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Standardized Battery Test Results for the MacBook Air

gnasher729 said:
The third of their test was designed to empty the battery and not related to real life in any way. You don't watch videos in a loop. You definitely don't watch _two_ videos in a loop. And you don't watch two videos in a loop while browsing the internet.
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This isn't about watching two movies simultaneously, it's about putting some level of stress on the CPU. In actuality, watching two movies on my iMac simultaneously only uses about 18-20% CPU, which is obviously very little and I'd have expected more battery life at those levels of CPU use.

What these results tell us is that unless you are doing next to nothing with the CPU, and just browse the web, then the battery life is about 3 hours. I think this is pretty poor, although it is in line with the MB and MBP.

With that said, in my opinion, all the battery tests so far only give a vague idea because we don't know how much the machine was actually used. What's really needed is a test saying "here's how long the battery lasts with 10% CPU use, and here's 20, 50, 75, 100%." Then we could easily state "with 50% constant CPU use the battery lasts X minutes".
 
Probably been said before in the thread but.... I assume the point of a standardised test is that you can compare with other machines.

The numbers are meaningless unless used in comparison.
 
maverick808 said:
This isn't about watching two movies simultaneously, it's about putting some level of stress on the CPU. In actuality, watching two movies on my iMac simultaneously only uses about 18-20% CPU, which is obviously very little and I'd have expected more battery life at those levels of CPU use.
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I imagine that the continual streaming of data from the hard drive will drain a lot of battery as it won't be able to go to sleep.

Never mind that your iMac's decoding could be GPU assisted, whereas the Air has naff Intel X3100 integrated graphics.

Real world usage for students? Well, they shouldn't be spending money on an Air anyway, but at low brightness with wifi turned off, no music being played and taking notes (because a pen and paper isn't enough for some reason) might last 5 hours. I.e., it would get you through daily lectures and some more.
 
Grasbak said:
Probably been said before in the thread but.... I assume the point of a standardised test is that you can compare with other machines.

The numbers are meaningless unless used in comparison.
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Yes, exactly. How does this compare to a MB and a MBP? If it's about the same, then that's good enough for me.
 
Hattig said:
...5 hours. I.e., it would get you through daily lectures and some more.
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Not on the course I did! :)

Pen and paper all the way for me.

My 12" PowerBook with 2 batteries gives me about 9 hours useage with wifi on, browsing and MP3s.
 
quantumbits said:
LOL. I love reading the subjective tripe.

Here's the deal: the TZ, which even Jobs himself admitted was the MBA's rival, has a real-world battery life ranging from 4-7 hours. Reports vary. For example, I remember one reviewer reporting a battery life of 6 hours using a screen brightness of 75%. I have yet to read any report of the MBA coming close to 6 hours.

So, let's call a spade a spade: the battery life of the MBA is nothing to boast about, especially when factoring in the price and compromised feature set. Oh yeah, one of those compromises is a readily swappable battery.

Objectively, this is yet another reason why the MBA is an overpriced, gimmicky piece of flair. Its not a sound investment; it simply enables another form of conspicuous consumption. Queue the litany of perfunctory, subjective responses (e.g. Its right for ME, not for YOU. Then don't buy one. Blah blah blah). :rolleyes:
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I think it's funny to bring up the TZ and then call the MBA an overpriced gimmicky piece of flair.

I'd argue the TZ fits that bill much more; yes, it gets 4-7 hours of "real world use"... although again, that 7 hour claim is just as theoretical as the MBA's 5 hour claim; actually getting 7 hours of battery life out of a TZ requires minimal screen brightness, no wi-fi, almost no real activity, etc.... but anyway, it does so with a very tiny screen, an incredibly slow processor, and a small keyboard that is uncomfortable to type on compared to the fuller keyboard of something like the SZ or MBA.

So basically, the TZ realistically gets in the 4-5 hour range with "typical" use, but doing a lot of things on the TZ is more unpleasant because of a) the smaller screen b) the smaller keyboard and c) the slower CPU.

This isn't just fanboyism, btw; you can find plenty of TZ owners (or former owners) who will tell you the same thing.

I think I'd personally take an hour or two less of "real world use" if it means the experience of using that computer is more pleasant.

-Zadillo
 
I think those results are actually pretty decent. While they call 5 hours "laughable" it definitely seems like reaching that point would be possible on their machine. The five hour number is a best case, just like every other computer company states.

Glad to see that they've clarified their results, and shown that their original test wasn't the max the machine could last.

