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    Brand new October 2013 MBP- poor battery life

    Discussion in 'Apple and Mac OS X' started by vinuneuro, Aug 14, 2014.

  1. vinuneuro

    vinuneuro Notebook Virtuoso

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    After growing frustrated with Lenovo and Windows I switched to Apple, but things aren't so rosy here either. Advertised is 9hrs battery life browsing and I'm struggling to get 7.5hrs. Reviews have gotten up to 11hrs under conditions I'm using and a friend regularly gets 10 hours with the same model. Is it heard of to get a defective battery from Apple? Does battery life improve with more cycles on the battery?

    This is a 256gb/8gb model and I only have Safari and Mail open at 75% brightness. Normal browsing, no streaming or Youtube. Nothing unusual taking up resources in the activity monitor.
     
    vinuneuro, Aug 14, 2014
    #1
  2. Illustrator76

    Illustrator76 Notebook Consultant

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    You are probably going to have to turn that brightness down some more. I know that most battery life tests/reviews turn off Wifi and turn the brightness down to (or sometimes even below) 50%. That extra 25% drop in brightness will definitely get you more battery life, as the screen is the biggest offender when it comes to sapping battery life in your laptop.
     
    Illustrator76, Aug 14, 2014
    #2
  3. Nick

    Nick Professor Carnista

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    Actual battery life is usually lower than advertised life. Browser choice is also important. If I remember correctly, Safari is better optimized for power savings compared to Chrome, etc. But, I see you're already running Safari. Any other background apps installed.
     
    Nick, Aug 14, 2014
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  4. S.SubZero

    S.SubZero Notebook Deity

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    S.SubZero, Aug 15, 2014
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  5. Nick

    Nick Professor Carnista

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    Nick, Aug 15, 2014
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  6. BaoTCP

    BaoTCP Notebook Consultant

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    It honestly could be a defective battery. You shouldn't be hitting anything under 9-ish hours at those settings.
     
    BaoTCP, Aug 17, 2014
    #6
  7. Karamazovmm

    Karamazovmm Overthinking? Always!

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    are you running yosemite? if its mavericks its a different matter.
     
    Karamazovmm, Aug 18, 2014
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  8. BaoTCP

    BaoTCP Notebook Consultant

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    Does it really drain the battery that much?
     
    BaoTCP, Aug 18, 2014
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  9. Nick

    Nick Professor Carnista

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    Since Yosemite is still in beta, absolutely.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
     
    Nick, Aug 20, 2014
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  10. BaoTCP

    BaoTCP Notebook Consultant

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    Ah, I see. I must confess I'm mostly on Win7 on my Mac haha.
     
    BaoTCP, Aug 21, 2014
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  11. darkloki

    darkloki Notebook Deity

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    gfxCardStatus by cody krieger is a VERY good application to install as well to ensure that you are using your integrated card as compared to your dedicated card which could have very adverse effects on your battery life and performance.
     
    darkloki, Aug 25, 2014
    #11