11" Macbook Air 2012 Battery Life

[tudyniuz]

I was wondering how many hours of regular use do you get from your MacAir. I heard many people complaining about poor battery life. I'm wondering what people really get from their MacAir. I usually get 3 hours from it.

[GGJstudios]

Originally Posted by tudyniuz

I was wondering how many hours of regular use do you get from your MacAir. I heard many people complaining about poor battery life. I'm wondering what people really get from their MacAir. I usually get 3 hours from it.

There are many factors that impact your battery life, and comparing with other users is pointless, as everyone has different computing habits, runs different apps, different settings, etc. See the BATTERY LIFE FROM A CHARGE section of the following link for details, including tips on how to maximize your battery life.

The link below should answer most, if not all, of your battery/charging questions. If you haven't already done so, I highly recommend you take the time to read it.

Apple Notebook Battery FAQ

[Maniraja]

Thanks for pointing out the obvious that it depends on how you use it. But it is funny how from the day I bought my Air I would do exactly the same things with it after I installed 10.8. Before I got 7 to 8 hours no sweat. The day I installed it to now doing the same stuff it's less than three hours. Bit of surfing, bit of word processing and screen at half brightness. Nothing from Apple obviously not effecting everyone so guess they don't give a ****.

[GGJstudios]

Originally Posted by Maniraja

Thanks for pointing out the obvious that it depends on how you use it. But it is funny how from the day I bought my Air I would do exactly the same things with it after I installed 10.8. Before I got 7 to 8 hours no sweat. The day I installed it to now doing the same stuff it's less than three hours. Bit of surfing, bit of word processing and screen at half brightness. Nothing from Apple obviously not effecting everyone so guess they don't give a ****.

The point is, you're not "doing the same stuff". There is a lot more running on your system than the apps you see on your Dock. There are many processes running in the background and some of these are different between 10.7 and 10.8. Launch Activity Monitor and change "My Processes" to "All Processes" and you'll see what I'm referring to.

[Maniraja]

So does that mean that now I've updraded to Lion 10.8 there is something that runs in the background that reduces my battery life from over 7hours to under 3 when I (me the human being using the computer) is doing the same things. Seems rubbish to me if that's true. Reminds me of having a windows machine always having to hunt around and tweek the bloody think to make it work half decently. I bought this machine as I need long battery life. Apple have taken that away and seem to be doing nothing about it.

[GGJstudios]

Originally Posted by Maniraja

So does that mean that now I've updraded to Lion 10.8 there is something that runs in the background that reduces my battery life from over 7hours to under 3 when I (me the human being using the computer) is doing the same things.

Why not simply look at Activity Monitor and find out? You could have a single process that is putting high demands on system resources and draining your battery faster. Follow every step of the following instructions precisely. Do not skip any steps.

1. Launch Activity Monitor
2. Change "My Processes" at the top to "All Processes"
3. Click on the "% CPU" column heading once or twice, so the arrow points downward (highest values on top).
   (If that column isn't visible, right-click on the column headings and check it, NOT "CPU Time")
4. Click on the System Memory tab at the bottom.
5. Take a screen shot of the entire Activity Monitor window, then scroll down to see the rest of the list, take another screen shot
6. Post your screenshots.

[msjones]

I get 4-4.5 hours from my new base 11" MBA when working with a linux virtual machine, running an external USB wireless adapter. This is includes occasionally having an external USB 3.0 drive connected.

To get my max battery life I have the display lighting low, bluetooth disabled, if im using my external wifi adapter I disable the internal wireless.

[OnceYouGoMac]

Usually 3-4 hours, depending on what I'm doing. It doesn't last as quick if I'm playing games or watching loads of Youtube videos while using it on battery.

[JayEl54]

If i just surf the web and listen to music I can get a good 4+ hours out of it. I always end up on YouTube somehow and once you start watching video the battery just drains.

[LapsangSouchong]

I *had* been getting much better battery usage. Now it's about 2.5 hours.

[robvas]

Use Safari (and don't have Flash installed) and you should be able to get 4-5 hours out of it.

[tudyniuz]

With Brightness just below medium, 1 bar for keyboard lighting, Bluetooth off, Wi-Fi off, just using Microsoft Word and Powerpoint, after a little over 2 hours i had 82% left. I guess it's pretty good.

I had no other apps running in the backround besides the two.

[LapsangSouchong]

In the end, my issue was google drive, which my employer asked me to download. Had to do a clean install. All is right now. Google drive was creating (as best I can tell) multiple temp files.

[tudyniuz]

Originally Posted by LapsangSouchong

In the end, my issue was google drive, which my employer asked me to download. Had to do a clean install. All is right now. Google drive was creating (as best I can tell) multiple temp files.

How much are you getting now?

