Ars Technica- MacBook Air battery life is worst feature

A lot has been said about the fixed battery in the MacBook Air, the kind that must be sent back to Apple to be replaced.  A lot of reports of less than stellar battery life are starting to appear on the web and this one by Ars Tecnica gave me pause.  The author ran his battery down 4 times doing the type of work he does normally, web work, etc.  The average battery life was 2 hours and 33 minutes or half what Apple claims.  Equally disturbing was this statement:

Yes, Apple sacrificed some battery life for the bigger screen that I love so much, but it also advertises a battery life with wireless productivity that's more than double my actual average. It also takes me about twice as long to charge the battery back to 100 percent than it does for me to run it down. Something about this situation is wrong, and it's not how I'm using the computer. Since I named a best feature of the Air earlier, I'll go ahead and name battery life (and tangentially, the inability to swap out batteries) as the worst.

Poor battery life and long recharge times, that's what I'd call hot air.

Comments

[Kevin C. Tofel]

The battery recharge time jumped out as a potential issue when I read the spec on the included charger: it's a 45-watt charger. The charger in the MacBook and MacBook Pros are larger & heavier to carry, but are 60- and 85-Watts so they recharge the battery much faster.

[Woadan]

Better looking doesn't make for better working.

Woadan

[Kevin C. Tofel]

Woadan, I completely agree. That's why I stopped showering before blogging in the mornings. ;)

[Woadan]

Kevin,

I'm glad Philly and Washington are a good 3 hour drive away from each other.

And here I thought something else accounted for the smell in Philly...
:-)

Woadan

[David]

Philly and Washington are 3 hours apart...
The Air only lasts 2.5 hours...
That means smells transferred through Air can't get from Philly to Washington.

You're safe!

D.

[Jake]

I was in the Apple store today with a friend (his iPod had stopped working despite the fact that Apple stuff is just supposed to work!?!) and had a look at the Air.

Considering that the form factor is the only real selling point this thing has I have to say that I wasn't that impressed. The screen is very thin and that's a nice feature but I wasn't in any way amazed. It just looks like a (thin) laptop but it doesn't wow me like a real ultraportable would.

[ArchiMark]

Uh-oh....seems like His Steveness's RDF is wearing off...

;-)

[MR]

the general feeling spreading around seems to be that the MBA could wind up being Apples biggest blunder in a long time, especially since they've been on fire lately.

it's actually quite nice to finally see the general public *not* falling for Apples typical style-over-substance approach to their products.

i think the biggest disappointment with this product besides the poor battery life, lack of ports, high price, is that it isn't a true ultraportable, it's still huge (could hold a 15" screen with that thick bezel). i think the public has spoken, they want a truly small MacBook to carry around (10"s or less).

not just a thin version of what they already have.

[Tax Man]

I'm a bit hesitant to post on my MacBook Air since the tide seems to be turning the other way, but I absolutely love my MacBook Air. I've been using it for 3:05 on battery using Wifi and running Windows XP in parallels and OSX. I'm getting the red line on the battery indicator but it shows 0:43 minutes remaining. I don't know about Ar's test, but I can tell you that by default, the Air is not set up to maximize battery life. The screen is on max brightness, even on battery. By default, the power setting is "normal", not "longer battery life." By tweeking the settings and turning down brightness, the battery life is longer.

My test isn't scientific and your mileage may vary.