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Just how much of a drain is Bluetooth?

T

thelookingglass

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Apr 27, 2005
2,138
633
Maybe the expert electrical engineers (or anyone else qualified to answer the question) can help on this one:

I plug my 2013 MBA into an external monitor at home, complete with Bluetooth keyboard and mouse. It's a little bit of a pain shutting off Bluetooth everytime I take my MBA on the road, just to conserve battery. How much less battery life should I be expecting if I just leave Bluetooth on the whole time? Would it be a significant hit?
 
C

coldjeanzzz

macrumors 6502a
Nov 4, 2012
655
17
...Why exactly is it a pain to turn off bluetooth, it takes like a split second to do it from the menu bar
 
APlotdevice

APlotdevice

macrumors 68040
Sep 3, 2011
3,145
3,861
If the Bluetooth on a MacBook is optimized like an iPad, the drain should be fairly negligible. (Maybe a few minutes' difference)

Also, FWIW, I have heard there are scripts and applets that can automatically turn off Bluetooth when you go to battery power.
 
T

thelookingglass

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Apr 27, 2005
2,138
633
Thanks for the responses. Very helpful. The only two devices I have connected are a keyboard and mouse. I'd assume if there's no input from either of these devices, that the power draw would be extremely small.
 
Weaselboy

Weaselboy

Moderator
Staff member
Jan 23, 2005
34,137
15,602
California
thelookingglass said:
Maybe the expert electrical engineers (or anyone else qualified to answer the question) can help on this one:

I plug my 2013 MBA into an external monitor at home, complete with Bluetooth keyboard and mouse. It's a little bit of a pain shutting off Bluetooth everytime I take my MBA on the road, just to conserve battery. How much less battery life should I be expecting if I just leave Bluetooth on the whole time? Would it be a significant hit?
Click to expand...

I have the same machine and use it just like you do at home. I have tinkered around with BT on vs. off and never noticed any difference at all in battery life either way. I just leave BT on all the time now rather than mess with it.
 
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