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haaX

macrumors member
Jun 17, 2013
34
0
So I take it you're keeping the base model?

People seem to have a hard time deciding which version to get! Me included... that it's not me is at least something :)

Got a 13" i7/8/256 on my way, but really considering getting the 11" i5/8/512 instead. First it was portability, then it was the decreased battery performance from i7. Weird there's no proper review of the i7 yet.
 

curtoise

macrumors 6502a
Apr 19, 2010
529
14
So your 11" MBA is going to last over 16 hours under heavy use?

Forgive me if I don't believe you.

no it won't, it can last 3 days if you don't use it non stop. The i5 lated 2 days before I plugged the computer back for work on monday and attached a thunderbolt display and I had about 30% left after the whole weekend on battery installing and setting things up.

If you put the screen at 100% and play a youtube video on repeat non-stop or export movies on iMovie non stop, edit videos etc it will give you the 7-8-9 hours as advertised.

If you use it in a more normal way (think "regular customer"), taking breaks, sleeping overnight, launch breaks, etc it will last much much longer probably 2-3 days or regular browsing, email, social networks etc.

----------

Thank you for saying what I didn't feel like saying. :)

:p seriously, I still have both and I'm still undecided, just waiting for a good review-comparison of both processors.

Unfortunately I have to work and I don't have time to really test both machines at the same time.

But probably I'll get i5 or i7 and 8gb/ssd for sure.
 

defomicron

macrumors member
Jun 13, 2013
46
4
no it won't, it can last 3 days if you don't use it non stop. The i5 lated 2 days before I plugged the computer back for work on monday and attached a thunderbolt display and I had about 30% left after the whole weekend on battery installing and setting things up.

If you put the screen at 100% and play a youtube video on repeat non-stop or export movies on iMovie non stop, edit videos etc it will give you the 7-8-9 hours as advertised.

If you use it in a more normal way (think "regular customer"), taking breaks, sleeping overnight, launch breaks, etc it will last much much longer probably 2-3 days or regular browsing, email, social networks etc.

Your exact words were: "After five hours of heavy use, I still had 40% charge left."

You didn't say five hours of taking breaks, letting the computer sleep, etc. You said five hours of heavy use.

And if you meant five hours of taking breaks, letting the computer sleep, etc., I'd say the i7 and i5 are pretty even.
 

curtoise

macrumors 6502a
Apr 19, 2010
529
14
Your exact words were: "After five hours of heavy use, I still had 40% charge left."

You didn't say five hours of taking breaks, letting the computer sleep, etc. You said five hours of heavy use.

And if you meant five hours of taking breaks, letting the computer sleep, etc., I'd say the i7 and i5 are pretty even.

And then I've said ":p Seriously"

They are pretty even, just go with the i7 or the i5
 

curtoise

macrumors 6502a
Apr 19, 2010
529
14
Your exact words were: "After five hours of heavy use, I still had 40% charge left."

You didn't say five hours of taking breaks, letting the computer sleep, etc. You said five hours of heavy use.

And if you meant five hours of taking breaks, letting the computer sleep, etc., I'd say the i7 and i5 are pretty even.

You can also find my real world experience with the i5 here, normal browsing for full day, and then almost 5 hours of real heavy work attached to a thunderbolt screen with full brightness for 4 1/2 hours.

https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/17437127/
 

defomicron

macrumors member
Jun 13, 2013
46
4
You can also find my real world experience with the i5 here, normal browsing for full day, and then almost 5 hours of real heavy work attached to a thunderbolt screen with full brightness for 4 1/2 hours.

https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/17437127/

So you got 9 hours of constant use out of the i5.

My i7 was almost identical to that. I didn't drain it down as far as you, but I'm guessing that by 40% the estimated time remaining is pretty accurate.

It seems fairly safe to say: don't worry about battery life when deciding between i5 and i7.
 

musika

macrumors 65816
Sep 2, 2010
1,285
459
New York
So you got 9 hours of constant use out of the i5.

My i7 was almost identical to that. I didn't drain it down as far as you, but I'm guessing that by 40% the estimated time remaining is pretty accurate.

It seems fairly safe to say: don't worry about battery life when deciding between i5 and i7.

I'll have to see for myself when my i7/8/256 arrives this week. How about heat? Any issues?
 

defomicron

macrumors member
Jun 13, 2013
46
4
I'll have to see for myself when my i7/8/256 arrives this week. How about heat? Any issues?