[chmedly]

I just bought the 11" after Thanksgiving and, coming from a 2010 13" mbp (10.6.8) it feels pretty lame. It seems like flash and a few other things put a bigger dent in the battery than they did on snow leopard (I think that's what 10.6 was called). There is a good chance that I would have taken this machine back if I had known. Unfortunately, the 14 day try it out period is just a little too short to really get a feel for things like this, especially around the holidays.
Now that I've had it a month I have a little remorse. Between the battery life and numerous hassles I've had with 10.8 I'm not as thrilled as I usually am with a new mac.
I hear that 10.8 is a likely culprit for the battery life issue. Great. I have yet to find anything in 10.8 that is an upgrade to 10.6 but this machine won't run anything earlier than what it shipped with. Sorry to sound so negative. Go AAPL!

[cedwhatev]

I always get around five hours, but it's usually with a three bar brightness, Bluetooth off, and it doesn't matter whether I am playing movies or surfing the web. If I'm using flash, it drains quicker obviously.. but the whole Google Chrome/Safari debate is untrue.. if Safari uses less resources then it must be extremely close, because I haven't noticed a difference. I am an Apple fanboy, I admit it... but Safari is an inferior browser, plain and simple.

----------

Above all else, I posted this a couple of weeks back.. if battery life concern is distracting you from enjoying your Mac.. just do what I did, and remove the percentage indicator from the menu bar. People took it as more of a joke, but I was serious.. I found myself obsessing over it a bit.. to the point where it distracted me. I removed the indicator and haven't looked back since. Makes a huge difference. Just enjoy your MBA... it's a fantastic little piece of equipment.

[quips88]

I was checking through the forum today, looking for an answer to my battery issue. I have a MBA 13" and I realized I was getting about 2 and 1/2 hours out of it lately.

Doing a few more Google searches I came across a post that had me check the Activity Monitor for "runaway applications"

I found a program called AGAdminServi running 100% CPU. Idid some checking and this is a Citrix application. Most people were reporting that they don't even use Citrix on their device. I'm not sure if it is tucked inside of Lion somewhere.

I found a terminal script to kill it:

sudo launchctl unload -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.citrix.agadminservice.plist

Instantly the heat dropped off my MBA and I went from a battery status of 2:30 to 9:09.

Just thought I would pass it along

Good luck all

[tudyniuz]

After 3 months I'm starting to get like 2-3 hours of regular usage. This includes half brightness, lots of browsing, using word and powerpoint, skyping and light gaming. I guess it's pretty decent, but the thing that drains the battery the most is the wifi. If I turn it off I can get up to 5 or more hours of battery life.

But by using it the way that I do, I get 2-3 hours.

[waa1futs]

Where is the "Not Enough" option in the poll?

I would have loved the 11" Air for its portability. But 2-3 hours of regular use is downright unacceptable for a $1000 machine

Hope that haswell can bring the 11" up to respectable battery life levels.

Originally Posted by tudyniuz

After 3 months I'm starting to get like 2-3 hours of regular usage. This includes half brightness, lots of browsing, using word and powerpoint, skyping and light gaming. I guess it's pretty decent, but the thing that drains the battery the most is the wifi. If I turn it off I can get up to 5 or more hours of battery life.

But by using it the way that I do, I get 2-3 hours.

[Mopar]

Originally Posted by Maniraja

So does that mean that now I've updraded to Lion 10.8 there is something that runs in the background that reduces my battery life from over 7hours to under 3 when I (me the human being using the computer) is doing the same things. Seems rubbish to me if that's true. Reminds me of having a windows machine always having to hunt around and tweek the bloody think to make it work half decently. I bought this machine as I need long battery life. Apple have taken that away and seem to be doing nothing about it.

I've never heard of any 11" MBA getting anywhere near 7 hours - and I've gone through a few MBAs (11" and 13") over the years.

My wife's 2010 13" would get 7-8 hours on a regular basis, but her 2012 seems to get closer to 7 than 8 these days.

My current 11" (2011) gets around 3-4 hours if I go easy on the battery. It would appear that's about average.

[Ray Brady]

Originally Posted by Mopar

I've never heard of any 11" MBA getting anywhere near 7 hours.

Mine gets over seven hours in regular usage, however my "regular usage" rarely involves Wi-Fi. For the most part, I use my MBA for writing, and only activate the Wi-Fi when I need it.

[alanramsey]

Until today I was getting only about 2.5 hours. I have wifi always on, bluetooth off, screen on 3 bars, not many apps running.

After reading this thread I checked my Activity Monitor and found that DirectoryService was using approx 100% CPU. I killed Kies (which I never use) - now DirectoryService has magically gone down to 0% and it looks like I will be getting 7 hours out of my battery.

How annoying that Kies can cause so much hassle when I don't even use it. But at least I now know!

[luffytubby]

damn, this machine is begging for a haswell upgrade. I have a 200 dollars netbook that lasts 7 hours:/


How long would a Ipad with keyboard attached last in comparison?