How long should a MacBook Air battery last

How long you can use your computer on a full charge is completely dependant on what you are doing. If I am playing a game or watching a video I get about 2.5 hours. If I am using a word processor or programming (and turn off WiFi) I get over 5 hours sometimes almost 6 hours. I have a 13" 2011 MBA which has fewer than 100 cycles.

The two things that affect battery life the most on a MBA are CPU usage and how bright the display is, followed by WiFi and BlueTooth. To get the best battery life, turn off BT and WiFi (for me this adds maybe 30 minutes) turn down the backlight as low as you can. If you are doing serious work avoid taking breaks by playing a 3D game 😉

My MacBook Pro 13" is now 15 months old and has completed 318 cycles, according to Coconut Battery and my system info. I timed it the other day, with normal use (writing docs, email and the occasional Internet surf) and in 2.5 hours it went from fully charged to turning itself off when the battery ran out of charge. I then left it for five hours before plugging in the adapter and it made no difference. I have the screen bightness set at 50% - anything less makes it difficult to use the screen

Yet Coconut Battery (good tip, thanks) says the battery's current capacity is 5429 mAh, compared with its design capacity of 5770 mAh, so why the rapid drain?

I don't see anything in this discussion that tells me why - does anyone from Apple read these discussions?

Thanks

This depends what size you have 11" is about 5 hours of web surfing and 13" about 7 hours however this is with energy saver settings maxed out! its also only good for 1000 battery cycles, after this the battery life will deteriotate quickly

It certainly depends on what you are doing. If I'm sufring the Web or reading or writing letters, my battery on my 11'MBA lasta 5-6 hours. If I'm playing WoW I get about 2 hours.

This is a completly normal battery life