[Ron K]

Now that I have my new MBA, I am empirically testing the battery. So far the results are not promising. Having spoken with Apple tech support, I reported that after charging the battery to a full 100% I let is sit idle for maybe 5 minutes. In that time the percentage dropped to 98%. From there I began the test which amounted to contacting Apple support and getting familiar with some settings that were not working correctly. I spent perhaps 30 to 40 minutes and the battery dropped from 98% to 79%. From 79% I spent surfing the web, reading news, doing product searches, etc.; essentially spending time browsing, but no heavy lifting (downloading, etc.). I did open my CAD program and browse through some files for maybe 30 minutes, but otherwise I only adjusted OS settings, threw away outdate programs (Rosetta) and got familiar with the new OS and the computer. Results: in 4 hours, 13 minutes, the batter charge dropped from 79% to 5%. This constitutes a 75% drop (+ or -) . So, this indicates about a total of 5 plus hours of use before the battery needed charging.

Next, with the battery fully charged, I watched a Netflix movie (video streaming) for no more than 2 hours. The battery charge went from 100% to 5%. Again this is not encouraging. I deliberately chose to run this test because I figured that it would be considered heavy lifting on battery use. I am not sure what could be more power consuming than this nor as easy to execute without having to be hands on all of the time. Being disappointed with the results, I again contacted Apple support and they suggested that I have the local Apple store run a diagnostic test, which I will do tomorrow. So, I am wondering what is the experience of other owners of the new MBA? Are you also experiencing poor battery performance, or is it just me?

[OreoCookie]

What do you mean, poor battery performance? 5 hours is ok. If you use anything that launches Flash (netflix does use flash, doesn't it, I don't live in the US?), you have to expect a severe hit in battery life. There is nothing Apple can do here, Flash typically maxes out one core if I play a video via Flash. That's insane, given that a native player utilizes 10~20 %. That's why many reputable reviews have two light browsing battery benchmarks: one with Flash and one without. Anandtech has measured that the Air lasts about 100 minutes longer if you don't use flash. In some cases, the difference is more significant: the late 2010 MacBook Air lasts more than twice as long if you don't use flash.

Your MacBook Air is just fine, the battery life you've measured is what you would expect.

[ibook_steve]

Yes this is expected. But you also didn't mention other settings. Is Bluetooth on? What level do you have the screen brightness at (Apple tests at one tick above the backlight completely off)? What browser are you using (Chrome is worse than Safari, for example)?

But Flash is a huge culprit and always has been.

Steve

[SSharon]

Yea, seems like you are getting average battery life out of it. Turn off stuff you don't use, lower the brightness, and avoid flash on the web and run the test again. You can also hold down the option key and click on the batter meter in the menu bar to see its condition, but this isn't really a substitute for a real diagnostic it is more of a SMART style test like HDs have.