For me, the most interesting part of that keynote was the stuff about batteries. I think it’s safe to predict that similar long-life, non-replacable custom batteries will be appearing in the smaller Apple notebook computers in coming months.
Apple’s gone to great lengths to push this battery idea. Witness the expensively-produced video on the MacBook Pro page, that spends a lot of time explaining why it had to be this way. This shows that Apple expected some backlash.
The negative feelings on this issue runs deeper, though, thanks to a problem that’s industry-wide, not just confined to Infinite Loop.
That issue is that, for years and years now, computer users have not been able to trust the battery claims by computer manufacturers.
You know what it’s like when you go shopping for a notebook. If you read “up to five hours battery life”, you know that the most important words are “up to” and that, in reality, they change the meaning of the sentence to “about three hours – four if you’re lucky – and you’re not doing anything terribly disk- or CPU-intensive”.
We’ve all become so used to this that we take it for granted. We KNOW that we should knock a huge percentage off the battery life claims of the manufacturers. Worse, THEY know that we know. And they still keep doing it. The only way to get a good appreciation of a machine’s actual average battery life is to buy one and use it; or wait for others to do so, and post their reviews on retail web sites.
What I hope – very much – is that with this expensive video and marketing campaign, Apple is finally doing the right thing and giving ACCURATE, RELIABLE figures for the battery life.
If you didn’t see the keynote, or follow it on the zillions of blogs and Twitter streams, it’s really worth having a look at that video. This battery design and manufacturing process is a big deal.
Who knows, maybe in the lab they’ve been able to squeeze out 10 or 12 hours on the prototypes, and they’ve gone for 8 as the “official” figure because it will be achievable by real people doing real computing, and that it will therefore mean something.
What I fear, however, is that 8 hours is the lab maximum, that this expensive video production has been a waste of time, and that the claimed 8 hours will be hard to reproduce by the likes of you and I.
You might think that’s needlessly skeptical, but the skepticism is only because my mind’s been indoctrinated by years of overblown battery claims. I hope I’m wrong, and that the early adopters of this new 17-incher are able to confirm Apple’s claims.
And I also hope that, within a year or so, I can buy a new 15-inch unibody MacBook with the same battery inside. I don’t mind it being sealed up, as long as it lives up to claims Apple makes of it.
(Photo used under CC license, thanks to moria.)
18 responses to “Opinion: Let’s Hope This Means An End To Years Of Bogus Battery Claims”
I travel a lot, and battery life used to be a big deal. Now I find that almost every plane I’m on has DC power to the seat, and the compact Apple MagSafe adapter is easy to bring along. It doesn’t charge the laptop but it does keep it going through both heavy and light work loads. So my need for long battery life is diminished as long as I start a trip with a full charge.
The following is posted near the bottome of the 17″ Macbook Pro page on Apple’s website :
“Testing conducted by Apple in December 2008 using preproduction 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo–based MacBook Pro (17-inch) units with a Better Battery Life setting. Battery life depends on configuration and use. See http://www.apple.com/batteries for more information. The wireless productivity test measures battery life by wirelessly browsing various websites and editing text in a word processing document with display brightness set to 50%.”
Sounds a little sketchy given that all they are doing is browsing websites and word processing, and with the screen brightness at 50%. And remember the 8 hour figure is only using the integrated graphics chip, – it goes down to 7 with the discrete.
So I am expecting more like 5.5-6.5 with real computing work and a bright screen, or something around there. Which is still significantly better than most laptops, but significantly different that the expectation they are creating with their claims. Someone also made the pont elsewhere that the 17″ inch Macbook Pro is the notebook that least should have big battery life given the size of it, it is unlikely to be ported around too much, in areas away from outlets, as opposed to the smaller, lighter Macbook Air and Macbooks.
I’ve been using laptops for about 14 years. I’ve NEVER had a spare battery nor replaced a battery. Now, admittedly, I’m not much of a traveler; so, I don’t know what real road warriors do.
Because of my experience, I would gladly accept a built-in battery if it promised longer usable time. My 2 1/2 year old MBP barely gets 1 hour of use on battery. So, even if the 17″ get 5.5 to 6.5 as @Brandon suggests is likely, I’d be stoked. Hell, consider my current battery life, I’d settle for 3 hours.
With the battery being sealed, does this mean after the battery has used up it’s reported 1,000 charges, you have a $3,000 paperweight? Will you have to send the computer back to Apple for a new battery to be installed? Or, is it just assumed that you will want to upgrade to a new computer after this time and buy a new one?
I’m putting three kids through college right now, and the thought of shelling out for a new computer for them as well as for me and my wife every so often is not a nice feeling.
I get just over 4 hours on my 1.5-yr old MacBook, with WiFi & bluetooth & iTunes off. Which is pretty much what Apple promised, and one of the main reasons I like it. Commuter trains do not have power outlets here, and a few times per year stand still in the meadows for a while. And no, I have never changed the battery of a laptop except for a call-back program, so I don’t mind it being fixed.
I have owned several Apple laptops, and have never had a spare battery or otherwise needed to remove the battery with the exception of accessing ram slots etc. I want more battery, I don’t care if its removable or not. Also, I am 100% confident that should the battery need to be replaced that it won’t be harder than putting a new battery in an iPod. When you take a practical look at this you will see that eliminating the removable battery “feature” is a good thing. Lets not hold on to old ideas just because we are used to them. —
Until they can make these “great” new batteries removable they are taking one step forward two steps back.
In fact that should be Apples motto as of late “one step forward two steps back”.
In the 17″ specs on the Apple site it says “Up to 8 hours of
wireless productivity”…. so… I think that answers your question. Nobody will get 8 hours of real world use.
apple has said ‘up to’ as well. no one is going to be able to give a firm figure because not everyone uses their computer the same.
still up to 8 rather than up to 5 is still huge. and 1000 recharges rather than just under half that is huge.
as for replacements. I would imagine that the store techs can do it. or they would overnight it to a central spot just like they do repairs of things like power ports and such. if you are under AppleCare for free, if not, at cost. same as other repairs