So what does the rating mean on this one? Negative that the battery doesn't last longer? Or negative that these guys came to questionable conclusions on their first test?
 
MacFly123 said:
I think that is a lot longer than I have ever gotten on any of my laptops including my MBP too.

P.S. The MacBook Air is cool, but I am sooo sick of all the stories about it. Can we get some real rumors please? Cinema Displays? Newton 2? Apple Televisions? MacBook Pro? Multi-Touch? iPhone 2.0? iPhone Nano? Etc?
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You want rumours?

I was told by my pet spider, who has an uber secret source at Apple HQ:
* MacBook Pros are being discontinued in favour of pink coloured MacBooks
* Multi-touch on the next cinema displays, announced tomorrow
* iPhone 2 will be CDMA for the american market only. On Apple's ultra expensive forthcoming cell network

;-)
 
Doesn't a LiIon battery require a few charge cycles before it gets up to optimum capacity? I'm not really surprised that the numbers are so low out of the box.

After 4 or 5 charge cycles, it would be interesting to run the benchmark again.
 
quantumbits said:
LOL. I love reading the subjective tripe.

Here's the deal: the TZ, which even Jobs himself admitted was the MBA's rival, has a real-world battery life ranging from 4-7 hours. Reports vary. For example, I remember one reviewer reporting a battery life of 6 hours using a screen brightness of 75%. I have yet to read any report of the MBA coming close to 6 hours.

So, let's call a spade a spade: the battery life of the MBA is nothing to boast about, especially when factoring in the price and compromised feature set. Oh yeah, one of those compromises is a readily swappable battery.

Objectively, this is yet another reason why the MBA is an overpriced, gimmicky piece of flair. Its not a sound investment; it simply enables another form of conspicuous consumption. Queue the litany of perfunctory, subjective responses (e.g. Its right for ME, not for YOU. Then don't buy one. Blah blah blah). :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Anyway....
TZ spec in the review:
Windows Vista Business (32-bit)
Intel Core 2 Duo Processor U7600 (1.20GHz, 2MB L2, 533MHz FSB)
Mobile Intel 945GMS Express Chipset
Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN (802.11a/g/n)
Sprint Mobile Broadband (EV-DO Rev. A)
2GB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM (1 slot, maximum capacity 2GB)
32GB Samsung SSD Ultra-ATA HD
8x DVD (+/-R double layer) drive
11.1" diagonal widescreen XBrite TFT LCD display at 1366x768 (WXGA, Glossy, LED Backlit)
Premium Carbon-Fiber Casing
Intel GMA950 w/ up to 224MB
MOTION EYE camera and microphone
Bluetooth version 2.0 plus Enhanced Data Rate (EDR)
ExpressCard slot (ExpressCard/34)
5-in-1 media card reader
Memory Stick PRO (with MagicGate functionality) Secure Reader
VGA, Modem, 1Gb LAN, IEEE 1394, Dock, and Mic/Headphone connectors
IEEE-1394s (FireWire)
Two USB 2.0 ports
Dimensions (WxDxH Front/H Rear): 10x7.8x0.9/1.2
Weight: 2lbs 10.5oz actual, 3lbs 4oz travel weight
60W (19V x 4.62A) 100-240V AC adapter (10oz)
Standard Lithium Ion battery (11.1oz)
1-Year Standard Limited Warranty

So, the TZ makes no compromises?? slow CPU, weak GFX chip, little screen

Its got a 32GB SSD drive which saves power. Oh and BTW they were never able to get to the magic 7 hours on a production model, the 7hr figure was only achieved on prototypes therefore not real world.

MBA
1.6ghz core 2 duo with 4MB cache
Intel X3100 gfx
80GB HDD (1.8")
This got 4 and a quarter hours, so how much extra time will an SSD drive add? And you also have a much cleaner looking bit of kit with more oomph!

Also, price wise they are roughly the same if you spec the 1.6ghz MBA with the 64GB SSD drive. So for the same money you get:
A bigger screen
Slimmer more attractive design
More CPU grunt
Double the storage
Better graphics performance
 
Why so many tests

I must say i really dont see why everyone has to know the exact time the battery will last. The way i see it is that every battery is a little different. Shoot for an estimate such as 3 hrs. and go with that.
 
