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2010 MBA owners: how long does your battery last?

S

saintforlife

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Feb 25, 2011
1,046
329
I have a 13"/1.86/4GB/128 GB Air. The battery barely lasts 3 hours these days under normal use. The battery cycle count is 652. And the storage capacity is 5810 mAHr.

Is my battery just old and needs replacing? What is the cheapest method to replace the battery?
 
Well I was frustrated about getting between 4 to 5 hours on 5500mAh capacity 2011 MBA 13"... But that's still somewhat acceptable in my book.

While yours 3 hours is definitely too short... Install coconout battery and check your power consumption several times as you do your daily tasks. For best battery life, most of the time it should around 10W with only occasional spikes.
 
Call up your closest Apple store or certified repair center and ask how much a battery replacement is. Might be as low as $150. You should be getting closer to 7 hours on that guy. Mine is but it has received only very little use.
 
FuNGi said:
Call up your closest Apple store or certified repair center and ask how much a battery replacement is. Might be as low as $150. You should be getting closer to 7 hours on that guy. Mine is but it has received only very little use.
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Why should he be getting a replacement when he has ~90% of original capacity?
The problem is with some random background application consuming the power probably.
 
FuNGi said:
Call up your closest Apple store or certified repair center and ask how much a battery replacement is. Might be as low as $150. You should be getting closer to 7 hours on that guy. Mine is but it has received only very little use.
Click to expand...

You all $150 low for a new battery?
 
SmOgER said:
Why should he be getting a replacement when he has ~90% of original capacity?
The problem is with some random background application consuming the power probably.
Click to expand...

Reported storage capacity and discharge rate can be independent. 3 hours usage time is low. He asked "where to get a new one", not "is it broken".

MarvinHC said:
You all $150 low for a new battery?
Click to expand...

Including install by certified technician it is what it is.
 
Last edited:
I have seen this problem on my 2010 MBA and many other MacBooks of this generation.


Reset your SMC and the problem will be fixed. I guarantee it.
 
Cozmosis said:
7 hours on a 2010 Air? I never got over 5 hours on my 2011. And now that its 3 years old I'm still around 3.5-4.
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Is that quoted projected time from the mac or actual usage time from your watch? Are you using the 11" or 13" as the latter was quoted around 7 hours? I've noticed that the two can be quite different. It also is very dependent on your light settings and work load. The 7 hours I get is real usage at low light reading and working on manuscripts on overseas flights.
 
saintforlife said:
How does one go about resetting the SMC? Is it easy to do?
Click to expand...

Go here:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964

The top half of the article has some troubleshooting steps you can try. Towards the bottom are the actual instructions for doing an SMC reset (key press + power button press combination). Specifically, for your 2010 MBA you need to follow the section labeled "Resetting the SMC on portables with a battery you should not remove on your own".
 
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