Six hours 43 minutes had lower screen lighting than MBA, did not have continous (20 second loop) web browsing and did not have continuous MP3 playing in the background.
Four to six hours was an estimate. They stated six hours with screen reduced to 75%, no mention of continuous MP3 or continuous web browsing. So there's no way to compare.
And that ignores the fact that the TZ has a tiny screen, dog slow processor, and cramped keyboard. Oh, and it costs much more than the MBA. Heck, they rated the Windows experience only 2 out of 5. Given how bad the WIndows experience is on even a good computer, that's pretty dismal.
So I've had an MBA for a few days now and LOVE it. It's an HDD and I upped the speed to 1.8.
FWIW, I sat down in bed last night at exactly 10pm and started working.
Lots of email. Lots of web browsing.
No music, No movies.
All via Wifi of course.
No bluetooth.
Monitor set to a comfortable brightness but not overly bright.
Of course the keyboard was backlit.
At exactly 1:30 am I was down to the warning and 6 minutes of battery life. This is my first mac so I don't know how long I really could have worked once it read 6 minutes but I do know that 2 minutes later it read 4 minutes.
I love this machine and am pretty happy with Leopard and Mac apps in general but I was fairly disappointed that very basic use drained the alleged 5 hour battery in 3.5 hours. That's 70% of the promised battery, I expect if I was watching a movie on a plane or listening to music I'd be hard-pressed to get 2,5 hours.
Even worse, if 6 months or so the battery will probably offer a lot less as it gets tired.
Anyone else have any real-world anecdotal evidence to battery life?
Great stuff..and I've noticed roughly the same battery life from my experience..what I'd like to see next is the difference in battery life between the 1.6 and 1.8 models..the 1.6 runs at a lower voltage and consumes less wattage..so I'd like to know how this translates into battery life as well..come on, give me more!
As part of my undergraduate dissertation into how companies communicate online with their consumers, I would be very grateful if you could complete a short online questionnaire.
(There's no such thing as an undergraduate dissertation - spammer is banned - JL)
Jobs said the 5 hours was with the wireless turned off. How come no test was done with the wireless turned off to test Apples claims? Or were the tests intended to disprove Apples claims?
I don't remember exactly how Jobs stated it, but the Apple page does not say that:
"The MacBook Air battery is our thinnest ever, yet it doesn’t compromise power. You can access the web wirelessly for five full hours."
Six hours 43 minutes had lower screen lighting than MBA, did not have continous (20 second loop) web browsing and did not have continuous MP3 playing in the background.
Four to six hours was an estimate. They stated six hours with screen reduced to 75%, no mention of continuous MP3 or continuous web browsing. So there's no way to compare.
"During testing, with the backlight at about 75% or so, the notebook was able to last about six hours during a number of separate outings. This was for general use, mostly internet work, so for more intensive work I would say to expect between 4-6 hours,"
It sounds like someone was actually using it for web use vs. just letting it run some test on its own.
Quote:
And that ignores the fact that the TZ has a tiny screen, dog slow processor, and cramped keyboard. Oh, and it costs much more than the MBA. Heck, they rated the Windows experience only 2 out of 5. Given how bad the WIndows experience is on even a good computer, that's pretty dismal.
For what an ultraportable is intended to do, processor speed isn't supposed to be a big deal. I have a notebook that runs at that speed and it does all the standard low intensity stuff pretty well, web use, email, music and so on.
I've had a 1.8GHz SSD unit for a couple of days now. With the display cracked to the max, using 802.11n for browsing and email along with some use of other apps and iTunes I got a bit under 4 hours. I think it would be possible to get 5 hours with it. It certainly lasts longer than my 17" MBP. And the SSD is very fast for most operations. Reading is much faster than the 7200rpm drive in my MBP. Application launches are in one bounce.
Besides, it's not that useful without wireless - the wireless was part of the point behind the product.
I'd agree with you that the wireless is an important feature of the laptop, but I think you're kind of overstating the case. I do a great deal on my laptop where network connectivity doesn't come into it, like typing. My own imagined use for an MBA would be in the hospital seeing patients. It would be a lot more portable than my 17" MBP. I probably wouldn't need to access the hospital network at all (not because they don't have one, but because the servers are so slow it's useless). My wireless use would be when I was back in the office, synchronizing the patient databases.
In my own imagined use, I might get more than the 5 hours. I might not though, because I intend to dial screen brightness more than half-way. (You hit 40, and your eyes just go to hell in a handbasket )
Still, though, I do take your point. My own needs probably do not represent a typical use of the MBA. I don't think it's necessarily too atypical though. A lot of business travelers are mostly producing and tweaking documents while they're moving about. (And if you're a business traveler, feel free to tell me I'm wrong).
Jobs said the 5 hours was with the wireless turned off. How come no test was done with the wireless turned off to test Apples claims? Or were the tests intended to disprove Apples claims?
This is what Apple said, "The MacBook Air battery is our thinnest ever, yet it doesn?t compromise power. You can access the web wirelessly for five full hours."
