Everybody wants more battery life. And sometimes, you can get it
-- but if you're expecting many hours of additional battery life from a
new 15-inch MacBook Pro, I expect you'll be disappointed.
Why? It's pretty simple: 1) batteries aren't getting better, and 2) last year's 15-inch MacBook Pro already had the biggest battery Apple could fit inside a laptop.
I
know that's a bold claim, and Apple's engineers have done seemingly
impossible things before. But I'm not talking about science -- I'm
talking about the law. It's illegal to carry a laptop on an airplane with a battery capacity greater than 100 watt-hours -- and the 15-inch MacBook Pro already has a 99.5 watt-hour power pack.
I'm not sure why 100 watt-hours is the limit, and not 99 or 103, but it's been the rule in many countries (including the US) for a number of years. Lithium-ion batteries are considered hazardous materials, because of their ability to explode,
and so generally you can only carry one internal up-to-100Wh battery
and a couple of up-to-160Wh removable spares on a flight now
But recently, many of the power improvements in Intel processors have been about making computers a bit slower, and this is Apple's MacBook Pro we're talking about here. Besides, Intel's latest chips -- the Kaby Lake ones -- aren't yet ready in the more powerful configurations Apple prefers for its MacBook Pro. (They're due early next year.)
If the new MacBook Pro even manages to keep the same 9-hour battery life, it'll be an impressive feat, particularly if the laptop gets any smaller. But if you were hoping for 12 hours on a charge, I doubt you'll get it.