Heat and battery time on new MBA 13 vs 2009 rev B

[nph]

Hi

I have a Rev B, 1.86 128GB SS. It is good except a little weak on battery and heat is still there for anything remotely intensive so my question is:
How do you rate battery life of new 13 MBA?
My Rev B gets roughly 2 hours watching a HD show from CBS, or 4.5 hours (best case) doing non flash surfing or anything non intensive work, watching photos, writing in word etc.

Heat is there if I watch videos, like the example above, routinely around 70-74 watching a video show over the internet. RPM for fan 2500-3000 at that temp.
How is the heat of the new one? (I tried one in the Apple store and it bare felt warm underneath while watching an episode on cbs.com).

My other finding is that the new one felt a little more "solid", cant point to anything specific but a general feel when closing and opening it.

Btw, I still run Leopard since I felt that I lost battery time under snow leopard and that it was also slightly warmer under Snow Leopard.

Any other difference you have noticed in the new MBA?

Many thanks!

 

[dmelgar]

Not sure which exact models you're comparing, but the 13" MBA is likely slower CPU than your older MBP. It may not be able to play some highdef videos smoothly. I tried some 1080p Youtube flash videos today and saw some stuttering with the base 13". The base 11" couldn't really play it at all.

I just bought a decked out 11". Its battery life seems comparable to my 2009 13" MBP. The MBA does get hot but no where near as hot as my MBP.

Not sure what you're asking about other differences. I assume you know the spec differences. ie MBA compared to MBP has:
- slower CPU
- much faster SSD drive (2-5x in my tests)
- higher resolution display
- no backlit keyboard
- no firewire 800/400
- no SD slot

 

[bossxii]

Hi

I have a Rev B, 1.86 128GB SS. It is good except a little weak on battery and heat is still there for anything remotely intensive so my question is:
How do you rate battery life of new 13 MBA?
My Rev B gets roughly 2 hours watching a HD show from CBS, or 4.5 hours (best case) doing non flash surfing or anything non intensive work, watching photos, writing in word etc.

Heat is there if I watch videos, like the example above, routinely around 70-74 watching a video show over the internet. RPM for fan 2500-3000 at that temp.
How is the heat of the new one? (I tried one in the Apple store and it bare felt warm underneath while watching an episode on cbs.com).

My other finding is that the new one felt a little more "solid", cant point to anything specific but a general feel when closing and opening it.

Btw, I still run Leopard since I felt that I lost battery time under snow leopard and that it was also slightly warmer under Snow Leopard.

Any other difference you have noticed in the new MBA?

Many thanks!

The new 13" will run cooler than the Rev B (I owned the Rev B) and will seem as fast/faster because the older MBA's had to be throttled to keep the heat down. The new MBA has much better heat management and the fans are much more quiet vs the old jet engines lol. Even at full speed, it no where near as loud. Also regarding heat, the old MBA would become too hot to touch watching a movie while the new MBA feels warm it's no where near as uncomfortable as the Rev B. To me it's night and day difference.

Battery wise, I can use my 13" at work all day, getting 7 plus hours of use with the screen at 70% on wifi, for web, playing some videos, such as news, ESPN, as well as email, and logging into my work VPN and entering quotes. Battery has been very good so far.

Just my 2 cents, but the new heat management system, hinge and glass trackpad make the new MBA much improved over any previous model.

 

[nph]

Thanks for the replies. I meant to write rev B MBA.

So in other words it could be worthwhile to trade my old to the new one.

I looked at the MBP in the store and after having lifted the MBA there is just no comparison.
However I would suspect that they soon update the MBP since it feels almost outdated now compared to the MBA.