Highest model of Macbook 15 review:
http/www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Apple-MacBook-Pro-15-Mid-2009-2-8-GHz.18795.0.html
The new implanted lithium-ion polymer battery with 73 Wh has a higher capacity than its predecessor (50 Wh). With this the runtime also increases by about 50% in a direct comparison.
The actual runtime is not only dependent on the processor and graphic load, but also from the operating system and the applied graphic card.
For example, we reached a sensational 8h 53min without an outlet with the 9400M under Mac OS X at simulating reading a text file at minimum brightness.
Regrettably, only the fixed 9600M GT can be used for Windows. Therefore (and because of a poorer optimization to Windows) the runtime decreases to 5h 13min without load.
We established the worst case in Windows via Battery Eater in the Classic test (GPU full load and CPU). The integrated battery only ran for 1h and 39 min here.
We achieved over 6 hours of runtime at WLAN surfing in Mac OS X (9400) relevant to practice. Two short movies on DVD can very well be watched with 3h 41min at DVD rendering.
Conclusively, the runtime increase is remarkable due to the new battery. For instance, with the old battery DVDs with only about 2h 20min could be watched.
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I dont know of any Xotic Pc reviews as they are a relatively small company. I do know that its built on a MSI platform that is not of a quality equal to the Macbook.
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There are no details on what Apple will do with the macbooks---just rumors and tightening inventory. Many analysts expected them to refresh the macbook line when they released the ipad--so it is overdue. However... may not happen within the 2 week window you mention.