of curiosity, how much time do you get on the battery (if you could describe the things you do during this time that would be great, too)?

 

Around 3.5 hours. All of that has been doing light duty stuff though. About as intense as it gets for me in the summer is surfing, checking email, and listening to iTunes at the same time.

 

I would think it unlikely that the MBP battery degrades faster than others - knock on wood. I am getting 3-4h depending on screen brightness on a brand new MBP which is.. not outstanding, but fine.

What is silly is Apple's battery claims which are really out there. My model is supposed to last 6 hours - what a joke. I don't know what I'd have to do to get 6 hours but frankly I don't think it's possible while _using_ the machine.

 

I think it will probably do 6 hours at lowest screen brightness sitting at the desktop doing nothing.

That is the case of my other laptops, their battery life will double at lowest brightness setting while doing nothing.

Heh, except for my Dell, which has a sparking screen power wire I had to solder to a new bulb a few months ago. I really should redo that thing, I bet it wastes at least 10% of the power...plus the only thing keeping it from shocking me is a tiny piece of crafting foam jamming it back into the screen.

Anyway, I'm getting my MBP very soon and I'll tell you my experience soon.

*excited*

 

This is what I'm hoping also. From the very limited response so far, it does look that way (tho still waiting to hear back from the post who reported a 9% loss in capacity within a few weeks). I hope people keep posting (maybe the mods will make this a sticky).

Congrats on your purchase!

 

Mine's showing a capacity of 82% after 7 months. Something's definitely wrong with the battery.

 

Was it calibrated when you first got it?

Have you talked with Apple about replacing it under warranty?

 

That sucks. Let us know if you're able to get it fixed/replaced.

 

Thanks to everyone who voted/posted so far. If you post(ed) something, please vote as well.

 

I calibrated it and now it's showing 93% health, so I guess I don't need to call Apple.

 

Cool, glad to hear that worked. Seems like battery calibration is definitely a very good thing to do.

 

Indeed


Just timed a full battery use for me of light work (screen at medium, sound at 3/4, sudoku, iConquer, surfing, checking email, youtube, forum lurking, etc...). The computer went to sleep twice for short periods of time (walked the dog, and took a shower). That said, the battery lasted 4:21 before putting itself to sleep with no power left. I'm going to do the 5 hour wait, then recharge to complete the calibration.

LOL My e1705's battery didn't last half that long under the same usage. My MBP rules!

 

Thanks for the detailed report! That does sound good, especially considering that 'tis a 15.4" screen notebook with discrete graphics.

Please keep the votes/posts coming.

 

my battery health is down to 80%. I'm seriously worried right now....maybe I can get it replaced under the battery update.

 

I'm sure if it is losing health so quickly even after calibration you can probably get them to replace it, if that isn't normal wear.

You said its 7 months old though - typically, how much should a normal laptop batteries health be down to after that period of time?

 

How long have you had your Mac? Did you download the Battery Update 1.2 yet?

Also, the number of charge cycles also affects battery health. How many charge cycles have you done?

 

I did download the update. And the laptop's only about 7 months old with 66 cycles. I thought they were supposed to be at 80% after 300 cycles.

 

As iwantamac pointed out, it should be at 80% after 300 cycyles. Even if he charged and discharged it every day it should not be at 80% after only 7 months. For comparision, my Compaq laptop, which I've had for 5 years, still holds just under 3 hours of charge, down from about 3:45 when I first got it. Admittedly, I don't use it every day as I also have a desktop, but it does provide some perspective. There's definitely something wrong with the battery -- give Apple a call as the computer should still be under warranty. Hopefully they won't give you the old "user replaceable part" run-around. Let us know what happens.

 

Well it went down to 69% a few hours ago, so I called Apple and they're mailing me a replacement within the next couple weeks. yay

 

That's good, let us know how it works out.

 

Geez, it's going to take a couple of weeks to get a replacement battery?! Did you get AppleCare?

 

Yup. I mean they're mailing me one right away, but it's going to take a week or two to get to my house.

 

lol a couple weeks sounds great.

you get to keep your current battery in the meantime. free extra battery. i wouldn't be complaining.

my battery went down to 91% in just a matter of weeks.

im currently doing the 5 hour wait thing to calibrate it.

 

my MBP is only 2 mounths old, with 15 load cycles, and for some reason only lasts 2:30 under power saving mode. The only things i have open are safari, Adium, itunes, nd wireless

something definitly is wrong with mine

 

So since my computer spends most of its time sitting on my desk, is it best to unplug it and charge it when it gets low, or leave it plugged in? I have heard from many repair shops that the battery assumptions are usually just myths and it doesn't matter how much you charge it, after time it wil just eventually get lower and lower.

But what do you guys think is best to do, like say I use my MB for 2 hours at the library and I get back to my room and it has 40% charge left.. Should I charge it, or use it till like 10% then put it on the charger?

 

just wanted to update you on battery calibration:

my battery health is back up to 98%.

 

Congrats! Thanks for letting us know. So now we have at least two suggestions for those experiencing problems: calibration and the battery firmware update. Please keep the suggestions/experiences coming.

 

There was also an even newer firmware update that was released a day or two ago (its talked about HERE on notebook review forums). It seems to have increased battery life for some users.

 

"Shipment Pending"(since the 12th)? Does it REALLY take that long to take a battery from a warehouse somewhere in LA (where everything from Apple that I order seems to ship from), put it in a box with an RMA label, slap a shipping label on it, and have it picked up? Because last I looked that took no more than a half an hour.

 

Hey, is the Battery Update 1.2 already standard on Santa Rosa MBPs?

 

That would probably depend on when the warehouse got the request to ship it.

I've seen plenty of cases where a shipping request was made on a Friday and didn't go out until the next week for whatever reason.

 

Update:

I'm still not sure why Apple decided to ship out of a warehouse in Harrisburg, PA instead of Ontario, CA. Although it is coming by DHL next day.

I am officially baffled.