I'm typing on my 2013 MBA (11-inch) refurb that I just picked up at the Apple Store. The battery is showing 100% but when clicked on, it says "4:34 remaining." I thought the battery was supposed to last 8-9 hours and am concerned that something could be wrong, hence why it was sold as a refurb. Is there a way of checking whether something is wrong with the battery other than the System Report on the computer itself which reports the battery condition as "Normal" with 12 cycles.
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2013 MBA Battery concerns
- Thread starter HarryWarden
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Battery life reported in hours depends on the current CPU usage, the brightness of the display, wireless connections and some other parts.
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This should answer most, if not all, of your battery questions:
Apple Notebook Battery FAQ by GGJstudios
The F.A.Q. includes the following topics:
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This should answer most, if not all, of your battery questions:
Apple Notebook Battery FAQ by GGJstudios
The F.A.Q. includes the following topics:
- BATTERY INFORMATION
- BATTERY LIFE FROM A CHARGE
- AC POWER
- CALIBRATION
- BATTERY LIFESPAN
- CHECKING STATUS AND HEALTH
- CHARGING
- WHAT IS A CYCLE?
- BATTERIES ARE NOT COVERED
- BULGING OR SWELLING BATTERY
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I put zero stock into time remaining on the battery indicator. It fluctuates depending on what you are doing and how hard the machine is working at that time.
Also, it's been long established that the first couple of battery cycles may not give you the full performance. Give a couple of charge/discahrge cycles and see if things improve.
Other things to consider: do you have any bus-powered external USB drives or SD cards mounted? Those draw power, and will definitely bring down battery life.
In any case, you have a full year to bring it in and get the battery fixed if it's a real concern.
Other things to consider: do you have any bus-powered external USB drives or SD cards mounted? Those draw power, and will definitely bring down battery life.
In any case, you have a full year to bring it in and get the battery fixed if it's a real concern.
Assuming you have screen brightness set around the middle and you are just web browsing, that is really low. You should get very close to the advertised nine hours showing there.
What are you doing when this four hour estimate is shown? If you are for example watch a HD video in Chrome it will kill battery life.
Open Activity Monitor and look in the Energy tab to see what apps are chewing up battery life.
1) Your refurb isn't just some returned product, Apple checks everything and replaces parts, it's basically new.
2) Expect that timer to never be accurate it flucuates on your use and other factors, just use the machine.
2) Expect that timer to never be accurate it flucuates on your use and other factors, just use the machine.
As others have pointed out, give it some time. 9 hours of battery life are only going to happen under "optimal conditions" anyway. It really depends on your usage.
Refurbished units are fully inspected, tested and cleaned. The following link says that they may exhibit some minor cosmetic imperfections, but to be totally honest every refurb I've seen looks brand new.
http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/specialdeals/refurbfaq_popup
