Sealed-Battery Macs Earn High Marks

Removable notebook batteries are convenient in theory, but hardly anyone actually replaces them. Apple and other firms are responding with sealed-in batteries, which, Apple says, can be bigger and thus last longer. Walter Mossberg ran his “own harsh battery test” on the new MacBook Pros and found their sealed-in powerhouses  “excellent,” he writes for the Wall Street Journal.

The 13-inch notebook’s battery lasted nearly 5 hours; the 15-inch model’s lasted 5 hours and 21 minutes—and that’s with WiFi on, music pumping, and screen bright. “I estimate that, in a more normal usage scenario, both machines would come close to Apple’s claim of around 7 hours between charges—essentially a full workday of unplugged use,” Mossberg wries.
(More MacBook stories.)