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Battery life - Just to make sure

A

alexis0070

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 16, 2013
7
0
Hello, i5/8/128 13" haswell here, I just want to make sure that my battery life is good. The air says that I am having 15 hours, after that 6 hrs and then 8. I know that it differs minute by minute. Is there an application or a program that counts the battery life? thanks in advance and sorry for my English.:)
 
alexis0070 said:
Hello, i5/8/128 13" haswell here, I just want to make sure that my battery life is good. The air says that I am having 15 hours, after that 6 hrs and then 8. I know that it differs minute by minute. Is there an application or a program that counts the battery life? thanks in advance and sorry for my English.:)
Click to expand...
There are many factors that impact your battery life, and the time remaining is only a rough estimate, based on the current power demands at any point in time. It will change constantly from minute to minute as your workload changes, and is not completely accurate.

See the BATTERY LIFE FROM A CHARGE section of the following link for details, including tips on how to maximize your battery life.
​
The link below should answer most, if not all, of your battery/charging questions. If you haven't already done so, I highly recommend you take the time to read it.
 
Battery usage indicator?

I was about to post a new thread regarding this concern about battery usage. Most of the apps let us know only about the remaining time not how long the battery has been used by various processes.
Is there any app available at app store(Paid/Free) to indicate the battery used?:confused: Just like we have in the Mobiles!
Thanks
 
AlexNapo said:
I was about to post a new thread regarding this concern about battery usage. Most of the apps let us know only about the remaining time not how long the battery has been used by various processes.
Is there any app available at app store(Paid/Free) to indicate the battery used?:confused: Just like we have in the Mobiles!
Thanks
Click to expand...
AFAIK, there is no such app for OS X.
 
What about just leaving the percentage showing next to the battery indicator?

That at least tells you something that's not minute to minute..
 
ItHurtsWhenIP said:
What about just leaving the percentage showing next to the battery indicator?

That at least tells you something that's not minute to minute..
Click to expand...

that's exactly what I do.

Also, I'm not sure what OP is looking for isn't a bit of a rabbit hole. In reality YOU are the best gauge of what your battery life is going to be.

Give it time and you'll get used to what 100%, 75%, 50% and all the way down to the red means for you in terms of "how much time i have left"

the battery on my 2009 MB sucks now...well, it's awesome considering its age, but it's crazy short. So I know exactly what 40% will give me based on what i'm planning on doing. I get about 1% a minute tops and MAYBE half that if i'm watching a video or something similar.

For my Air I could start watching Lawrence of Arabia with 40% battery left and still be ok :D
 
ItHurtsWhenIP said:
What about just leaving the percentage showing next to the battery indicator?
Click to expand...

That's what I do. Percentage Only.

Showing time left, for whatever reason, makes me stressful.


But honestly folks, with the Haswell, it should give u the freedom to be obsession-free about your battery.
 
I was somewhat confused when I purchased the new MacBook Air. Switching from a Windows laptop with about 1.5 hours of battery life, I was surprised the MBA 13 was showing 7 or 8 hours on full charge (great improvement, but still, not near the 12 hours claimed). However, it lasted for about 13 hours on full charge.

As others have said, just go with the percentage indicated (not time) for a more accurate estimate.
 
alexis0070 said:
Hello, i5/8/128 13" haswell here, I just want to make sure that my battery life is good. The air says that I am having 15 hours, after that 6 hrs and then 8. I know that it differs minute by minute. Is there an application or a program that counts the battery life? thanks in advance and sorry for my English.:)
Click to expand...

Asking how many hours your battery lasts is like asking how many hours your car can drive with its current fuel. It depends on how fast you go.
 
my 2010 macbook pro used to say 14 hours battery life under light usage. this is obviously not true. the battery life in 2010 was not remotely as good as it is now. I think I would get maybe 5 hours out of it real usage. the best thing to do is charge it to max, turn bluetooth off, turn brightness as low as you can tolerate it then just surf the web or whatever keeping real time until it dies. screw what the meter says.
 
Thank you all. I checked the activity monitor and it says that SystemUIServer has 5-10% usage. Also the spotlight is working too often (I thing it's indexing). So that's why I am not sure about the battery life! :) I know it's not a big problem
 
It would be nice to have a macbook equivalent of screen on time like in the cell phone world. That way everyone could provide accurate battery life as opposed to the crazy estimates the battery icon gives.

I've only had my 2013 MBA for a day so far (i7/8gb/256 - 13") but so far so good. I unplugged it last night used it for about 30min before I went to bed. I haven't plugged it back in since. Took it to work today. I wasn't constantly at my computer but whenever I sat down at my desk I was using it. Wifi always on, mostly browsing and word documents but I also had to run virtualbox a lot for some job specific excel macros. Also took it to lunch to test wifi in more places. And now I am home browsing and generally dicking around. Still have 45% battery left. I only left it unplugged because I was curious (and not really expecting much because at work I didn't want to be worried about preserving battery life and I have a charger at my desk anyway). I thought I'd be able to run it down in a normal day but I may need to rethink this :D

For some reason my keyboard also feels a bit better than my 2012 MBA but otherwise they might as well be the same computer which is exactly what I wanted, my computer + more battery life.
 
alexis0070 said:
I know it's not a big problem
Click to expand...

Not even.

Is like those fancy cars that have displays that give you all kind of information, like 200 miles before fuel runs out. It's a GUESSTIMATE based on PAST's averages. It doesn't know what you are going to do in the future.

Do not think the battery meter is a precise atomic-clock-like instrument, it is a more or less give it or take 1-3 cups of salt.

Your new battery says it has <10 charge cycles, 98%+ health, ur good. Next REAL problem.
 
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