Not to flame anyone but try typing reports, excel sheets or anything else on an ipod... This thing is great where it should be, for an executive or someone who frequently travels and might need to get work done on a notebook. It doesnt appeal to everyone, but if you're constantly on the go, that extra couple pound weight difference is a huge convenience.
 
quantumbits said:
LOL. I love reading the subjective tripe.

Here's the deal: the TZ, which even Jobs himself admitted was the MBA's rival, has a real-world battery life ranging from 4-7 hours. Reports vary. For example, I remember one reviewer reporting a battery life of 6 hours using a screen brightness of 75%. I have yet to read any report of the MBA coming close to 6 hours.
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That's because no one has even bothered to use it like it normally would be used. I've got a 12" PB and I honestly can't ever remember sitting there listening to music through my speakers for 4+ hours. You'd be surprised how much of a drain that is. Plug in some freakin headphones at least! The fact that he had it on max bright with everything on and had the speakers blaring and 20 second refreshes (much shorter time than it even took me to write this) is anything but "real world." A "real world" test would be leave Mail open, have Adium going, and surf the web a little bit. Change the refresh rate to about once every 1 to 2 mins to get a more accurate reading. Honestly - do people actually sit around with their laptops listening to music on the speakers???? I hardly EVER listen to music on my laptop - it's more of a tool to get them onto my iPods/iPhone and to watch videos when I'm a plane or something. So, honestly, I wouldn't be even remotely surprised to see average Jo-Schmo get 5.5-6 hrs of actual use. Personally I'm sure I'd get at least that given my experiences with my PB and exceeding the Apple rated battery life to this day (3 years later).
 
Battery life vs mpg

I don't understand why some people get upset about an advertised battery life. I am sure with the lowest power consumption settings activated there would be a possible 5 hours of battery life. That being said, do you think an auto manufacturer would sell you a car if they advertised the worst rating of mpg. If it wasn't regulated they would only tell you the mpg for the highway rating. However, as most of you should know, you will rarely hit that rating the sticker on a car tells you. I feel that battery life advertisements on laptops should be treated as such as well.
 
Newbie

I'm a newbie to the whole Mac world and I made my jump with the MBA. Yes, I'm one of those crazy guys who likes to have the latest and greatest if/when I can and I was in need of a new laptop. Flame me if you will, I don't really care.

I got my MBA Monday and got it all setup. So far I love it. Tuesday night I used it off the cord for the first time and got a decent amount of time out of it while I was downloading a large file, chatting, and surfing the web. All the settings were on default (display brightness, volume, what not) and my web surfing was pretty "intense" because I was going through my feed reader and visiting a number of different sites (this one included). I can't give you an exact amount of time I got on the battery because I didn't take note but it was enough time for me to go through my reader and all the subsequent articles I opened. For me, that's perfect.
 
CaptainScarlet said:
Interesting...Not too bad for times...Just wait a few more years and 8 hours will be the norm.
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I agree. Also, the way I read the article, this was an "I hope I can make bad news for Apple" kind of test, and the man utterly failed in his mission.

It's also the first test I have read about that comes close to replicating the set-up that Apple claims will give you five hours in the first place. All the other tester's so far have taken their own road and made up what they considered to be a fair test, all the while ignoring what Apple actually states.

The first test done here, (with the exception of the fact that the brightness was above the 50% "out of the box" setting), replicates the usage Apple describes and (surprise?) comes very close to what Apple say's the batteries life actually is.

The fellows bias is also showing in the last test where it not only simulates nothing even close to a real-life use, he particularly picks a movie with a non-apple, non-standard codec. It's safe to assume that even a standard mpeg would have done at least slightly better.
 
I don't think that these tests make Apple's 5 hours claim laughable at all. Some people will be using the MacBook Air for typing Word documents, iChatting, and sending e-mail, and with the screen at 50%, I would guess the MacBook would make 5 hours doing those things given its performance loading the pages and playing MP3s in the first test. I'm not aware of any magic advances in battery technology as of late, so I'm never sure why people expect so much.
 
swingerofbirch said:
I don't think that these tests make Apple's 5 hours claim laughable at all. Some people will be using the MacBook Air for typing Word documents, iChatting, and sending e-mail, and with the screen at 50%, I would guess the MacBook would make 5 hours doing those things given its performance loading the pages and playing MP3s in the first test. I'm not aware of any magic advances in battery technology as of late, so I'm never sure why people expect so much.
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I think it's b/c the lack of a swappable battery make battery life that much more important. Before I could just take a spare with me...now I have to know if the MBA will really last as long as it says for what *I* need it to do.
 
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