MacBook – Comparing MacBook Air sleep resume times

macbook pro

Q1. Which MacBook Air models have the fastest resume-from-sleep times?

In other words, how long does it take (in the most common scenario, not the theoretically-shortest) between opening the display lid and getting a keypress echoed in an open TextEdit window?

Q2. Do the newer (or newest) MBA's have faster resume time?

Q3. How does this compare to the resume time of the iPad?

For the purpose of these questions, milliseconds matter!

Best Answer

This is not an actual answer to your questions, but more information on the subject:

MacBook Airs go into "deep sleep" (hibernate) when left with the lid closed for a longer while. Basically, the current state of the machine is saved to the hard drive (the SSD in the case of MacBooks) and the machine turns off, thus not consuming any power while in standby. When you open the lid, the machine state is retrieved from the SSD and restored.

So, the wake time is determined by the speed of the SSD inside the MacBook Air.

2010 MacBook Airs have SSD speeds in terms of 100 MBps, while latest MacBook Airs (2012) have SSD speeds in terms of 400-500 MBps, so wake time should be a lot faster with the 2012 models.

Comparing with the iPad is irrelevant, as iPads do not hibernate, as far as I'm aware of.

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None, to be frank. They all feel approximately the same in my opinion - the MacBook white 2010 has a lighter feel than the Pro or Air which to my senses are pretty much the same.

Both the current models and the now out of production white macbook have the same keyboard, to all intents and purposes, apart from the air and pro have a backlit keyboard which possibly leads to a heavier key press - although that might just be because my white machine is older and slightly more worn.

MacOS – MacBook Air has delay when waking from sleep

Airs do go into standby mode more readily than other macs.

MacBook Air (Late 2010) and later: About standby mode

Assuming its not just the extra time to exit standby mode (and isn't really sleeping anymore), have you checked the startup disk preference as the article above recommends?

You may have to look in the console log for sleep / standby messages in case your mac is entering standby / hibernate earlier than the expected one hour. The pmset command can show you the details of your Air's power management settings. Here's what a Mid 2011 Air looks like with mostly default settings:

mac:~ me$ pmset -g
Active Profiles:
Battery Power       -1
AC Power        -1*
Currently in use:
 standbydelay   4200
 standby    1
 womp       1
 halfdim    1
 panicrestart   157680000
 hibernatefile  /var/vm/sleepimage
 networkoversleep   0
 disksleep  10
 sleep      10
 hibernatemode  3
 ttyskeepawake  1
 displaysleep   10
 acwake     0
 lidwake    1

You can also use pmset to change either the number of seconds before standby kicks in, which is standbydelay; or turn standby off completely by setting standby to 0. Use the command man pmset for details.

Best Answer

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