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Only six hours of battery life on my 2013 MacBook Air 13"

I should supposedly be getting 12 hours out of my brand new 2013 MacBook Air 13", but instead I'm getting about half of that. My configuration is 1.7GHz i7, 8GB of RAM, 512GB. I'm not doing anything that is processor intensive; mostly just web browsing and e-mail.


Are there any battery tests I can perform? Any advice? Thanks in advance!

MacBook Air, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.4)

Posted on Jun 19, 2013 5:36 PM

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112 replies

Jun 19, 2013 6:11 PM in response to PrefabSprouter

I'm noticing the same issue and I have the same specs but with 250gb hard drive.


I'm laying in my bed browsing the internet (with chrome) with the screen at 50%, the key backlighting turned off, bluetooth off and the sound muted. I'm not running intensive programs but I'm noticing a huge drop in battery life.


It went from saying 13 hours, 11, 10 and now 9 hours of batter life. I can't imagine the system is supposed to be this innacurate. So, did we both get defective batteries (mine is saying normal too) or is something draining the battery way more than it should?


I'd guess at current consumption that I would be lucky to get 5 hours on at the previosly mentoned settings.

Jun 19, 2013 6:09 PM in response to PrefabSprouter

Since you also say this is a brand new MBA, if you mean REALLY new, give it a couple cycles to level out. Out-of-the-box it is hard to judge the charge life since it spends a lot of time and energy working in the background running Spotlight indexing all of the files in the storage. That slows the machine down and uses a lot of resources.


You can also go to Applications > Utilities > Activity Monitor and see what the cpu load is, memory utilization, hard drive/SSD acivity, and Network activity. Gives you an idea of just what the Air is doing, and what you may not know about that it is doing in the background.

Jun 19, 2013 6:12 PM in response to Kyle531

The other side of the coin, I don't remember ever having looked at those battery charge time estimates, I don't belive them anyway. With the way I use my MBP I just look up at the battery percentage when on battery power and if it is getting down to 50% start looking for an outlet to plug in if possible. I am just not a fan of those projections because they can be misleading.

Jun 19, 2013 6:37 PM in response to Kyle531

Kyle, note my comments to PreFab above, regarding a very new unit. They spend a lot of time and energy indexing, etc. Give it a few days to shake out, and if you really feel the battery life is not what it should be, take it back to an Apple store genius bar and have it tested. And remember, if you are unhappy, you have 14-days from purchase to return for refund, no questions asked. You could then turn around and buy another and see if that meets your needs better.

Jun 19, 2013 7:11 PM in response to Ralph Landry1

Thanks Ralph, I've been keeping up with all your comments. Since I bought it on the day of WWDC I am really close to breaching the 14 day return.


I'll give it a few more days and use it all day tomorrow at work and see if it makes it. I'm sure I'm over reacting a bit but watching the percentage drop so quickly makes me nervous. I'll keep in mind what you said about indexing.


And, like you said at worst case I will call Apple then take it into the genious bar.

Jun 20, 2013 6:46 AM in response to beatle81

I believe mine is starting to level out but I don't want to get my hopes up too much. Currently I'm at work, updating websites and other web tasks, and the computer has been running 1 hour and 20 minutes with 92% remaining.


After doing the math I should get about 10.6 hours at the current usage rate.


I just want the macbook to perform as they said it should, that's all. If it doesn't make it 10 1/2 hours then I think a trip to the apple store will be necessary.

Jun 28, 2013 2:50 PM in response to PrefabSprouter

I am having the exact same problem. I got a brand new June 2013 Macbook Air with all of the hardware upgrades available. I get around 5 hours of battery life tops, after 1 week of "leveling out", no improvement. I called apple and they sent me a new Macbook Air. The new one has the same exact problem. I find this absolutely ridiculous. When i go to bestbuy and unplug their display macbook air, the display says 10 hours of battery. I did a test, on both of my macbooks, The original one they sent, as well as the replacement. After one hour, the original was at 85% and the replacement was at 75%. That is not okay....i don't know what to do at this point. I guess I just have to accept that I'm only going to get 5 hours of battery life. It doensn't make sense why the one at Best Buy clearly gets 10 hours. I feel cheated and confused.

Jun 28, 2013 3:29 PM in response to noname14

Noname; What's the Intel processor on your Air? I have the 1.7MHz i7. I wonder whether the processor makes a difference in battery life (although I don't think it's supposed to make a significant one).


<<When i go to bestbuy and unplug their display macbook air, the display says 10 hours of battery. >>


Never go by the battery estimates; they are not that accurate. For all you know, that Best Buy MBAir is also getting 5 actual hours of battery life.

Only six hours of battery life on my 2013 MacBook Air 13"

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