I'm wondering if anyone is having the same problem but I don't think I'm getting the most out of my macbook battery. I have the screen brightness all the way down 10 percent and the keyboard brightness off also bluetooth off. But when I'm away from the charger [tested it my self] I only get like 4 hours of battery life. Apple did promise 7 hours so now I'm wondering if I have a defective battery.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
battery life on macbook air
- Thread starter hunsor
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Well,really depends on tasks 🙂 If you are editing media or doing heavy task probably that would be a reason but I've just done light taks so always got more than 7-8h
Anyway have a look to about this Mac,system information,energy about capcities 🙂 Also catch activity monitor while doing your job.
Anyway have a look to about this Mac,system information,energy about capcities 🙂 Also catch activity monitor while doing your job.
You left out the most important detail. What are you doing? Are there any activities sapping battery?
GGJstudios
macrumors Westmere
There are many factors that impact your battery life. See the BATTERY LIFE FROM A CHARGE section of the following link for details, including tips on how to maximize your battery life.
This should answer most, if not all, of your battery/charging questions:
I have created a very simple Applescript to help me analyze battery uptime usage for my new 2012 11" i7/8/256 Air running ML.
I wanted to confirm my battery uptime and thought others might be interested in doing the same. The script refreshes any website over and over again automatically. For my test I have set the screen brightness at 50% and keyboard backlight about 20%, no bluetooth, running ML.
1) Make sure you Macbook is fully charged (100%) and you have setup energy saver so that the computer and display never sleep for this test.
2) Turn your keyboard backlight and screen brightness to a desired level
3) Unplug the power connector
4) Copy Applescript (below) to Applescript Editor (you can find this undder Utilities) under and click RUN. I have a youtube video setup to refresh every 60 seconds. Feel free to update this to any youtube or automatic streaming URL and you can change the delay time.
5) Every 60 seconds "Uptime log.txt" (written to the desktop) will be updated with the current date time and the battery level at that time.
6) Let your macbook run until the battery is exhausted
7) Now when the macbook restarts you can view the output file and calculate the time difference from the first entry and the last to get you uptime.
During several tests my fans were running about 2000rpm.
I am averaging about 4:30 - 4:45 hours of uptime constantly streaming a youtube video.
Hope this help anyone wanted to confirm their uptime battery usage.
Here's the Applescript I am using (cut and paste this to your Applescript Editor)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
repeat
-- Insert any URL as desired
open location "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcLCfUutnnI"
-- Set any delay to a desired value. Every 60 seconds the file Uptime log.txt will be updated
delay 60
set thePath to (path to desktop as Unicode text) & "Uptime log.txt"
set fRef to (open for access file thePath with write permission)
try
set myDate to date string of (current date)
set myTime to time string of (current date)
set myDatetime to myTime & " " & myDate
write myDatetime to fRef starting at eof
set maxCapacity to do shell script "ioreg -w0 -l | grep \"\\\"MaxCapacity\\\" =\""
set maxLevel to the last word of maxCapacity
set curCapacity to do shell script "ioreg -w0 -l | grep \"\\\"CurrentCapacity\\\" = \""
set curLevel to the last word of curCapacity
set battPct to round (100 * curLevel / maxLevel)
set output to " : Battery " & battPct & "%"
write output & return to fRef starting at eof
end try
close access fRef
end repeat
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I wanted to confirm my battery uptime and thought others might be interested in doing the same. The script refreshes any website over and over again automatically. For my test I have set the screen brightness at 50% and keyboard backlight about 20%, no bluetooth, running ML.
1) Make sure you Macbook is fully charged (100%) and you have setup energy saver so that the computer and display never sleep for this test.
2) Turn your keyboard backlight and screen brightness to a desired level
3) Unplug the power connector
4) Copy Applescript (below) to Applescript Editor (you can find this undder Utilities) under and click RUN. I have a youtube video setup to refresh every 60 seconds. Feel free to update this to any youtube or automatic streaming URL and you can change the delay time.
5) Every 60 seconds "Uptime log.txt" (written to the desktop) will be updated with the current date time and the battery level at that time.
6) Let your macbook run until the battery is exhausted
7) Now when the macbook restarts you can view the output file and calculate the time difference from the first entry and the last to get you uptime.
During several tests my fans were running about 2000rpm.
I am averaging about 4:30 - 4:45 hours of uptime constantly streaming a youtube video.
Hope this help anyone wanted to confirm their uptime battery usage.
Here's the Applescript I am using (cut and paste this to your Applescript Editor)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
repeat
-- Insert any URL as desired
open location "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcLCfUutnnI"
-- Set any delay to a desired value. Every 60 seconds the file Uptime log.txt will be updated
delay 60
set thePath to (path to desktop as Unicode text) & "Uptime log.txt"
set fRef to (open for access file thePath with write permission)
try
set myDate to date string of (current date)
set myTime to time string of (current date)
set myDatetime to myTime & " " & myDate
write myDatetime to fRef starting at eof
set maxCapacity to do shell script "ioreg -w0 -l | grep \"\\\"MaxCapacity\\\" =\""
set maxLevel to the last word of maxCapacity
set curCapacity to do shell script "ioreg -w0 -l | grep \"\\\"CurrentCapacity\\\" = \""
set curLevel to the last word of curCapacity
set battPct to round (100 * curLevel / maxLevel)
set output to " : Battery " & battPct & "%"
write output & return to fRef starting at eof
end try
close access fRef
end repeat
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------