2013 11" Battery Life Thread (real world)

catalyst07 said:

Can people with the 2013 11" Air please chime in with their real world experiences with battery life? Both i5 and i7 are fair game

I'm going to be upgrading from my 2012 11" Air i7 to the 2013 and want to get an idea of what kind of battery life to expect out of it.

Click to expand...

Unboxed mine yesterday afternoon and charged up to 100%, at about 6:30PM I went on battery for regular browsing, email, install software and normal new machine setup.

At about 10PM I've closed the lid with 6:41hr battery left.

At midnight I woke up the laptop again for one more hour of work.

This morning the battery indicator is telling me I have 4:51 hrs left that I do not consider real as I'm just typing in a browser with one safari windows open and minimum brightness as I'm in a dark room but I'll keep reporting.

So far I've been using the 11" for 5 hours and I think I can get another 4 hours or more as yesterday I was doing heavy tasks like installing a bunch of software over the network, setting up dropbox and downloading 20 GB of data, etc.

I'll fully charge the laptop today and re-test again with all soft are installed and normal use.

This is the base i5/4gb/256ssd

Tuesday my ultimate 11" i7/8gb/512sdd is coming but for what I'm seeing now this base model is fantastic, super fast, quiet and cool. I wonder how the extra ram and processor will affect battery life and heat too.

Update:

Right now is 10:11 AM and I've been working non stop, screen sharing with two other Macs in the house and installing more software and I'm just getting the red little bar on the battery indicator and now I have 1:56 hr left.

So far I've been using this machine for 7 hours on battery, I'll update just before the battery dies.

Update 2:

Computer went off at 10:50AM after doing some extensive movie copying over networks to NAS and screen sharing with other macs.

I guess it is not to accurate as I was setting up the machine from scratch but the total battery time was about 8:10 hrs - 8:30 hrs.

curtoise said:

Unboxed mine yesterday afternoon and charged up to 100%, at about 6:30PM I went on battery for regular browsing, email, install software and normal new machine setup.

At about 10PM I've closed the lid with 6:41hr battery left.

At midnight I woke up the laptop again for one more hour of work.

This morning the battery indicator is telling me I have 4:51 hrs left that I do not consider real as I'm just typing in a browser with one safari windows open and minimum brightness as I'm in a dark room but I'll keep reporting.

So far I've been using the 11" for 5 hours and I think I can get another 4 hours or more as yesterday I was doing heavy tasks like installing a bunch of software over the network, setting up dropbox and downloading 20 GB of data, etc.

I'll fully charge the laptop today and re-test again with all soft are installed and normal use.

This is the base i5/4gb/256ssd

Tuesday my ultimate 11" i7/8gb/512sdd is coming but for what I'm seeing now this base model is fantastic, super fast, quiet and cool. I wonder how the extra ram and processor will affect battery life and heat too.

Click to expand...

Sounds awesome.

I bought an i7/8GB 11" also (coming on Thursday), and I've been worrying about the affect it might have on battery/heat. Let me know how yours is if you get the chance.

musika said:

Sounds awesome.

I bought an i7/8GB 11" also (coming on Thursday), and I've been worrying about the affect it might have on battery/heat. Let me know how yours is if you get the chance.

Click to expand...

I'll start testing as soon as I get the machine, I've posted an update to the battery test with the latest battery reading.

curtoise said:

Update 2:

Computer went off at 10:50AM after doing some extensive movie copying over networks to NAS and screen sharing with other macs.

I guess it is not to accurate as I was setting up the machine from scratch but the total battery time was about 8:10 hrs - 8:30 hrs.

Click to expand...

Thanks for all of the updates. Keep in mind that the 9 hour battery spec from Apple is for 9 hours of web browsing. It sounds like you were doing some intense work, so 8 and a half hours with all of that is pretty insane.

musika said:

Thanks for all of the updates. Keep in mind that the 9 hour battery spec from Apple is for 9 hours of web browsing. It sounds like you were doing some intense work, so 8 and a half hours with all of that is pretty insane.

Click to expand...

Yes that is correct, I was setting up my whole environment, everything is set now, including Win 7 and Vmware fusion, I'll perform another test and report back.

curtoise said:

Yes that is correct, I was setting up my whole environment, everything is set now, including Win 7 and Vmware fusion, I'll perform another test and report back.

Click to expand...

So overall battery life looks fantastic. Hopefully it will similar with the i7 version. I can't wait!

What about heat on your machine? Have you noticed it to be heating up at all?

Cool as a cucumber

I like cucumbers.

I too would be really interested in the difference in battery life, if any, between the i5 & i7 processors.

musika said:

I like cucumbers.

Click to expand...

Ok here we go again, 2:40PM and I'll go on Battery, let's see with normal use without installing and setting everything up how long it will last.

I'll jump in the pool with my two kids (fathers day duty) as it is close to 103 F outside and then I'll report what is going on

curtoise said:

Ok here we go again, 2:40PM and I'll go on Battery, let's see with normal use without installing and setting everything up how long it will last.

I'll jump in the pool with my two kids (fathers day duty) as it is close to 103 F outside and then I'll report what is going on

Click to expand...

Thanks for all of the info! Really helpful. Happy Father's Day!

curtoise said:

I'll jump in the pool with my two kids (fathers day duty) as it is close to 103 F outside and then I'll report what is going on

Click to expand...

Have fun but don't take your MBA with you! While the design is great, "swimming" hasn't been one of it's approved uses yet & will void your warranty.

musika said:

Thanks for all of the info! Really helpful. Happy Father's Day!

Click to expand...

