"It looks like, once again, other notebook makers will have to play catch up to Apple in this department."

Apparently this reviewer is unfamiliar with the modern lineups of non-Apple manufacturers. For example, the Thinkpad T400 with nine-cell battery, which also weighs 5.5 lbs, gets 10 hours of battery life at 60% screen brightness. (The biggest difference being that the T400 has a battery that can be swapped on the go, and it costs less to get a Thinkpad of equivalent specs to a given MacBook Pro.)

The T400's battery does stick out the back though... so you're not making an oranges to oranges comparison. I, for one, don't like the idea of the battery sticking out the back. I'd prefer it to be a nice neat package (removable or not).

It's worth mentioning, but indeed not a straight comparison. The extended batteries on a Thinkpad aren't exactly pretty: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lenovophotolibrary/2774790879/

I was kind of curious about the T400 so I tried to spec one out close to the MBP 15" and I have to say Apple's machine holds up surprisingly well. I was expecting a much larger price delta but if you match the two machines it's about $100-$150 difference. T400 obviously wins on customization and, IMO, the MBP wins on design and software. (Vista Business + Norton AV // OSX + iLife)

Back to your core point though of this reviewer ignoring the competition I think part of that may simply be that Lenovo does a really poor job advertising their computers whereas Apple does a really good job at it. I kind of doubt it's any pent up Apple bias simply because this site primarily covers PC hardware. Most likely the reviewer just had no clue the T400 could be configured to, more or less, match the MBP 15"

I also tried pricing out dell studio 15" comparing it to my current macbook 15" pro (8 months old, not unibody, 2.4Ghz w/ 2GB of ram) and it costs $900 vs $1400 when I bought the macbook pro. It also has 4GB of ram, I couldn't get a 2GB option, the HD is bigger and getting a 1080p screen on it just costs $50 more.

...although it is on offer at the moment. Generally I'd be wary of comparing a dell to a macbook pro, given the formers' tendency towards plasticy tat. A high quality laptop like a T400 seems a more reasonable comparison.

Does the T400 actually match IBM's claims though? My understanding is that the new sealed battery MB & MBP models achieve the number quoted by Apple, which is generally a rarity in notebook battery claims.

It sickens me to see this sort of pandering to Apple. I'd expect a reviewer on a respected site such as AnandTech to at least maintain a semblance of neutrality.

In this case, the reviewer is the very same Anand that built the respected site.

so i got my Late 2008 Unibody MBP in october and now i'll be lucky if i get 2:20 just doing wireless web browsing with low brightness (they claim 3:20 for the same). I'll check in 9 months and see what kind of battery life they're getting.

I have a gen 1 early 2006 "thigh burner" model and I'd be lucky to get 1.5h doing anything that requires the screen to be on... Now I got really, really tempted to upgrade.

Same here. My Rev. A core duo MBP gets about the same, 1.5 hours. Problem is that once the battery hits 20% capacity it will shutdown the machine at any moment.

I've got an entry level unibody macbook, just the 13" one, and I consistently get between 4 and 5 hours battery life. This is browsing and development using netbeans (not the most lightweight ide ever designed). For lighter use I'll occasionally see 6+ hours, but that's often when I'm doing something else at the same time.

Exactly - I almost don't care about battery life because they all break down quickly anyway. If Apple managed to solve THAT problem, they are on to something, though. While atm I count on there being power sockets mostly everywhere, being freed from that might open up new use cases.

Would it be possible to swap out the battery for one of the new ones? I'm in the same boat.

No. The new batteries are non-removable, and wouldn't fit.

2:20! do you have the dual graphical cards? I find that switching to the low power graphic cards will give me around 5 hours, but my mbp is only two months old. I'd be sad if it would deteriorate to 2 hours in just half a year.

i'm always on the lower power GPU. for clarification, i can get around 4 hours with wifi off (on planes).

A table of battery life/mass ratios would be considerably more interesting.

My Thinkpad T400 with a 9-cell battery gets 9 hours best-case and at least 4-5 with varying use including music and decent brightness.

I have a question for people who are upset over non-removable batteries:

Have you considered a universal external laptop battery?

I haven't used them personally so I don't know the possible drawbacks but I'm browsing a few different models and it looks like a better solution than carrying around a spare, model specific, battery. Some have USB 5V ports so you can charge other devices off them. Some are pretty beefy but I'm also seeing a lot of models that are barely any bigger than a spare laptop battery. What's the drawback?

...and still less time than if I carry a second battery around. And, if I'm doing the LA-Paris trip more than occasionally, I probably have three batteries.

You've always been able to gain additional battery life by adding weight and cost. The remarkable thing here is that it has been done by adding neither. For the overwhelming majority of users, there is no downside to this. For the rest, it is an inconvenience at most.

Well, the battery isn't replaceable, so there is a downside. You can not get more runtime by carting around batteries (unless you jerry rig a 15V battery and the airline adapter...)

The overwhelming majority of users never replace the battery on any system anyway, hence as I said it is not really a downside to them. The minority that do is perpetually shrinking as individual battery life increases.

You can not get more runtime by carting around batteries

If you insist on the batteries being internal, then yes, but if like the parent post you are already willing to spend the money and cart around the weight, you can just buy one (or more) of the many external battery packs on the market. The portion of users for which even this is unacceptable compared to carting around 2-3 spare internal batteries must be staggeringly small.

3 batteries? you're crazy. http://www.seatguru.com/ + airline power adapter = win.

What airline are you flying LA-Paris that doesn't have outlets, even in economy?

United has no outlets in economy at all, afaik.

Air France? There were no outlets in economy on CDG-SFO flights (last checked last year).

Be very careful with these new batteries. The chemistry is very heat-sensitive and if your laptop gets very hot for extended periods it will lost most of its ability to hold charge after only 12-24 months.

source?

I have about 3 years experience with lithium ion vs. lithium polymer batteries whilst building my own e-bike battery pack, and using both types of batteries in my Thinkpad.