Man Wrests Free Repair From Acer

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Acer is infamous for its inferior or nearly non-existent customer service. Long are the annals of history filled with the tales of those who have thrown themselves against Acer's ramparts and disintegrated on impact. But reader PW shares how he was able to get his 6 months out of warranty Acer laptop replaced after it died. The secret is to look for the email address with .tw after them. That's right, email addresses leading back to the mothership in Taiwan.

It always warms my heart to read Consumerist success stories and I have one more to throw on the pile today.

So my very pampered, very lightly used acer laptop recently passed it's year and a half birthday. Everything was great and I've been very happy... then IT happened. Out of nowhere while starting the computer, blackness. complete and total, without warning, OFF. It would seem as if my battery was dead... but the ac adapter like HP Compaq 2210b Adapter, HP nc8430 Adapter, HP nx6110 Adapter, HP tc1100 Adapter, HP G3000 Adapter, HP HDX X16 Adapter, HP HDX X18 Adapter, HP Pavilion dv1000 Adapter, HP Pavilion dv2000 Adapter, HP Pavilion zt1000 Adapter is still plugged in??? after testing the battery such as and ac adapter on a friends identical acer things got desperate. I checked the power strip and all was well. My laptop was DEAD.

I frantically started researching online and low and behold signs start to point to a small, probably insignificant, and easily swapped out part of the computer's hardware. I think it's called the motherboard? That's right. I was screwed. 1 year manufacturer's warranty said I had no hope, but 1 and a half years is NOT an acceptable lifespan for a modern computer under most circumstances. Specifically, my laptop has a 17" screen and hasn't left the desk in my room since her first boot.

I tried the regular channels, to absolutely no avail. Acer DOES NOT have terrible customer service, they just hide the good customer service terribly well.

After a brief trip to India over the phone, three different reps were able to tell me that they would be happy to let me pay $200 dollars plus shipping (another $50 dollars) for an out of warranty repair. Each and every time they also were very ready to assure me, "I'm sorry sir, I am the highest level of tech support we have" Wouldn't you know it though? Thanks to my good friends at the CONSUMERIST I was not out of luck!!!

An initial search granted me a phone number to a new support level, "I'm gonna really help you out today sir, how about just for you, $150 for the repair, but that's the best I can do. I'm the highest level of support we have."

Things seemed bad, but the old fashioned "EECB" and a few well placed guesses on the .TW for the ends of emails, meant I would reach the Taiwan corporate office as well.

Wouldn't you know the next day, a person called "on behalf of the C.E.O. in regards to the email I sent" and this is the best part, are you ready?

I didn't have to explain myself further!!!

I didn't have to beg!

I didn't have to negotiate!

I didn't have to scream and cry and laugh out of frustration!

Someone actually read my email and now my laptop is on its way to a repair facility FREE OF CHARGE (minus shipping)

Now I wait and hope, fingers crossed...

Please go well repairs,

Please go well...

The Acer Aspire S5 Ultrabook

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Aside from unveiling an ultra-thin Ultrabook, Acer underwhelmed at CES today with its presentation of another skinny laptop and a suite of cloud services that looked a lot like … Apple’s cloud services.

First, Acer introduced what it is touting as “the world’s thinnest ultrabook” (it will be interesting to see if Acer can still lay claim to that title by week’s end): The Aspire S5, which measures just 15mm at its thickest point. It weighs less than three pounds and comes with a 13.3-inch LCD display screen. It also comes with an interesting “MagicFlip” port panel that’s hidden below the hinge of the laptop. Users can open the hinge to reveal a panel of ports, including HDMI, USB 3.0 and a 20 gigabyte Thunderbolt port.

The Aspire S5 laptop has an Intel Core processor, a solid state drive, extended battery like Asus A42-A3 Battery, Asus A8F Battery, Asus F3T Battery, Asus F3Sc Battery, Asus F3Sv Battery, Asus 90-NI11B1000 Battery, Asus 90-NIA1B1000 Battery, Asus 90-NF51B1000 Battery, Asus 70-NF51B1000 Battery, Asus A32-A8 Battery, Asus Z99J Battery, Asus Z99H Battery life and a chiclet keyboard. It’s expected to ship in the second quarter of 2012; the expected price is still TBD.

