MacBook Air SSD vs HDD Battery Life Revisted
Anandtech provides another review of the MacBook Air, however, unique to their review is an objective battery test comparing the Solid State Drive (SSD) vs the Hard Disk Drive (HDD) of the MacBook Air. In this case, they actually installed the SSD drive (same as Apple's) into the MacBook Air themselves and kindly provided instructions for readers to do it themselves.
To review, their standardized battery tests involved the following scripted tasks:
1) Use Wifi to browse 20 pages in a loop, spending 20 seconds on each page, while playing MP3s in iTunes.
2) Play a DVD image (off the internal hard drive) in a loop.
3) Download 10GB of files, Web browsing loop from #1, play two 480p Xvid videos in a loop.
In running these tests on both SSD and HDD MacBook Air, they found that the Solid State Drive did make a difference in battery life (contrary to previous reports), with an improvement of up to 16.8% (43 minutes) in the best case.
Time in Hours:Minutes, results from Anandtech.com
Anandtech also compared the MacBook Air's battery life to the 2006 Core Duo 2.0GHz MacBook Pro and the current Core 2 Duo 2.6GHz MacBook Pro. Battery life on the previous generation Core Duo MacBook Pro was much worse than the Air, but the SSD Air's battery compared favorably against the newest MacBook Pro -- besting it in Battery Test #1 and #2.
The SSD upgrade remains a costly ($999) upgrade for the MacBook Air, but prices are expected to drop over time.
To review, their standardized battery tests involved the following scripted tasks:
1) Use Wifi to browse 20 pages in a loop, spending 20 seconds on each page, while playing MP3s in iTunes.
2) Play a DVD image (off the internal hard drive) in a loop.
3) Download 10GB of files, Web browsing loop from #1, play two 480p Xvid videos in a loop.
In running these tests on both SSD and HDD MacBook Air, they found that the Solid State Drive did make a difference in battery life (contrary to previous reports), with an improvement of up to 16.8% (43 minutes) in the best case.
| Test | HDD | SSD | % Improvement |
| #1 Wireless Internet + MP3 | 4:16 | 4:59 | 16.8% |
| #2 DVD Playback | 3:25 | 3:56 | 15.1% |
| #3 Heavy Downloading + XviD + Web Browsing | 2:26 | 2:42 | 11.0% |
Anandtech also compared the MacBook Air's battery life to the 2006 Core Duo 2.0GHz MacBook Pro and the current Core 2 Duo 2.6GHz MacBook Pro. Battery life on the previous generation Core Duo MacBook Pro was much worse than the Air, but the SSD Air's battery compared favorably against the newest MacBook Pro -- besting it in Battery Test #1 and #2.
The SSD upgrade remains a costly ($999) upgrade for the MacBook Air, but prices are expected to drop over time.
Top Rated Comments
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52 months ago
Anand from Anandtech has reviewed the MacBook Air.
Source: The MacBook Air: Thoroughly Reviewed
This is a 23-page review so brace yourself with your drink of choice and sip it slowly while digesting it.
He covers a lot of ground and even shows how to install a Solid State Drive.
The interesting part is that the MacBook Air beats the original MacBook Pro Core Duo 2.0Ghz in most things and as a result I feel fairly sad about my original MacBook Pro Core Duo 2.16Ghz ;)
Enjoy :)
Source: The MacBook Air: Thoroughly Reviewed
This is a 23-page review so brace yourself with your drink of choice and sip it slowly while digesting it.
He covers a lot of ground and even shows how to install a Solid State Drive.
The interesting part is that the MacBook Air beats the original MacBook Pro Core Duo 2.0Ghz in most things and as a result I feel fairly sad about my original MacBook Pro Core Duo 2.16Ghz ;)
Enjoy :)
52 months ago
It seems the power-saving advantage of SSD is more effective when the file system is idle (web browsing), virtually no power consumption as opposed to the HDD.
52 months ago
Why is the SSD improvement so small? I would have though taking out a component with a *motor* would make a huge difference.
52 months ago
It seems the power-saving advantage of SSD is more effective when the file system is idle (web browsing), virtually no power consumption as opposed to the HDD.
Why is the SSD improvement so small? I would have though taking out a component with a *motor* would make a huge difference.
I think the reason it makes more of a difference in the less-intensive tasks is that the hard drive is only a small portion of the power draw on the system. If you are taxing the system, the processor is using up more power, dwarfing any power savings on the drive itself.
arn
52 months ago
Also, as the standard drive is a 1.8" HDD and not a 2.5", wouldn't it be consuming much less power anyway?
In other words, are people expecting the difference to be larger as they are not taking into account that battery life would be much poorer if it was a 2.5" HDD that was installed by default?
I don't think I'm explaining myself very clearly, but it early here.
In other words, are people expecting the difference to be larger as they are not taking into account that battery life would be much poorer if it was a 2.5" HDD that was installed by default?
I don't think I'm explaining myself very clearly, but it early here.
52 months ago
Maybe a stupid question, but howlong does the mb air run idle:confused:
Whitout doing anything....:rolleyes:
:apple:
Whitout doing anything....:rolleyes:
:apple:
52 months ago
I just saw the MBA in person for the first time today and WOW it was beyond words incredible. Having said that, as a video guy, and just general use, the MBA is really for a VERY SPECIFIC demographic I think. For who it targets it is awesome, but I think that target is very limiting.
52 months ago
Please compare to MB and MBP!
The 10 or 15% improvement seems significant enough. Even if there is ZERO power consumption from the SSD, you will probably still have a max 20% gain. You have to remember the drives are only a portion of the power. There is still the overhead from the processor, display, etc.
The 10 or 15% improvement seems significant enough. Even if there is ZERO power consumption from the SSD, you will probably still have a max 20% gain. You have to remember the drives are only a portion of the power. There is still the overhead from the processor, display, etc.
52 months ago
Maybe a stupid question, but howlong does the mb air run idle:confused:
Whitout doing anything....:rolleyes:
:apple:
5+ hours for me. Seems like a strange question though. You might as well close the notebook. The MBA turns on INSTANTLY.
If you turn off wifi and are just writing a document, 4+ hours is easily attainable.
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