Why does everybody invent a new battery test for every notebook test
The numbers of the MBA HDD vs SSD should be compared to the same test running on a MB or MBP. With this comparison any MB or MBP User will see, wether the MBA will actually give him more endurance than his current apple notebook.
Why does everybody invent a new battery test for every notebook test
The numbers of the MBA HDD vs SSD should be compared to the same test running on a MB or MBP. With this comparison any MB or MBP User will see, wether the MBA will actually give him more endurance than his current apple notebook.
I think there should be a battery* of tests for various types of users but the main test the vendor uses should be based on how the average person for the intended market will use it.
I thought that was a maintenance thing after a few months of use. Are you supposed to condition a battery on a new laptop?
There doesn't appear to be a whole lot of agreement on whether "conditioning" is necessary or beneficial for a Li-ion or Li-polymer battery. What I see sometimes is that it's done only so that the chip in the battery can calibrate itself. I think the same goes for the recommended monthly full-cycle charge/discharge, it's not to prevent battery's chemical "memory" from kicking in, it's to keep that calibration accurate. So maybe it's necessary, but maybe not exactly for the reason that's implied.
I'd like to see Prince test what gavza wrote about - some realistic tests about use on an airplane: display 1, 2 or 3 bar, WiFi OFF, sound off, and just word processing using MS Word (not any other word processor, no iTunes).
I'd also like to see the same for Adobe Illustrator/Photoshop/Indesign.
The figures for MS Word running under Windows XP in vmware or parallels, and figures for WinXP running in BootCamp with just MS Word running (wifi off, sound off, brightness low) would also be interesting.
There doesn't appear to be a whole lot of agreement on whether "conditioning" is necessary or beneficial for a Li-ion or Li-polymer battery.
Regardless what may appear to some, under what circumstances would one not just follow the recommendations that the manufacturer recommends for their products as Apple so explicitly describes for theirs. http://www.apple.com/batteries/
Regardless what may appear to some, under what circumstances would one not just follow the recommendations that the manufacturer recommends for their products as Apple so explicitly describes for theirs. http://www.apple.com/batteries/
I'm just saying that it may be about as useful as zapping the PRAM, something that's almost useless and still, Apple offers that as a suggestion in case there are problems.
I'm just saying that it may be about as useful as zapping the PRAM, something that's almost useless and still, Apple offers that as a suggestion in case there are problems.
Yet Apple says it's important - and explains why.
If you follow Apple's recommendation and are not happy with the battery life, that's one thing. But if you fail to follow Apple's procedure for maximizing battery life, you have no grounds to complain.
Comments
Then it's good that there are third parties that test this sort of thing:
Six hours 43 minutes:
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3956
Four to six hours:
http://www.geek.com/review-sony-vaio-tz-notebook/
Six hours 43 minutes had lower screen lighting than MBA, did not have continous (20 second loop) web browsing and did not have continuous MP3 playing in the background.
Four to six hours was an estimate. They stated six hours with screen reduced to 75%, no mention of continuous MP3 or continuous web browsing. So there's no way to compare.
And that ignores the fact that the TZ has a tiny screen, dog slow processor, and cramped keyboard. Oh, and it costs much more than the MBA. Heck, they rated the Windows experience only 2 out of 5. Given how bad the WIndows experience is on even a good computer, that's pretty dismal.
So I've had an MBA for a few days now and LOVE it. It's an HDD and I upped the speed to 1.8.
FWIW, I sat down in bed last night at exactly 10pm and started working.
Lots of email. Lots of web browsing.
No music, No movies.
All via Wifi of course.
No bluetooth.
Monitor set to a comfortable brightness but not overly bright.
Of course the keyboard was backlit.
At exactly 1:30 am I was down to the warning and 6 minutes of battery life. This is my first mac so I don't know how long I really could have worked once it read 6 minutes but I do know that 2 minutes later it read 4 minutes.
I love this machine and am pretty happy with Leopard and Mac apps in general but I was fairly disappointed that very basic use drained the alleged 5 hour battery in 3.5 hours. That's 70% of the promised battery, I expect if I was watching a movie on a plane or listening to music I'd be hard-pressed to get 2,5 hours.
Even worse, if 6 months or so the battery will probably offer a lot less as it gets tired.
Anyone else have any real-world anecdotal evidence to battery life?
Did you condition the battery as recommended?
It'll be interesting to know if the battery settles in to a better average uptime once the conditioning cycle is over.
As part of my undergraduate dissertation into how companies communicate online with their consumers, I would be very grateful if you could complete a short online questionnaire.
(There's no such thing as an undergraduate dissertation - spammer is banned - JL)
Many thanks
Michelle
Jobs said the 5 hours was with the wireless turned off. How come no test was done with the wireless turned off to test Apples claims? Or were the tests intended to disprove Apples claims?
I don't remember exactly how Jobs stated it, but the Apple page does not say that:
"The MacBook Air battery is our thinnest ever, yet it doesn’t compromise power. You can access the web wirelessly for five full hours."
http://www.apple.com/macbookair/features.html
Besides, it's not that useful without wireless - the wireless was part of the point behind the product.
