Battery Life.... Should I be concerned

[stakis]

Hey Macrumorists,

I just wanted to get some opinions from some of you on the MBA battery life I'm experiencing.

First, my MBA is about 2 weeks old and its a week 11 MBA... When I run coconutbattery, I'm given a max capacity of 4949mAh which is 97% health, and 12 load-cycles.

the other day, I was using my MBA at the office.... I had a usb hub pluged in with my mighty mouse and ethernet adapter pluged in... wifi was off. and screen brightness was set to about 5 or 6 blocks...

In my session I was surfing the web... (basically reading all the techblogs... I watched 2 5 minute youtube vids)

I downloaded a 300 meg file with bit torrent, and then downloaded install files for Ubuntu (700megs)

the last thing I did was install ubuntu in VMware.

after all this... I was left with an uptime of 2hrs and 45 minutes.

I haven't been monitoring my battery life other than today, but I figured that I would've had at least 3.5 hours... given that the install of Ubuntu might have been a high cpu thing....

do you guys think this is normal?

PS... I'm also using coolbook to under-volt the CPU....
:confused:

[Zwhaler]

Im not so sure about your real world restults, but I wouldnt be too concerned with 97% battery health. Dropping below 85 or 80 is bad, but in your case, you are fine.

Not sure if this applies to you, but here is something I noticed while using a MacBook. Battery time remaining is indicated by the amount of power being used at the moment. For example, if you are utilizing all of your MBAs power, and the time remaining says 2 hours (example), the second you finish and revert to using only 25% of power, then the battery time will jump back to something much higher.

[ayeying]

That seems perfectly normal. When I had my MBA, I got around 2.5-3 hours of battery life with CoolBook (and running stuff like virtual machines).

[MarkF44]

Hi everybody.


I experience the same :

4860mAH on max charge
Health 95%

I am not using undervoltage but with very light use e.g. Safari/Mail/aMSN, no more than 3 hours which is very disappointing, (wifi/airport disabled, just Ethernet USB adapter)

and which is very anoying : up to 10 hours to charge the battery....

how long does it take for you ?

[RedAbundance]

lol it is very annoying indeed that the battery takes FOREVER to recharge. i remember it didn't take more than 3 or 4 hours to charge my macbook pro.
i'm getting on average 4 hours on my air for surfing the web and light video watching, and it takes about 8 hours to recharge fully.

[aussieinrome]

Hi everybody.


I experience the same :

4860mAH on max charge
Health 95%

I am not using undervoltage but with very light use e.g. Safari/Mail/aMSN, no more than 3 hours which is very disappointing, (wifi/airport disabled, just Ethernet USB adapter)

and which is very anoying : up to 10 hours to charge the battery....

how long does it take for you ?

I get 5 - 6 hours of wifi surfing. To charge is about 3 or 4 hours (4 hours when totally out of juice).

[MarkF44]

I get 5 - 6 hours of wifi surfing. To charge is about 3 or 4 hours (4 hours when totally out of juice).

lol it is very annoying indeed that the battery takes FOREVER to recharge. i remember it didn't take more than 3 or 4 hours to charge my macbook pro.
i'm getting on average 4 hours on my air for surfing the web and light video watching, and it takes about 8 hours to recharge fully.


some people get more than 5 hours and just 4 hours to recharge, some other no more than 3 hours and more than 8 hours to recharge...

so there is an issue, it is crystal clear. :(

[stakis]

I've read on other posts that others have been getting better results after calibrating the battery.... is this simply done by letting the computer die out completely and then charge it back up to 100%... or is there a specific method in re-calibrating the battery?

My charge time seams to be about 4 hours....


man, I wish I was getting 4 or 5 on wifi surfing.... sucks that they aren't all consistent...

[MarkF44]

After a battery calibration it is the same, but I have noticed that :

with full recharge :

3H remaining with ethernet adapter, airport deactivated
4H30 without ethernet, airport still deactivated
3H30 without ethernet, airport activated

results are not quite accurate, let's say +- 20 min but ethernet adapter sucks :mad:
I am not quite happy with that, almost 50% more battery life without the adapter...:rolleyes:

3H30 with airport is still disappointing.

After calibration, battery charge seems to be near 5H, but it was in the night so just a calculation from the 80% I get before sleeping.

