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.
June 2013 13" MBA 'Real World' Battery Life
- Thread starter james1758
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Hi guys,
Was wondering if anyone had the 'real world' stats for the battery life of the 13" macbook air. And if anyone has the stats for both the i5 and i7 comparing the both would be helpful
The reports are all over the place, ranging from a USA Today reporter's informal test result of 7:48 to PC Mag's formal result of 15:33.
Got the i7 model and had it running from 8am to 6pm with about 7% remaining. This was used almost constantly for emails, a webex and general browsing. It had the power savings on default, so screen was dimmed slightly etc.
Easily gets 10 hours of use for work purposes.
Easily gets 10 hours of use for work purposes.
The problem with real world usage tests is that it varies depending on...well real world usage. People use it differently.
I think its safe that getting to what Apple advertised, 12 hours is reasonable. Maybe 1-2 hours lower or higher depending on what your doing.
I think its safe that getting to what Apple advertised, 12 hours is reasonable. Maybe 1-2 hours lower or higher depending on what your doing.
I can see this to be about the same for most, intel say ont heir website that there should be no difference in battery life between i5 and i7, but 1-2 hours either way is more than acceptable
----------
yeah i expect this to be the case with battery tests, most of the time the manufacturar gives correct information within an hour or 2 either way. Its just whether i5 vs. i7 have a massive or small difference
Beyond what people are seeing on the new machines for battery life, I was more curious to know what I would see on my mid '11 13" mba base model, when running Mavericks.
I haven't had a full day of usage yet, but just last night I was seeing an estimated 7 hours on a battery that is at 85% and has been barely good for 4 hours for the past few months. I'll push things more today to see how it plays out.
Of course I still want to get a new model so I can get closer to a full days use out of it, which might make me bring my mba more on my travels and leave my iPad at the office.
I haven't had a full day of usage yet, but just last night I was seeing an estimated 7 hours on a battery that is at 85% and has been barely good for 4 hours for the past few months. I'll push things more today to see how it plays out.
Of course I still want to get a new model so I can get closer to a full days use out of it, which might make me bring my mba more on my travels and leave my iPad at the office.
That depends on usage. If the cpu is being utilized a lot, the battery will drain faster. However, the task will be completed earlier. Just assume you want to encode a 1080p video you made with your iphone. It takes 5 hours on the i5 and about 4 hours on the i7. After finishing both models will have the same battery percentage. If you measure the total time, the i5 will last longer compared to the i7. Both models, however, use the same amount of battery to get things done. So, well, it is all a matter of perspective...
The only thing that's really interesting is idle power. The i7 runs on 1,7 GHz, the i5 runs on 1,3 GHz. Since most of the time your cpu is idling, it would be very interesting to see which one lasts longer...