
Which MacBook can code 8 hours without charging? - freelancerdever
iOS dev, in Xcode all day. Looking for a laptop that can code all day without plugging in.<p>Just bought the 12&quot;, shows only 5 hrs? Upgraded from 2012 15&quot; retina which only for me 3.6hrs.<p>Maybe I should try 13&quot; retina?
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davismwfl
None really. You can extend the life by dimming the display, shutting down
applications (including browsers), but if you are coding, compiling, testing
and debugging no mac (or really any laptop) will last 8 hours that I can think
of. This is especially true if you have device plugged into it for any
significant amount of the time.

If I am doing more heads down coding and less cycling through testing etc, my
15" mac retina does ok but I am typically around 6 hours disconnected IIRC,
and sometimes as low as 2-3 if I am doing firmware work where I have devices
plugged in a lot of the time. Honestly IMO, this is really good and I don't
need/expect more then that right now. Right now, with a 99% charge and only
surfing HN and doing some reading my mac is telling me I have 10:45 left, but
it isn't working much obviously.

EDIT: specifically I have a mid 2014 15" macbook pro

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freelancerdever
I have the 2012 15" retina, but I'm on the road freelancing all the time, so
now looking for something light.

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chadcmulligan
I use a 13" macbook air (fully optioned) for xcode - objc and swift, easily
get a day out of it, I'm regularly surprised with "you have only 5% charge
left", oh time to charge it. Performance is great, better than my behemoth
windows box with C#. I even run a couple of windows VM's on it for other dev
work and runs like a charm. The best thing is its so light!

I remember thinking I should get a macbook pro, but glad I went with the air.
The only reason I'd consider a pro is if I wanted to do a lot of video work,
but then my daughter has my old air and she makes movies with it, though space
is sometimes an issue. If it came to that one of those Samsung USB3 external
SSD's are dirt cheap now. I know people who run VM's on them over USB 3.

If you want more than one external monitor though it can get expensive - you
need to daisy chain thunderbolt's. USB monitors are possible, but not sure
about performance on those. I have an external 27" monitor on mine and works
fine, I have recollections of running a third monitor over airplay to my apple
tv, but I'd have to check that it's been a while (I use my phone for that now)

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scholia
Are you really coding all day on a laptop with no access to power points? That
doesn't sound very ergonomic.

Why not use an external battery pack? [http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/macbook-
portable-battery/](http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/macbook-portable-battery/)

I guess you could even hackintosh a Windows laptop that has interchangeable
batteries, but recharging both (or even three) on a daily basis would soon get
tiresome....

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ApolloRising
Macbook Air had the best battery life I have seen in a laptop but no retina.
You can always buy one of these:

[https://www.hypershop.com/products/hyperjuice-external-
batte...](https://www.hypershop.com/products/hyperjuice-external-battery-pack-
for-macbook)

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freelancerdever
ehhhh, retina is so nice though.

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moondev
What browser? I found that using Safari over Chrome drastically increases
battery life.

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freelancerdever
Mostly safari, and Chrome canary on the side.