With its Aspire Timeline Ultra laptops, Acer says it is expanding on the Ultrabook it rolled out in September. The Timeline Ultra is available in 14-inch and 15-inch models; the laptops are 20mm thin, boast eight hours of battery life, have solid state and hard disk drive options, as well as HDMI and USB 3.0 ports. They feature an Intel Core processor. So again, not totally different from other Ultrabooks we’ve seen and are expecting to see more of. The Timeline Ultra does, however, have a DVD-Super Multi optical drive, which some Ultrabooks do not have, depending on their thinness and innards. The Aspire Timeline Ultra is expected to ship this quarter.

But Acer’s cloud service offerings looked a lot like a “me-too” to what Apple showed off at WWDC last June. Due to a technical glitch during the press event — and the greatest ironies of tech conferences, aside from dependably terrible cellular and Wi-Fi service, are the technical glitches — we weren’t able to get a good look at Acer’s cloud media service for syncing music and other entertainment files.

Acer’s PicStream (demonstrated via a slide that looked like Apple’s iCloud slide), promises to share photos seamlessly from smartphones to Windows-based PCs and other devices; AcerCloud Docs is designed for syncing and sharing personal and professional documents via the cloud (although it seemed Acer was mainly targeting professionals with this service). Acer stressed that these services will support Windows-based and Android devices.

Lastly, in an odd but not uncommon press conference move, Acer’s Campbell Kan quickly showed off one more tablet and offered just two bits of information about it — it has a quad-core processor and a 1080p display — before concluding the event. Last week, my colleague Ina Fried wrote about Acer’s efforts to remain relevant in the tablet market by introducing a budget-priced, 10-inch, Android-based tablet, the Acer Iconia A200.

Acer Ferrari One

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Acer's latest Ferrari-branded notebook is a stunner.

The licensing deal between Acer and Ferrari dates back to 2004, when the first prancing horse badged laptop was released. Back then, it was a 15-inch model with, like this one, a bright-red lid.

It grew to 15.4 inches in diagonal screen size for the 2005 and 2006 versions, which dropped the extroverted bright Ferrari red and settled for a predominantly black colour scheme.

Since then, it's shrunk back down to 12.1-inch models and this latest edition is the smallest yet, at a netbook-sized 11.6 inches.

Why does all this matter? It points to a notable trend in downsizing. With the introduction of netbooks in the past few years, small computers that are highly portable have become more popular than larger, more powerful models with all the bells and whistles.

Consumers are now willing to accept that you don't have to take everything on the road.

Whether you'd consider the Ferrari One a netbook or a notebook with battery such asHp Omnibook XE3 battery, Hp 346970-001 battery, Hp HSTNN-DB02 battery, Hp HSTNN-UB02 battery, Hp DP390A battery, Compaq PP2100 battery, Compaq Presario R3000 battery(Compaq r3000 battery), Compaq Presario X6000 battery, Hp 367759-001 battery,
however, is pretty much open to debate. Its diminutive size wouldn't look out of place in a netbook line-up (although it would be at the larger end).

Its price, however, would indicate it's on the notebook side of the equation.

Not that it's expensive - it looks and works like it should cost more. Having said that, when I first pulled it out of the box, my immediate thought was: a Ferrari netbook (for the record, Acer calls it a netbook).

Is metallic, bright-red finish on the display lid and the famous black and yellow logo of the Italian marque is eye-catching and not in a bad way. It could have easily turned out tacky. Other styling cues are a little less convincing, though.

The chequered, fake carbon fibre pattern on the palm rest should look like real carbon fibre or not at all.

The little rubber feet at the bottom are made to resemble car tyres - cute but a little contrived. The red highlights around the ports and power button seem to want to link to Ferrari design cues but it's difficult to figure out what.

And the trapezoid-shaped touchpad should just be rectangular for the sake of ergonomics.

Admittedly, it's nit-picking because, as a package, with or without the Ferrari badge, it's a very well sorted notebook. I mean netbook. The AMD Athlon 64 X2 processor isn't your regular low-voltage let's-see-how-far-we-can-stretch-the-battery-life CPU.

It performs exceptionally well, though it needs to be said that the battery life is pretty average and it runs hot. The hard disk is a cavernous 500 gigabytes and memory a plentiful 4GB. The audio is superb.

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A virtual surround system actually does what it says, making movies enjoyable despite the small screen.

The Ferrari One's size means there's no DVD burner but there are plenty of ports; three USBs, ethernet and a VGA multi-card reader. The keys have been made as large as possible to overcome the small form but could use more feel.

