I've timed my new MBA 13's battery, the results.

[Adidas Addict]

You might think this is a bit geeky but I have accurately timed the performance of my new Macbook Air 13.3 battery and here are the results, during the test wi-fi was on and screen was on one notch over half, time between sleeps varied from 1hr to overnight (8-9hrs), machine was not used constantly for these times, sat watching TV and surfing etc:

Session One: Cold boot followed by general surfing of forums, shopping sites, ebay and news. Time 3hr06mins then put to sleep.

Session Two: Wake from sleep followed by general surfing, 40mins on Google Earth, 10 mins on youtube, more general surfing. Time 2hr53mins then put to sleep.

Session Three: Wake from sleep, downloaded plants vs zombies, approx 1hr playing PvZ followed by general surfing. Loaded 20 photos via SD reader and messed around with new slide shows in iPhoto 11 for approx 1hr. Time 4hr12mins then put to sleep.

Session Four: General surfing, battery showed 11 mins remaining, plugged into power, end of test. Time 52mins.

Total time for Battery from the above test 11hrs 3mins.

I am mightily impressed with the performance of the battery on this thing, I never got anywhere near that amount of time on my 13" MBP's (2.26 and 2.4). I know there are all kinds of variables that can affect battery times but I am confident that this machine's battery outperforms any other I have owned for my usage.

 

[ufkdo]

Really impressive. Thanks for the test.

 

[HardLuckStories]

wow, yes much better than mbp times. i would like to do this for the 11 too.

 

[hleewell]

make this a sticky
let members post their own results!!

 

[MacModMachine]

You might think this is a bit geeky but I have accurately timed the performance of my new Macbook Air 13.3 battery and here are the results, during the test wi-fi was on and screen was on one notch over half, time between sleeps varied from 1hr to overnight (8-9hrs), machine was not used constantly for these times, sat watching TV and surfing etc:

Session One: Cold boot followed by general surfing of forums, shopping sites, ebay and news. Time 3hr06mins then put to sleep.

Session Two: Wake from sleep followed by general surfing, 40mins on Google Earth, 10 mins on youtube, more general surfing. Time 2hr53mins then put to sleep.

Session Three: Wake from sleep, downloaded plants vs zombies, approx 1hr playing PvZ followed by general surfing. Loaded 20 photos via SD reader and messed around with new slide shows in iPhoto 11 for approx 1hr. Time 4hr12mins then put to sleep.

Session Four: General surfing, battery showed 11 mins remaining, plugged into power, end of test. Time 52mins.

Total time for Battery from the above test 11hrs 3mins.

I am mightily impressed with the performance of the battery on this thing, I never got anywhere near that amount of time on my 13" MBP's (2.26 and 2.4). I know there are all kinds of variables that can affect battery times but I am confident that this machine's battery outperforms any other I have owned for my usage.

cool, i have the same air coming as you,

i opted out of the 2.13 / 256 mainly because the photofast 256gb ssd will be going in mine with that sandforce controller.

im glad to hear the battery is fantastic....i hope you enjoy your air.

 

[jnpy!$4g3cwk]

Total time for Battery from the above test 11hrs 3mins.

Wow. Very impressive. I just wish they had an antiglare option-- that wouldn't affect battery life.

 

[Adidas Addict]

Wow. Very impressive. I just wish they had an antiglare option-- that wouldn't affect battery life.

In all honesty the screen on the new MBA has almost zero reflections. It's much better than my previous glossy MBP's, just as sharp but without the reflections.

 

[fyrefly]

Yeah, the anti-glare option on the MBA is not as big of a deal as the screen isn't as reflective as the big glass glossy mirror on the MBP models.

Thanks for the battery info, OP! I still love my revB MBA with SSD, but there's no way I'd even get 1/2 that battery life!

 

[hachre]

Very, very nice It's the exact same MBA I'm getting. Grats!!

 

[latchiopal]

Wooh thats nice! Tanks, thats the kind of user test I can relate to. 11 h, thats amazing.

Someone whit 2,13 Gz done the same "test"?

My rev b, ssd, is embarrassed...

 

[Gordy]

http://osxdaily.com/2010/10/30/macbook-air-2010-battery-life/

Others doing similar tests with similar results. Seems like apple weren't lying about the harsher battery tests.

 

[sinophilia]

Thanks, a real-life test was much needed! Very impressive. I guess the fact that the MBA does not use up any battery when sleeping helps a lot. This is something my 13" MB is very bad at - if I leave it asleep overnight the battery goes down by over 20%. If the 11" could get 6-7 hours of real-life, non continuous usage, it would be wonderful.

 

[w00tini]

Awesome job AA. Smoking results too

 

[pfjellman]

interesting. my 13" macbook air (4GB RAM upgrade) only gets 2-3 hours, even with screen brightness several clicks under halfway. needless to say i'm very disappointed. should i return it? sigh. the main reason i got it was for battery life. at this point i should have bought a 13" macbook pro.

