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View Full Version : How many hours does your *Book battery last?


Brad
2004-08-23, 13:45
The title should be clear enough. :) I'm looking for battery experiences for people who have used their iBook or PowerBook for over a year.

In addition, to clarify things, please post the specs of which Book you have along with the average life per charge. A 12" iBook will likely differ from a 17" PowerBook.

I'm just doing this to satiate my own curiosity. I've seen many people complain about Apple's notebook battery life and I've seen many people praise Apple's notebook battery life. I'll be getting my own 12" PowerBook in the very near future and I'd very much like to see what I have in store after it's been "broken in" for a while.

Muchas gracias!

psmith2.0
2004-08-23, 13:54
I bought my 15" 1.25GHz PowerBook (SuperDrive) last October 24 (not quite one year, but sue me...I use it every day, plugged and unplugged). :p

I get just over 3 hours on it. I honestly haven't tinkered with the Energy Setting preferences to experiment with adding to it...just the default settings.

Perhaps I could squeeze another 20-30 minutes from it if I did things like dim the screen, turn off keyboard backlighting, etc.

Wrao
2004-08-23, 13:58
okay, it's not really a full year old, but I use it all the time, it's almost a year old, but yeah, I used to get 2:30-3:30 average, my terminal battery capacity reading was above average, things were good. But then, all of a sudden, my battery just...died. Well, not died, but was mortally wounded, or something. The point is, it went from 3 hours to 1 hour almost over night, now I get about 1:30 hours average.

I don't know what caused it, the only suspicion I have is the time I accidentally left it on a freezing cold window sill in boston overnight. From what I understand super cold temperatures are very bad for lithium ion batteries, specifically affecting their ability to hold a charge. :\

My sister's iBook is a little over a year old and it easily gets 3 hours, usually more like 4. Same with my brothers iBook which is less than a year old. My friend has a Refurbished Tibook, it gets about 2 hours sometimes 2:30, but usually not much more than that, it's a little older than a year, but it's refurbished.

edit: I have the same computer as Paul, just sans superdrive.

Maciej
2004-08-23, 14:06
I have a 1.25 Ghz 15" AL Book, its less than a year old. I can't remember exactly wen I bought it.

Windswept
2004-08-23, 14:10
The title should be clear enough. :) I'm looking for battery experiences for people who have used their iBook or PowerBook for over a year.

In addition, to clarify things, please post the specs of which Book you have along with the average life per charge. A 12" iBook will likely differ from a 17" PowerBook.

I'm just doing this to satiate my own curiosity. I've seen many people complain about Apple's notebook battery life and I've seen many people praise Apple's notebook battery life. I'll be getting my own 12" PowerBook in the very near future and I'd very much like to see what I have in store after it's been "broken in" for a while.

Muchas gracias!
I've had my 12" Powerbook for 13 months now. If I remember correctly, my first battery was defective (dead?), and the store replaced it for me. The directions say that one must run the battery completely down during the first week or two of ownership (can't remember the exact time period or details) in order to extend battery life. I did that, as directed. But in all this time, I haven't used my PB on battery much, so can't give you any feedback until I test it out. Sorry.

Messiahtosh
2004-08-23, 14:41
I have a brand new, fully loaded 15'' 1.5 GHz PowerBook, and it gets me 3-4 hours of use when unplugged. I dim the screen once it gets about halfway empty, and that helps to keep it run longer.

Paul
2004-08-23, 14:50
I have a 667 DVI TiBook that I bought "refreshed" on Jaguar Day in 2002. The battery died late in the spring semester of this year (2004). I just bought a replacement battery and it lasts close to 4 hours when I run everything down (dim as possible with airport off and low processor speed)

The dead one is a paperweight... :\

I'm thinking of dissecting it...

onlyafterdark
2004-08-23, 14:53
I have a rev.a 12" PB that I bought just over a year ago. I am still getting ~4 hours out of it.

DMBand0026
2004-08-23, 15:25
I have a 12" PB 1.33 that's a few months old (4 now I think), I get about 4 hours in light usage.

Ryan
2004-08-23, 19:00
I get about 4 hours on a four month old battery. 12inch Powerbook.