At 1.5 kilograms, it's no featherweight, so perhaps the best way to think about the Ferrari One is that it's a notebook's brain in a netbook's body.

* The Acer Ferrari One costs about $1250

Acer Revo RL100

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Flat-panel TVs and PCs go great together - the PC gets a giant screen, and the TV gets access to tons of online video.

But getting the two together in an elegant way has been difficult. PC makers haven't shown much interest in making computers that work really well when controlled from the couch.

So it's good to see Acer Inc. take a serious stab at the problem with its new Revo RL100.

The Windows PC is designed from the ground up to fit into an entertainment centre. It's smaller than most DVD players and very quiet.

The most striking thing about the design is that a thin, postcard-sized black slate pops out of the front of the unit. It's a wireless touchpad that turns, at the touch of a button, into an illuminated wireless keyboard.

When stored inside the PC, it recharges its internal battery like Hp Omnibook XT1000 battery, Hp Omnibook XT1500 battery, Hp F2019 battery, Hp F2019A battery, Hp F2019B battery, Hp OmniBook 6000 battery, Hp F1739A battery, Hp Omnibook XE battery, Hp F2024B battery, Hp F2024A battery,

So this, finally, is a brand-name PC that comes with a built-in "couch controller."

The Revo's touchpad still leaves a lot to be desired. It doesn't come close to replicating the ease with which we control a PC through a regular keyboard and mouse.

The touchpad lacks mouse buttons, so you have to double-tap to register the click of the left mouse button, and hold down to register a right-click. Clicking and dragging is possible, but you need both talent and practice.

Furthermore, the pad can't act as touchpad and keyboard at the same time, so you need to switch between modes frequently.

For instance, going to a new website involves steering the cursor to the address field in touchpad mode, then switching to the keyboard mode, then switching back to mouse mode to navigate the page.

The keyboard is small and best used with the thumbs, so it's not suitable for longer typing sessions.

So the Revo falters where it tries the hardest.

In nearly every other respect, it does well.

Setup was commendably easy. It can be difficult to get regular PCs to use the TV display correctly, but with the Revo, it worked the first time.

The Revo's only display jack is an HDMI port, the kind used by flat panels. Helpfully, Acer includes an HDMI cable as well. It also has a Wi-Fi chip, so you don't have to draw a cable from your router to get Internet access.

The Revo's processor and graphics chip are about as powerful as you'd find in a small laptop. It played Blu-ray, DVD and streamed Netflix movies fine.

It did a good job with Skype videoconferencing, another of the pleasures of having a living-room PC (you supply the webcam). Streaming of high-definition home movies from another PC also worked well.

The Revo has a 750 gigabyte hard drive, enough for several weeks' worth of standard-definition video.

High-definition YouTube videos didn't play quite as smoothly as I'd like, probably because of the limitations of the Nvidia ION graphics chip. Hardcore 3-D action games are beyond the capabilities of the Revo.

There's a USB jack and a slot for a memory card on the front of the unit, but you have to go to the back to find two more USB jacks and the headphone jack.

That's not a wonderful layout for something designed to be stuck in an entertainment center. But the back-facing headphone jack isn't an issue if you connect the Revo through a receiver, as I did, as receivers have headphone jacks of their own.

From my point of view, the chief competitor to the Revo is the Mac mini, which is much more powerful but lacks an optical drive and leaves you to figure out how to control it from the couch.

The Revo has a room for improvement in the control department as well. For the next model, I hope Acer figures out how to add mouse buttons and a permanently accessible keyboard to the wireless controller.

"Couch surfing" with a PC will never be as easy as mashing the channel-change button on a TV remote, but we can hope to get closer to this epitome of laziness.

Acer unveils new ultrabook

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Acer has unveiled the Aspire Timeline Ultra featuring eight hours of battery life, high performance and a two-spindle design.

It includes Acer’s Green Instant On for fast boot and resume, and Always Connect technology, which lets users manage their multimedia and data on all their devices at anytime, anywhere - even from sleep.

The company said the new Ultrabook is slimmer and lighter than the earlier generations of the Timeline series, which reach a delicate equilibrium between computer lightness and battery such as Acer TravelMate 2300 Battery, Acer Aspire 1680 Battery, Acer Aspire 1410 Battery, Acer TravelMate 4500 Battery, Acer LCBTP03003 Battery, Acer Aspire 1300 Battery, Acer Extensa 4620 Battery, Acer BTP-APJ1 Battery, Acer BTP-AQJ1 Battery, Acer BTP-ARJ1 Battery life, providing an entire day of computing on a single charge.

