Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
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 us-
ing 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
computer performance. The more diligent you are about preserving battery life, the slower MacBook Air will operate.
Optimizing the MacBook Air energy settings
MacBook Air comes with energy settings that control the battery life/performance trade-off. In this case, you
want to adjust those settings so that they favor battery life over performance. The following steps show you how
to do that:
1. Click the battery status icon in the menu bar and then click Open Energy Saver Preferences.
The
Energy Saver window appears. Note that this window is part of System Preferences, so you can also display
it by running System Preferences and then clicking the Energy Saver icon.
2. Click the Battery tab, shown in Figure 9.5.
