Battery Life.... Should I be concerned

[MarkF44]

They (Apple) needs to replace your battery, there is clearly something wrong with a batch of MBA batteries - right now, I'm getting over 6 hours of remaining battery life and I've already been using my MBA for 20 minutes. My screen is set to half brightness.

I agree with you, there is an issue, however I hesitate to go back to MBA, I used to surf only with ethernet adapter (no wifi) and definetely think that MBA miss an Ethernet port.
Same battery issue with or without adapter but adapter run a little hot and for sure takes some energy...

 

[stakis]

I agree with you, there is an issue, however I hesitate to go back to MBA, I used to surf only with ethernet adapter (no wifi) and definetely think that MBA miss an Ethernet port.
Same battery issue with or without adapter but adapter run a little hot and for sure takes some energy...

MarkF44 seems you and I have the same issue with the macbook air... AS I'm not ready to give it up yet... I will be taking it to an apple store as soon as I can to get it replaced... seeing as how that is what alot of people have successfully done lately... bit of a pain, but I believe in the product...

as for those that are getting six hours.... one more piece of clarification.... are you guys just quoting what the time bar says at the top... or are you letting the thing drain... and just as it is at its last %s do you check the uptime say in Istat or something similar???

thanks

Stakis

 

[MarkF44]

MarkF44 seems you and I have the same issue with the macbook air... AS I'm not ready to give it up yet... I will be taking it to an apple store as soon as I can to get it replaced... seeing as how that is what alot of people have successfully done lately... bit of a pain, but I believe in the product...

as for those that are getting six hours.... one more piece of clarification.... are you guys just quoting what the time bar says at the top... or are you letting the thing drain... and just as it is at its last %s do you check the uptime say in Istat or something similar???

thanks

Stakis

Yes, I believe that we have the same issue.

I also give up for those additionnals reasons :

-when you use MBA on you knees or in the bed, the footprint are easy to block which can cause a 6200RPM issue. On a MBP, footprint are better placed.
-I experiment the very annoying "fan issue", youtube or garageband , it doesn't matter, the fan goes very easily to 6200 RPM.

Of course the 3H longlife was experienced without blocking the footprint and without reaching the 6200RPM.

It is an awesome laptop, I really hesitate to try again, I am close to
I

 

[stakis]

Yes, I believe that we have the same issue.

I also give up for those additionnals reasons :

-when you use MBA on you knees or in the bed, the footprint are easy to block which can cause a 6200RPM issue. On a MBP, footprint are better placed.
-I experiment the very annoying "fan issue", youtube or garageband , it doesn't matter, the fan goes very easily to 6200 RPM.

Of course the 3H longlife was experienced without blocking the footprint and without reaching the 6200RPM.

It is an awesome laptop, I really hesitate to try again, I am close to
I

SEe the fan doesn't bother me as much... I don't have a big problem with it... and I figure if I'm not the only one that is experiencing it, then I can live with it... but to hear that some people are getting 6 hour, or 5 or even 4... it makes it hard to just Live with.... Mind you I'm the sucker that apple loves to give these Rev A models to, cause I'll accept it as it is... just cause I think the damn thing is cool... ( I guess I have a gadget addiction.... but I know I'm not the only one)

 

[Sesshi]

as for those that are getting six hours.... one more piece of clarification.... are you guys just quoting what the time bar says at the top... or are you letting the thing drain... and just as it is at its last %s do you check the uptime say in Istat or something similar???

I'd also like to know the above. What it predicts and what it actually gets is, like any device, different but I've noticed over time on this forum that the Apple-addled tend to ignore this. FYI stakis my actually discharged life is pretty much the same as yours.

I get fluctuations between 96 and 100% when it is fully charged and I don't believe it to be a big deal since my MBP's also sometimes do this, although nothing else (non-Apple) I own does this right now.

 

[MarkF44]

Yes, the 6200RPM "issue" is not so surprising, I don't know any laptop that like to play some youtube video without spinning up the fans.
I decided to send back my MBA because up to 10 hours to recharge it is a clue of a real battery issue. 3 hours of light use is the average for a laptop and is a good performance if it is a Vista PC, however I should get at least 4 hours so it is also a battery issue IMHO. The 5 hours of WiFi productiviy announced by Apple are met by a lot of users...I use ethernet so 4 hours could be acceptable but 3 hours are not...

I still hesitate to try another MBA...nice laptop indeed.

 

[Sesshi]

Just an addition that in the same 'hammer mode' as I timed the Sony UX at 2:40 at - that is IGP and CPU in reasonably heavy use, screen at half brightness and BT/WLAN on , I get 2:20 on the MBA. As I said, in normal use I can't crack 3:30 with ~ 5-6 hours of sleep, power saving features enabled, WLAN off when not required and display right down low.