Measuring 20 mm, the notebook has more than eight hours of battery life, the latest Intel Core i processor performance, dedicated graphics for intensive 3D gaming, a slim DVD-Super Multi optical drive, an SSD/HDD storage option, professionally-tuned Dolby Home Theater v4 surround sound, as well as HDMI and USB 3.0 ports.

Green Instant On technology provides instant-resume functionality (in 1.5 seconds) and ensures battery life that lasts several weeks, the statement said.

Always Connect gets users online faster than conventional connections for better productivity and infotainment enjoyment. With their Facebook, Twitter and Outlook email accounts open, users can see updates instantly upon resuming.

Furthermore, it can wake up the Timeline Ultra from a remote device like a smartphone. Access to all documents, music, pictures and video files is fast and available, it said.

The Aspire Timeline Ultra will start shipping in Q1 2012, the statement said. – TradeArabia News Service

Acer Aspire S5

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Acer’s first Ultrabook, the Aspire S3, wasn’t very successful or even all that attractive to the average consumer: unlike the shiny metal competition, this all-plastic laptop looks rather simple. It is, however, a great budget Ultrabook with battery like Acer UM08A71 battery, Acer UM08B72 battery, Acer UM08A74 battery, Acer UM08B74 battery, Acer Aspire One A150L battery, Acer BTP-25DI battery, Acer Travelmate 330 battery, Acer BTP-ASJ1 battery, Acer Aspire 3620 battery, Acer TravelMate 2420 battery, and if the price goes down a bit more, it would make a great purchase for anyone needing an inexpensive ultraportable that can perform at the same level as the more expensive competition.

But Acer is not satisfied with the low end niche, and this year they’ve announced yet another Ultrabook – the Aspire S5 – which definitely fits into the high end profile, bringing several features that are absent on the competition, at a price of course.

Design

The design of the Aspire S5 is pretty unassuming at a first glance, but you notice that the laptop is something special as soon as you take a closer look. It doesn’t remind of the MacBook Air, either, which is a good thing, but the design may seem a bit too simple to some people. The whole housing is made of a magnesium alloy, making it much sturdier than the Aspire S3 and making the extreme 15mm thinness possible, as well. The Aspire S5 is actually the thinnest Ultrabook on the market – it’s very impressive to see just how slim it is!



But Acer didn’t forego any of the important ports that a laptop needs to have – instead, they used a special port panel that opens on the back to accommodate them, since they wouldn’t even fit anywhere else. The company calls it the MagicFlip I/O port panel, which is an accurate name, but the mechanical nature of it can make some people wary since it looks like it can easily break – I don’t think that’s the case under normal use, but I do think it could get damaged quickly if you drop the laptop (then again, the port panel would be the last of your worries in that case).

Hardware features and performance

The selection of ports is good for an Ultrabook, but may be too small for power users – there are two USB 3.0 ports, a HDMI out port, a Thunderbolt port and a 3.5 mm audio jack – that’s pretty much it. The display is a fairly standard 13.3 inch LCD unit with the 1366×768 pixels resolution, which is not all that comfortable for intensive work, but it’s good enough for everyday use. The keyboard is also a pretty standard chiclet style one, with short travel and flat keys, which is good enough for normal use but not for writers, that’s for sure.

The performance of the Aspire S5 should be pretty high compared to the current generation of Ultrabooks thanks to the new Ivy Bridge processors that the laptop will be using. Acer hasn’t confirmed the models they will be using, but it’s safe to assume it will be a Core i5 or i7 or an option between the two. The S5 will also have 4 GB of RAM and a 128 or 256 GB SSD – also standard fare for an Ultrabook. According to the manufacturer, the battery life will be up to three times as good as the S3 (which lasts about 4-5 hours) – that is pretty impressive if it turns out to be true.

Availability and Price

The Acer Aspire S5 will be available sometime this spring, most likely in April-May, seeing as Intel will be officially launching the Ivy Bridge processors around that time, as well. The pricing has yet to be established, but judging by the specs, we can expect the S5 to cost around $1000-1200 – not the cheapest Ultrabook, but it may be worth it.

