Now that the news about the new MacBook Pros is out there, one thing that may disappoint someone just reading the spec sheet is battery life. Across the board, the Pro is now rated at 7 hours. While still very solid, this is actually a step down from the previous versions which were rated at 8 to 9 hours for the 15 and 17-inch models, and 10 hours for the 13-inch model. So what gives?
Well, just as they sort of quietly announced with the new MacBook Airs late last year, Apple has begun using a new method of battery life testing. And they feel it’s much more accurate in real world scenarios. Specifically they call this the “Wireless Web protocol testing”.
Essentially what it means is that they set each device to 50 percent display brightness and go surf the 25 most popular websites. Apple tells us that they do whatever is the main function on those websites over and over again, including playing Flash video. Yes, real-world testing for Apple means testing Flash performance as well.
Apple notes that results may vary still based on configuration and your usage patterns. But unlike with previous ratings, that has the possibility to be a good thing too (as in battery life could actually be better than stated). “We want this to be as realistic as possible,” a spokesperson tells us.