I know that I haven't had bad luck when buying Apple gear - when you pick up as many minor-to-major-flawed Apple gear as I have, you know it's because of piss-poor QC / build quality than bad luck - but I'm pretty incredulous that I could have yet another machine with a problem.

I truly wonder if some people aren't just going with what Apple's quoting / estimating on the battery display.

3 hours of light use is the average for a laptop and is a good performance if it is a Vista PC,

For a mainstream 'workhorse' 15-inch-class machine maybe. But under Vista, we actually get viable all-day use options. I know some (oh all right, most) on this forum love to make comparisons between apples and past-sell-by-date-oranges for some reason, but it is perfectly possible to compare apples with... well, better-than-apples.

 

[Seth Hawkins]

Any of you with really bad battery time ever bother to give your Macbook Air 14 hours of charging when you first purchased it?

I thought it was common knowledge to do that - it give your battery a longer life too.

I'm getting my first Mac today - a MBA. I've read thru the electronic .pdf manual, and even searched the Apple Web site, looking for any reference to this - but have found nothing instructing me to plug in the notebook and allow it to charge for 14 hrs (or any other amount of time) before first use.

Are you saying I should charge the battery for at least 14 hrs before powering it on for the first time? Or can I use it during this first 14 hr charge cycle?

If the "Fully Charged" indicator light comes on before the 14 hr point is reached, should I consider the battery to have a full charge, or should I leave it connected to AC power for 14 hrs regardless?

 

[aussieinrome]

I'm getting my first Mac today - a MBA. I've read thru the electronic .pdf manual, and even searched the Apple Web site, looking for any reference to this - but have found nothing instructing me to plug in the notebook and allow it to charge for 14 hrs (or any other amount of time) before first use.

Are you saying I should charge the battery for at least 14 hrs before powering it on for the first time? Or can I use it during this first 14 hr charge cycle?

If the "Fully Charged" indicator light comes on before the 14 hr point is reached, should I consider the battery to have a full charge, or should I leave it connected to AC power for 14 hrs regardless?

It's pretty common knowledge that you should give a new battery a long first charge, you can use the Macbook Air while it's charging, just don't disconnect the power cord. I did this and I've got a healthy battery. I purchased a Skype phone recently and printed in it's manual was to charge for 12-14 hours. I've read this with other devices too, like mobile phones, and digital cameras etc.

I hope this helps, the Macbook Air is an amazing machine!

[edit] Leave the AC power plugged in, even though the indicator is green.

 

[Sesshi]

I'm getting my first Mac today - a MBA. I've read thru the electronic .pdf manual, and even searched the Apple Web site, looking for any reference to this - but have found nothing instructing me to plug in the notebook and allow it to charge for 14 hrs (or any other amount of time) before first use.

Are you saying I should charge the battery for at least 14 hrs before powering it on for the first time? Or can I use it during this first 14 hr charge cycle?

If the "Fully Charged" indicator light comes on before the 14 hr point is reached, should I consider the battery to have a full charge, or should I leave it connected to AC power for 14 hrs regardless?

It doesn't help. I left mine plugged in from the early evening into the following day. The Jobs Reality Distortion Field wore off by the end of that day.

 

[larryj]

They (Apple) needs to replace your battery, there is clearly something wrong with a batch of MBA batteries - right now, I'm getting over 6 hours of remaining battery life and I've already been using my MBA for 20 minutes. My screen is set to half brightness.

Wow. I don't use my MBA for more than a couple of hours at a time, so I'm not 100% sure, but I'd say I get around 4 hours of battery life. This is less than half brightness, wi-fi on, bluetooth off, surfing with Safari.

Maybe I should be complaining to Apple.

 

[Seth Hawkins]

Thanks for the Info

Thanks. That sure does help. If there's anything to be done to get max battery performance from this thing, I'm willing to do it. I'm glad I don't have to wait 'til tomorrow to use it.

 

[stakis]

Another test

Hey all,

I just did another test here is what I did:

Charged the MBA to 100%... rebooted... disconnected the power and then plugged in my superdrive.

I turned the Airport off, and raised the screen brightness all the way. I played a copy of Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and let it play with the sound up 3/4 of the way.

According to the Walt Mossberg review he was able to achieve 3hrs and 20 minutes or so..... mine came in at 2Hrs and 27 Minutes....

looks like something is up with my battery....

any thoughts?

 

[Sesshi]

It's what I'd get. As I said here or elsewhere, either piss-poor QC which will take you a while to resolve (not a surprise with Apple products) or other people are being Jobslinded.

You know, I've never said 'piss-poor' so often on a forum, if ever. It just goes to show.