What battery life are you getting on your 2011 MBA?

[clyde2801]

5

How do you measure the life of a battery? I use "coconutBattery" - still can't figure the exact time my battery lasts. Thx a lot.

edit: battery icon fluctuates between 4 hours to 6 hours????
edit: now 7hrs 32mins.????;0

I have always followed the maxim about calibrating the battery to get the most accurate results. Except for this model...it just takes too damned long to run the battery all the way down...then you have to leave it off (i.e., not use it) for five hours!

I think the wide fluctuation has to do with letting the computer automatically set the brightness level based upon the ambient light level. If you're toting it around the house, the computer can dim the screen in a dark room, but has to crank it up in a more well lit one for it to be visible. The battery estimate has to do with how long it will last at the current power level settings.

For instance, with 89% of the battery left, kb lighting turned off, and the screen set at 6 bars (with the automatically set option turned on), I'm showing a battery life of 6 hours 32 minutes in the shade of my back porch.

When I take it out of the shade into my back yard (where, at 9am it is already starting to feel like Arrakis) for a minute, it drops to 3 hours 52 minutes. Back in the shade for a couple of minutes, it's back to 6 hours and 15 minutes.

Addendum...above figures for a 2011 13" i7 MBA.

 

[amitdoc2b]

New updates:

Screen Size = 13-inch
Processor = 1.7GHZ i5
Screen Brightness = 5 bars from maximum brightness
Cycle #= 2
Battery life = 6 hours, 45 min

Bluetooth and Wifi were on still. So it appears lowering the brightness 5 bars led to a 2 hour increase in battery life. It is worth noting though that my battery now charges to 98% and 6568 mAh, while previously it was at 99% and 6655 mAh. What's up with that?

Newest updates:

Screen Size = 13-inch
Processor = 1.7GHZ i5
Screen Brightness = 5 bars from maximum brightness
Cycle #= 3
Battery life = 7 hours, 35 min

Wifi still on, but Bluetooth off. It appears turning off Bluetooth increased the battery life by 50 mins under the same settings! Now this is a more acceptable range!!

 

[blowabs]

Newest updates:

Screen Size = 13-inch
Processor = 1.7GHZ i5
Screen Brightness = 5 bars from maximum brightness
Cycle #= 3
Battery life = 7 hours, 35 min

Wifi still on, but Bluetooth off. It appears turning off Bluetooth increased the battery life by 50 mins under the same settings! Now this is a more acceptable range!!

thx,,,,,but...
how do get your batt life totals? onboard....if so where?? thx

 

[amitdoc2b]

thx,,,,,but...
how do get your batt life totals? onboard....if so where?? thx

I just use the computer as I normally would on any given day without the charger plugged in and let it drain. I do pretty much the same tasks daily (surf the same websites, e-mail on the same accounts, post on this forum, see a few news videos, etc).

 

[anhhungcodoc]

my battery capacity is at 98% after the first full cycle charge. i guess i gotta go to apple store soon

 

[sprockett]

I just use the computer as I normally would on any given day without the charger plugged in and let it drain. I do pretty much the same tasks daily (surf the same websites, e-mail on the same accounts, post on this forum, see a few news videos, etc).

i tried doing this with a stop watch running everytime i switched the laptop on... but soon i lost track of the time!!


can i check:

1. Do you use it straight for 7 hrs at a go?
2. If not, how do u keep track of the actual time its alive?
3. Do you "sleep" it in between usage periods?

Im finding it very inaccurate to gauge battery life using apps like istat. This is because the "time left" changes all the time, depending on whether im running flash, opening up another browser, running parallels etc.


thx in advance

 

[h00ligan]

when I'm unplugged it's light stuff.. I get 5-6 hours mostly web surfing with mail open... i've had more, i've had less..

 

[cityathrt]

When I first turned my 11" on a moment ago, it showed 6:49 remaining at 84% charge, now it shows 3:22 at 83%. I'm running Finder, Safari, iChat, Windows Messenger, two bars below full brightness, one tap of keyboard lighting.

Oh, it just gained two minutes. It also seems to show 1 minute left for a good 20 minutes before actually shutting down. Oh, now it's showing 3:33. I swear this adjusts to whatever you're doing.

 

[HiRez]

Screen Size = 13-inch
Processor = 1.8 GHz i7
Screen Brightness = 75%
Cycle #= 3
Battery life = 5 hours, 20 min

This is with what I'd call medium activity, a mix of Safari (with a lot of scrolling), Xcode, and some file copies, including wireless Time Machine backups to Time Capsule. So given Apple's estimate of 7 hours with what I assume would be a light load (word processing, lower screen brightness than I'm using, light web surfing), it seems just about right.

I've gotten pretty close to 7 hours with light use, and I've gotten under 2 hours with heavy use such as World of Warcraft and Adobe Lightroom. It's a large range and really depends on what you're doing and how bright you need your screen.

 

[sprockett]

guys, down load this and post your logs

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/22649/minibatterylogger

this plots amperage + voltage vs time on a graph, much better way of comparing battery life. The amperage line is effectively how much u tax your system (screen brightness, processor etc), and voltage is how ur battery gets weaker.

its even smart enough to plot on the graph any "sleep" time as well.

try it out! i'll post my log once i wear down my battery.

 

[418608]

Should I run to an Apple Store?

