macbook air battery

[JaneEyre]

Hi,

just before Christmas i bought my mac air 13,3 4gb 128ssd and im playing with it right now . Quite happy with it but the battery doesn't last as long as the promised 7 hours under normal web-browsing use.

Do I need to fully charge and empty the battery completely before it works fine? And if so; do I have to get it to 0% accu and let it drop off or does that damage the battery?

 

[Hellhammer]

How much do you get then? Does web browsing include Flash?

 

[jeanpollux]

I've just got mine too. I'm so happy and excited.

Check this apple support page about battery calibration:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1490

 

[size100]

what kind of battery life are you getting?

 

[JaneEyre]

I get 4 hours of battery life browsing the internet on Chrome with Flashblock installed, but watching youtube clips.

Video-editing and recording in PhotoBooth gives me 2,5 hours.

 

[Hellhammer]

I get 4 hours of battery life browsing the internet on Chrome with Flashblock installed, but watching youtube clips.

Video-editing and recording in PhotoBooth gives me 2,5 hours.

4 hours sounds normal if you're using a lot Youtube. Even HTML5 uses easily +20% of the CPU which causes shorter battery life.

 

[j_maddison]

I get 4 hours of battery life browsing the internet on Chrome with Flashblock installed, but watching youtube clips.

Video-editing and recording in PhotoBooth gives me 2,5 hours.

That's about the same as i get

I think to get 7 hours you'll need to turn the brightness down quite a bit and not watch video. It's better than the battery in my MacBook, but no where near as good as the iPad, which is why I carry both

 

[fswmacguy]

We're seeing Flash chomp down on the battery more than anything. Use a Flash-blocking browser extension to help prevent that. Even the newest Flash 10.2 beta chomps the battery.

When I have my MBA unplugged, I keep the screen brightness really low, but bright enough that I can see what I'm doing. Really helps with battery life.

 

[JaneEyre]

Thanks... it looks like the mac functions normally. In fact, I found out that the lowest brightness saves a lot of energy. With wireless LAN on, I seem to get 8 hours to work.

In my opinion the difference between 10% brightness or 40% is practically zero; full brightness (100%) is nice but as long I'm using a battery I prefer longer battery life over brightness.

 

[Hellhammer]

In my opinion the difference between 10% brightness or 40% is practically zero; full brightness (100%) is nice but as long I'm using a battery I prefer longer battery life over brightness.

And you get used to the lower brightness is matter of seconds. When you use it with low brightness, the full one will feel way too bright