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I can get over 8 browsing, editing in pages, reading pdfs, etc.

Screen around 50%, key backlight off, bluetooth off, flash not installed (I just use chrome when necessary).

Otherwise five seems typical.
Same here on a 13" basic model. I feel those things above are key for long battery life.

On a typical day at university -using it mainly for reading PDFs and taking notes (when not in need of wifi I deactivate it) -, I can use my MBA from 9 to 16 and have about 15-20% of battery left.

I really love this machine, it's exceeds all my expectations.
 
Hmmm...I just clicked it and it says HTML5 is on but I played a youtube video and activity monitor still shows flash player plug in taking up CPU power?

Because most videos on Youtube still play in Flash player even if HTML5 is on. Most notably if they have ads. It's mentioned on that page where you turn it on.

You can check if a particular video is in flash player or HTML5 by right-clicking on it, if it's flash it says 'About Flash Player' in the context menu (or something along those lines), and 'About HTML5' if it's HTML5.
 
I get between 4 and 5 hours under normal usage (surfing the net, emails, skype chatting, occasional youtube video, etc)
 
Why is Apple claiming 7 hours? I never get 7, I get around 4 or 5. What did they do when they tested this thing?

It's like when they estimate mpg on a car, always overestimate.
 
Why is Apple claiming 7 hours? I never get 7, I get around 4 or 5. What did they do when they tested this thing?

It's like when they estimate mpg on a car, always overestimate.

They aren't hiding anything. Their test set brightness to a certain level (50%), had wifi on, and browsed the internet. For them browsing the internet involves going to a web page, reading that web page for 30 seconds, and going to another. Without flash. While reading the web page, don't be touching the air and scrolling around or anything. Read it.

I guarantee, unless you have a defective unit, you will get > 7 hours doing that. If you aren't, something is wrong. You either have some back ground task running... are constantly scrolling around, have flash... or something.
 
They aren't hiding anything. Their test set brightness to a certain level (50%), had wifi on, and browsed the internet. For them browsing the internet involves going to a web page, reading that web page for 30 seconds, and going to another. Without flash. While reading the web page, don't be touching the air and scrolling around or anything. Read it.

I guarantee, unless you have a defective unit, you will get > 7 hours doing that. If you aren't, something is wrong. You either have some back ground task running... are constantly scrolling around, have flash... or something.

how do u disable these background apps ? or what apps are safe to disable ?
 
They aren't hiding anything. Their test set brightness to a certain level (50%), had wifi on, and browsed the internet. For them browsing the internet involves going to a web page, reading that web page for 30 seconds, and going to another. Without flash. While reading the web page, don't be touching the air and scrolling around or anything. Read it.

I guarantee, unless you have a defective unit, you will get > 7 hours doing that. If you aren't, something is wrong. You either have some back ground task running... are constantly scrolling around, have flash... or something.

exactly like that car advertising, you turn off your AC fan, close your window, you'll get 30mpg, you'll probably die from suffocating.
 
Why is Apple claiming 7 hours? I never get 7, I get around 4 or 5. What did they do when they tested this thing?

It's like when they estimate mpg on a car, always overestimate.

Probably because they test the best-possible scenario instead of real-life usage.

In real-life usage (YouTube, Skype, Mail, internet browsing, Wifi, etc), then the consensus is between 4 and 5 hours with screen brightness scaled down.
 
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