I am really worried with the battery life of my MBA.
It now has 6 cycles.

Thisis the result of my tests.
-I fully charged it
-I then used it a bit last night to do some browsing and a little bit today in the morning (overall 20-30 mins max, even less)
-then at 10.30 am today I left it on to see how long it would last with these settings:

-brightness half way up
-continuous music play, randomly from iTunes (volume set to 0 though, as I wasin the office!)
-connected to the internet using a blutooth connection with my iPhone
-changed the settings to that the laptop so that it would not go to sleep or auto-deactivatethe screen (screensaver was set to kicked in after 5 minutes - with iTunescovers).
At13.45 I started some more browsing.
At14.00 it warned me I was using the reserve battery (approx 5% left) so Iplugged it in.

I find this to be quite disappointing… Only 3,5 hrs of continuous use, plus 45mins of web browsing?!
Whatdo you think? Is this acceptable? Is there anything wrong with it?

Does being connected to Bluetooth take up more power that to wifi? I would say theopposite… especially cause I was not using the internet most of the times.

I am worried these figures would drop drastically if I browsed the whole time,rather than just playing some tunes.

Additionalinfo:

-I have adobe installed though I guess it was only used during the limited timeI was doing some browsing
-I noticed that during my test, the backup service was on (time machine), though no external usb were being used.
-temp at the of the test was 40 (HD) and 50 (CPU), at least that’s what iStatPro said

Renzo

 

[The Expert]

I am really worried with the battery life of my MBA.
It now has 6 cycles.

Thisis the result of my tests.
-I fully charged it
-I then used it a bit last night to do some browsing and a little bit today in the morning (overall 20-30 mins max, even less)
-then at 10.30 am today I left it on to see how long it would last with these settings:

-brightness half way up
-continuous music play, randomly from iTunes (volume set to 0 though, as I wasin the office!)
-connected to the internet using a blutooth connection with my iPhone
-changed the settings to that the laptop so that it would not go to sleep or auto-deactivatethe screen (screensaver was set to kicked in after 5 minutes - with iTunescovers).
At13.45 I started some more browsing.
At14.00 it warned me I was using the reserve battery (approx 5% left) so Iplugged it in.

I find this to be quite disappointing… Only 3,5 hrs of continuous use, plus 45mins of web browsing?!
Whatdo you think? Is this acceptable? Is there anything wrong with it?

Does being connected to Bluetooth take up more power that to wifi? I would say theopposite… especially cause I was not using the internet most of the times.

I am worried these figures would drop drastically if I browsed the whole time,rather than just playing some tunes.

Additionalinfo:

-I have adobe installed though I guess it was only used during the limited timeI was doing some browsing
-I noticed that during my test, the backup service was on (time machine), though no external usb were being used.
-temp at the of the test was 40 (HD) and 50 (CPU), at least that’s what iStatPro said

Renzo

You did not state weather you had an 11in or 13in.

For an 11in system, that seems normal and average. You could pull an additional hour by turning off bluetooth and maybe lowering a bar of brightness.

 

[418608]

You did not state weather you had an 11in or 13in.

For an 11in system, that seems normal and average. You could pull an additional hour by turning off bluetooth and maybe lowering a bar of brightness.

It's a 11'

Do you think that by using wifi instead of bluetooth, I would have gotten better results?

What worries me is that most of the time it was acting as a giant iPod nano, just playing music (though screen was on and bluetooth connected).

Is there a good (and quick) test to perform, to understand if my battery is a faulty one, before I head to an apple store?

Many thanks

 

[lyrrad721]

Quick question about my 13'' MBA... Yesterday I charged it to 100% and when I finished my tasks I turned it off with the charger on. Today I turned it on and found out that the battery dropped to 99%. Is this normal??

 

[donster28]

Quick question about my 13'' MBA... Yesterday I charged it to 100% and when I finished my tasks I turned it off with the charger on. Today I turned it on and found out that the battery dropped to 99%. Is this normal??

Yes, definitely that's normal. It never stays 100% charged for long.

 

[lyrrad721]

Thanks!

 

[EchoPure]

How come the Macbook Pro's have longer battery life than the Air?

 

[h00ligan]

larger battery

 

[kelfaij]

my battery capacity is at 98% after the first full cycle charge. i guess i gotta go to apple store soon

RIDICULOUS !!!
Mine (13'' - i7) fluctuated between a health of 97 and 99% and this is normal ! batteries are made from chemicals stuffs and reaction so don't expect to have 100 from day one for 5 years.

The question is do you old 5 hours if you have the 11'' or 7hours with the 13'' doing normal stuff ? like in apple's test... if yes then do not worry about coconut saying and enjoy your mba.

(coconut is great to check very 6 months if you did not lost 10% of the battery capacity otherwise don't check every day - worthless)

 

[Hummer]

RIDICULOUS !!!
Mine (13'' - i7) fluctuated between a health of 97 and 99% and this is normal ! batteries are made from chemicals stuffs and reaction so don't expect to have 100 from day one for 5 years.

The question is do you old 5 hours if you have the 11'' or 7hours with the 13'' doing normal stuff ? like in apple's test... if yes then do not worry about coconut saying and enjoy your mba.

(coconut is great to check very 6 months if you did not lost 10% of the battery capacity otherwise don't check every day - worthless)

I just got mine and it says that after 1 cycle, I'm at 97% battery health.