Apple MacBook Pro 13: Can a Mac Be a Decent Windows Laptop?
by Vivek Gowri on October 14, 2010 9:00 PM ESTApple MacBook Pro 13—Average Battery Life
Apple claims 10 hours of battery life for the MBP13 when running OS X, and Anand hit pretty close to that mark when testing it out with his light web browsing test. Now, we’ve shown before that OS X is more optimized for mobile power consumption than all versions of Windows, so going into this test the expectations were a fair bit lower.
And for good reason; the MBP13 showed fairly similar battery life to some of the older Core 2-based systems. With it’s 63.5 Wh lithium polymer battery, the MBP hits 5.5 hours on our ideal-case battery test, and exactly 5 hours on the web browsing test. While this is decent for the average Core 2 notebook, it’s pretty woeful compared to the OS X battery life of the MBP. If you have no reason to run Windows (program compatibility, gaming, etc) you’re better off in OS X just so that you can get about double the battery life.
This reduction of battery life in Windows is pretty much along the same lines that Anand saw with the MacBook Air he tested under both OS X and Windows. This is a problem that’s been noted in both Vista and 7, and doesn’t look to go away anytime soon (though we’ll see if Microsoft can fix it in Windows 8).
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hybrid2d4x4 - Saturday, October 16, 2010 - link
I agree. The outdoor pic on the conclusion page says it all: completely useless. The high contrast might help a little but apple are pushing too far past the typical glossy displays with their stupid glass surfaces, IMO.VivekGowri - Friday, October 15, 2010 - link
Interestingly, I'm the other way around. I *need* a matte screen on a desktop, I can live without on a notebook. But I did comment on the lack of a matte screen option....It's a good reason to spring for an MBP 15er, I guess....LOL.ninjaquick - Tuesday, October 19, 2010 - link
Its a matte-r of quality. NEC sells the most amazing screens I've ever seen, none are Glossy and my Dell 2407WFP can out contrast and out color anything but the NECs, glossy or no.Gloss is a way to get a bad panel to look better, but it is only for cutting costs.
Stuka87 - Friday, October 15, 2010 - link
Function-Delete works as a normal PC style delete. It requires two hands, but I use it daily so I have gotten used to it.ElusiveBush - Sunday, October 17, 2010 - link
You can use fn+delete to use backspace as a proper delete key. Clunky, but better than nothing, I guess.rwei - Thursday, October 14, 2010 - link
when I saw that you now automatically include a reference to the still-yet-to-arrive Envy in parentheses. Go HP!VivekGowri - Friday, October 15, 2010 - link
I wish they would just send us one and save us the trouble....AstroGuardian - Friday, October 15, 2010 - link
Manufacturers are too often fast on announcements rather than actual releases. It's just a game...Oh, i almost forgot... Core 2 Duo is just catastrophic solution for such notebook... :(
mikeev - Thursday, October 14, 2010 - link
The reason why the battery life is so terrible in windows is that the discrete GPU is enabled 100% of the time, yet while in OSX it has Apple's version of "Optimus" with switching between the GPU and IGP. It's also the reason why that little corner in the upper right of my macbook pro is always so hot in Win7 :)VivekGowri - Thursday, October 14, 2010 - link
The 13" MBP doesn't have a GPU, just the IGP. But that's why the 15 and 17 tend to get even less battery life, yes.