[stakis]

After a battery calibration it is the same, but I have noticed that :

with full recharge :

3H remaining with ethernet adapter, airport deactivated
4H30 without ethernet, airport still deactivated
3H30 without ethernet, airport activated

results are not quite accurate, let's say +- 20 min but ethernet adapter sucks :mad:
I am not quite happy with that, almost 50% more battery life without the adapter...:rolleyes:

3H30 with airport is still disappointing.

After calibration, battery charge seems to be near 5H, but it was in the night so just a calculation from the 80% I get before sleeping.


I was thinking there was something fishy with that Ethernet dongle... I mean, theoretically you'd think that ethernet has way more power savings than wifi, but what most people don't realize is that the ethernet isn't being operated by a chip on the motherboard, rather through USB... so that must take some kind of CPU power or voltage to make the bridge.....

I'm going to try doing the same kind of test as I mentioned in my original post and this time use wifi... see what the results are and I'll post back here.

[aussieinrome]

Any of you with really bad battery time ever bother to give your Macbook Air 14 hours of charging when you first purchased it?

I thought it was common knowledge to do that - it give your battery a longer life too.

I get on average 6 hours of wireless surfing and stuff, and no I don't bother dimming my screen or anything like that.

[MarkF44]

Any of you with really bad battery time ever bother to give your Macbook Air 14 hours of charging when you first purchased it?

I thought it was common knowledge to do that - it give your battery a longer life too.

I get on average 6 hours of wireless surfing and stuff, and no I don't bother dimming my screen or anything like that.
I've recharge full 100% the battery before installing the MBA. Yes it is a common knowledge and I was aware about that.
I don't want to deal with WiFi for health safety reasons so I think the MBA is not for me because ethernet gets too much ressources.
I have no moneyback warranty, I have to sell my MBA:(

[aussieinrome]

I've recharge full 100% the battery before installing the MBA. Yes it is a common knowledge and I was aware about that.
I don't want to deal with WiFi for health safety reasons so I think the MBA is not for me because ethernet gets too much ressources.
I have no moneyback warranty, I have to sell my MBA:(

What's the problem with Wifi?

[MarkF44]

What's the problem with Wifi?
wow, huge question, just try wifi+health in google.
Are you sure you want to have a microwave on balls ? Maybe everything is fine right now, but in 5, 10...30 years ?

[joegomolski]

Here's something to think about. When the MBA is very active, doing this and that. The battery gauge software, will be looking at current usage, and will determine remaining battery life as if that activity will continue.

To test this check your battery life, and then dim your display to it's lowest setting, when the battery gauge then examines remaining life, it's calculation will be based on the MBA's reduced usage.

When you begin to use the MBA more intensely, you'll see the time remaining drop.

Set the MBA to it's lowest level of activity and the battery life will go up.

[aussieinrome]

wow, huge question, just try wifi+health in google.
Are you sure you want to have a microwave on balls ? Maybe everything is fine right now, but in 5, 10...30 years ?

So I guess you don't own a cell phone, have a satellite dish, listen to the radio or live near any overhead powerlines either?

[MarkF44]

So I guess you don't own a cell phone, have a satellite dish, listen to the radio or live near any overhead powerlines either?
If you read carefully your GSM owner manual you should know that they told you to use it as far as possible from yourself using a "hand free kit" if possible.
A satellite receiver just...receive, no emissions, the wave we receive from sat is so low that you need big parabols to concentrate it.

A lot of people misunderstand the way the radio waves works and there is a strong believe that FM is the same that WiFi, if you are happy with that it is your own health, but I don't like the idea to have fulltime microwave emissions in my home...

[MarkF44]

For guys that get more than 5 hours of use can you tell me :
*how is the dimmer for the screen light : full, half ?
*same question for the keyboard retro light
*do you use the MBA really during thos 5 hours or sometimes the screen is sleeping ?
*do you have any USB devices connected ?
*do you surf with airport activated ?

I can't get more than 3H30 of surf and I need to reduce screen brightness to get that, otherwise it is between 2H50 and 3H00 with brightness close to max.

I want to know if my battery has an issue or if the MBA is just not for me...

thanks.

