Apple's 2009 MacBook Pro: Battery Life to Die For
by Anand Lal Shimpi on June 12, 2009 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Mac
Final Words
There’s no other way to say this. If you care about battery life and portability at all, buy the new MacBook Pro. Go to the Apple store and buy one. While I only tested the 15” model, I’m guessing the 13” model should leave a similar lasting impression.
Ever since I first looked at the power consumption specs of Nehalem I thought it didn’t make any sense to buy a new, expensive notebook before Arrandale’s launch in Q4 2009/Q1 2010. While performance will definitely increase considerably with Arrandale, Apple just threw a huge wrench in my recommendation. The new MacBook Pro is near perfect today. If you need a new laptop now, thanks to its incredible battery life, I have no qualms recommending the new MBP.
The only thing you have to come to terms with is knowing that if the roadmaps still hold, that in 6 - 9 months there will be a much faster version of your notebook on the market; most likely at the same price. Combine the performance and power efficiency of Arrandale with the battery advancements in this new MacBook Pro and you’ll have one beast of a notebook.
Today I am more than comfortable saying that this is the best Apple notebook I’ve ever laid my hands on. The build quality is excellent, the base specs are solid and of course, the battery life. There’s no doubt that it could be better; toss in an SSD or drop the price even further, but as it stands the new MBP is an excellent choice if you’re looking for a Mac laptop.
Obviously, you can attain the same battery life with a cheaper notebook and one or two spare batteries. But there’s something to be said for increasing battery life by at least 50% without increasing the bulk or weight of the system.
I’m not sure there’s much else I can add other than Good Job, Apple.
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BushLin - Tuesday, June 16, 2009 - link
Right now, you may not care that your battery isn't removable. After 13 months, when it's failed and Apple want to charge you the price of a netbook to take it in and replace it, you may do.Johnmcl7 - Sunday, June 14, 2009 - link
It's been done already long before Apple (as with most of their innovations) plenty of companies have produced laptops with extremely long batterylife but without fixing the battery.Apple's solution is nothing clever as all they've done is sacrifice the removeable battery, I just really hope other companies don't do this as well as has been happening in the mp3 player market particularly with Sandisk.
iwodo - Saturday, June 13, 2009 - link
From an environmental standpoint, having battery built in means you will have to bring the Notebook back to Apple to buy a new battery. This would means your old battery is properly deposited.I am surely there will be third party, or possibly even apple would make an External battery for all Macbook that plugs into the power plug.
djuero - Saturday, July 4, 2009 - link
Those products (external batteries) are available from different companies already...sendai - Sunday, June 14, 2009 - link
Yup, they've been around for ages, though I'd say Apple have energised the market for them:http://www.batterygeek.net/SearchResults.asp?Cat=7...">http://www.batterygeek.net/SearchResults.asp?Cat=7...
http://www.hyperdrive.com/HyperMac-External-MacBoo...">http://www.hyperdrive.com/HyperMac-External-MacBoo...
http://www.quickertek.com/products/macbook_air_cha...">http://www.quickertek.com/products/macbook_air_cha...
iwodo - Sunday, June 14, 2009 - link
Now it has been proven that there are massive amount of external power out there. I wonder why the need for a removable 2nd battery?With Internal battery, you get more space, longer battery, and more environmental friendly. Why would you need a 2nd battery when you can do the same with external power?
PlasmaBomb - Saturday, June 13, 2009 - link
That is an interesting thought. Wonder how feasible it is...Pandamonium - Saturday, June 13, 2009 - link
I'm looking at the specs and can't help but think Apple moved the 13" unibody MB into their MBP line and added a price cut to boot. My wife just got a "free" 13" unibody. (Her MB was a legit lemon, and after 5 or 6 Applecare repairs, the store just gave her a replacement) Anyway, the specs of her replacement are in line with what I see here for the MBP version. We don't have the machine with us to compare removable batteries, but we'll definitely do that after our honeymoon.gcor - Saturday, June 13, 2009 - link
For a truly portable machine for getting stuff done, wouldn't an 11" netbook be a better option than a MacBook?Right now I don't think any of the MacBooks stack up as well as machines like the Acer Aspire 11.6".
11-12 inch netbooks seems to; tick all my must haves (see below), have excellent weight, and great form factor. While I would prefer an OS-X machine, MacBooks that meet my must haves are twice the weight and 4 times the price of a comparable netbook.
For my needs at university. I've settled on the following requirements:
Absolute must haves are:
- Display sufficient to view and skim read multi-column research papers:
>= 1200x800
>= 11"
- Suffient performance to:
- quickly flick thourgh PDFs and powerpoints
- create and edit files using MS Office
- surf the web
- >= 8 hours battery for the functions above
- fullsize laptop keyboard
- OS-X or Windows (no Linux due to MS Office:-( )
- WiFi, tackpad, >=20Gb free disk, USB, speakers.
In addition, my nice to haves are:
- OS-X over Windows
- Light
- Thin
- Low price
iwodo - Saturday, June 13, 2009 - link
Snow Leopard were suppose to speed things up, May be it will bring some even greater battery life. May be a retest once SL is out?I can imagine future Macbook Pro having 12 hours battery life if it has an SSD and OLED display.
Apple could surely make an interesting Netbook or Cheaper Macbook Air with Dual Core Atom with these Battery inside.