[SeSawaya]

Hey all, just got my wonderful 12" powerbook with 80Gig HD and upgraded it to 768 ram as soon as I opened the box. I also got Airport Express and couldnt be happy with it all. Just incredible!

I was wondering how the battery life is on yours. I think I'm getting around 3 hours with mine running wireless. Is this good, bad? I really thought I'd get a little more out of it. I conditioned the battery right away (as they tell you to do in the 1st week). I havent owned a ibook since last year so I"m a little out of touch with laptops again.

Also, what can I do with Buletooth? I dont have anything other that my Sony T610 phones that can work with BT. Any suggestions? I may get a wireless mouse in the future.....sometime.

thanks for any tips

Kent

[KidKit]

Congratulations on your PB purchase! I'm sure you are enjoying every moment with your new baby

3 hrs of battery life sounds about right if you have your airport running... BT antenna soaks up some juice too btw. another big factor to determining battery life is your screen brightness, I typically find that I can add 20 to 30 mins runtime simply by decreasing my screen brightness to 1/2 or 2/3 max. Setting your processor speed, harddisk spindowns, these stuff also matter.

BT works great with cell phones... use it to sync your contacts. Ditto for your palm pilot. The bluetooth mice out there are great too, take a look in the peripherals forum, BT mice get reviewed often there.

[Phat Bastard]

Welcome to the club!

I get about 2:50 or so of battery life with full screen brightness. As SeSawaya said, brightness has a huge effect on battery life. I usually use the minimal screen brightness I can cope with in my current environment. If I run with only one or two or three brightness tickets I can get like 4+ hours of battery life, that's simply awesome.

You can also increase battery life by running at lowered processor speed (System Preferences/Energy Saver).

Enjoy your new toy!!

[Komisar]

i am getting 3 hours to 3 hours 30 aswell i guess all is good on your end i hope you enjoy your 12 inch powerbook too. I got mine yesterday and been amazed by it's speed and portability!

[SeSawaya]

thanks guys, I'm getting used to the smallness factor. My iMac 17 went out the door today and my wife was so unhappy cause she loved the big screen but she'll grow to love the PB, yes yes, she will!!! (insert evil laugh now)

The keys are making me miss type ALL the time!!!

[macaddict0001]

You kinda have to get used to laptop key's.

[meatyocre]

SeSawaya,

Since you have the T610, did you know you can establish a dial-up like connection to your laptop via Bluetooth?

I use the same phone with T-Mobile and use this "modem" connection to check mail and light surfing while on the road.

I have been running the Macally BT mouse for a few months and I really enjoy not being tangled up anymore.

[bookofjames]

I'm getting about 4 hours with Automatic Energy Saver settings, 2 ticks on the brightness levels and BT and Airport turned off on my 12" Rev B PB.

Recently I can feel the battery life diminishing a bit cos it's been almost a year since I bought my PB (and I still love it!).

My 2 year old PC desktop at home gave up the ghost and at first I was contemplating getting a replacement PC, but didn't because of budget constraints. Its a good thing tho, cos I soon realised that all I needed was my good ol' PB! I'm doing everything and more on my PB now.

Mac Rules!

[phantomac]

I get 4:00 to 4:30 with BT and Airport deactivated and screen brightness reduced to four bars below full brightness.

With BT and Airport turned on, I get 3:30.

Energy Saver setting set to "Automatic".


Edit: This is a Rev. C PB 12" with 1,25 GB RAM.