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2.0 Battery Life / Charging

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burdendds

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 8, 2008
27
0
I was an early adopter of the MBA 1.0 and had to return it due to all the "Rev A" issues that plague Apple machines (just look at the new MBPs and MBs). The unit I had back then had about a 2-3 hours of use (vs. Apple's claimed 5) and it took FOREVER to fully charge the battery. Not to mention the core shut downs, ridiculously loud 6200 rpm fan, excessive heat, etc. etc.

I was wondering if any early 2.0 owners could comment on battery life or charging. Have they fixed this problem? Any 1.0 owners notice less batt. life now that Apple claims 4.5 and we have the nvidia chipset?

I'm sitting on the fence with trigger finger itching to get a new 1.8 SSD...
 
aufmobi

aufmobi

macrumors newbie
May 9, 2008
25
6
no word on the mba 2s, but I hear a lot of the charging complaints from the new MBP crowd now.
 
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Essjay

macrumors regular
Jul 12, 2008
132
0
The 2.0's charge quickly up to 80% but it takes mine an 1.5-2 hr's to fully charge, very annoying.
 
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six.four

macrumors 6502
Oct 24, 2008
332
0
I'd also like to hear any improvements on charging times.

My assumption has always been that the slow charging times were to help preserve the integrity of the battery as long as possible. I would trade longer charge times for battery longevity any day.

I remember reading in a battery forum that quick chargers cause wear on batteries and therefore decrease the overall longevity. Seeing as the macbook air has "officially" a non user replaceable battery, it made sense that they would try to compromise so that they could maintain the health of the battery as long as possible.
 
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burdendds

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 8, 2008
27
0
Essjay said:
The 2.0's charge quickly up to 80% but it takes mine an 1.5-2 hr's to fully charge, very annoying.
Click to expand...

How long to 80%? Like 1 hour? Then 1.5-2 more hours on top of that? I can deal with 3 hours. My Rev A took anywhere from 6-12 hours to charge before...
 
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twist2b

macrumors regular
May 26, 2008
220
0
North Carolina
One thing people don't relize in batteries is the "gaps" that batteries get over time. After 2 years you can loose over 30 minutes of battery life FOREVER! The "slow" charging is actually a good thing. It wont produce those "gaps" that kill your battery over a period of time... which could be a big problem in an AIR since you can't replace the battery. :p
 
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Essjay

macrumors regular
Jul 12, 2008
132
0
burdendds said:
How long to 80%? Like 1 hour? Then 1.5-2 more hours on top of that? I can deal with 3 hours. My Rev A took anywhere from 6-12 hours to charge before...
Click to expand...

Havent done a full cycle yet, I will post results soon but I dont expect much change from the 1st gen.
 
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icymountain

macrumors 6502a
Dec 12, 2006
535
598
twist2b said:
After 2 years you can loose over 30 minutes of battery life FOREVER!
Click to expand...

Well, actually, a 30 minutes loss in battery life after two years is not too bad. :)

If one could promise me my MBA battery is going to survive so well, I would sign right now... For the records, my MBP is about 2 years old; the original battery has already died completely (would run out of juice after less than 10 minutes), whereas another one (used since I got the MBP, since I got an extra battery at that time) is showing signs of fatigue... So, yes, my experience with laptop batteries has been very bad so far.
 
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