[garyymd]

What kind of real world battery life does the Macbook get?

With or without Wifi? with different brightness settings?
Especially interested if you've replaced the hard drive with a 7200rpm model.


Thanks,
-Al

[jreniew]

i 2nd the question with the 7200rpm drive and wifi...??? ?

[SLiMeX]

I maximized my battery by charging it full and then slowly disharging it.

With basic internet surfing, some GarageBand play, and some Adium chatting, I experienced just under four (4) hours of battery life.

[harrisjamieh]

I know this has been done to death, and not to mean to hi-jack this thread, but I really have never found a difinitive answer to this question: I have been working on my macbook all day, and for the whole day I have had it plugged into the mains, and for 1/2 the day, it has been fully charged. Does doing this for extended periods of time kill the battery, or has technology gotten better recently to prevent this?

My sisters VAIO has been virtually plugged in all its life, and the battery life s now around 40 mins - i dont want my MB to have the same thing happen to it!

[lookmark]

The Ars review nicely covers MacBook battery life under three different usage states.

[SLiMeX]

Originally Posted by harrisjamieh

I know this has been done to death, and not to mean to hi-jack this thread, but I really have never found a difinitive answer to this question: I have been working on my macbook all day, and for the whole day I have had it plugged into the mains, and for 1/2 the day, it has been fully charged. Does doing this for extended periods of time kill the battery, or has technology gotten better recently to prevent this?

My sisters VAIO has been virtually plugged in all its life, and the battery life s now around 40 mins - i dont want my MB to have the same thing happen to it!

From what I have experienced, just use it as a laptop. Plug it in if it can be, and have it run on battery power when possible. It's also savvy to drain the battery completely at least once a month to make sure your battery holds as much as possible.

[Tomchu]

Originally Posted by SLiMeX

From what I have experienced, just use it as a laptop. Plug it in if it can be, and have it run on battery power when possible. It's also savvy to drain the battery completely at least once a month to make sure your battery holds as much as possible.

Completely discharging and recharging Lithium-based batteries actually kills them faster, and doesn't actually allow them to "hold" any more charge. All it does is recalibrates the electronic circuitry.

[SLiMeX]

Originally Posted by Tomchu

Completely discharging and recharging Lithium-based batteries actually kills them faster, and doesn't actually allow them to "hold" any more charge. All it does is recalibrates the electronic circuitry.

Really? I have had nothing but wonders happen when I do this. In fact, on my last iBook, after I did that every month, I'd gain a good 10-20 minutes on the charge life...

[Tomchu]

This is from batteryuniversity.com --

"Avoid frequent full discharges because this puts additional strain on the battery. Several partial discharges with frequent recharges are better for lithium-ion than one deep one. Recharging a partially charged lithium-ion does not cause harm because there is no memory. (In this respect, lithium-ion differs from nickel-based batteries.) Short battery life in a laptop is mainly cause by heat rather than charge / discharge patterns."

That site has a lot of useful information about batteries, and how to take care of them.