I was hoping to upgrade my 2011 MBA 13" to the 2012 MBA 11", but was disappointed that they could not find a way to improve the battery life for the 11". That's the one I always wanted, but picked up the 13" last year because the battery life in the 11 incher was just too little (4-5 hours). I waited all year hoping they could bring it up to par with the other models at 7 hours since I do a lot of work outdoors.. but just didn't happen. It's not the ultimate portable machine to me (although it is a good one), if you have to carry a charger around with you when you go out. I rather carry a 13" MBA with no charger than a 11" with a charger I guess..How many others were disappointed about that?
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Was Hoping to Upgrade 2011 MBA 13" to 2012 MBA 11".. but..
- Thread starter amitdoc2b
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I agree, that was my #1 criteria moving forward and was the reason I didn't get the Sandy Bridge update.
That said, I recently quit my job and have become a remote contractor, so my MBA is now my bread and butter, so to speak. The base 11" 2010 machine has been great for light development work, but having a significantly more powerful machine with 8/128 just seems like a necessary thing right now. If I weren't in this situation I would have likely held out for Haswell. Carrying a charger is not a big concern as I carry a bunch of other things in my messenger bag (headphones/amp/notepad) when going to coffee shops or my coworking space.
I'm hoping tests show that at least under higher load conditions the newer machines edge out the older ones (in other words... being able to get 5 hours in higher load conditions is more realistic). I believe there was some improvement there for the Sandy Bridge machines, so on average there might be a bit of a bump. Maybe there's an extra 30 minutes or so in there and Apple's being a bit pessimistic.
But yes, very bummed Apple didn't come outright and at least put a 6 hr battery life timestamp on it.
That said, I recently quit my job and have become a remote contractor, so my MBA is now my bread and butter, so to speak. The base 11" 2010 machine has been great for light development work, but having a significantly more powerful machine with 8/128 just seems like a necessary thing right now. If I weren't in this situation I would have likely held out for Haswell. Carrying a charger is not a big concern as I carry a bunch of other things in my messenger bag (headphones/amp/notepad) when going to coffee shops or my coworking space.
I'm hoping tests show that at least under higher load conditions the newer machines edge out the older ones (in other words... being able to get 5 hours in higher load conditions is more realistic). I believe there was some improvement there for the Sandy Bridge machines, so on average there might be a bit of a bump. Maybe there's an extra 30 minutes or so in there and Apple's being a bit pessimistic.
But yes, very bummed Apple didn't come outright and at least put a 6 hr battery life timestamp on it.
I recently went to do some work in NYC and none of the Starbucks, Bookstores, Coffee Shops had outlets in certain regions. The few that you do come across have everyone flocking for them since there's a scarcity of them now as these stores try to cut costs by blocking them for accessibility by public. This is where even having a charger can be useless.. the extra battery life makes life a bit easier.
I definitely noticed this phenomena when I was in NYC last summer. People seem to really weigh down on those facilities all day long, like cheap office space + free wifi.
Here in downtown San Diego it's rare to see someone in a coffee shop working more than 3-4 hours at a time and they're almost never full like that. My personal situation is I'm either working at home or at a large co-working space which rarely sees more than 1/4 capacity during normal business hours.
But regardless of all this, yeah, it's a bummer. I was really expecting an improvement here.
Apple didn't change the stated battery life, but let's see if reviewers like AnandTech and Macworld notice any real life differences in battery life. It's possible that it will be a little better. However, Haswell is where Intel has made bigger promises for lower power consumption, so maybe next year is when the Air will get a significantly longer battery life.
Battery life is a deal-breaker for me and had it been improved, I would have been first in line for a new 11.6" Air - because apart from battery life (and Lion - still not a big fan), my 2011 11.6" has just about everything else I need in the way of storage and performance.
But battery life is very poor - around three hours under normal load (web surfing and word processing - and that's pretty much it) - so there is absolutely no incentive for me to upgrade.
If anything, like the OP, I'm probably leaning towards the 13.3" for my next Air. My wife has a 2010 13.3" and it has outstanding battery life. So impressed was I with the 2010 Airs when they came out that it was the reason for me to get rid of my old 15" MacBook Pro and buy my current machine.
But unfortunately, I haven't been as impressed with the 2011 models - I suspect their battery life is even worse than the 2010 models - and the 2012 models aren't that much of an improvement.
Honestly, people who buy 11.6" laptops are after mobility above just about everything else (otherwise they'd buy bigger, more powerful machines), so battery life HAS to be important to the majority of them. I can't see how anyone would believe otherwise.
I'm a journalist and battery life literally means life or death for my work. I can always back up by filing stories on the phone, but that kind of defeats the purpose of having a laptop! And don't even suggest an iPad - they're mongrel things to type on.
But battery life is very poor - around three hours under normal load (web surfing and word processing - and that's pretty much it) - so there is absolutely no incentive for me to upgrade.
If anything, like the OP, I'm probably leaning towards the 13.3" for my next Air. My wife has a 2010 13.3" and it has outstanding battery life. So impressed was I with the 2010 Airs when they came out that it was the reason for me to get rid of my old 15" MacBook Pro and buy my current machine.
But unfortunately, I haven't been as impressed with the 2011 models - I suspect their battery life is even worse than the 2010 models - and the 2012 models aren't that much of an improvement.
Honestly, people who buy 11.6" laptops are after mobility above just about everything else (otherwise they'd buy bigger, more powerful machines), so battery life HAS to be important to the majority of them. I can't see how anyone would believe otherwise.
I'm a journalist and battery life literally means life or death for my work. I can always back up by filing stories on the phone, but that kind of defeats the purpose of having a laptop! And don't even suggest an iPad - they're mongrel things to type on.
I've been saying in this forum for a long time that the main problem of the MBA 11" is battery life (what's the purpose of an ultra mobile laptop that needs to search around for a socket every 3 hours?!).
Improving battery life on the 11" should have been a #1 priority for this refresh, but apparently they were all to focused into the retina marketing gimmick
. It's good for their bottom line, but not good for their users.
Improving battery life on the 11" should have been a #1 priority for this refresh, but apparently they were all to focused into the retina marketing gimmick
. It's good for their bottom line, but not good for their users.the battery life made my decision to buy it more difficult, but i got it anyhow, because i do a lot of work on the ipad. basically, i do about 90% of my work there, and about 10% on the computer (complicated formatting, ocr for pdfs, etc). Portability is important, and as the computer is just enough, rather than too much (my heavy 13" MBP), i think i will carry it around more. my external keyboard, ipad, and mba all fit into my small man bag now. i'll live with the short battery.
Where'd you get that number from? According to Apple's site the Apple 11" Air is rated at 5hrs and real world usage has people getting much less.
Apple is usually pretty accurate in rating their battery time but with the 11" Air then 5hrs requires a lot of impractical sacrifices to achieve.