[aussieinrome]

For guys that get more than 5 hours of use can you tell me :
*how is the dimmer for the screen light : full, half ?
*same question for the keyboard retro light
*do you use the MBA really during thos 5 hours or sometimes the screen is sleeping ?
*do you have any USB devices connected ?
*do you surf with airport activated ?

I can't get more than 3H30 of surf and I need to reduce screen brightness to get that, otherwise it is between 2H50 and 3H00 with brightness close to max.

I want to know if my battery has an issue or if the MBA is just not for me...

thanks.

I think you've got a battery issue. My screen is set to mid to high brightness, back light keyboard is automatic and I have no usb devices connected, just wifi activated and bluetooth deactivated since I don't have bluetooth devices. And I don't put my MBA to sleep, I deactivated that function.

[stakis]

Well it looks like I'm till only at the 3:15 minute mark... Screen brightness at half way using Wifi...

I'd also like to hear what you folks with 5 hour times are doing... i'm determined to get this juice flowing better....

I did however reset my SMC and calibrate my battery, so I don't really know what else I can do...

[aussieinrome]

Well it looks like I'm till only at the 3:15 minute mark... Screen brightness at half way using Wifi...

I'd also like to hear what you folks with 5 hour times are doing... i'm determined to get this juice flowing better....

I did however reset my SMC and calibrate my battery, so I don't really know what else I can do...

I really do nothing special at all, I've got bluetooth disabled and that's all. The screen brightness is set to half way and that's it. I get 5 to 6 hours no problem - I'm so used to my Vaio UX giving me 3 hours which really bugged me.

[Sesshi]

I really do nothing special at all, I've got bluetooth disabled and that's all. The screen brightness is set to half way and that's it. I get 5 to 6 hours no problem - I'm so used to my Vaio UX giving me 3 hours which really bugged me.

I get about the same as the Air (3:30 + sleep / hibernate time) when I use the extended-battery UX under similar circumstances. Mind you, I'm not as dilligent on the UX about turning off WLAN when I don't need it. Hammering it, the machine goes down to about 2:40.

Besides, you can do this with the UX:
http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/3742/uxbattum3.jpg

And this with the TZ:
http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/1120/tzbattsy7.jpg

1.3 Sony kilograms would get you an 11-hour TZ or a 14-hour UX.

[MarkF44]

Well it looks like I'm till only at the 3:15 minute mark... Screen brightness at half way using Wifi...

I'd also like to hear what you folks with 5 hour times are doing... i'm determined to get this juice flowing better....

I did however reset my SMC and calibrate my battery, so I don't really know what else I can do...

I've returned my MBA back to the support, some people get 5 hours some others no more than 3 hours, it is an issue.
I have to order another MBA or switch to a more reliable laptop...MacBook Pro ?

[aussieinrome]

I've returned my MBA back to the support, some people get 5 hours some others no more than 3 hours, it is an issue.
I have to order another MBA or switch to a more reliable laptop...MacBook Pro ?

They (Apple) needs to replace your battery, there is clearly something wrong with a batch of MBA batteries - right now, I'm getting over 6 hours of remaining battery life and I've already been using my MBA for 20 minutes. My screen is set to half brightness.

[aussieinrome]

I get about the same as the Air (3:30 + sleep / hibernate time) when I use the extended-battery UX under similar circumstances. Hammering it, goes down to about 2:40.

Besides, you can do this with the UX:
http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/3742/uxbattum3.jpg

And this with the TZ:
http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/1120/tzbattsy7.jpg

Hahaha, great response.

[MarkF44]

They (Apple) needs to replace your battery, there is clearly something wrong with a batch of MBA batteries - right now, I'm getting over 6 hours of remaining battery life and I've already been using my MBA for 20 minutes. My screen is set to half brightness.

I agree with you, there is an issue, however I hesitate to go back to MBA, I used to surf only with ethernet adapter (no wifi) and definetely think that MBA miss an Ethernet port.
Same battery issue with or without adapter but adapter run a little hot and for sure takes some energy...

[stakis]

I agree with you, there is an issue, however I hesitate to go back to MBA, I used to surf only with ethernet adapter (no wifi) and definetely think that MBA miss an Ethernet port.
Same battery issue with or without adapter but adapter run a little hot and for sure takes some energy...

