MacBook Air Flash Plugin Use Reduces Battery Life by Up to 2 Hours

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Apple doesn’t like Flash, we know. That’s why new MacBook releases, such as the latest incarnations of the Macbook Air–don’t come with Flash preloaded. However, users might be surprised with the big drawback in terms of battery life when using Flash.

MacBook Air reviews are mixed. Some praising the “reincarnation” of the well-received 12-inch PowerBook of yore. Some are worried about potential logic board problems. One thing is common. Flash is not pre-loaded, and when you decide to get Adobe’s Flash plugin, your battery performance will take a hit.

Reports peg it at about a two-hour loss of battery life from the 13-inch Air and an hour’s loss from the 11-inch version. This can be attributed to the fact that the CPU works harder with the Flash plugin playing all sorts of advertisements and animation on websites. True enough, you can simply disable Flash or not download it at all, at the expense of your browsing experience being a bit limited.

This makes one wonder whether it’s worth the “full web experience” when you lose battery life significantly. It’s a tradeoff!