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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yuhong - Friday, October 15, 2010 - link
"(And for those people who still cling to the theory that Apple couldn’t fit a third chip onto the board without reducing the battery size or making the notebook larger, that’s nonsense. If ASUS can manage to fit a Core 2010 processor, the chipset, and a dedicated graphics card into a system with similar dimensions to the MBP13 and a 33% larger battery, then Apple could have too. Simple as that.)"Do a detailed comparison of the insides of the two, please.
aniraf - Friday, October 15, 2010 - link
The one thing I've always been interested in is comparing the graphical benchmarks from OSX and Windows7 on the same machine. I don't know why I've never seen this done, but it would certainly be an interesting way to determine which OS takes better advantage of the hardware.Wolfpup - Friday, October 15, 2010 - link
I pay no attention to Donutmark and never have. I really respect Anandtech's resistance to it, how they used to never even post it, and now still downplay it and tell you things like "this is worthless, but here it is because some people want it".I'm fine with that-if it helps the site, leave the Donutmark stuff in. If not, dump it I guess.
djcameron - Friday, October 15, 2010 - link
I had to buy a unibody 13 inch Macbook for a past job. Once the job was over, I set up a minimal OS X partition for updates, and then made Windows 7 Ultimate my primary partition.It works great, and I don't miss OS X at all.
FYI... The obnoxious Delete(really Backspace) key becomes a true Delete key if you hold down the Fn key.
radium69 - Friday, October 15, 2010 - link
I really can't justify that steep price, it's just plain insane.I'm buying a tax free MSI GX740 for 1400 USD, and thats with a core I5 460m, 4gig ddr3, 500gb 7200RPM HDD, and a RADEON 5870M! It's 17" but I don't mind!
It also comes with a 9 cell battery so should be plenty!
For other stuff where I have NO wallsockets I just use my EEEPC 1000H. Works very well for the basic stuff.
The only + is the screen that looks good. But why is it good if you need to play everything on ultra low / medium settings. Sure the macbook is more portable, but you can get a lot more bang for the buck.
Just my 2 cents,
lorribot - Friday, October 15, 2010 - link
......Apple would release OSX in to the wild.RussianSensation - Saturday, October 16, 2010 - link
"The majority of the expense is in higher quality components and build, but my point is that the 15" i5 MBP is only $300 higher than the 2.6 ghz Core 2 Duo MBP 13" and the i5 is between 50% and 100% faster depending on the task."johnspierce, what are you smoking?
Core i5 is at best 20% faster in performance per clock than a C2D Penryn architecture design. So no, there are 0 tasks where a Core i5 will be 50-100% faster than a C2D at the same clock speed.
And the major reason for a high Mac product pricing is OBVIOUSLY their profit margin. They got all the apple fanatics to believe that their products use "proprietory, specifically selected hardware". Keep in mind EVERY single component inside a MAC other than the motherboard (which everyone who owns a PC knows has 1% impact on performance) is no different than what PCs use. The reason Apple products cost so much $ is because they are:
1) Customer Service (Apple store is amazing!! the customer service is 2nd to none).
2) Image (it's a fashion statement; (the younger generation considers them more hip).
3) Marketing (Apple has outmarketed Microsoft in selling an "easier to use, better, more stable environment").
4) Design - it's impossible for anyone to deny that Apple products are sexy/contemporary and push design trend boundaries.
People pay $$$ for all 4 of these first and foremost when they buy an Apple product, with performance, price/performance ratio being almost irrelevant.
yuhong - Saturday, October 16, 2010 - link
"They got all the apple fanatics to believe that their products use "proprietory, specifically selected hardware"."Which used to be true back in the PowerPC age.
AnnonymousCoward - Saturday, October 16, 2010 - link
"it’s the best chiclet keyboard out there" - great, but how does it compare to a regular laptop keyboard?Klimax - Saturday, October 16, 2010 - link
I have only onel problem with review. The baterry test. Respectively what where the settings? There are few plans available like balanced and minimal power. Which one was chosen?Where they altered?For example,when I alter power level of WiFi I can easkly gain or lose about 50% of battery life and there are more of such options.(like USB suspend ; Link state power mng and min/max processor state along with cooling policy) They all can alter experience and it would be interesting to know how much they can change outcome.