...No, it's not another "I think battery life is bad" thread.
This is quite the opposite. After going to Lion briefly for a little over a week when it came out, then quickly scrambled back to Snow Leopard for a good while, then again came back on to Lion just a few days ago, I have noticed something quite interesting... the battery meter under Lion fluctuates much less than under Snow Leopard.
Under Snow Leopard, while my battery may show something like 7:30 or even 11:30 remaining at 98% capacity, the truth is that I can only time a maximum of 5 hours and 30 minutes before a red indicator (less than 20%) shows. Under Lion, it shows 5:30 at 98%, yet it does go for 5:30 hours before 20% starts flashing red.
Also under Snow Leopard, at 80% battery remaining, I can get anywhere from a 2:30 hours indicator... to 6:30 hours. It's crazy. Under Lion, it's pretty conserving from 2:30 to 4:30, and again, based on real life measure using a stop watch, seems more accurate.
So could it be that Lion's battery meter is just more conserving rather than Lion sucking more battery life?
Also interesting is that under Lion, the fan comes on and stays on far sooner than Snow Leopard, I can record a good 35C on the outer casing as the fan on my Macbook Air goes to maximum under Lion, whereas it takes up to about 42C for Snow Leopard to kick the fan in, and the extra heat is actually noticeable.
This is quite the opposite. After going to Lion briefly for a little over a week when it came out, then quickly scrambled back to Snow Leopard for a good while, then again came back on to Lion just a few days ago, I have noticed something quite interesting... the battery meter under Lion fluctuates much less than under Snow Leopard.
Under Snow Leopard, while my battery may show something like 7:30 or even 11:30 remaining at 98% capacity, the truth is that I can only time a maximum of 5 hours and 30 minutes before a red indicator (less than 20%) shows. Under Lion, it shows 5:30 at 98%, yet it does go for 5:30 hours before 20% starts flashing red.
Also under Snow Leopard, at 80% battery remaining, I can get anywhere from a 2:30 hours indicator... to 6:30 hours. It's crazy. Under Lion, it's pretty conserving from 2:30 to 4:30, and again, based on real life measure using a stop watch, seems more accurate.
So could it be that Lion's battery meter is just more conserving rather than Lion sucking more battery life?
Also interesting is that under Lion, the fan comes on and stays on far sooner than Snow Leopard, I can record a good 35C on the outer casing as the fan on my Macbook Air goes to maximum under Lion, whereas it takes up to about 42C for Snow Leopard to kick the fan in, and the extra heat is actually noticeable.