REAL battery life of MacBook Air 2018

[bearinthetown]

Hi guys,

has anyone yet tested the real battery life of MacBook Air 2018? I'm still on it, but so far I got a feeling like I'm getting nothing close to advertised 12 hours. Maybe 6 hours? But I will test it on a day when I use it a lot.

 

[jpn]

about 8 hours with normal routine work (apple music, video replay, browsing, emailing, spread sheets, Time Machine, USB-C inputs/outputs).
i'm satisfied with this.
not 12. but real world, solid 8.
(used indoors, not outside in the cold...)

 

[auxbuss]

I get a steady 10% per hour with video. I do a lot of writing and often get 12-14 hours – Scrivener, dictionary, Spotify, occasional browsing with Safari, email.

Battery life is dependant on use, of course. For example, I use dark mode, and so I have the screen brightness set fairly low. I suspect most battery drain in my case is the screen. ymmv, etc.

 

[bearinthetown]

I'm on 50% now, after 4 hours with long breaks (probably around 3 hours of usage) and doing just web browsing and other light things. But I'm using auto brightness and it was almost full. I guess on a good brightness this battery lasts just 6 hours or so.

 

[auxbuss]

I get w-a-y more battery life than you are reporting. I'm not doing anything magical; just using the thing. I use auto-brightness too, btw. Just wondering, do you have any background task kicking around that's eating power?

btw, when you say "good" brightness I presume you mean strong or intense. It's well worth dialling it back; human eyes are adaptable and can operate well at low light levels.

 

[ascender]

Mine easily lasts a full day if I'm in the office, so 8 hours with lots of room to spare when doing general productivity stuff. I just use auto brightness and very rarely have to increase it. Very pleased with battery life so far.

 

[ghanwani]

I'm interested in this too. I have to charge my rMBPnTB in the middle of the day or it will run out of juice. I have done 90+ cycles in the last 40 days. Wondering if an MBA may be better for me. I do run the screen at about 2/3 of max. Coconut battery says I'm at about 85% after 450 cycles.

 

[bearinthetown]

I'm interested in this too. I have to charge my rMBPnTB in the middle of the day or it will run out of juice. I have done 90+ cycles in the last 40 days. Wondering if an MBA may be better for me. I do run the screen at about 2/3 of max. Coconut battery says I'm at about 85% after 450 cycles.

At this point I think that screen brightness really makes a difference. My battery life improved a lot when I tried using dimmer screen. I think we should be able to use max or almost max brightness and be able to get reasonable battery life, but it’s not the case. Some people using very low brightness could be using old MBA screen too, because the screen loses the details when it’s so dim, leave alone the fun of using the device.

But when I do my work, screen at 55-60% is actually fine for me at home, coffeshops etc. I would prefer brighter obviously, but it’s good enough.

 

[ghanwani]

At this point I think that screen brightness really makes a difference. My battery life improved a lot when I tried using dimmer screen. I think we should be able to use max or almost max brightness and be able to get reasonable battery life, but it’s not the case. Some people using very low brightness could be using old MBA screen too, because the screen loses the details when it’s so dim, leave alone the fun of using the device.

But when I do my work, screen at 55-60% is actually fine for me at home, coffeshops etc. I would prefer brighter obviously, but it’s good enough.

What are you getting now for battery life?