MarkF44 seems you and I have the same issue with the macbook air... AS I'm not ready to give it up yet... I will be taking it to an apple store as soon as I can to get it replaced... seeing as how that is what alot of people have successfully done lately... bit of a pain, but I believe in the product...

as for those that are getting six hours.... one more piece of clarification.... are you guys just quoting what the time bar says at the top... or are you letting the thing drain... and just as it is at its last %s do you check the uptime say in Istat or something similar???

thanks

Stakis

[MarkF44]

MarkF44 seems you and I have the same issue with the macbook air... AS I'm not ready to give it up yet... I will be taking it to an apple store as soon as I can to get it replaced... seeing as how that is what alot of people have successfully done lately... bit of a pain, but I believe in the product...

as for those that are getting six hours.... one more piece of clarification.... are you guys just quoting what the time bar says at the top... or are you letting the thing drain... and just as it is at its last %s do you check the uptime say in Istat or something similar???

thanks

Stakis
Yes, I believe that we have the same issue.

I also give up for those additionnals reasons :

-when you use MBA on you knees or in the bed, the footprint are easy to block which can cause a 6200RPM issue. On a MBP, footprint are better placed.
-I experiment the very annoying "fan issue", youtube or garageband , it doesn't matter, the fan goes very easily to 6200 RPM.

Of course the 3H longlife was experienced without blocking the footprint and without reaching the 6200RPM.

It is an awesome laptop, I really hesitate to try again, I am close to :)
I

[stakis]

Yes, I believe that we have the same issue.

I also give up for those additionnals reasons :

-when you use MBA on you knees or in the bed, the footprint are easy to block which can cause a 6200RPM issue. On a MBP, footprint are better placed.
-I experiment the very annoying "fan issue", youtube or garageband , it doesn't matter, the fan goes very easily to 6200 RPM.

Of course the 3H longlife was experienced without blocking the footprint and without reaching the 6200RPM.

It is an awesome laptop, I really hesitate to try again, I am close to :)
I

SEe the fan doesn't bother me as much... I don't have a big problem with it... and I figure if I'm not the only one that is experiencing it, then I can live with it... but to hear that some people are getting 6 hour, or 5 or even 4... it makes it hard to just Live with.... Mind you I'm the sucker that apple loves to give these Rev A models to, cause I'll accept it as it is... just cause I think the damn thing is cool... ( I guess I have a gadget addiction.... but I know I'm not the only one)

[Sesshi]

as for those that are getting six hours.... one more piece of clarification.... are you guys just quoting what the time bar says at the top... or are you letting the thing drain... and just as it is at its last %s do you check the uptime say in Istat or something similar???

I'd also like to know the above. What it predicts and what it actually gets is, like any device, different but I've noticed over time on this forum that the Apple-addled tend to ignore this. FYI stakis my actually discharged life is pretty much the same as yours.

I get fluctuations between 96 and 100% when it is fully charged and I don't believe it to be a big deal since my MBP's also sometimes do this, although nothing else (non-Apple) I own does this right now.

[MarkF44]

Yes, the 6200RPM "issue" is not so surprising, I don't know any laptop that like to play some youtube video without spinning up the fans.
I decided to send back my MBA because up to 10 hours to recharge it is a clue of a real battery issue. 3 hours of light use is the average for a laptop and is a good performance if it is a Vista PC, however I should get at least 4 hours so it is also a battery issue IMHO. The 5 hours of WiFi productiviy announced by Apple are met by a lot of users...I use ethernet so 4 hours could be acceptable but 3 hours are not...

I still hesitate to try another MBA...nice laptop indeed.

[Sesshi]

Just an addition that in the same 'hammer mode' as I timed the Sony UX at 2:40 at - that is IGP and CPU in reasonably heavy use, screen at half brightness and BT/WLAN on , I get 2:20 on the MBA. As I said, in normal use I can't crack 3:30 with ~ 5-6 hours of sleep, power saving features enabled, WLAN off when not required and display right down low.

I know that I haven't had bad luck when buying Apple gear - when you pick up as many minor-to-major-flawed Apple gear as I have, you know it's because of piss-poor QC / build quality than bad luck - but I'm pretty incredulous that I could have yet another machine with a problem.

I truly wonder if some people aren't just going with what Apple's quoting / estimating on the battery display.

