MacBook Pro Battery Life

The MacBook Pro is the second model of laptops launched by Apple Inc. The Techspirited article below explains all that you need to know about the MacBook Pro battery life.

Quick Fact

Apple’s latest innovation, the 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro, has innovative features, including 60 minutes of extra battery life, brilliant transfer speed, faster RAM, and Iris 6100 graphics cards.

• The MacBook Pro was launched in 2006 by Apple Inc.
• It is the 2nd model after the iMac, in the Apple-Intel configuration, and is a major model in the line of the Macintosh laptops.
• It was available in the 17-inch format, while off late, it is available in the 15-inch and 13-inch format as well.
• It has incredible features, an extremely durable battery life being one of them.
• The latest model has a 2.7 GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor along with an 8 GB built-in RAM.

• Most companies generally exaggerate their product’s features so that they can garner positive, extraordinary reviews and a loyal customer base.
• One of the prominent features that companies stress about is the battery life. Apple Inc. claims that the MacBook battery life runs for 9 to 10 hours.
• However, as consumers, we have to keep in mind that the life of the battery is likely to expire as per its use.
• When it is stated that the battery will last up to 10 hours, it is an unsaid fact that this shelf life is calculated assuming that no potential work is being carried out by the machine. Of course, this is not the true scenario, for you will be using the machine continuously.
• Heavy software being run on the MacBook Pro takes a toll on the battery, and so does any media content. Additionally, if the number of applications that are running is large, the battery life will obviously suffer.
• Most of the consumers stay ignorant of this fact. Now, Apple cannot predict the type of applications you will be running on your MacBook Pro; naturally, consumers are left disappointed with the performance of their battery, and they mistake this for poor battery life.

1. Full Charge Capacity: As the name suggests, it is the value up to which the battery is capable of running. With time, this number reduces.
2. Defective: Defective batteries are those, which do not work due to a potential defect in the manufacturing. If they become defective within a year, you will receive a new piece from Apple under the warranty period.
3. Load: It is an indicator of the number of tasks being performed. More the number of tasks, heavier the load, and vice-versa.
4. Cycle Count: It is the total number of discharge cycles for the battery throughout its life. Every battery functions for a number of cycles, and the cycle count is an indicator of all those cycles – full or partial.
5. Battery Runtime: It is the amount of time the battery will run to support the laptop without the power source. It depends on the cycle count and load as well.
6. Consumed: A battery is considered as consumed when the cycle count crosses its threshold.
7. Remaining Charge Capacity: It is the amount of power remaining in the battery.

• The status of your battery life depends on the how much the system is being loaded.
• When you perform an ample amount of work, for instance, if you leave a lot of applications running, install excess software, update the software regularly, and start large programs simultaneously, you can be sure that your PC will slow down, and may even hang up for a while.
• One of the important points to remember is to adjust the brightness of your screen; this helps optimize the battery life.
• Another option is to use the integrated graphics processor unit (GPU).
• You might choose options from the Energy Saver Pane to help increase the battery life as well. This option is available under System Preferences.

• The first model of MacBook had a 2.5 GHz Intel Core processor, 250 GB serial ATA, and 60 Wh battery, to name a few.
• The 2nd generation had a 2.6 GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor, 750 GB serial ATA, and 77.5 Wh.
• The latest model reportedly has a 2.7 GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor, 1 TB SSD, and a 95 Wh battery.
• Apart from the non-upgradable RAM, this model has innumerable features, an all-day running battery being one of them.
• Of course, as mentioned before, this depends a lot on the laptop usage, yet, the battery life in this model is said to have advanced improvisation and any other attractive features.

• This is not exactly a solution, but more of a safe suggestion. If you try to subject your MacBook Pro to lighter use, perhaps it may be possible to stretch its battery life by another couple of hours.
• To begin with, turn off the Bluetooth and Wi-fi functions on the laptop.
• Turn off airport mode.
• Keep all discs out of the DVD drive.
• Turn off the backlit keyboard.
• Mute the volume leveler.
• Run as few applications as you can.
• Turn down the screen brightness levels.
• Do not use the iSight camera that is built in.
• Turn off background notifications.
• Turn off spotlight indexing.
• Disable all unwanted features.
• Keep the laptop as cool as possible.
• Calibrate the battery on a regular basis.
• Use the private mode browsing in your Safari or Firefox web browser.
• Turn off the auto checking features of email accounts.

These measures may help improve the life of your MacBook Pro battery considerably, but of course, this means that you are placing several limitations on your machine.

It is with all these settings in place that Apple releases its MacBook Pro battery life reviews, so it is important that we do not get carried away by these claims. In fact, if you check out some well reputed magazines and journals like PC World magazine and Chip magazine, they will tell you exactly the same thing.

The fact that Apple Computers offers such brilliant products with a high degree of battery life is indeed commendable. For these powerful machines to offer around 5 hours of battery life is a very big deal, and it is a great rise from the battery life of machines that we have been using so far.