Yesterday, I installed Mavericks and a dozen apps (including Xcode), torrented, streamed music, and browsed the web (no Flash). The computer never got warm and the fans never turned on.
 

curtoise

macrumors 6502a
Apr 19, 2010
529
14
:D

Sounds great.

I just re-installed Mountain Lion on the i7 in about one hour and the fan is going crazy and went from 62% battery to 27% after installation in under 50 minutes.

Fan still going non stop, very hot at the bottom of the laptop.

I'll do the same on the i5 as soon as I can.
 

johnjey

macrumors regular
Jun 17, 2013
245
2
Northern CA
I just re-installed Mountain Lion on the i7 in about one hour and the fan is going crazy and went from 62% battery to 27% after installation in under 50 minutes.

Fan still going non stop, very hot at the bottom of the laptop.

I'll do the same on the i5 as soon as I can.

& that's the kind of POST that will EVENTUALLY decide if i will get the i7 or NOT !
 

defomicron

macrumors member
Jun 13, 2013
46
4
I just re-installed Mountain Lion on the i7 in about one hour and the fan is going crazy and went from 62% battery to 27% after installation in under 50 minutes.

Fan still going non stop, very hot at the bottom of the laptop.

I'll do the same on the i5 as soon as I can.

That's... strange.

AppliedMicro said:
The fans should be running non-stop on the MBA.

Why..?
 

eflosd

macrumors newbie
Oct 12, 2011
6
0
I just picked up a base 11" yesterday afternoon from the apple store. After turning it on and going through set up it had 91% from the factory. I used it a bit last night and ran it down to around 60%

plugged it in before I went to bed and unplugged it this morning with a 100% charge. Its been sitting in my car unused for 8 hours now and I just checked it and its at 74%. Any ideas why this could be? Its in a sleeve and its a bit warm out today maybe 80 degrees inside the car
 

curtoise

macrumors 6502a
Apr 19, 2010
529
14
I just picked up a base 11" yesterday afternoon from the apple store. After turning it on and going through set up it had 91% from the factory. I used it a bit last night and ran it down to around 60%

plugged it in before I went to bed and unplugged it this morning with a 100% charge. Its been sitting in my car unused for 8 hours now and I just checked it and its at 74%. Any ideas why this could be? Its in a sleeve and its a bit warm out today maybe 80 degrees inside the car

Maybe the heat? Everytime they go idle they may go down 1% in battery if anything at all in a day.

----------

& that's the kind of POST that will EVENTUALLY decide if i will get the i7 or NOT !

But you will not going to install Mountain lion 4 times a day, I do not think you should be looking at that test to make your purchase.

I'll test the i5 but I suspect it will do the same.
 

Jazwire

macrumors 6502a
Jun 20, 2009
900
118
127.0.0.1
& that's the kind of POST that will EVENTUALLY decide if i will get the i7 or NOT !

^ This... (thanks op)

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Maybe the heat? Everytime they go idle they may go down 1% in battery if anything at all in a day.

----------



But you will not going to install Mountain lion 4 times a day, I do not think you should be looking at that test to make your purchase.

I'll test the i5 but I suspect it will do the same.

No but no one else has given an i5 vs i7 heat test. ( you will be the 1st)
 

defomicron

macrumors member
Jun 13, 2013
46
4
But you will not going to install Mountain lion 4 times a day, I do not think you should be looking at that test to make your purchase.

I'll test the i5 but I suspect it will do the same.

If anything I'd expect the i5 to get hotter since it will have to work harder.
 

curtoise

macrumors 6502a
Apr 19, 2010
529
14
Is there any app or test that I can do on the i7-i5 to check for heat and fan noise without messing up the laptop?

I don't think an OS reinstall task should be taken into account for heat at all.
 

tdream

macrumors 65816
Jan 15, 2009
1,094
42
Somebody post some real stats please, watching videos on youtube, playing flash video, watching movies in vlc, torrenting, generally abusing your computer, playing music using a different player than itunes, using programs that tax the cpu, vmware, playing games, etc.

Internet, twitter and mail you can do on anything.
 

curtoise

macrumors 6502a
Apr 19, 2010
529
14
Somebody post some real stats please, watching videos on youtube, playing flash video, watching movies in vlc, torrenting, generally abusing your computer, playing music using a different player than itunes, using programs that tax the cpu, vmware, playing games, etc.

Internet, twitter and mail you can do on anything.

I did that already, look at my post with all the screenshots, Sunday was a regular calm day with normal browsing, youtube, etc and then Monday morning real heavy work, while on battery attached to a 27' Thunderbolt display with Photoshop, VMware, youtube, safari, screen sharing on other macs, etc, etc.
 
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