MacBooks are great for working at home or browsing the Web at a coffee shop. And as their design and power evolve, their battery life keeps improving, meaning that you don't have to worry as much about bringing your charger everywhere or being forced to stop in the middle of a YouTube video. Buy even with their increasingly long life, MacBook batteries require care and a few tweaks to use optimally.
The 13 inch 2013 MacBook Air is the one of the newest MacBooks, and its long battery life was touted by CNET writer Brooke Crothers as one of its most notable features. According to CNET's tests, this MacBook can last for 14 hours and 25 minutes while playing video. Its epic battery performance is nearly twice that of its predecessor, which could only tough things out for 7 hours and 27 minutes on the same test. Enhancing battery life may now be Apple's primary goal as it build laptops, posited Crothers, noting that neither the 11 inch nor the 13 inch MacBook Air has received a hardware redesign or refreshed screen resolution for more than two years.
Not everything is rosy in battery life land, though, as certain apps can still dramatically reduce the performance of any MacBook. Do you use Dropbox or another cloud service to sync files on your desktop? Dropbox in particular may rapidly drain a MacBook battery, reported Nico Schuele on his blog. Although marketed as having up to 12 hours of battery life, the 13 inch 2013 MacBook Air only lasted for three hours while using Dropbox in Schuele's test.
Saving battery juice
If you're concerned about your MacBook battery draining too quickly, then there are some simple steps you can take to lessen the load it handles with programs and tasks. These tricks can be useful whether you have a new MacBook or an older one that you still use, said Geoffrey Goetz at GigaOM.
One useful technique is battery calibration. You can calibrate your MacBook battery by charging your MacBook to 100 percent and then draining it all the way to zero, without charging it along the way. After that, fully charge it again to optimize its potential. Apple suggests that you calibrate your battery once per month and also avoid keeping your MacBook plugged in all the time. Turning off Bluetooth, screen savers and Adobe Flash may also help, offered Goetz.
Those steps assume that you have a healthy battery, however. If it still seems to die too soon, then it may need to be replaced. Bring your MacBook to iResQ for our MacBook repair services, and we'll fix it up for you in no time.