3 hours of light use is the average for a laptop and is a good performance if it is a Vista PC,

For a mainstream 'workhorse' 15-inch-class machine maybe. But under Vista, we actually get viable all-day use options. I know some (oh all right, most) on this forum love to make comparisons between apples and past-sell-by-date-oranges for some reason, but it is perfectly possible to compare apples with... well, better-than-apples.

[Seth Hawkins]

Any of you with really bad battery time ever bother to give your Macbook Air 14 hours of charging when you first purchased it?

I thought it was common knowledge to do that - it give your battery a longer life too.

I'm getting my first Mac today - a MBA. I've read thru the electronic .pdf manual, and even searched the Apple Web site, looking for any reference to this - but have found nothing instructing me to plug in the notebook and allow it to charge for 14 hrs (or any other amount of time) before first use.

Are you saying I should charge the battery for at least 14 hrs before powering it on for the first time? Or can I use it during this first 14 hr charge cycle?

If the "Fully Charged" indicator light comes on before the 14 hr point is reached, should I consider the battery to have a full charge, or should I leave it connected to AC power for 14 hrs regardless?

[aussieinrome]

I'm getting my first Mac today - a MBA. I've read thru the electronic .pdf manual, and even searched the Apple Web site, looking for any reference to this - but have found nothing instructing me to plug in the notebook and allow it to charge for 14 hrs (or any other amount of time) before first use.

Are you saying I should charge the battery for at least 14 hrs before powering it on for the first time? Or can I use it during this first 14 hr charge cycle?

If the "Fully Charged" indicator light comes on before the 14 hr point is reached, should I consider the battery to have a full charge, or should I leave it connected to AC power for 14 hrs regardless?

It's pretty common knowledge that you should give a new battery a long first charge, you can use the Macbook Air while it's charging, just don't disconnect the power cord. I did this and I've got a healthy battery. I purchased a Skype phone recently and printed in it's manual was to charge for 12-14 hours. I've read this with other devices too, like mobile phones, and digital cameras etc.

I hope this helps, the Macbook Air is an amazing machine!

[edit] Leave the AC power plugged in, even though the indicator is green.

[Sesshi]

I'm getting my first Mac today - a MBA. I've read thru the electronic .pdf manual, and even searched the Apple Web site, looking for any reference to this - but have found nothing instructing me to plug in the notebook and allow it to charge for 14 hrs (or any other amount of time) before first use.

Are you saying I should charge the battery for at least 14 hrs before powering it on for the first time? Or can I use it during this first 14 hr charge cycle?

If the "Fully Charged" indicator light comes on before the 14 hr point is reached, should I consider the battery to have a full charge, or should I leave it connected to AC power for 14 hrs regardless?

It doesn't help. I left mine plugged in from the early evening into the following day. The Jobs Reality Distortion Field wore off by the end of that day.

[larryj]

They (Apple) needs to replace your battery, there is clearly something wrong with a batch of MBA batteries - right now, I'm getting over 6 hours of remaining battery life and I've already been using my MBA for 20 minutes. My screen is set to half brightness.

Wow. I don't use my MBA for more than a couple of hours at a time, so I'm not 100% sure, but I'd say I get around 4 hours of battery life. This is less than half brightness, wi-fi on, bluetooth off, surfing with Safari.

Maybe I should be complaining to Apple.

[Seth Hawkins]

Thanks. That sure does help. If there's anything to be done to get max battery performance from this thing, I'm willing to do it. I'm glad I don't have to wait 'til tomorrow to use it.

[stakis]

Hey all,

I just did another test here is what I did:

Charged the MBA to 100%... rebooted... disconnected the power and then plugged in my superdrive.

I turned the Airport off, and raised the screen brightness all the way. I played a copy of Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and let it play with the sound up 3/4 of the way.

According to the Walt Mossberg review he was able to achieve 3hrs and 20 minutes or so..... mine came in at 2Hrs and 27 Minutes....

looks like something is up with my battery....

any thoughts?

[Sesshi]

It's what I'd get. As I said here or elsewhere, either piss-poor QC which will take you a while to resolve (not a surprise with Apple products) or other people are being Jobslinded.

You know, I've never said 'piss-poor' so often on a forum, if ever. It just goes to show.