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1. I have an iPod for music. I use it for such when on the go.
2. In my most ADD-induced frenetic browsing states, I never open new web pages at a sustained 20-second rate. One minute or so is probably more accurate. And, I'm assuming this is an "average" size web page with mostly text (ie, not YouTube, not pulling up massive Wikipedia entries).
3. H.264 instead of XVid would be a more valid stress-test comparison for Apple's claims. Specifically, rent a friggin movie and run it in a loop to see how far you get!
4. Brightness at 100%? If I'm on the go, I'm most often in dimly-lit locations (airplane, bus, airport); the 50% setting would be used, and likely reduced to more like 20%. Oh, and WiFi is typically off entirely on airplanes and buses, where battery life is critical, but we all know that, right?
5. No "input" test here. Typical use for me is to be writing something down, because I have old fashioned dead-trees media to read as necessary. I would prefer some sort of test with Word open, random keys being pushed in short bursts, and a save (because Word tends to crash) once per minute. If you wanted to get fancy and customize this for me, use DevonThink instead and cut the save operation down to once per 10 minutes (because DT has never crashed on me, yet Word has left my save-button reflex itching to be scratched). I'm hoping such a usage pattern would yield more than the 1.5 hours I typically saw on my PowerBook (seems like I get about 2.5 hours in this mode on my MacBook Pro). This test should be run with WiFi on (business meeting mode) and with WiFi off (airplane mode).

On the guy saying battery tech hasn't advanced recently: battery tech isn't the point here. You can read the capacity of any battery right off its packaging. What differs between computers is the set of components in the box needing power, and how well the "unused at the moment" components get powered down when not needed. There is definitely a difference between well-designed hardware and thrown-together hardware here.

All that having been said, this gives us a data point. Anandtech is quick to jump on the anti-Apple train, so their dismissal of 4:16 results being nowhere near 5:00 is typical. IMHO, 4:16 versus 5:00 is about the best I've seen come from any hardware company's battery life claims! The sole exception here is Apple with its iPods, where real-world testing often beats their claims by a few minutes.
 
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?

QFT.
 
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.

Bingo!! Some people don't seem to comprehend that there is no back-up. If one finds that the MBA doesn't have adequate battery life for their usage, they're stuck. You can't just buy a spare battery, you have to buy a new laptop.

I have two MacBooks and a Sony TZ series. I like the MBs just fine, but when I want portability, I'd take the TZ over the MBs or a MBA anyday. Sure the Sony has a slightly slower processor, but it has a great resolution screen, a CD/DVD drive, multiple USB ports, an ethernet connector, true stereo speakers, it fits more easily in my bag, amazing battery life (frequently more than 6 hours in my usage), it has a replaceable battery AND it's actually lighter! Who cares if the MBA is thin--that's only a show-off feature with no real value in real life.

The Sony has been available for 3 years. It's disappointing that the MBA is the best Apple can do in 2008!
 
Not enough life

It doesn't really matter if these are "real world" numbers are off by a bit one way or another, the fact remains that they show that this is not enough battery life for me. I need to be able to watch at least two movies during cross country travel. This translates into at least 6 hours of time. This means having to have a replacable battery.

On my old G4 Powerbook with pre-recall batteries, I would get about 4 hours per battery. With my newer 15" MacBook Pro, I get about 3 hours with each battery (only 2.5 with wifi on), which is not great, but serviceable. I really want to move back down to a more portable solution for travel. The Airbook seems perfect, but with this limitation, I won't be getting one.

Because of where I live, I always have to have a stop over, so my total travel time across the country (especially east to west) is more like 9-12 hours with layovers. I can usually plug in during a layover, but if you are using the computer it doesn't charge enough for full use on the next leg.

Some people have suggested having a plug in battery power back up like exists for iPods. To me, this is an ideal solution because then people can choose how big a backup power system they need for the usage that they have, and Steve doesn't have to compromise on the styling of the Airbook. Note, however, that Apple has a patent on the Magsafe power connector and, last I heard, they had not licensed this to anyone. This means no third party solutions for now. So, if Apple wants to sell me one of these, they had better either come out with their own solution or license Magsafe to a third party vendor.
 