Six hours 43 minutes had lower screen lighting than MBA, did not have continous (20 second loop) web browsing and did not have continuous MP3 playing in the background.
Four to six hours was an estimate. They stated six hours with screen reduced to 75%, no mention of continuous MP3 or continuous web browsing. So there's no way to compare.
"During testing, with the backlight at about 75% or so, the notebook was able to last about six hours during a number of separate outings. This was for general use, mostly internet work, so for more intensive work I would say to expect between 4-6 hours,"
It sounds like someone was actually using it for web use vs. just letting it run some test on its own.
And that ignores the fact that the TZ has a tiny screen, dog slow processor, and cramped keyboard. Oh, and it costs much more than the MBA. Heck, they rated the Windows experience only 2 out of 5. Given how bad the WIndows experience is on even a good computer, that's pretty dismal.
For what an ultraportable is intended to do, processor speed isn't supposed to be a big deal. I have a notebook that runs at that speed and it does all the standard low intensity stuff pretty well, web use, email, music and so on.
Did you condition the battery as recommended?
I thought that was a maintenance thing after a few months of use. Are you supposed to condition a battery on a new laptop?
Besides, it's not that useful without wireless - the wireless was part of the point behind the product.
I'd agree with you that the wireless is an important feature of the laptop, but I think you're kind of overstating the case. I do a great deal on my laptop where network connectivity doesn't come into it, like typing. My own imagined use for an MBA would be in the hospital seeing patients. It would be a lot more portable than my 17" MBP. I probably wouldn't need to access the hospital network at all (not because they don't have one, but because the servers are so slow it's useless). My wireless use would be when I was back in the office, synchronizing the patient databases.
In my own imagined use, I might get more than the 5 hours. I might not though, because I intend to dial screen brightness more than half-way. (You hit 40, and your eyes just go to hell in a handbasket
Still, though, I do take your point. My own needs probably do not represent a typical use of the MBA. I don't think it's necessarily too atypical though. A lot of business travelers are mostly producing and tweaking documents while they're moving about. (And if you're a business traveler, feel free to tell me I'm wrong).
Jobs said the 5 hours was with the wireless turned off. How come no test was done with the wireless turned off to test Apples claims? Or were the tests intended to disprove Apples claims?
This is what Apple said, "The MacBook Air battery is our thinnest ever, yet it doesn?t compromise power. You can access the web wirelessly for five full hours."
In turn it links you to http://www.apple.com/batteries/ and http://www.apple.com/batteries/notebooks.html
http://www.ipodjuice.com/macbook-air...t-products.htm
-laura
The numbers of the MBA HDD vs SSD should be compared to the same test running on a MB or MBP. With this comparison any MB or MBP User will see, wether the MBA will actually give him more endurance than his current apple notebook.
(There's no such thing as an undergraduate dissertation - spammer is banned - JL)
I think you've never been familiar with high quality undergraduate programs, then. I've seen a couple of schools which had undergrad dissertations.
Why does everybody invent a new battery test for every notebook test
The numbers of the MBA HDD vs SSD should be compared to the same test running on a MB or MBP. With this comparison any MB or MBP User will see, wether the MBA will actually give him more endurance than his current apple notebook.
I think there should be a battery* of tests for various types of users but the main test the vendor uses should be based on how the average person for the intended market will use it.
*Pun intended
I thought that was a maintenance thing after a few months of use. Are you supposed to condition a battery on a new laptop?
There doesn't appear to be a whole lot of agreement on whether "conditioning" is necessary or beneficial for a Li-ion or Li-polymer battery. What I see sometimes is that it's done only so that the chip in the battery can calibrate itself. I think the same goes for the recommended monthly full-cycle charge/discharge, it's not to prevent battery's chemical "memory" from kicking in, it's to keep that calibration accurate. So maybe it's necessary, but maybe not exactly for the reason that's implied.
I'd also like to see the same for Adobe Illustrator/Photoshop/Indesign.
The figures for MS Word running under Windows XP in vmware or parallels, and figures for WinXP running in BootCamp with just MS Word running (wifi off, sound off, brightness low) would also be interesting.
There doesn't appear to be a whole lot of agreement on whether "conditioning" is necessary or beneficial for a Li-ion or Li-polymer battery.
Regardless what may appear to some, under what circumstances would one not just follow the recommendations that the manufacturer recommends for their products as Apple so explicitly describes for theirs. http://www.apple.com/batteries/
Regardless what may appear to some, under what circumstances would one not just follow the recommendations that the manufacturer recommends for their products as Apple so explicitly describes for theirs. http://www.apple.com/batteries/
I'm just saying that it may be about as useful as zapping the PRAM, something that's almost useless and still, Apple offers that as a suggestion in case there are problems.
I'm just saying that it may be about as useful as zapping the PRAM, something that's almost useless and still, Apple offers that as a suggestion in case there are problems.
Yet Apple says it's important - and explains why.
If you follow Apple's recommendation and are not happy with the battery life, that's one thing. But if you fail to follow Apple's procedure for maximizing battery life, you have no grounds to complain.