MacBook Air Portable Genius, 4th Edition

Saving Energy When Using Battery Power

We’ve all been there. You have a long flight ahead of you and your presentation needs work. Unless the plane has an available AC outlet, you need MacBook Air to last a big chunk of that time running on battery power. What are the chances of that happening?

Check out www.seatguru.com to see if the airplane your airline is using has AC near your seat.

Here’s the short answer: It depends.

Here’s the slightly longer (and more satisfying) answer: It depends on which model of MacBook Air you’re using and what you’ll be doing with it. Third-, fourth-, and fifth-generation MacBook Airs get between 5 (for the 11-inch model) and 7 (for the 13-inch model) hours per charge under normal use. Count on less (often much less) than 4 hours for earlier versions. However, you can boost all these numbers by taking steps to minimize MacBook Air’s power consumption and thereby maximize its battery life.

The good news is that MacBook Air offers a number of features and techniques that you can use to save energy while running on battery power. By using these features diligently, you can maximize battery power and get that presentation finished.

It’s an unfortunate fact of life that running MacBook Air on batteries is always a trade-off between battery life and ...