How long does your AIR last while sleeping?

[wnxgenral]

Hi all,

I am a new MBA Owner, not even a week only yet but like everyone I'm confused how I lived before without this thing, it goes everywhere with me! My post pertains to power management. I have been taking the AIR with me everywhere but just closing the lid and stowing it instead of turning the machine off. My question is how long will the AIR last in Standby mode? I understand it depends on how much you use it on a daily basis but do some users charge it in the morning and just pop it open throughout the day like a cell phone? Do some users actually turn the machine off each time?

Jack

 

[v-roc]

2 - 3 days

With my MBA I find myself charging it completely and not charging again until that message says that you are running low on battery. That'll last me 2 - 3 days. I just use mine to check email, surf the web, listen to music, remote login to my mac at home, and the occassional 5 min trailer/mp4 file. I just close the lid, I rarely do a complete shutdown.

 

[Mactagonist]

It does not last long enough. This is one of my complaints with the current Air. The battery will lose 8-10% after sleeping for the night. The Thinkpad the Air replaced could sleep for a similar amount of time and lose only 2-3% of its battery life.

 

[kernspaltung]

I agree: the Air's battery life when sleeping is relatively poor. My previous laptop was a 12" PowerBook G4 and it could sleep a whole week and still wake with a useful charge in the battery. If I leave the Air asleep over a weekend, it'll turn itself off by Sunday night, even if it was fully charged before putting it to sleep. I doubt sleep time is given much consideration in Apple's design meetings, but I've gotten spoiled by being able to close my laptop, not touch it for a few days, and have it wake up almost instantaneously. The Air does resume from disk, but it takes ages by comparison.

 

[Fonzijr1964]

yeah my MB lasts a week

 

[PLin]

I haven't actually done a timed comparison or anything, but I've also noticed that the MBA loses battery pretty quickly while asleep. I haven't really compared it to my MacBook Pro though.

PowerBooks were always able to sleep a lot longer than the the MacBook and MacBook Pro's do. Even my 8 year old Pismo Powerbook can still sleep for 2 weeks without dying. That's why Apple had to start offering a hibernation feature on their Intel notebooks. If you swap batteries on a MacBook Pro that's asleep, you will have to startup from hibernation mode. If you do that on a PowerBook, it will still wake up instantly.

 

[ZhaoYun]

I agree, I notice my MBA losses battery much more than my Macbook while in sleep mode...8% easily..

 

[amickley]

My Air has the same problem. I've heard some things about resetting the main power system by holding down the Command+Option+Shift on the left side, but I haven't tried it yet. I can't leave mine closed for more than a few days without it completely dieing. I need to get into the habit of shutting mine down instead of just closing it. However, that slightly defeats the purpose of being very portable if you have to wait for it to open all of the time.

 

[darngooddesign]

Either shut it down at night or download this which puts it into deep sleep which consumes no power.

 

[off in the wood]

Either shut it down at night or download this which puts it into deep sleep which consumes no power.

Nice find. Didn't know about this. Thanks