Feb 6 2008
It may seem like an odd thing to review, but you’d have a hard time getting much done if you didn’t have a good power supply. And if a Mac portable is your machine of choice, your productivity hinges on your battery.
A new writer here at MacMerc.com, Jordan Satok, has put the FastMac MacBook Pro Battery through its paces and has posted his findings.
Note:
Feb 5 2008
Over the last few days I have had the opportunity to test the FastMac MacBook Pro 17″ Battery. This is one of only a handful of third party replacement batteries for the MacBook Pro. It is contained within a shell identical to that of the original battery, and even has status LEDs. Throughout my testing this battery preformed equal or better to the Apple MacBook Pro Battery. I highly recommend it to all users who are interested in a second or replacement battery.
For the battery geeks out there, this battery uses Lithium-Polymer cells. For all the tests I charged the batteries up to 100%, then recorded the percentage remaining once the test was complete.
In my first test of battery life, I first opened up Photoshop, and left it idle until the battery was drained and compared the times of the Apple battery against the FastMac. The FastMac battery won this test hands down. For my second test, I compressed a roughly 42 minute DV video clip into H.264, and once again the FastMac Battery had a higher percentage remaining then the Apple.
I next decided to do a test that I thought the Apple battery would exceed in. I charged both batteries up to 100%, then left the MacBook Pro sleeping, lid closed for 30 minutes, and recording the percentage remaining when I opened it. For this test, the two batteries scored the exact same, both still had 100% remaining, according to the menu bar status.
So overall the FastMac battery has done a very good job stacking up to its USD$129 counterpart. If you are wondering why I did not publish exact numbers, all the tests I did are approximate for showing the performance of the FastMac battery in comparison Apple supplied one. I would suggest this battery to anyone that wants a new battery.
Product Info:
Name: Battery, Rechargeable: MacBook Pro 17, TruePower
Price: $99.95
Warranty: 1 Year