 

[Adidas Addict]

interesting. my 13" macbook air (4GB RAM upgrade) only gets 2-3 hours, even with screen brightness several clicks under halfway. needless to say i'm very disappointed. should i return it? sigh. the main reason i got it was for battery life. at this point i should have bought a 13" macbook pro.

I think you would be better exchanging for a MBA that's not faulty. The battery on this smokes my 2 previous 13" MBP's.

 

[Macopotamus]

Wow 11 hours is incredible. My MBP lasts about 4-5 hours with normal use

 

[HardLuckStories]

Alright people, results in for my 11

Full charge- 50% brightness- wifi on
1410- 1520: safari, mail, iphoto light use
1550- 1744: safari, mail, light use
1754-2020: safari, photo heavy sites, iTunes streaming (music) from NAS, headphones, around 30 mins streaming youtube (h.264) now 4% and est 16mins remaining- time to plug in!

Grand total 5hours 30minutes- not bad considering i was actually using the machine, and relatively heavily for last session.

Would be interested in others findings

*clicktoflash installed

 

[kenwalton]

OK, the more of these I read the more convinced I am that the battery life in my 13/2.13/4GB/256 MBA sucks. I did a very similar test to this - probably even more lightweight - just browsing with about 6 tabs open in chrome and brightness at about 40% - and the thing fell asleep at 6.5 hours. I guess I also had Adium open but wasn't doing any heavy chatting.

If I do much else, I'm faced with about 5 hours.

If I start with a fresh battery and start a 720p mkv video in VLC, my MBA tells me I've got about 3.5 hours.

Can I just go in and tell them my battery sucks compared to everyone else's? I'm not sure how to make the case.

 

[HardLuckStories]

OK, the more of these I read the more convinced I am that the battery life in my 13/2.13/4GB/256 MBA sucks. I did a very similar test to this - probably even more lightweight - just browsing with about 6 tabs open in chrome and brightness at about 40% - and the thing fell asleep at 6.5 hours. I guess I also had Adium open but wasn't doing any heavy chatting.

If I do much else, I'm faced with about 5 hours.

If I start with a fresh battery and start a 720p mkv video in VLC, my MBA tells me I've got about 3.5 hours.

Can I just go in and tell them my battery sucks compared to everyone else's? I'm not sure how to make the case.

Chrome could be your problem, didn't do my mbp15 any favours on battery.

 

[jumpmanjay23]

Nice!

I actually was going to start a thread on this issue.

So I just got the 13.3 inch, 1.83 GHz, 4 GB RAM MBA last Wednesday.

Great job on actually timing your usage. I will try to post more accurate times later but I have to say I am pretty impressed so far with my battery life. First time usage at 100% full capacity battery I believe I got around 5 hours. That was with downloading my applications, watching videos, and light surfing. Second time at full charge, I'm pretty sure it lasted longer than 6 hours on just light browsing. My settings this time was with Click to Flash installed on Safari and an add-blocker. No bluetooth, just WiFi.

Right now it's fluctuating between 7 hours, 30 mins and 8 hours!

If this holds true, I will be very impressed.




EDIT: Also, it is possible that Chrome could be less resourceful but it could be the Flash running in Chrome? Just a hunch. By the way, the 5 hour usage I got was using Chrome whereas the 6 plus hours the second time and currently 7 plus hour usage is under Safari with Click to Flash.

 

[rickhorn]

Thanks for posting. I have been using MBA 13 for a week now. The battery time does impress me every time I use it. Like today I went to library at around 9 am and started using MBA for surfing, msn chatting, ichat, and word processing. When I left the library at about 6 pm (after 9 hrs), it still said 12% battery left...which i assume would be another 1 - 1.5 hrs to go...

very impressive.

 

[goodtimes5]

Is using Safari better than using Chrome at prolonging battery life?

 

[sinophilia]

Alright people, results in for my 11

Full charge- 50% brightness- wifi on
1410- 1520: safari, mail, iphoto light use
1550- 1744: safari, mail, light use
1754-2020: safari, photo heavy sites, iTunes streaming (music) from NAS, headphones, around 30 mins streaming youtube (h.264) now 4% and est 16mins remaining- time to plug in!

Grand total 5hours 30minutes- not bad considering i was actually using the machine, and relatively heavily for last session.

Would be interested in others findings

*clicktoflash installed

interesting, thank you! squeezing 5-6 hours out of it means being able to use it all day with some breaks.

I wonder if the 1.6 CPU uses a tiny bit more power than the 1.4 I am getting.

 

[stylinexpat]

Wow 11 hours is incredible. My MBP lasts about 4-5 hours with normal use

That's about what mine lasts for too and that's without using Skype if I use Skype and open up Youtube look for 30-50% less times.

 

[neteng101]

... if I use Skype and open up Youtube look for 30-50% less times.

One tip - if you Skype chat a lot, disable the animated emoticons. They gobble up CPU cycles.