1) Use Wifi to browse 20 pages in a loop, spending 20 seconds on each page, while playing MP3s in iTunes. 4hr 16min

Apple claims 5 hours in normal use. 4.25 hours with continuous disk access and wifi and continuously browsing pages pretty much justifies Apple's claim - since no one is going to be refreshing pages ever 20 seconds for 4 hours while continuously running their hard disk.
 
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.


Let's see if we can figure this out.

The above test shows that the MBA gets 4.27 hours with continuous WiFi, continuous hard disk access, and continuous web browsing. You're bragging about '4-7 hours' with no test conditions defined, considering that the computer you're bragging about has a tiny screen and a dirt slow processor -- and costs $800 more.

Sorry, I'll take the $800 savings, bigger screen, and faster processor - considering that there's no evidence that the TZ would have greater battery life under these conditions.
 
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.

Where did you get that? The test you're referring to shows that you get 4.27 hours battery life with CONTINUOUS web browsing, WiFi, 100% screen brightness, and continuous hard disk access and mp3 decoding. Where did you come up with 3 hours?
 
Wait for APCC

Note, however, that Apple has a patent on the Magsafe power connector and, last I heard, they had not licensed this to anyone. This means no third party solutions for now.

Yes, but Apple has the MBA Airline Adaptor.

accessories-magsafe.jpg


+

EmPower adaptor for UPB70

+

2B808D37-5056-AE36-FEE58F88F09A0473_pr.jpg


=

MBA rescue pack​
 
Bingo!! Some people don't seem to comprehend that there is no back-up. If one finds that the MBA doesn't have adequate battery life for their usage, they're stuck. You can't just buy a spare battery, you have to buy a new laptop.

There will probably be external batteries for it.
 
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.

You can take a spare with you for the MBA, as well. There are MagSafe battery packs which work with the MBA.
 
Bingo!! Some people don't seem to comprehend that there is no back-up. If one finds that the MBA doesn't have adequate battery life for their usage, they're stuck. You can't just buy a spare battery, you have to buy a new laptop.

Not correct. There are external battery packs.
 
You can take a spare with you for the MBA, as well. There are MagSafe battery packs which work with the MBA.

People are also forgetting too that you can still plug in your MBA. I know carrying power cord isn't ideal, but if you're going someplace for a presentation, studying, or similar, you can do it. Not really an apology for not having a user replaceable battery, but still, you have options.
 
Not correct. There are external battery packs.

There are other options beyond even this. Canadian Tire (an automotive/hardware/housewares type chain store in Canada) sells a portable power inverter that you can plug things into (including your laptop power adaptor). It's a battery about the size of an external hard drive. Should be good for a few extra hours of running time including charging up the MBA internal battery while you're running off it. $70.
 
Let's see if we can figure this out.

The above test shows that the MBA gets 4.27 hours with continuous WiFi, continuous hard disk access, and continuous web browsing. You're bragging about '4-7 hours' with no test conditions defined, considering that the computer you're bragging about has a tiny screen and a dirt slow processor -- and costs $800 more.

Sorry, I'll take the $800 savings, bigger screen, and faster processor - considering that there's no evidence that the TZ would have greater battery life under these conditions.

You can get a MBA for $1000? I paid $1800, brand new, for my TZ last year. Remember, unlike Apple, vendors are allowed to set the price for other products at something other than MSRP.
 
1) Use Wifi to browse 20 pages in a loop, spending 20 seconds on each page, while playing MP3s in iTunes. 4hr 16min
2) Play a DVD image (off the internal hard drive) in a loop. 3hr 25min
3) Download 10GB of files, Web browsing loop from #1, play two 480p Xvid videos in a loop. 2hr 25min

If I wanted to I suspect I could hit 5 hours by making the web browsing test less stressful, but my focus was on real world usage scenarios, not proving Apple correct

If your focus was "real world usage scenarios", you must be from a different planet. None of these tests are close to "real world usage". Who the heck watches two movies at once, downloads 1/8 of their hard drive capacity, and spends 20 seconds per web page?

