TheOverAnalyzed

Marco Arment, on the new MacBook’s reported battery life:

As batteries and components advance, device designers are able to spend those advancements increasing battery life at a given size and weight, or they can keep battery life in the same range and just make the batteries (and therefore the devices) smaller and lighter. In recent years, Apple has chosen the latter almost every time [emphasis added].

Marco also linked to a few-months-old post by Jason Snell, in which he graphed the static nature of battery life across the iOS device range:

So when you’re anticipating the next model of iPhone or iPad, and wondering if it’ll show markedly improved battery life, keep this in mind: So far Apple has behaved as if the battery life of the iPad and the iPhone are perfectly fine as is, and that it would prefer to create a thinner and lighter model to one that puts the makers of external battery packs out of business.

Could it be that Apple has been applying the same “solving for x” battery life logic to their portable OS X devices as well?

When the 13" MacBook Air launched in 2013, the real-world battery life was outstanding. We all assumed Apple had designed that new MacBook Air to have outstanding battery life on purpose. It was, as Nilay Patel notes in the linked review above, “The [emphasis added] coffee shop laptop”. But perhaps this was just an unintended consequence of the inclusion of Haswell architecture?

Similarly, when the iPhone 6 Plus landed last year, many users reported substantially increased battery life compared to the regular iPhone 6. Again, was that just an unintended consequence of their offering an additional, bigger phone size?^[1]

Finally, consider Apple’s newest device category, Apple Watch. Here’s what their support page has to say about its battery life:

Apple Watch battery performance claims are based on test results from the 38 mm Apple Watch. A 42 mm Apple Watch typically experiences longer battery life.

Note that there has not been a huge amount of press regarding the 42 mm’s increased battery life. Was that intentional on Apple’s part? As long as it basically lasted a whole day, Apple could care less about the battery life?

It sure seems that Apple is either satisfied with battery life performance across its product range, or they are still prioritizing smallness and thinness. I wonder: how thin is too thin? How many protruding camera lens covers are we destined for in the future? If Apple is (and has been) indeed “happy” with the battery life of their devices, “9-10” hours of battery life on MacBooks might be the standard for a while. Only time will tell.