Acer Intros Plethora of New Aspire Notebooks

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Acer Intros Plethora of New Aspire Notebooks

Acer has introduced a range of new value and multimedia notebooks to its Aspire lineup. The new models feature 15.6-. 17.3-, and 18.4-inch screens and AMD or Intel processors. Pricing starts at $429.99.

Aspire AS8943G Flagship Multimedia Notebook

The 18.4-inch AS8943G is Acer's flagship Aspire multimedia notebook. It features powerful components such as Intel Core i7 quad-core processors, a full HD 1080p display resolution, Blu-ray drive, and ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5850 dedicated graphics.

Availability

The Acer Aspire AS8943G is available now starting at $1,549.99.

Aspire AS5745 and AS7745 Multimedia Notebooks

The 15.6-inch (1366x768) AS5745 and 17.3-inch (1600x900) AS7745 are new multimedia notebooks. Both feature Windows 7 Home Premium and 802.11n wireless.

The AS5745 weighs 5.72 lbs and has a six-cell battery such as Acer TravelMate 240 Battery, Acer BTP-52EW Battery, Acer BTP-63D1 Battery, Acer BTP-42C1 Battery, acer BTP-44A3 Battery, Acer BTP-550P Battery, Acer BTP-73E1 Battery, Acer BATCL50L Battery, Acer TravelMate 290 Battery, Acer TravelMate 4000 Battery for up to 3.5 hours of life. It is available with Intel Core i3 and i5 dual-core and i7 quad-core processors. Integrated Intel HD graphics or dedicated Nvidia graphics are available.

The AS5745PG is an enhanced version and features a multi-touch screen, i5-450M processor, and Nvidia GT 330M 1GB graphics; it starts at $899.99. Another featured model is the AS5745G, which offers the quad-core Intel Core i7-720QM processor and Nvidia GT 330M 1GB graphics; pricing starts at $1,049.

The AS7745 is larger and weighs 7.1 lbs. It has an Intel Core i7 quad-core processor, ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650 graphics, support for a second hard drive, and a six-cell battery for up to 2.5 hours of life.

Availability

The Acer Aspire AS5745 and AS7745 are available now at $699.99.

Aspire Value Notebooks

Acer also announced several new value notebooks wtih 15.6- and 17.3-inch screens starting at $429.99. Processor choices include Intel Core i3 and i5 processors and AMD V-series, Athlon II, Turion II, and Phenom II processors.

Integrated graphics (Intel HD Graphics/ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4250) and dedicated graphics (ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470/HD 5650) are available.

Other features include up to 4GB of RAM, 250GB-500GB of hard drive space, an HDMI port, and a built-in webcam.

Availability

The new Acer Aspire value notebooks are available now for $429.99 - $899.99.

Acer Aspire 1690 Series Review

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There are many things to consider when purchasing a notebook, price, performance, weight and battery life are usually the primary concerns. This review is for those considering the Acer aspire 1694WLMi with the following specifications:

Intel Pentium M 760 2.0GHz, Intel 915PM chipset motherboard

512MB DDR1 2700

ATI Mobility Radeon X600 128MB

15.4" WXGA screen with Crystal Brite

100GB 5400RPM Seagate momentus

QSI DVD dual layer RW

Wireless + Bluetooth

Windows XP Home

This is not the exact machine that the benchmark tests are being run on however. I decided to order 1024MB of Crucial memory and an Audigy 2 ZS, but more on that with the benchmarks section of this review.

When I was deciding on a notebook I spent a lot of time researching which notebook to buy. I had always had a desktop built by myself and needed to be sure of getting something that was at least equally as useful. I needed the ease of a laptop when going to university next year, but I needed to be able to release the urge to game every so often. I looked at many laptops from manufacturers such as Rock (Pegasus Ti in particular), Alienware, Dell but decided the best bang per buck was going to come from Acer. I originally ordered an Acer Aspire 2026 but ended up with the Acer Aspire 1694 WLMi as an acceptable replacement.

The Acer 2026 was 1140 from laptopsdirect.co.uk, meanwhile the Aspire 1694 was offered for 1130 and had better specs so I gave it the nod. You would be hard pressed to get these specifications for that sort of money anywhere else, so value for money as far as the specs is very good. When I received the 1694 it was securely rapped and in pristine condition, in the bundle were power leads, recovery CDs, Microsoft works, Norton Antivirus, modem cable, quick start guides and warranty card. Included on the drive are NTI CD/DVD maker gold and cyberlink power producer gold. Everything needed to get started. The NTI software is surprisingly easy to use and quick to get ahold of. I have not used cyberlink power producer gold.