Even #1 is a stretch ...

I could understand #2, but only in bizarre-o-world would someone watch a DVD image when they could have compressed it.

These are real world tests:

1) college kid typing up final in word processor, occasionally checking websites for references

2) person casually surfing various websites, but probably not at a crack-addicted pace.

3) person watching a compressed movie (H.264, divx, etc.) with headphones
while on a plane

But, then, if we actually did real world tests like the above, you probably would hit pretty close to 5 hours and your blog post would go unread. Oh and dare anyone admit that an apple statistic is correct.

Now, mind you, i dont have a macbook air and have no intention of buying one. I could care less if its the worst apple laptop in existence and the product flops. What I do care about is that you at least take an unbiased look at the piece of hardware.
 
gas mileage

Gas mileage is the same thing. Give it a try. Your car may advertise 30 hwy, 25 city. But guess what? That's in a vacuum going downhill. :)

In real life you get maybe 75% of that. More like 24/19. Supposedly the numbers are going to be real world this year with new specs by govt on gas mileage.
 
Hmmmmmm...

Apple under weights their ipod's battery life but over weights their laptop's battery life. :confused:

Well I have the old Nano, but I suspect that battery life playing music is some multiple of the battery life doing video. Not sure, but that may be at play.
 
So, MBA owners may have to use the power adapter on the airplane or at home a little more often. All laptops need to be plugged in eventually. May want to put a car charger in the manilla envelope too. ...probably fit. If you're using more than a couple hours battery life at the coffee shop without getting picked up, it's not the machine's fault. :p
 
1) college kid typing up final in word processor, occasionally checking websites for references

2) person casually surfing various websites, but probably not at a crack-addicted pace.

3) person watching a compressed movie (H.264, divx, etc.) with headphones
while on a plane

But, then, if we actually did real world tests like the above, you probably would hit pretty close to 5 hours and your blog post would go unread. Oh and dare anyone admit that an apple statistic is correct.

I agree with this. Too many "battery tests" seem to be aiming for "let's see if we can disprove what the advertised expected life is..." than "what would a normal person get?"

The (1) version that they did seems somewhat reasonable... if they used headphones. Who listens to music on their laptop speakers for 4 hours?

Your suggested tests describe my usage pretty well, except for those times I need to use Windows in Fusion to get to a few idiotic programs not developed for Mac, just to get my homework done...

What about a test that just has the laptop playing a Keynote presentation in a continuous loop, going to a new slide every minute or so? That would seem like a pretty important one to business travelers, but no one's tried that one.
 
So, MBA owners may have to use the power adapter on the airplane or at home a little more often. All laptops need to be plugged in eventually. May want to put a car charger in the manilla envelope too. ...probably fit. If you're using more than a couple hours battery life at the coffee shop without getting picked up, it's not the machine's fault. :p

No more often! I don't see where anyone is getting this at all. From the tests in this article, it seems to me that the MacBook Air's battery life blows away the regular MacBook's and certainly the MacBook Pro's. Nothing amazing, certainly, but it seems better than what most MacBook's get and hours better than a Pro.
 
These are real world tests:

1) college kid typing up final in word processor, occasionally checking websites for references

2) person casually surfing various websites, but probably not at a crack-addicted pace.

3) person watching a compressed movie (H.264, divx, etc.) with headphones
while on a plane[/QUOTE]

I am a college prof and so would clearly fall into number 1. I got the 1.6 with SSD. I hope to get five hours of word processor and occasional web access (wifi on, bluetooth off, reasonable brightness).

Will see, but my ship date is late Feb so I won't be seeing it soon...
 
There are other options beyond even this. Canadian Tire (an automotive/hardware/housewares type chain store in Canada) sells a portable power inverter that you can plug things into (including your laptop power adaptor). It's a battery about the size of an external hard drive. Should be good for a few extra hours of running time including charging up the MBA internal battery while you're running off it. $70.

For people that travel by road, these really are simple and ideal...
 
lol, 20 pages in a loop, so browser only read from cache? wifi not in use after all?
 
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