Apple's New MacBook Air Features Impressive Battery Life That Bests MacBook and MacBook Pro

Tuesday October 30, 2018 11:07 AM PDT by Juli Clover
Apple's newly announced MacBook Air with Retina display and upgraded 8th-generation Intel processors features the best battery life out of any of Apple's notebooks, MacBook Pro and MacBook included.

The new machine, which features a 50.3 watt-hour lithium polymer battery, offers up to 12 hours of battery life when web browsing, 13 hours when watching iTunes movie playback, and 30 days of standby time.


Comparatively, the MacBook Pro models offer up to 10 hours battery when browsing the web and 10 hours of iTunes movie playback, while the MacBook offers 10 hours of battery when browsing the web and 12 hours of iTunes movie playback.

The MacBook Air is going to provide two extra hours of battery life for web browsing compared to other models, and an hour to three hours more when watching movies. Details on Apple's battery testing procedures are below:
Testing conducted by Apple in October 2018 using preproduction 1.6GHz dual-core Intel Core i5-based MacBook Air systems with 8GB of RAM and 256GB SSD. The wireless web test measures battery life by wirelessly browsing 25 popular websites with display brightness set to 12 clicks from bottom or 75%. The iTunes movie playback test measures battery life by playing back HD 1080p content with display brightness set to 12 clicks from bottom or 75%. The standby test measures battery life by allowing a system, connected to a wireless network and signed in to an iCloud account, to enter standby mode with Safari and Mail applications launched and all system settings left at default. Battery life varies by use and configuration.
The MacBook Air is equipped with two USB-C ports and charges over USB-C. It ships with a 30W power adapter, much like the 12-inch MacBook.

You can order the new MacBook Air today, and prices start at $1,199. The first orders will arrive next Wednesday, November 7.

Related Roundup: MacBook Air
Tag: October 2018 event
Buyer's Guide: MacBook Air (Neutral)
25 comments


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frou
7 months ago

You mean Apple's New MacBook Air Features Impressive Battery Life That Beats MacBook and MacBook Pro?

Nope - get out your dictionary
Rating: 5 Votes
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Pelea
7 months ago
And features a downgraded core y processor to insure minimal performance across all tasks!
Rating: 3 Votes
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TrulsZK
7 months ago

I see, thanks.
Should anybody have the exact minute mark on hand that would be extremely useful.


It is at 18:12



Rating: 3 Votes
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dbf7
7 months ago
I’d suggest a correction... it has two Thunderbolt 3 ports, not just USB-C, as this may confuse people.
Rating: 2 Votes
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giggles
7 months ago

I'm still wondering why pair a fanless CPU with a fan cooled chassis - I can only imagine either the 8th gen U chips were too hot to properly cool in a machine of this size, were too expensive (I think Y-U price parity was broken with this gen), or this was the only way to actually retain 12h usage (which is a real plus for this machine imo)


To push it from barely above Y to really half way between Y and U when needed.
This sounds all very custom so we’re making assumptions.

From a line up stand point, the Air needs to lean towards the old Air U chips performances.

Incidentally, Microsoft does fanless U 15W in the screen part of the Surface Book 2.
Rating: 2 Votes
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giggles
7 months ago

Probably it isn't. This is likely a 15W CPU, which will require a bit of active cooling. The fanless 12"MB uses a 5W CPU.


Nope this is a 5W “Plus” cpu with 1.6Ghz base clock and HD 617 graphics.
Like half way but not really halfway between the 5W and the 15W parts.
There are no dual core 8th gen 15W parts, they’re all quad core.
Rating: 2 Votes
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oneMadRssn
7 months ago

Still can’t tell if it’s fanless like the 12” or not.


Probably it isn't. This is likely a 15W CPU, which will require a bit of active cooling. The fanless 12"MB uses a 5W CPU.
Rating: 1 Votes
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Falhófnir
7 months ago

How do we know it’s not.
People been telling me it’s not all day.
I ask: back it up (time mark in video). Never heard back.

Look at 18 minutes in, shiny round thing in the top left corner ;)
Rating: 1 Votes
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goobot
7 months ago
I feel like they should have just released this as the new MacBook and killed the air.
Rating: 1 Votes
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Falhófnir
7 months ago

ok thanks all, now I see it, I was thinking the CAD-style video

I'm still wondering why pair a fanless CPU with a fan cooled chassis - I can only imagine either the 8th gen U chips were too hot to properly cool in a machine of this size, were too expensive (I think Y-U price parity was broken with this gen), or this was the only way to actually retain 12h usage (which is a real plus for this machine imo)
Rating: 1 Votes
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