CNET 13" MBP Review

Hey all. Need a new laptop. This one is at the top of the list.

Do you all think the CNET tests are at all accurate when it comes to battery life?

They are claiming 5.7 hours of battery life on their video playback test.


I travel overseas quite a bit and need something that gets really good battery life.

 

From what I've seen so far, it is quite accurate. The batteries on the latest Macbook Pros are extremely impressive.

 

hmmm, I see no reason why they should be inaccurate...

 

yes, Cnet does good reviews. Those of routers are awesome!!!

 

If you're concerned about the accuracy of battery tests, look at a few of them and take the median/mean. Everyone's reviewed the new MBPs. CNet, MacWorld, PC Mag, Laptop Mag, NBR, etc. I think you'll find 5+ hours under normal conditions to be the typical result.

 

I will agree and say the new 13'' Macbook Pro has 5+ hours battery time. The new battery is quite impressive.

 

yes you will get 5+ hours for normal use

But if your on a plane I recommend buying that charger chord that can plug into the plane jack, forgot what it is called so you don't have to worry about using all the battery life

 

I was skeptical at first too until I used one. I got 5 hours of battery life and that included burning a 4gb data DVD.

 

The new battery is very nice, but remember it is not-removable. This means you are limited to 5 hours and can't buy more batterys for long times. Should be good for a day at work without charge but for long planes/extended use that might factor in. My old macbook still gets 3 hours+, but my 17inch hp gets about 6 with an extended battery. However 5-6 hours very good, my only beef with the new battery is you don't have that option of third part batteries or multi-batteries. For most people including me this is a non-issue but may factor in to your decision.

 

Who actually uses their notebooks for over 5 hours in between charges? Whoever they are, they are a tiny minority.

With 1,000 cycles in between replacement, the battery should last longer than the usefulness of the notebook, unless you do a complete discharge cycle everyday and still plan on using the same MBP for over 3 years.

 

I do not think that people will bring their extra battery with them when they travel. Why do you want the exchangeable battery? I really can not figure out why.

 

i would gladly swap mine with a new gen mbp. the battery life is simply awesome!!!!

 

The large majority of people won't need to carry an exchangeable battery when they travel but some people will do. Last time i travelled abroad i took a spare battery for my laptop. I watched some dvds using my optical drive and did a bit of pretty basic gaming to pass the time. The dvd playback test i assume that was not using optical media.


Also, one thing to keep in mind is that a sizeable amount of people that travel use mobile broadband. If your say getting 5 hrs using 50% brightness with wifi on then expect to get around 3 hrs or slightly under that if you're using 3G. If you lower the 13" MBP screen to 0 or 10% you should be able to get close to or 4-5hrs with 3G (usb dongle) but the question is, how readable will the display be outside?

Also, some countries i have travelled to the power supply is just very flakey. Of course the majority of people are not going to face these scenarios.

The integrated battery is not a deal breaker for me. Battery life is very good for doing standard tasks like wifi browsing. For a 13" pretty powerful laptop battery life is excellent. I most likely would use an ultraportable (insert something like a netbook here) something with the ability to say get up to 11 hrs for travel anyway and use the MBP more onsite.

I own a Sony TX 11.1 and own two batteries for that anyway. A new battery has the ability to get up to 11 hrs. I've not done a run down test with my new battery but i'm expecting at least 7 hrs using 3G with 40% brightness in XP. If you need more battery life then getting an ultraportable i think is a good idea.

 

CNET kills the battery as fast as they can. It's a worst case scenario, general usage will probably be a lot higher in most cases.

 

Cnet's reviews are generally not very good anyway.

 

I agree when it comes to their ratings and opinions, but I do like their charts and data. Its usually hard to screw up collecting hard data

 

I share the same opinion about Stereophile, whose "reviews" are normally jokes, but the measurements are definitely indispensable.