poor battery life 2011 macbook air even after 10.7.2

Question

poor battery life 2011 macbook air even after 10.7.2

well there is a huge thread about horrible battery life after a lion install for the macbook pros

i feel like the macbook air is also experiencing this problem.

I DO NOT get my 7 HOURs AT ALL. I'm lucky to get 4.5 hours - and I feel as if the drain has already results in 47 cycles in my battery life reducing my new Macbook Air battery health 3% in just 2.5 short months. (I'm not using this as a road warrior machine, mostly try to keep it charged).

I waited for the 10.7.2 update that supposedly fixes battery life, but I don't feel like it is working.

I wonder if others are feeling the same way.

My other Macs (12" G4 Powerbook, Macbook, Macbook Pro 13") I feel had better battery life than my very expensive and new Macbook Air. I'm very disappointed with the quality of Lion and the new MBA - they are a big drop off from SL and MBP. (Lion also crashes programs)

So here are my specs:

i7 core 13" MBA 2011 4GB RAM 256 SSD

Some battery stats (typical browsing, word running in background, mail up)

13:00 59%

13:46 42%

14:07 34%

This would net me 4.5 hours total - hardly the 7 hours they advertised!!

How is everyone else doing post 10.7.2?

MacBook Air, Mac OS X (10.7.2)

Posted on Oct 18, 2011 11:20 PM

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Answer 1

Oct 19, 2011 12:25 AM in response to charlesfromnew haven

believe it or not, browsing takes a lot of memory to run, and use and therfore will take battery power. mail is constantly updating itself so that will take up battery.

The advertised hours are usually based on not really using your computer at all. feel lucky you have 4.5 hours

feel free to send feedback to apple http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

but you might have to wait for the future to get a working 7+ hours in your battery and since you have a MBA you won't really be able to update to it because your battery is wired into your computer.

Having said all that you have a very powerful computer, a good way to boost your battery life is to close the lid when you are not using it, this will put it to sleep similar to how the ipad 2 works. This will extend your battery life a little more.

you can also dim your screen a little and turn down your keyboard backlight. These will take up energy. Close any apps you're not using. Make sure you hit cmd+q when quitting and app. or it'll always stay open just without any windows open.

if you do all this you'll see a boost in how long your computer holds a charge.

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Answer 2

Oct 19, 2011 1:08 AM in response to TheSmokeMonster

smoke monster. i lived with this for 3 months given apple the benefit of the doubt with lion 10.7.2 coming out. please note they said they addressed battery issues in that update. and they did not.

but this is ridiculous. this is not a desktop. it is a laptop. and further more it is a macbook air. the most ultra portable mac there is. to cripple users so that we are changed to the desktop seems counterintuitive. do any of the macbook air commercials show a power cord dangling from the side? because this is how they expect us to use this laptop.

in comparision the ipad, with browsing, and mail running get far better battery life! it can go the whole day without a charge plus more.

apple should be more transparent about thier battery usage. i thought the revision of their battery life about 1 year ago, when the rated down their expect battery life on the macbook pros was to illustrate more common usage. i believe they expect 7hrs with typical usage. web browsing. no sitting with a dim screen, sleeping the computer everytime i get out of the chair. i literally see the percentage tick off every minute.

i am a long time mac user. owned the original bondi blue imac, have converted more than my fair share of PC users -but the current iteration of hardware is really substandard for apple's brand. i'd expected to be nickeled and dimed on specs from a PC company, but not from apple. ::but perhaps i am wrong:: i really do think that this is still primarily either a (1) software issue with lion, or (2) a battery issue with the new i7/i5 mba. the quicker apple admits to this the better off they will be.

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Answer 3

RickAu

Level 1

61 points

Oct 19, 2011 1:16 AM in response to charlesfromnew haven

Hi

My battery was poor even on Leopard I took it to a store in NYC where they tested it and said yes it needed replacing but NONE of stores in NYC had one. I eventualy got one in Los Angeles (Santa Monica).

With such a shortage of batteries I think that this is a known problem but not publically admitted so go to an Apple store and get a new one and don't take no for an answer.

Also see what applications are taking up most of CPU (use Activity Monitor) and close if possible. That will help increase your battery life

Hope this helps

Rick

Say Hi to CT for me I was in New Haven about 2 weeks ago

P.S, To clarify mine is not latest MacBook Air but one before

Message was edited by: RickAu

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Answer 4

Oct 19, 2011 1:19 AM in response to charlesfromnew haven

go into activtiy monitor and see if there is anything (like safari web content) that is taking up a large amount of CPU which will take energy to power.

you can also try an SMC reset as I've read that has solved some people's issue. http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3964

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