When on battery like Acer UM08B73 battery, Acer UM08A72 battery, Acer UM08B71 battery, Acer UM08A31 battery, Acer Aspire One Battery, Acer UM08A73 battery, Acer BTP-43D1 Battery, Acer TravelMate 220 Battery, Acer BTP-58A1 Battery, acer BTP-60A1 Battery the CPU clocks down as do the graphics and the screen becomes more dim, this tends to help battery a lot, but if you still need performance Acer's e-tools give you the full range of options for the CPU while ATI's Powerplay gives you control over the graphics. The system is rather flexible. The fan also spins less when on power saving mode, so be aware that if the machine vents are blocked the notebook can get hot. It's best to use it on a tray.

Notebooks are all about compromises, choosing the best laptop for you is pretty much choosing what you can compromise on be it price, performance, weight or battery life. Would I recommend this laptop? Well if this is the sort of laptop your looking for then yes. This laptop is cheaper than the Acer Travelmate 810x series, for the same money you get a better CPU, HDD and DVD-RW but also you only get the X600 rather than the X700 graphics card. So if you game a bit, but need the extra HDD space/cpu performance and don't have heaps and heaps of money to spend then this is a good buy and you wont be disappointed.

The replacement service leaves something to be desired however. My original laptop was delivered two weeks before Christmas and was sent back the week before Christmas as dead on arrival and it was early March before I received a replacement which is abysmal. I have heard many reports that repairs are quicker, however the repair centre keeps no spares and has to order everything.

Apple Releases Two New Macbook Air Notebooks

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Today Apple released the long-awaited updates to its MacBook Air lineup. While the CPUs stayed the same, Apple managed to make the notebooks thinner than ever, helped in part by soldering flash memory directly to the motherboard. As part of the update, the computer giant also introduced a new 11.6-inch model.

The new MacBook Air comes in four choices, direct from the Apple store. Thanks to the decreased size of the 11.6-inch model, the MBA refresh also introduces the first MacBook Air model that's come in with a sub-$1,000 price.

11.6-inch MacBook Air Specifications:

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo @ 1.4GHz or 1.6GHz (800MHz FSB, 3MB L2 cache)

Memory: 2GB DDR3 SDRAM @ 1066MHz (upgradeable to 4GB max)

Hard drive: 64GB or 128GB flash memory (soldered directly to motherboard)

Optical drive: none

Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 320M with 256MB of DDR3

Display: 11.6 inches, LED-backlit

Resolution: 1366x768

Networking: none

Wireless networking: 802.11a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR

The base configuration of the 11.6-inch MacBook Air runs $999. Optional upgrades include a 1.6GHz CPU ($100 and available only in conjunction with the 128GB disk), 4GB of system memory ($100), 128GB of flash storage ($200) an external MacBook Air SuperDrive that runs over USB ($79) and a USB-to-Ethernet adapter ($29).

Apple's smaller MacBook Air retains the same thickness as its bigger brother - 0.68 inches on the rear side, which tapers down to just 0.11 inches in the front. The whole unit only weighs 2.3 pounds, which is just a bit more than an iPad.

In addition to a built-in microphone, stereo speakers and what Apple now calls a "FaceTime camera", whether to capitalize on its new FaceTime desktop software, qualify the distinction from a higher-quality iSight webcam or both, there are two USB 2.0 ports, a mini-DisplayPort output and a headphone mini-jack. Interestingly, the mini-jack does support headphones with Apple's built-in microphone and remote control capabilities.

Thanks in part to a non-user serviceable 35Wh battery such as Apple M8244 Battery, Apple A1079 Battery, Apple A1078 Battery, Apple A1148 Battery, Apple M6091 Battery, Apple M8956 Battery, Apple A1008 Battery, Apple A1061 Battery, Apple A1060 Battery, Apple A1022 Battery, the 11.6-inch MacBook Air is rated for 5 hours of runtime, including continuous Wi-Fi access. Apple made a big deal about using a more-rigorous-than-is-standard battery test to gauge the usability of the Air during their presentation earlier today. As part of the MacBook Air's new "instant-on" capabilities, it's basically expected to be either in use or asleep - not fully powered down. Apple therefore gives a new battery metric - standby time - usually reserved for mobile phones. In this case, both MacBook Air models are rated for 30 days of standby time.