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
Lithium Polymer: 46% More Capacity, 0% More Weight
Today Apple is shipping lithium polymer batteries in all of its MacBook Pros. Only the original, white MacBook is offered with a removable battery. Most impressive are the capacities Apple is able to offer thanks to these new batteries.
The table below shows the old and new battery capacities:
New Lithium Polymer Battery (Integrated) |
| Increase in Capacity | |
MacBook Pro 13-inch | 58WHr | 45WHr | 29% |
MacBook Pro 15-inch | 73WHr | 50WHr | 46% |
MacBook Pro 17-inch | 95WHr | 68WHr | 40% |
Now there was no 13” MacBook Pro before, so I’m comparing to the old aluminum 13” MacBook. Also, the 17” MacBook Pro was the first and only unibody 17” MacBook Pro so the old battery I’m comparing it to was the previous generation 17” MBP battery.
73Whr?!? Holy crap
The biggest winner is the 15” MacBook Pro, it gains a 46% increase in battery capacity with zero increase in size or weight. The new 15” MacBook Pro is the same size and weight (5.5lbs) as the previous model, it just has a 46% larger battery. Did I mention it’s cheaper too?
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ltcommanderdata - Friday, June 12, 2009 - link
When Anand breaks out the results in the table for a head-to-head comparison he is comparing the new model against the Late 2008 Unibody which uses a 2.4GHz P8600 processor with a 25W TDP. So the TDP is unchanged.I believe the 2008 MacBook Pro (non-Late) in the charts with a 2.5GHz processor is a 800MHz Penryn, the T9300. I don't believe he uses this as his direct comparison since that MacBook Pro is 2 generations back.
PlasmaBomb - Friday, June 12, 2009 - link
Sorry the processor question was only a musing on my part, since on page 3 it states the cache of the current MBP but doesn't for the early '09. I merely wondered if the early 09 was a 35W TDP piece, now being changed to a 25W TDP piece.I don't have a mac and am purely interested in the tech :)
The main question was really supposed to be "Could the absence of the Nvidia 9600 GT be partly responsible for the increased battery life?"
Another question would be why didn't they update the dedicated graphics to the 55nm Nvidia GT 130M (basically a higher clocked 9600GT). Although I think Anand really answered that with - not many people use the graphics, so it might be an unjustifiable expense to apple :(
PlasmaBomb - Friday, June 12, 2009 - link
Sorry typing too quickly the processor number should be T9550 :(