3 1/2 - 4hrs battery lfe normal?

I get on average 3 1/2 hours of battery life. this is with brightness down about 4 notches and just surfing the web. no bluetooth just wireless.

Is this normal?

Apple claims upto 6 hrs. i know most companies give bogus numbers for battery life, but i was thinking atleast 4 1/2 - 5 doing basic stuff.

i have 7 cycles and i'm at 98% health. i did the calibration when i first got the notebook.
Does this all sound right?

 

That's about what I'm getting, in normal use. The more I use the drives, etc., the quicker the battery dies.

 

Thats sounds about right. Im sitting here with brightness 4 notches down, wifi on and surfing, music playing, and adium on. ~3.5 hours remaining.

Oops, forgot to mention its charging my iPod as well.

 

whats your guys battery health at?

 

if you turned off the wifi, and only had one bar of brightness, you could prolly get 4.5. wifi uses alot of power.

 

Hrm, I get 4.25 just fine with 1/3-1/2 brightness and no wifi and no bluetooth. Very very light to idle use though (basically typing and websearching/e-mail now and then).

Then again, I'm not typing nonstop during those 4+ hours - there are even times when I don't do anything active that the laptop goes to sleep for a few minutes. On the other hand, i turn wifi on from time to time as well...so who knows.

 

According to iStat Pro, its at 100% health.

 

Yes, that is pretty normal.

And remember to use the stickies, they're there for a purpose :

From the New Mac Owner's section of the Mac Switcher's Guide:

Also, calibrating your battery may also improve your battery life and improve your battery health rating. This does not mean calibrating the battery "extends your battery health", but your current indicator may not be accurately presenting your battery health.

 

I wonder what apple does to get their numbers. They must just idle without any brightness, and everything off

 

Probably. I wouldn't expect to get 6 hours of battery life doing anything more productive than entering text really. Even then I think it'd come close. They probably don't include boot-up in that figure either .

 

Well... I get close to that. I have back on back 3 hour lectures on Thursday. With all those power plug hogs, I rarely manage to get my MBP plugged in.

The battery timer is not that accurate (I don't use any third party stuff, just whatever the normal battery bar is). I notice that it jumps around a lot. When I first switch on the computer, I'm a bit worried, because it only says its got 3.5 hours battery life, it then jumps to 4, then 5, then down again, then up again when doing different tasks. If you gave it a try, you might get better than you expect.

Six hours is no blue-tooth, no wifi, low brightness. But I easily get 5 hours with wifi only, medium brightness.

 

Well first off, what notebook do you have? It isn't stated in your sig or anything

I have a MBP C2D and I get about 3.5 - 4h when surfing with wireless on and bluetooth off. The 98% is normal, see the post linked earlier in the thread.

 

<strike>Snooping</strike> Looking through his previous posts, it seems he has a MBP .

 

sorry should have stated its a mbp

 

Slightly off topic... what kind of battery life are you Macbook (not Pro) users getting?

 

my wife has the macbook and she gets about 4 1/2, but her ipod is always plugged in

 

Well, truthfully I have never tested it accurately...but my MacBook lasts more than 3 hours in optimal settings (not full brightness, just using Safari and iTunes...).

 

Am having the same problem right now, it only last for about 3 half hours and its not on full brightness(like medium), itunes, surfing. So going to call apple and see if i can get it replaced.

 

eh...listening to music for 3.5 hours, wifi on during that time, and at half brightness....

I don't think that's too unreasonable...

 

That's not too bad. It could be higher but its not overly low. Anyways, try and see if Apple is willing to do anything about it.

 

I talk to apple and they said that they cant do anything about at, because 3 hours is normal to them, but they did suggest to get an extra battery.

 

that sounds like that would be the right amount of time with that kind of use.

 

I don't understand what the problem is here. The up to 6 hour battery life that Apple claims on their product page is pure marketing (for advertisement). Notice the footnote, "1. Battery life depends on configuration and use."

All companies try their best to maximize battery life under optimal settings (from a marketing standpoint). You should consider this information with a grain of salt and look at actual user reviews.

From what I've read and experienced anywhere within 3 - 6 hours for "normal" use is completely acceptable.