Thanks! before I jump into the pool I want to share the battery status screen



3PM 9:10 hrs remaining


4PM checking e-mail and browsing this forum 9:49 hrs remaining




6:16PM browsing around, mail, safari and airplay radio to Apple TV, showing 14(?) hours and battery 92% full.




Update:

8:48PM light browsing and e-mail all evening and it is showing 86% 10 hours left.




Update:

11:12PM and I'm at 74% and 7:04 hr left




Update

I've been browsing, working an replying customer emails, Twitter, Screen sharing and about 12 tabs open this morning.

The new readings are 6:41 hrs left on my second day of using it on battery power, I'll attach to a 27' Thunderbolt display soon and report back.




Update

Ok, now I've been working for two hours doing heavy lifting, Vmware fusion, Chrome, Safari, mail, Photoshop CS3, ScreenSharing and attached to a Thunderbolt 27' and there is about 1:30 hrs left (as a reminder I went on battery yesterday at 2PM)



Update

Last update on the battery, 12PM and I've been working non stop attached to a Thunderbolt 27' display




Conclusion

Pretty good for the little 11" Air, 22 hours without charging (sleeping on/off) of real world usage, browsing, safari, youtube, mail, some airplay, about 10 minutes of FaceTime and today heavy work for almost 4 1/2 hours.

MeatRocket said:

Have fun but don't take your MBA with you! While the design is great, "swimming" hasn't been one of it's approved uses yet & will void your warranty.

Click to expand...

just updated the post with a new image.

curtoise said:

6:16PM browsing around, mail, safari and airplay radio to Apple TV, showing 14(?) hours and battery 92% full.

Image

Click to expand...

Interesting that the time seems to be rising. I noticed a similar thing when playing around with the MacBooks in the Apple Store today.

Judging by reports/reviews about the 13" model, which show around 15:30 hours of life, I kind of expect the 11", when casually browsing and stuff, to get maybe around 11-12 hours.

We'll see!

musika said:

Interesting that the time seems to be rising. I noticed a similar thing when playing around with the MacBooks in the Apple Store today.

Judging by reports/reviews about the 13" model, which show around 15:30 hours of life, I kind of expect the 11", when casually browsing and stuff, to get maybe around 11-12 hours.

We'll see!

Click to expand...

The battery meter adapts to your activity. It'll show more time remaining if you switch to less taxing activity and vice versa.

thelookingglass said:

The battery meter adapts to your activity. It'll show more time remaining if you switch to less taxing activity and vice versa.

Click to expand...

Please check my latest update with pic.

curtoise said:

Please check my latest update with pic.

Click to expand...

Wow. The battery in these machines looks fantastic.

I got 9 hours in today leaving mine at 20%

Streamed a movie and watched it last night

Wrote tunes in Live and streamed iTunes purchases over the cloud from 1 to 8.

Favorite moment was exporting my track almost instantly.

YMMV if you render video or do more extraneous work.

curtoise said:

Thanks! before I jump into the pool I want to share the battery status screen

Image

3PM 9:10 hrs remaining


4PM checking e-mail and browsing this forum 9:49 hrs remaining

Image


6:16PM browsing around, mail, safari and airplay radio to Apple TV, showing 14(?) hours and battery 92% full.

Image


Update:

8:48PM light browsing and e-mail all evening and it is showing 86% 10 hours left.

Image

Click to expand...

Thanks for this. What brightness setting are you on? And is Bluetooth on?

I just bought a 2013 MBA 11" base model yesterday that I am trying out. Running a battery test as well just tracking while browsing the web, email, light iTunes, and some MS Office apps, and wireless Time Machine backups in the background. Only played a couple short videos.

One thing I notice is that Coconut battery is offset, and probably more accurate, than the % remaining that Apple is reporting. Mine didn't move off of 100% for a long time.

Before testing, I had performed the full TM backup and ran the battery down to 5%. Fully recharged it, let it sit charged for another hour, then tracked at different intervals while browsing.

I have WiFi and Bluetooth both on, brightness at 10 dots and keyboard at 2 dots. Apps running during the entire actual-use testing are: Mail/Chrome/Messenger

Here's where I am at right now for the testing and % remaining. I'll update as I use it more.
TIME APPLE%/COCONUT%
6/16/2013
2:50p 100/100
3:10p 100/96
3:20p 99/94
3:26p 98/93
sleep
7:54p 97/92
7:55p 96/92
8:20p 90/86
8:57p 82/78
9:02p 80/77
sleep
9:37p 78/75
9:47p 75/72
10:08p 70/67
10:22p 67/64
10:43p 61/59
sleep
6/17/2013
6:21a 59/56
6:36a 55/53
6:51a 52/50
sleep
10:01p 46/44
10:25p 40/39
10:51p 34/33
11:14p 28/28
sleep
6/18/2013
5:59a 27/27
6:01a 26/26
6:04a 25/25
6:07a 24/24
6:24a 20/20
6:36a 17/17
sleep
9:10p 12/12
9:13p 11/11
9:18p 10/10
9:24p 8/8
9:38p 5/5
9:49p 3/3
9:51p 2/2

TOTALS:
Usage:
341 min.
81% used
Sleep:
49 hr. 10 min.
17% used

PACE:
7h 01m

thelookingglass said:

Thanks for this. What brightness setting are you on? And is Bluetooth on?

Click to expand...

Brightness at about 60% and bluetooth off.

catalyst07 said:

Thanks, this is great info; exactly what I was looking for!

Interested to see how the i7/8gb version does as that's what I'd likely order...

Click to expand...

I'm getting one delivered on Tuesday and I'll report back, I'll do a handbrake movie encode on both to check processor speed too.