How long is your battery lasting on your 13" mid-2011 MacBook Air?

As the title says, how long is your battery lasting in your 13" mid-2011 MacBook Air? I think so far I am only getting a few hours. It's kind of hard to tell exactly as I have not had a lot of time to sit and play with it at one sitting. I have spent a lot of time doing updates, installing programs and apps and fine-tuning settings in programs.
I thought I was supposed to get around 7 hours. I don't think I am even getting 4, but I did just turn down the brightness on the monitor from the brightest setting to a few bars above the lowest setting.
I am not sure that my battery meter is working properly either.
Any advice?

I have a 13" Air, bought July 21 / 2011 - the day they came out. I never actually measured the battery time, but I can say that while I carry a charger around with me in the satchel, I have never had to plug it in on the road.

I do very little work that runs the processor at high power - just surfing, reading and programming, so I probably get the best usage possible. I can say, that after a four hour session with hobbyist buddies at an Internet cafe, my battery usually shows over 70 percent full.

You didn't say what you use it for, but quite a few times I have discovered a stuck process that was running the CPU wide open (Using the terminal app Top and looking for something running a constant 90+ percent) which not only hammers the battery but heats up the clamshell considerably.

My rule of thumb is, if I can hear the fan, something is running that shouldn't be. Unless it is the rare occasion that I am viewing a flash or movie file.

IStat Pro, Temperature Monitor and Coconut Battery are really good apps for a MacBook user to have running. They will tell you real quickly that something isn't kosher.

Mine routinely does 6-7 hours

of what I call normal use but that is a moving target, "normal use." I don't watch movies on mine which really eat up the battery. Apple claims the stand-by life of a closed MBAir is 20-30 days and that is probably accurate. Closer to 30 days but who leaves theirs untouched for that long?

MacLicious said:

It's kind of hard to tell exactly as I have not had a lot of time to sit and play with it at one sitting. I have spent a lot of time doing updates, installing programs and apps and fine-tuning settings in programs.

Any advice?

Click to expand...

I would say spend a little more time with this computer to get a better feel for the total battery "runtime" on a full charge that it is getting under more "normal" conditions.

Common big "energy hog" activities are:

- anything that involves a lot of disk activity (HD or optical drive)
- watching DVD movies
- You-Tube or internet videos
- high brightness setting on display

Smaller "energy hog" activities/settings:

- playing music with the volume turned up loud
- high brightness on the keyboard backlighting
- bluetooth on

- Nick

I was looking for a setting to change for the keyboard backlighting but couldn't find it. Where do I find that?

MacLicious said:

I was looking for a setting to change for the keyboard backlighting but couldn't find it. Where do I find that?

Click to expand...

Should be in the top row of the keyboard (the "function key" row).

- Nick

Ya, it's the F1 key but it is only changing the screen brightness. I couldn't find anything for the backlit keyboard so far.

MacLicious said:

Ya, it's the F1 key but it is only changing the screen brightness. I couldn't find anything for the backlit keyboard so far.

Click to expand...

According to this Apple Article:

Portables: Adjusting the keyboard backlight

...keyboard backlight adjustment is the F5 & F6 keys.

- Nick

I wasn't looking on the keyboard for settings. Just under System Preferences. OMG, thanks. You are right. I guess I am guilty of not reading my user's manual. Thanks and I will read it before I ask any more dumb questions!

I manage 6 or so hours out of the 11in MBA, so if you're only clipping four it really would make me wonder if the battery is charging properly, or holding it's charge properly.

Well, I am now at the point that I have finished installing any little extras and tweaking settings so now I will see what I get over time.

MacLicious said:

I wasn't looking on the keyboard for settings. Just under System Preferences. OMG, thanks.

Click to expand...

Didn't I say "keyboard" above??

Great that you found the controls!

- Nick