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MacBook Air Q&A
Update Published November 9, 2010
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What is the battery life of the "Late 2010" MacBook Air models in "real-world" usage tests?
The "Late 2010" MacBook Air models have been discontinued. However, this Q&A is up-to-date and is particularly useful for anyone considering one of these MacBook Air systems on the used market. These MacBook Air models can be identified externally by the 2393 and 2392 EMC numbers.
Apple estimates that the 11-Inch "Late 2010" MacBook Air -- the MacBook Air "Core 2 Duo" 1.4 11-Inch -- provides an estimated five hours of battery life using its 35 watt-hour battery and the 13-Inch "Late 2010" MacBook Air -- the MacBook Air "Core 2 Duo" 1.86 13-Inch -- provides an estimated seven hours of battery life using its 50 watt-hour battery.
Photo Credit: Apple, Inc. (Left - 11" MacBook Air, Right - 13" MacBook Air)
Official Battery Life Testing Criteria
Apple arrives at these estimates by using a "wireless productivity test" that the company further defines as "wirelessly browsing 25 popular websites with display brightness set to 50%." In introductory banter, the company also has claimed that this test is more "aggressive" than earlier wireless productivity tests used to estimate battery life.
Apple's recent battery life estimates have proven to be fairly reasonable, but objective third-party estimates using a variety of real-world tests can be useful nevertheless.
Third-Party Battery Life Test Results & Analysis
Independent testing techniques vary and can provide a good idea of battery life in different scenarios.
Using his "harsh" battery tests designed to degrade the battery -- playing music on a loop with no effort to conserve battery life -- the WSJ's Walt Mossberg reported:
I found the two new Air models almost matched Apple's battery claims, even with all power-saving features turned off, Wi-Fi kept on, the screen on maximum brightness and a continuous loop of music playing. The 11-inch model lasted four hours and 43 minutes, versus Apple's claim of up to five hours. The 13-inch model lasted six hours and 13 minutes, versus Apple's claim of up to seven hours.
In simple "battery drain" tests -- playing an H.264 movie file in full-screen mode from internal storage with full brightness -- MacWorld found:
Our own tests are more aggressive than Apple's, and are designed to drain the laptop's battery much faster than Apple's. But they do give us a good sense of how much battery power these systems have when compared to the previous-generation MacBook Air. And there’s good news on that front: The 11-inch Air lasted for 220 minutes while looping an H.264 movie in full-screen mode at full brightness. The new 13-inch Air lasted 265 minutes. And the 2009-era MacBook Air? It only lasted about 185 minutes.
In tests rather similar to Apple's own, LaptopMag likewise achieved similar results for both the 11-Inch and 13-Inch models:
Apple rates the battery life of the 11-inch MacBook Air at 5 hours, and we saw 5 hours and 18 minutes of runtime in our LAPTOP Battery Test (continuous web surfing over Wi-Fi). This test is run with the display on 40 percent brightness, so you'll get less endurance if you have the screen on full brightness. . .
[For the 13-Inch model] we saw an excellent runtime of 6 hours and 36 minutes. That showing is worlds better than the last-generation 13-inch Air (a measly 2:08). . . The 13-inch MacBook Pro lasted 7:48, but it's also much heavier.
In day-to-day use, ArsTechnica stumbled into reduced battery life when running Flash:
We did find (quite by accident) that Apple may have more reasons behind not installing Flash by default other than the stated reason of ensuring that users always have the most up-to-date version. Having Flash installed can cut battery runtime considerably -- as much as 33 percent in our testing. With a handful of websites loaded in Safari, Flash-based ads kept the CPU running far more than seemed necessary, and the best time I recorded with Flash installed was just 4 hours. After deleting Flash, however, the MacBook Air ran for 6:02 -- with the exact same set of websites reloaded in Safari, and with static ads replacing the CPU-sucking Flash versions.
It wouldn't be fair to consider the above without also including Adobe's formal retort (via FastCompany) regarding ArsTechnica's findings:
When you're displaying content, any technology will use more power to display, versus not displaying content. If you used HTML5, for example, to display advertisements, that would use as much or more processing power than what Flash uses.
That certainly is true and excessively complicated advertisements, regardless of the format, may be more to blame for the battery life hit that ArsTechnica discovered than Flash per se.
After running the most in-depth collection of battery tests -- including "light" web browsing as well as "Flash" web browsing and heavy "multitasking" use -- AnandTech concluded:
Light users are going to get wonderful battery life out of the new MacBook Air, particularly the 13-inch model. However, if you are the type of user who does a lot of multitasking or if you're running particularly CPU intensive apps (e.g. Photoshop, iMovie, etc...) then these two notebooks will hardly last you. I suspect this is the distinction Apple is looking to make. If you're a regular user, just playing around on Gmail and browsing the web then the MacBook Air is all you'll need. If you are doing any work with your machine however, you'll want to look towards the MacBook Pro.
Battery Life Summary
Ultimately, it appears that Apple's battery life estimates for the "Late 2010" MacBook Air models definitely are realistic. However, as Apple notes as well, battery life may vary depending on "use and configuration" and this is clearly reflected in the variety of real-world tests performed.
If your MacBook Air no longer delivers these kinds of battery life numbers, it may be time to replace the battery.
Also see: How do you replace or upgrade the battery in the MacBook Air? Is it even possible or is it glued in place?
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