Unable to come close to those 10+ hour battery estimates

[pickaxe]

My new 13" 2013 MBA does not approach those 12 hours of battery reported by reviews or even the supposed "more reasonable real-life estimates" of ~10 hours. Not even on Mavericks DP3.

This is no way due to my usage - simply browsing Safari with about 7 tabs with NO browser plugins (Flash/Java) enabled, I'm getting no longer than 8 hours. If I try and do just about anything else that people usually do with laptops, I get about 6.5 hours. This is with around 3 menubar apps running and almost nothing else.

My battery is not defective - it reports a capacity of 7125/7150 mAh. This is also not some sort of fluke accident - I've been using this computer for 2 weeks now and have been consistently getting these numbers, both on Mountain Lion and Mavericks DP2/3. Interestingly, Windows on Boot Camp gives me very similar battery life as well.

So what the heck is going on?

 

[SteveJobs2.0]

How bright is your screen? I know that while I get the advertised usage on my iPad, I get nothing close to Aolle's numbers on my iPhone 5.

 

[ApplNat]

It can take up to several cycles of fully charging the battery to get at the big numbers. How bright do you run your screen? I happen to use mine at less than 50% and occasionally only around 30%. Do you have any power savings settings enabled? (I do). I have my system screen time out after 6 min of no activity. Sleep is enabled.

I'm routinely getting 12 to 13 hours off 1 charge, with what I consider normal usage with not a lot of sleep time in between. I am not what anyone would consider a power user. I'm doing standard browsing activities, and general computing tasks.

 

[gnasher729]

My new 13" 2013 MBA does not approach those 12 hours of battery reported by reviews or even the supposed "more reasonable real-life estimates" of ~10 hours. Not even on Mavericks DP3.

You are a software developer and can't figure out yourself what's going on?

Hint: What tools has Apple added in Mavericks to find which apps are eating up your battery?

 

[pickaxe]

I normally use about 70-80% brightness. I want to believe that this will "level off" some time soon, but... I guess I have no option other than giving this a chance. Where I live, I can't easily exchange this computer over something like this anyways. I guess I'll try and get used to 60% brightness for a while and see how that works.

You are a software developer and can't figure out yourself what's going on?

Hint: What tools has Apple added in Mavericks to find which apps are eating up your battery?

Condescending with a touch of rude, while still giving off the impression that you don't know what you are talking about. Way to be a walking fanboy stereotype, man. I constantly check the activity monitor (and other tools) and my battery life is still way off. Besides, light browsing with no plugins should not be doing this.

 

[thelookingglass]

Have you tried a clean install of the OS? A bit of a pain, but others have reported significant battery life improvement after a clean install. Might be some rogue processes chewing up a lot of battery (although this should be evident if you're monitoring Activity Monitor).

Other possibilities:

Running Time Machine on battery
Dropbox and other sync software constanty running
Watching Flash video in Safari
Flash ads in one or more of your 7 tabs (turn on a Flash blocker and see if that helps)

 

[Suraj R.]

The more I use the machine (through a certain cycle) the higher my estimate gets. I turned it on say half an hour ago and I was getting estimates of around 5 hours and 45 minutes at about 75% charge and now its at 72% and the estimate is 8 hours and 25 minutes. I think Apple needs a better estimation calculator.

(At the same time, while my menu bar says 72%/8:25, my iStatMenus says 69% and 9:09 remaining.)

 

[johnjey]

Have you tried a clean install of the OS? A bit of a pain, but others have reported significant battery life improvement after a clean install. Might be some rogue processes chewing up a lot of battery (although this should be evident if you're monitoring Activity Monitor).

Other possibilities:

Running Time Machine on battery
Dropbox and other sync software constanty running
Watching Flash video in Safari
Flash ads in one or more of your 7 tabs (turn on a Flash blocker and see if that helps)

Since day 1 i was thinking that when apple shipped this mac to me, it had a CLEAN OS lol ? Or shall we do the crazy act of re-installing the whole OSX 10.8.4 again ? If yes, is it down via wi-fi ? (ofcourse i don't have a USB with any setup whatsoever)

 

[racer1441]

You are running something other than what you have reported. I use safari and mail exclusive and I'm getting 12-15 hours on a charge.

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You are a software developer and can't figure out yourself what's going on?

Hint: What tools has Apple added in Mavericks to find which apps are eating up your battery?

Very good points. Getting the feeling of someone who is in over their head on a developer install.

 

[Chatran]

i7 model?