I don't really unplug it that often. I've found I like desktops better, and the mobility doesn't really help me. I'll find myself unpluging the keyboard and mouse off my Cube and into my 'Book.

trailmaster308
2004-08-23, 21:16
12 inch PB @ 1Ghz. 3-4 hours.... little under a year old.

staph
2004-08-23, 22:35
12" iBook 1Ghz/wireless/etc. 6 weeks old.

If I'm just surfing the web or reading PDFs it will easily get over 4 hours. Anything more disk or cpu intensive will get it down somewhere between 3 and 4, depending on what's going on.

My previous 12" iBook (800Mhz/32MB video memory) was getting 3-3.5 hours at 11 months, when the battery completely died. Happily, the battery warranty is a year, so it was replaced, and suddenly got 4.5-5 hours under light use. Not sure what it's getting now, two months later, as I've passed it on to my gf.

-S

MCQ
2004-08-24, 00:13
Same as trailmaster.... rev.b 12" PB, just under a year old, usually 3-4 hrs.

Barto
2004-08-24, 03:14
iBook G4/800, 6 months old, 3-4 hours.

stoo
2004-08-24, 07:42
I get 4+ hours after a year on my rev A 12" PowerBook, but I rarely use it away from main power.

ast3r3x
2004-08-24, 09:43
My battery was never amazing. It started with lower then average capacity, and hasn't gotten better with time ;)

I get ~1.5 - 2 hours with actually using my computer when it's not plugged in. I can get ~2.5 or so though when I am just playing music and have the screen off when I'm just laying in my bed.

I need a new battery, as iBatt or whatever it's called gives me a C- grade. I think it was only like 70 something percent capacity I have of a standard battery.

Luca
2004-08-24, 09:52
When I had an iBook, I could get a full five hours only with all settings turned to their lowest power usage and the screen off. Basically I used it as an MP3 player. Normal use for me, though, was generally with the screen at about 50% brightness, reduced processor performance, and Airport on. I got 3-4 that way, and it remained pretty consistent throughout the nine months I owned it. The average may have dropped something like 30 minutes over the course of when I had it, but it wasn't really enough to notice. This was a G3/800 iBook purchased in December 2002 and sold in September 2003.

Ebby
2004-08-24, 13:16
I have a Powerbook G3 Pismo. The original battery lasted 3 years and my new battery is 6 months old and gets a little under 6 hours. :cool:

bassplayinMacFiend
2004-08-24, 13:35
I bought my 1.25GHz SD AlBook on 20-Sep-2003. I can get 3-4+ hours depending on what I'm doing. I used it on battery power regularly during school for Fall 2003 & Spring 2004. In the Spring I had a Sat. morning class from 8-10:40 and I never got worried about running out of battery juice.

When I'm working in XCode / Interface Builder I can get beyond 4 hours battery life, but other than compiling I'm probably using very little processor.

I have Energy Saver set to reduced CPU speed, turn off HD whenever possible, sleep in 5 minutes, and I lower the screen brightness down below 1/2.

diagonalman
2004-08-26, 09:17
As you can see from a prev. thread, the batt for my 12" iBook (circa 2001-2002) is dead as a doornail. I used the PMU reset that others here suggested to no avail. Using the iBook as a DVD player during that time might have killed it, but who knows.

It would appear from the responses that the average real-world charge is about 3-4 hours, much less than what Apple claims (like 5-6 hours for the iBook)? Sure, mabe it the computer is OFF?

nowayout11
2004-08-26, 12:06
3 month old 12" iBook (the latest revision), 1GHz. 3-4 Hrs.

bassplayinMacFiend
2004-08-26, 12:17
As you can see from a prev. thread, the batt for my 12" iBook (circa 2001-2002) is dead as a doornail. I used the PMU reset that others here suggested to no avail. Using the iBook as a DVD player during that time might have killed it, but who knows.

It would appear from the responses that the average real-world charge is about 3-4 hours, much less than what Apple claims (like 5-6 hours for the iBook)? Sure, mabe it the computer is OFF?

The only way I've been able to hit Apple's battery numbers is if I turn everything down as low as possible (screen, CPU, HD) and don't do anything beyond look at it.

Otherwise, both laptops I've had from Apple have lasted a minimum of 3 hours under non-intensive usage (read as, not burning CDs/DVDs, not watching DVDs, not using 100% of CPU, etc.).