AnandTech: The truth about MacBook Air battery life

“By now you’ve heard that under ‘normal’ usage, the Air can only manage about 2.5 hours of battery life. That’s true and at the same time it isn’t. I touch on part of this in the review, but the MacBook Air isn’t designed to be your work notebook – no ultra portable is. It’s a notebook for a writer, for someone taking notes in class; it’s a second notebook, or a third system. As such, the typical usage model can be very different than your standard notebook,” Anand Lal Shimpi reports for AnandTech.

“At the same time, most of the people considering the Air aren’t looking at it as a second notebook or a third system, they are looking at it as their primary notebook (and will be left sorely disappointed or frustrated after a while). The end result is that you need a handful of battery life tests to really cover all bases. And that’s what I’ve done,” Lal Shimpi reports.

Lal Shimpi’s tests revealed:
• 4.27 hours for wireless Internet browsing and MP3 playback
• 3.42 hours for DVD playback
• 2.43 hours for Xvid playback, Web browsing, and heavy downloading

More in the full article here.

66 Comments

  1. OK the Micro Me, I was then curious about Ampar’s name. Dictionary says:

    “Ampar is a non-NMDA-type ionotropic transmembrane receptor for glutamate that mediates fast synaptic transmission in the central nervous system”

    Now it all becomes clear…

    Or wasn’t that what you were thinking Amp?

  2. I put up a lot of resistance to writing that parallels these series of comments but I have something to say that may shock all of you. Lord Voltemort is real and bought EverReady’s battery division. In that way he could make sure that the MBA batteries could keep going anion. anion, anion………..

  3. Wow… just… wow!

    I cannot remember when was the last time I saw this many puns in one single thread! Some creative bunch! Of course, leave it to Ampar to take the crown (not for the lack of trying of others, though – it was quite a contest!)

  4. Ampar –

    I C what you are doing all the way backup to your original post. I’ll have to give you a double A or even a triple A rating. Yes I’m positive – I definitely not negative on your posts. More power to you. You have my support and I am sure we could get an additional 9 volts of confidence.

    Peace.

  5. 2MB MacBook Pro vs 2MB MacBook Air SSD

    What $3000 MBA gets you vs MBP + AppleCare for $3000

    Performance: Xbench MBA % of MBP 100%

    CPU 87% (MBA slower)
    Thread 60%
    Memory 100% (both same)
    Quartz 75% (MBA slower)
    OpenGL 14% (WOW! Crawling vs MBP)
    User Interface 38% (wow! Slow vs MBP)
    Disk Test: not accurate due to data on drives.

    Conclusion: MBA Open GL sucks bad. If your program has a option to turn off Open Gl, use it. The integrated graphics is most likely responsible.

  6. Ran MBA through it’s paces, it does get hot underneath, not nearly as hot as a MBP. Sort of a warm spot vs a egg frying hot spot.

    The hot spot on a MBA is slightly on the left, right on your leg.

    By the way, don’t accidentally wiggle the USB security connection to the Apple-Store MBA’s when playing with it’s lightness.

    A very loud ear piercing siren occurs. :O

  7. This is a complex issue for some who find it revolting that it deflects attention from the scale of the problem, placing them poles apart from others who are galvanized into action.

    We should look at this series of tests in parallel from the perspective of Henry Watt, charged with battery and who tested positive for ion possession. Currently incapacitated at ohm, he has a magnetic personality that some find electrifying and he likes to curl up in his field with an ample supply of right hand rules for measuring flux. He has strong views on power consumption and reacts negatively when his power hungry wife displays her joules. Indeed, she claims he assaulted her recently and is positive she lost an electron.

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