Flash on MacBook Air means two hours of battery life less

10th November, 2010 by adina
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The decision Apple made to remove Flash from the new MacBook Air configuration and for future Macs too seems to have as much in common with battery life as with version updating, according to tests performed recently. New benchmarks showed the 11-inch version having six hours of battery life with several websites open and a no-Flash install by default, while only the battery was available for only four hours with Flash installed and the same websites open. Ars Technica has conducted the test and has noted that due to constant cycling of Flash banners on the open sites, the CPU remained constantly active instead of stepping down.

This data repeats similar results of higher-performance MacBook Pro computers in the past. Regular checks of browsing performed by Anandtech with or without Flash have revealed negative effects in running time every time that Flash was a significant component in the scenario.

Adobe has tried to lessen earlier concerns about reducing battery life by adding GPU acceleration to the Mac, but it still depends on the processor for video and animation rendering on all platforms. Although this was not given as an official reason for taking out the default install of Flash on the desktop, resource usage and battery life have been serious reasons for Steve Jobs to insist for the removing of Flash on the iPhone. As for Android phones with Flash, they can run some sites in good conditions but have difficulties in running large-format video content and a major drop-off of the battery life can be noticed when Flash usage is frequent.

Adobe has not responded to these battery life issues.


     

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