How much time your Macbook Air 2020 takes to full charge?

[ShinyThings15]

Hi,

I've recently purchased a new Air 2020 i3. And one thing that constantly frustrates me is that it takes more than 4 hours to fully charge it.
Right now I'm on 50% and it says 2:18 until full charge with only one tab in Safari open. Is that the case for you too?
I've tried to contact Apple Support already but their direction to reset SMC and some other options didn't help. Also they couldn't tell me the average charging time for MBA 2020. Could you, please, share your stats on this?

 

[TorontoSS]

Mine is long as well. I don't mind though - I think it has something to do with the fact that it's shipped with a 30W charger. I'm not doing this but you could get a 60W charger for faster charging?

 

[Seanm87]

mine is a 2019 and takes about 2 hours maybe a bit more

 

[twintin]

Have not paid much attention since I usually charge mine during the night. But looking now, it says around 2h at 60%, so I guess there is nothing wrong with your Air. It's simple that time it takes with the provided charger.

 

[russell_314]

Wait they don’t have fast charging on laptops? 😂

 

[chabig]

The Air ships with a 30W power adapter. Get a higher power adapter and it will charge more quickly.

 

[IngerMan]

Why do you need to charge it? I’m on Day 49 83% Charge. I expect 6 months. I will report back in September.

 

[manteiv]

I did the following test with my i3 MacBook Air:

Laptop OFF while charging
Using the stock 30W charger
Initial state, battery 0%
After 60 minutes of charging, battery level is 53%
at 105 min, battery level 89%
at 120 min, battery level 97%
at 135 min, 100%

Using a 65W charger
Laptop OFF while charging
Initial state battery at 0%
After 60 minutes of charging, battery level is 75%
After 90 minutes, 90%
After 105 minutes, 99%
After 110 minutes, 100%

In all tests, the laptop was OFF while charging, I briefly powered it ON at those time intervals only to look at the battery level and immediately turn it OFF to let it continue charging.

If the laptop is being charged while in use, it takes about 3.5h to charge from 0 to 100% using the 30W charger. When I used the 65W charger, it took about 3 hours.

So in conclusions, turning OFF the laptop while charging will result in a faster charging time and using a higher capacity charger than the 30W standard charger will accelerate charging time a bit.


Yes it is slow but it's good for the battery longevity. Those laptops out there with the super fast charging, the penalty is battery longevity will be shorten due to the heat generated, the more current the battery is charging, the more heat it generates. Heat is number 1 enemy for batteries.

 

[ShinyThings15]

@manteiv Thank you for not just timing your charging time, but also to compare it with the more powerful charger. Since the charging time are not dramatically improved with more than twice the power. Do you think that charging time while in use will show bigger difference between the two?

 

[manteiv]

Doing the math with my above results, using the 65W charger with the laptop powered OFF will save about 18% charging time. With the laptop ON and in used while charging, the saving is only about 13% with respect to the 30W charger.

I can't explain the difference 18% vs 13%, maybe it's all about heat management, the laptop limits the current draw to preserve battery longevity. While in use, the battery must be warmer and hence, the system limits how much current is being injected to charge the battery